by Alice Whitaker

Created on: November 19, 2008

Do you really understand the parable of the Good Samaritan? Many of you believe that the moral of the story is to live a Christ like life and do good deeds for people and you would be correct but there is a much deeper meaning to this parable that is often missed. In order to truly comprehend this parable, it is necessary to take a look at the Jewish and Samaritan relationship during this period of time.

A number of the Israelite tribes were conquered and taken to Babylon. The Assyrian king brought in foreigners to resettle the area of Samaria, similar to homesteading in the old west, in order to keep the area from becoming a wasteland. When these foreigners came, they were not what we would call God fearing folks. As a result of that, God released lions into the region which started killing off these homesteaders. When King Esarhaddon got news of this development he sent a Levite priest to teach the folks Christian doctrine and how to worship the Lord properly.

Eventually, many of the Israelites returned to Jerusalem but would not accept the Samaritan people as they felt they were an inferior breed, although, the Samaritans had fully accepted Christianity, by this time. It is believed that the Samaritans were the first converts to Christianity.They felt nothing but contempt for their Samaritan neighbors.

Let's look closer at the parable which Jesus shared with a lawyer who wanted to know who was to be considered his neighbor. (Luke 10:25-37) A man was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was stripped, robbed and beaten and thrown to the side of the road. A priest coming down the road saw the man and crossed to the other. Likewise, a Levite did the same thing. It was the Samaritan who stopped and gave the man aid. He took the man to an inn where he cared for him and upon departing even left enough money to attend to his needs until he was well enough to continue his journey.

There are two morals to this story, boys and girls. The first as we know is to do good to everyone, whether it is someone we know or a stranger. The Samaritan did all of that and more. The Levite who was one of God's chosen people, an Israelite, crossed to the other side of the road. The most important moral we are taught by the Good Samaritan is that God will accept anyone from any nation as long as there is repentance and obeisance to His word. The fact that the Good Samaritan went above and beyond the call of duty shows that he did.

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