The Good Samaritan was a neighbor because he had compassion in his heart and acted upon  He came to the rescue of one who had been reckless and careless in his travels and had suffered devastating loss.

He acted with mercy after the broken man had been ignored by one who put ritual before service and another who valued safety above caring.

He is held up as an example because he was the one considered least likely to be a neighbor. He was part of a culture, nation, and ethnicity that was held in suspicion. What we seldom emphasize is that he would have felt the same way about the man he helped if he were also given to the prejudice of his own countrymen.

"You've got to be taught … to hate all the people your relatives hate. You've got to be carefully taught."

He was the neighbor because he broke out of the confining prison of bigotry and fear and stepped into the wide open space of love.

What might it be like if this were something more than just a nice Bible story told in Sunday School and actually applied and embodied by people of faith today? How radically might it change our behavior as followers of Jesus?

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