Luke 10: Won't You Be My Neighbor?

"The only good Samaritan is a dead Samaritan."  While we don't have such a quote in the Bible, it's probably fair to say this was a sentiment widely shared by Jesus' audience.

After all, in the previous chapter, a Samaritan village had refused hospitality to Jesus and His disciples simply because they were heading to Jerusalem.  In response, James and John, those irascible Sons of Thunder, were ready to call down fire from heaven to consume them.  (Overreact much, guys?)

Who were the Samaritans?  You have to remember your Old Testament background to fully appreciate who they were and why the Jews despised them so.  Between Jerusalem/Judea in the south and Galilee in the north (both predominantly Jewish areas) lay the region of Samaria.  For Jews (like Jesus) travelling back and forth between Galilee and Jerusalem, the most direct route was about a three days' journey through Samaria.  This region had - at one time in the distant past - been Jewish itself.  In fact, it had been the northern kingdom of Israel (of ten tribes) in the Old Testament, the one that fell to the Assyria Empire in 722 BC.  After that, the "10 lost tribes of Israel" became lost - due to their bloodlines and culture, including their religion, being intermingled with Gentiles.

So the Samaritans were the descendants of the ancient nation of Israel - the one that had been apostate - fell, and lost its heritage.  Physically, they were partially Jewish and partially Gentiles.  As a result, the Jews regarded them with more disdain that Gentiles.  The Samaritans, by the way, didn't like the Jews any more than the Jews liked the Samaritans!

So it's quite surprising that the hero of Jesus' parable in Luke 10, one of His most famous, turns out to be a Samaritan.  Jesus' audience would have normally supposed that the priest or the Levite would have done the right thing and acted as a good neighbor - but, no, it was a hated Samaritan.  If a Samaritan can be a neighbor to a Jew, that really opens the door to anyone - and everyone - being our neighbor.

"Who is your neighbor?"  A better question might be, "Who's not?"

If Jesus were to tell this parable today, who do you suppose He would choose to be the stand-in for the Samaritan?  Who is a "modern-day Samaritan" to us?