The parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37 explained from bottom up!
As a minister in the second largest slum in Kenya called Mathare, I wrestle a lot with this passage. Jesus’ explanation is viciously exterminating my traditional understanding of who a neighbor is. We are all accustomed to a neighbor being someone who is friendly, lives next to us, shares the same values and to some extend; believes the same Deity like us! Well, Jesus annihilates this perception and introduces another analogy of what a neighbor ought to be.
The world today doesn’t agree with Jesus’
definition of who a neighbor is, in fact He
would be called out and probably re-crucified if He was here today. How I wish that we can all learn who a neighbor is. The parable is provoking all the followers of Jesus to love unconditionally those who have been labeled within us, those who don’t agree with us socially, economically and politically. It’s a tough call to think of a Samaritan helping out a Jew especially in the described period.
As we wrestle with this new understanding, let’s identify the Samaritans in our lives and look at them beyond our lenses of prejudice. Call them today, invite them for a meal at your home and through that, the only Christ they will come to know is the one they see in you!
May God keep you safe as you wrestle with different challenges in your life and those around you!