Who Is My Neighbor?

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When Jesus said to love your neighbor, a lawyer asked him, well who is my neighbor? So Jesus told a parable of a traveler on the road to Jericho who was robbed and left for dead.

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A Samaritan saved the traveler's life after a passing priest and Levite wouldn't stop to help. Because of that story we associate the term

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Samaritan as a person of goodwill. Some charities have incorporated it into their names. But who is a

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Samaritan and why did Jesus use him in his parable? The Samaritans are a mixed race, a remnant of the northern kingdom of Israel.

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2nd King 17 records how the king of Assyria brought foreigners to settle in Samaria in 722 BC. Over time the

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Jews assimilated into non -Jewish culture intermarrying with the Mesopotamians. Some Jewish tradition remained.

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They had a version of the Pentateuch, Israel's history and historical narratives, but they differed from the Hebrew tradition.

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In John 4 Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well that they worship their own version of God but don't really know him.

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The Jews considered it a defilement to pass through Samaria. When Jesus began his story with a traveler on the road to Jericho, that was a route the

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Jews would take to go around Samaria and avoid Samaritans. And yet that's exactly who saved the traveler's life.

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In using a Samaritan in his parable Jesus was saying to the high and lofty, even a person who doesn't know

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God and of a people that you think you're better than knows to help the broken. How much more should you who has

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God's word understand even the simplest of commands? Jesus asked who in the story proved to be a good neighbor?

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And the lawyer replied, well the one who showed mercy. And Jesus said, go and do likewise when we understand the text.