Who is my neighbour? The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37)

“25 Now, look! a certain man versed in the Law rose up, to test him out, and said: “Teacher, by doing what shall I inherit everlasting life?” 26 He said to him: “What is written in the Law? How do you read?” 27 In answer he said: “‘You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole strength and with your whole mind,’ and, ‘your neighbor as yourself.’” 28 He said to him: “You answered correctly; ‘keep on doing this and you will get life.’” 29 But, wanting to prove himself righteous, the man said to Jesus: “Who really is my neighbor?” 30 In reply Jesus said: “A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jerʹi·cho and fell among robbers, who both stripped him and inflicted blows, and went off, leaving him half-dead. 31 Now, by coincidence, a certain priest was going down over that road, but, when he saw him, he went by on the opposite side. 32 Likewise, a Levite also, when he got down to the place and saw him, went by on the opposite side. 33 But a certain Sa·marʹi·tan traveling the road came upon him and, at seeing him, he was moved with pity. 34 So he approached him and bound up his wounds, pouring oil and wine upon them. Then he mounted him upon his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two de·narʹi·i, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him, and whatever you spend besides this, I will repay you when I come back here.’ 36 Who of these three seems to you to have made himself neighbor to the man that fell among the robbers?” 37 He said: “The one that acted mercifully toward him.” Jesus then said to him: “Go your way and be doing the same yourself”” (Luke 10:25–37).
This illustration is completely surprising. It is likely that this answer must have surprised the Jewish audience at that time. The Jews and the Samaritans hated each other so much, to insult one of their compatriots, they sometimes called him a “Samaritan”: “In answer the Jews said to him: “Do we not rightly say, You are a Sa·marʹi·tan and have a demon?”” (John 8:48). By this insult, the Jews associated the Samaritans with humans under the influence of demons. Jesus Christ was not unaware of this situation. The illustration of the “Good Samaritan” is obviously part of the purpose of Jesus Christ, to subtly denounce this Jewish religious racism, anti-Samaritan. In John 4:7–26 we can read that Jesus Christ preached to a Samaritan woman, which demonstrates that he had no racial prejudice.
Jesus Christ went even further by contrasting the non-assistance to anyone in danger, of a seriously wounded Jew, on the part of a priest and a Levite, people supposed to be exemplary in the application of the Law of God, based on justice and mercy (Matthew 23:23). While the Samaritan, assisted this man in distress. The contrast is so surprising, between these two attitudes, that one wonders if ultimately Jesus Christ did not base himself on a news item that would have happened around Jericho. The very fact that Jesus Christ placed the drama very precisely on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho, seems to indicate that sometimes travelers could be victims of robbers (Luke 13:1–5, sometimes Jesus Christ could illustrate his teaching with real events). The narrative shows that the interlocutor asked this question, not to sincerely inform himself, but “to prove himself righteous”. Jesus Christ perceiving this, showed him that this was not necessarily the case, because, in conclusion, he said to him: “Go your way and be doing the same yourself” (implying that he had to work on this point of racial prejudice between Jews and Samaritans).

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