The Good Samaritan

We have all heard Christian Stories of the Good Samaritan, which is found in Luke 10, versus 25 through 37.

We use the term The Good Samaritan often in our everyday lives, but do we really understand the story completely, and what he risked?

The story starts off with a lawyer asking Jesus a questions about how he can inherit ete
al life.

Jesus explains, "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."

Well the lawyer now wants to know who is his neighbor?

This is where the story comes in about The Good Samaritan.

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and was brutally attacked by some robbers.

Now keep in mind on the map Jericho was actually North of Jerusalem, but in the story it speaks of traveling down. Well if you know the area, the actual road, which is about 17 miles long, is going down in elevation. Therefore, Jesus is accurate.

The trip in that day was also very dangerous since it had many places for robbers to hide. It was known for just that. Think of traveling in a large city on the bad side of town for a minute. This is the same type of setting for The Good Samaritan. Everyone there listening to the story knew the area and how bad it was. They could relate to it very well!

So the man was robbed, beaten, and left for dead without clothing. What would you have done? What if you came across that today in the city? It is easy to say you would stop and help, but maybe you would just make a cell phone call to 911 and report the location of the injured man.

Well they didn't have cell phones during this time of course.

In the story of The Good Samaritan a Priest comes along and sees the man that is in great need of help. In the time of this story a Priest was most likely pretty well off and was riding some type of animal or maybe even a cart of some kind. The Priest also knew the law of Moses so you would think they would stop to help. After all we are to Love Thy Neighbor!

Well the Priest moves to the other side of the road and goes right on by. Most likely they were afraid they would be mugged and robbed also. They may have even sped up a little. Who knows for sure.

Now a Levite came along also after the Priest and they too passed on by. A Levite was a descendant from the tribe of Levi. They too should have known the law of Moses. How could they do that? How could someone do that today?

Now a Samaritan comes along. Now keep in mind a Samaritan was someone that the Jews didn't care for so much. In most cases they were thought of as second class citizens. I know we all can relate to groups of people we wrongly put into that classification. We are all people and we are all Neighbors to each other.

Well The Good Samaritan not only stops but he applies the medicine of that time, which would have been very valuable. He places the injured man onto his animal and takes him to the next town and makes sure he is taken care of. The Good Samaritan not only pays for the lodging for the injured man, but tells the Innkeeper that he will pay any additional money due when he returns.

The Good Samaritan went to great lengths to make sure the injured man was taken care of. He took a great deal of money out of his own pocket and paid the cost of taking care of him. He intended to check in on him and pay any remaining expenses when he passed back through the town.

What Jesus was saying to all of us that read the scriptures, is that we are to become the Good Samaritan to everyone. Everyone is our Neighbor! It is a very hard standard to live up to. The only way we can do this is with Jesus himself helping us. By accepting him as your Personal Savior! That is the only way you can become like The Good Samaritan! You can not do it on your own!