Moved to Action

The ancient “road” in Israel is a narrow footpath that runs alongside a deep canyon—cut by water through the limestone of the rocky Judean hills—known as the Wadi Qelt. The beauty of the desert landscape is breathtaking, making it one of my favorite places to walk. The hues of the limestone and centuries of nature shaping the canyon makes a hiker’s perspective change with each step. It’s easy to feel swallowed up walking along many parts of the road that runs between Jerusalem and Jericho.

It’s not for everyone. The road is incredibly remote, which can be intimidating. It’s also very high; it runs at a significant height along the frightfully sheer cliffs that plunge down to the ravine below. On the other side of the valley is another path, although more challenging to navigate because it’s less used than the well-worn road on the northern side of the ravine.

This regular route between two important biblical cities is the setting of one of Jesus’ most well-known parables, the good Samaritan. When asked by a Jewish lawyer what he must do to receive eternal life, Jesus summarizes the two greatest commandments: love God and love your neighbor. The lawyer seems to believe that he loves God with all his heart, soul, strength, and mind, but appears stuck on the question of who counts as his neighbor. So he inquires, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29).

Jesus responds with a story about a man who is attacked and left for dead while traveling on the road along the Wadi Qelt. While the man’s ethnicity is not identified in the story, we can assume that, like Jesus’ listeners, he was a Jew. The gathered crowd would have also understood that the man’s decision to travel this way alone would have made him an easy target for robbers. The remote nature of sections of the road and the ability for robbers to hide in the caves and crags found in the rock cliffs made it a potentially dangerous route.

When a priest and a Levite come upon the injured man, it’s natural to assume that these religious figures would be compelled to help the man. Instead, Jesus makes a stunning observation. He says they “passed by on the other side” (vv. 31-32). As modern readers used to multilane roads, we can lose some of the shock that Jesus’ listeners would have implicitly understood. On a narrow footpath, there’s not always a way to go around a person lying across the road. To avoid helping, it’s possible the priest and the Levite went to extreme lengths—going down into the ravine and back up on the other side to the less traveled road. 

While the religious leaders ignore the man’s plight, a Samaritan has pity on him. The Samaritan “went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him” (v. 34).

The Samaritan’s actions would have been equally stunning to Jesus’ listeners—Jews and Samaritans hated each other. Although the Samaritans could trace their ethnic lineage back to the Jewish patriarch Jacob, because of intermarriage, Jews considered Samaritans outsiders and treated them with contempt. But Jesus identified a Samaritan, someone of a despised ethnicity who chose to ignore those divisions, as the hero of this story about the expectations of love toward neighbors. 

In stark contrast to the religious men, the Samaritan intentionally moved toward the man in his suffering and disadvantaged himself to care for the injured man. He poured expensive oil and wine on his wounds, hoping to help soothe him and heal his injuries. The Samaritan gave up the comfort of riding a donkey to walk the long road to an inn. He spent his own money so the innkeeper would provide for the beaten man’s immediate and long-term needs. Going to these added lengths expressed love. But the Samaritan’s willingness to give sacrificially didn’t keep him from his personal obligations. The Samaritan left the man with a trusted and knowledgeable caregiver, likely so the Samaritan could attend to previous or urgent commitments. 

When we encounter hurting people who are different from us in ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status, or any other distinction, we have a choice in how we respond. Jesus reminds us that loving our neighbor means making the effort to move toward them instead of intentionally avoiding them. And Jesus challenges us with the expectation that love often means disadvantaging ourselves in order to provide assistance.

The lawyer’s question to Jesus can become a prayer for us. “Jesus, who is my neighbor today?” Is there someone that you have avoided because of differences that Jesus is asking you to move toward? Is there a neighbor for whom you might need to disadvantage yourself in order to help?

When we find ourselves with an answer to that prayer and the opportunity to love like the good Samaritan, we are also reminded of Jesus’ words, “Go and do likewise” (v. 37).

–Written by Lisa M. Samra. Used by permission from the author.