It is a question posed in today's gospel to Jesus by an expert in religious laws. Probably you have come across or heard people share about their encounters with everyday interventions; people who extend acts of kindness to strangers, like staying with an unhoused person in medical emergency until paramedics arrive, or people who open their home as foster parent for a child in crisis, churches or organizations that attend to or shield people from socially targeted groups who are in distress. We have fire fighters who risk their lives while pulling injured strangers from burning houses or cars. From the context of today’s gospel, we can probably say that those instances depict the essence of neighborliness. The parable of Good Samaritan takes us beyond the question “who is my neighbor?” to “What does it mean to be a neighbor” and definitely that is the question Jesus asked at the end of the parable,which of these three (Priest, Levite and Samaritan) proved himself a neighbor?”
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus shows what it means to be a neighbor to all. He radically expands the concept of who is a neighbor by making a Samaritan model of compassion. Jesus wants to teach us that it is more important to be a neighbor than to ask who my neighbor is. The real neighbor doesn’t draw a distinction between those who are neighbors and those who are not; no, everyone that might be stranded or in need of help is treated with compassion, mercy and love. Jesus challenges the expert to see that God’s view of neighbor goes beyond his narrow definition that thinks only fellow Jews are the neighbors.
The parable highlights how wide God’s love and mercy is towards all.We should mark two things here, that this brutal highway attack took place in a narrow, dangerous and notorious place where robbers could easily ambush their victims. Probably no one in his right mind would think stopping to help fearing for a decoy, and two, that with blooded victim the priest didn’t want to risk the possibility of ritual impurity. Good sound reason for not acting to offer help. However, Jesus tries to shows us that, Pietism and Fear must not get in the way of charity. A Samaritan did not lean into making a distinction, is this Jew or my fellow Samaritan. His was to attend wholeheartedly with compassion without first asking, who is he? From where, and without recourse to the fact that he himself, was a Samaritan helping a Jew whose group hated the gentiles.
Just like the good Samaritan, we are invited to let God work through us to reach out to all people, our love for others must be as wide as God’s love. No one should be excluded. God’s love is unconditional. So, we must be ready to be neighbor to others, to do good to others for their sake, just as God is good to us. We need to stop defining who my neighbor is and start acting as neighbors to all. We must not waste time asking who qualifies for our love or who is “deserving”. Jesus is challenging us with a question in the parable “To whom are you acting as a neighbor? Jesus revealed God’s compassionate love to all in need, regardless of their race or creed, he is calling on us to become his compassionate presence to others, especially to those most in need, regardless of who they are.