It is one of the most beautiful parables or stories that reflect the free mercy. The story starts with a question from a master of the Law (this what the word lawyer means), and his question came from a bad intention, “what should I do to inherit the eternal life?” The Lord answered with another question: “What is written in the Law (i.e. the Law of Moses)? Give me an answer from the scripture. So the man answers: “Have love for the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and for your neighbor as for yourself”. Actually, this commandment is a combination of two, one from Deuteronomy (4: 6), and the other from the book of Leviticus (18: 19).
In front of Jesus’ words the Law master asked the Lord: And who is my neighbor? So he tells him that a certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he got into the hands of thieves, who stripped him and beat him. In the fourth century, Blessed Jerome confirms that this rugged road was full of Bedouins that rob the passengers. A certain priest from the servants of the temple was going down from there after he had finished his service in the temple, he was going down to Jericho where his home was. Then a Levite passed, and he is from those who used to serve the temple. Both passed and did not care about this wounded person thrown on the road, and they are the people who were supposed to have learnt something from the Law.
Finally, a Samaritan passed and he is from a weird gender and religion or from a deviant Judaism. Samaritans used to accept the Pentateuch and reject the books of the prophets. This Samaritan was a laic, probably a merchant passing from this road. He stopped in front of the scene of the wounded, “when he saw him, he had compassion on him”, and took care of him and of his wounds. He took him to an inn after bandaging his wounds quickly by pouring on them oil and wine, and his hope was that the owner of the inn would continue taking care of him and the Gospel gave details about this.
The master of the Law waited an answer from Jesus, but the Lord had answered his question (who is my neighbor), so the man said “the one who had mercy on him”. The Lord did not say to him who was the neighbor of the person; he didn’t clarify to him who is the neighbor directly. Jesus’ question was:” Which of these three, do you think, was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” We do not say who is the neighbor, instead we push the person to become a neighbor through mercy and love towards any person from his gender or religion or not.
This parable complements the words of Jesus: “Love one another”, although it originally meant love the people of faith, Paul explained it by saying: “Do good to all people, especially to those who are the household of faith”. Love is not limited in one person or category, and has nothing to do with the affiliation of the benefactor to a certain dogma or with the relation between the helped person and a certain dogma or party. The Samaritan who has deviant beliefs helped others.
Do not look into any character found in the person in need in order to give him with love or serve him. Give what you have or give yourself with a love that sees God’s face in the person you helped and loved.
Translated by Mark Najjar
Original Text: “السامري الشفوق” – 14.11.2010-Raiati no46
