The parable of the Good Samaritan is one of Jesus’ most famous parables — if not one of the most well-known passages in the whole Bible. Even those who are completely biblically illiterate have heard of the good Samaritan. “Good Samaritan” is part of our cultural consciousness. We have good Samaritan laws. We refer to people helping others as good Samaritans. There are many healthcare facilities throughout the country called “Good Samaritan”.

On the face of it, Jesus’ parable is a simple story with the message of caring for those in need. If you see someone in need, be like this Good Samaritan and have mercy on them, care for them, love them. I suppose if that is all that we get out of the story, it is certainly not terrible.

But this story has a little more zest to it than that. It’s got a bit of a kick.

Actually if this story doesn’t give you a bit of a gut punch, if it does not make you a bit uncomfortable and frustrated, then you have missed the point Jesus is trying to make.

The Triad

If Jesus simply wanted to say, “Be compassionate to those around you,” then he messed up the story by bringing in a Samaritan to help the man in need.

It does not even make a logical sequence.

These kinds of stories are often built around a sequence of three. Think of the three little pigs. The first little pig builds his house out of straw. The second little pig builds his house out of sticks (a little stronger than straw). The third little pig builds his house out of bricks. The triad, this sequence of three, moves from weakest to strongest, from most unstable to most stable.

Jesus’ parable seems to be following a similar type of sequence. You have three people come across the man in need. First you have the priest pass by (one of the religious leaders). Next, you have a Levite (who would have been a step down in religious authority from a priest). It would be like: you have a district superintendent (or bishop, depending on your tradition) and then a pastor. Or perhaps a pastor and then a church board member. That is the movement of the sequence — moving from greater authority to lesser authority.

Logically, the next person in the sequence would have been a lay Israelite. The common man.

But Jesus messes it up by giving us a Samaritan. The Samaritan comes out of nowhere — and it is supposed to feel like a slap in the face.

Samaritans

For the Jewish people in the 1st Century, it would be an understatement to say that Samaritans were not well liked. They might have said, “The only ‘good Samaritan’ is a dead Samaritan. The conflict between the Jews and Samaritans was multi-faceted: it was racial, it was religious, it was political.

The Samaritans were viewed as “half-breeds”. They claimed to be the true children of Israel, but they were racially mixed with other people from the region. They had religious disagreements about where to worship, what books were scripture and what books were not. They had political disagreements about whom the land belonged to.

Samaritans were seen as “half-breeds,” “heretics,” “blasphemers,” and “sinners”. To have the hero of this story be a Samaritan would have been offensive.

The Hero of the Story

The thing that is most frustrating about the Good Samaritan is: it would be one thing for Jesus to tell a story about a Samaritan who needed help. But instead, Jesus tells a story of a Samaritan who does the helping.

It is not much of a secret that it feels good to help someone in need. It does not feel any worse to help someone in need because we disagree with them in some way or another. To the contrary, it can be vindicating to think of ourselves as the hero who helps a misguided soul. Maybe our kindness will win them over to the path of righteousness?

But that is not the story Jesus tells us. We do not get to hear this story and place ourselves in the position of the hero. The role of hero is given to one of “those” people.

We do not get a story where the Samaritan is just a neighbor we are called to love. We get a story where the Samaritan is the neighbor that we are called to learn from, to imitate (“Go and do likewise”).

What makes this story so hard is that the Samaritan is the hero of the story.

Re-Casting the Samaritan

If we really want to recover the bite that this story has, we need to cross out the word Samaritan. Because we now hear “Samaritan” and we think “Good Samaritan.” If you want to hear this story well, cross out the word Samaritan and write in the people group that you least want to be cast as the hero of a story.

Instead of picturing this person as a Samaritan, picture an illegal immigrant, a gay man, a trans woman, an abortion doctor, a panhandler, a Muslim…start thinking of the people that you least want to be cast as “Good”…and once your blood really start to boil, you have found the person to cast in the role of the Good Samaritan.

Who is my neighbor?

Jesus tells this story in answer to a question: “Who is my neighbor?”

The question is posed by a lawyer. This lawyer knows the Bible well. He can name verses off the top of his head. Better still, he reads the Bible accurately. His doctrine is sound. When Jesus asks him what he thinks is the essential call of the Bible, he is able to say: “Love God and love your neighbor.” It is the same answer Jesus gives when he is asked the same question.

But keep in mind, this a lawyer. Good lawyers know: there is always a loophole. There is always a way to weasel your way out of what the text plainly says. And so the lawyer wants to do a word study with Jesus. Let’s define the word “neighbor?” Who is really my neighbor? And once we get that definition down, we can figure out: who is not my neighbor? Who does God not command for me to love?

The apocryphal book, Sirach, written in the 2nd Century BC, says: “Give to the devout, but do not help the sinner.” It is a text I am sure this lawyer knew well. He would have agreed that the Bible teaches us to love our neighbor. But really, who is our neighbor? Neighbors are people like me, who follow the law, who are obedient to God, people who are in my in-group, members of my family, my country. But people who don’t follow the law, who are not obedient to God, who are outside my family and my country — they are, as this lawyer might put it, outside my jurisdiction.

This lawyer wants to do a word study with Jesus. He wants to define the word neighbor. But Jesus is not interested in doing a word study, he wants to tell a story. And the story does not provide a definition of “neighbor”. It does not tell us to be a neighbor. What this story does is give us a neighbor.

Be Careful Asking Jesus a Question

Jesus concludes the parable with a question:

“Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?””

In other words: “You ask the question: who is my neighbor? Well, which one of these characters in the story is a neighbor? The one who had mercy — the Samaritan is your neighbor.”

In telling this story, Jesus gives this lawyer a neighbor to love (and be loved by). He can no longer look at Samaritans as some kind of ridiculous and silly parody — but as fellow human beings, made in the image of God, with a capacity for justice and mercy.

When we hear this story — and when we hear it well — Jesus gives us a neighbor to love (and be loved by). Whoever we cast as the “Good Samaritan” is now someone whom Jesus has moved into our jurisdiction.

This is the power of Jesus’ storytelling. We ask Jesus a simple question: “Who is my neighbor?” And instead of giving us a dictionary definition to memorize, Jesus introduces us to the last person we want to move in next door to us. And by the power of the story, ready or not, here they come down the street with their U-Haul loaded, ready to unpack their bags.

Be very careful asking Jesus a question. Instead of giving you an answer, he might just give you a neighbor.