At the Feast of Dedication

164:1.1That evening a con­sid­er­able com­pany gath­ered about Je­sus and the two apos­tles to ask ques­tions, many of which the apos­tles an­swered, while oth­ers the Mas­ter dis­cussed. In the course of the evening a cer­tain lawyer, seek­ing to en­tan­gle Je­sus in a com­pro­mis­ing dis­pu­ta­tion, said: “Teacher, I would like to ask you just what I should do to in­herit eter­nal life?” Je­sus an­swered, “What is writ­ten in the law and the proph­ets; how do you read the Scrip­tures?” The lawyer, know­ing the teach­ings of both Je­sus and the Phar­isees, an­swered: “To love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neigh­bor as your­self.” Then said Je­sus: “You have an­swered right; this, if you re­ally do, will lead to life ev­er­last­ing.”

164:1.2But the lawyer was not wholly sin­cere in ask­ing this ques­tion, and de­sir­ing to jus­tify him­self while also hop­ing to em­bar­rass Je­sus, he ven­tured to ask still an­other ques­tion. Draw­ing a lit­tle closer to the Mas­ter, he said, “But, Teacher, I should like you to tell me just who is my neigh­bor?” The lawyer asked this ques­tion hop­ing to en­trap Je­sus into mak­ing some state­ment that would con­tra­vene the Jew­ish law which de­fined one’s neigh­bor as “the chil­dren of one’s peo­ple.” The Jews looked upon all oth­ers as “gen­tile dogs.” This lawyer was some­what fa­mil­iar with Je­sus’ teach­ings and there­fore well knew that the Mas­ter thought dif­fer­ently; thus he hoped to lead him into say­ing some­thing which could be con­strued as an at­tack upon the sa­cred law.

164:1.3But Je­sus dis­cerned the lawyer’s mo­tive, and in­stead of falling into the trap, he pro­ceeded to tell his hear­ers a story, a story which would be fully ap­pre­ci­ated by any Jeri­cho au­di­ence. Said Je­sus: “A cer­tain man was go­ing down from Je­ru­sa­lem to Jeri­cho, and he fell into the hands of cruel brig­ands, who robbed him, stripped him and beat him, and de­part­ing, left him half dead. Very soon, by chance, a cer­tain priest was go­ing down that way, and when he came upon the wounded man, see­ing his sorry plight, he passed by on the other side of the road. And in like man­ner a Levite also, when he came along and saw the man, passed by on the other side. Now, about this time, a cer­tain Samar­i­tan, as he jour­neyed down to Jeri­cho, came across this wounded man; and when he saw how he had been robbed and beaten, he was moved with com­pas­sion, and go­ing over to him, he bound up his wounds, pour­ing on oil and wine, and set­ting the man upon his own beast, brought him here to the inn and took care of him. And on the mor­row he took out some money and, giv­ing it to the host, said: ‘Take good care of my friend, and if the ex­pense is more, when I come back again, I will re­pay you.’ Now let me ask you: Which of these three turned out to be the neigh­bor of him who fell among the rob­bers?” And when the lawyer per­ceived that he had fallen into his own snare, he an­swered, “He who showed mercy on him.” And Je­sus said, “Go and do like­wise.”

164:1.4The lawyer an­swered, “He who showed mercy,” that he might re­frain from even speak­ing that odi­ous word, Samar­i­tan. The lawyer was forced to give the very an­swer to the ques­tion, “Who is my neigh­bor?” which Je­sus wished given, and which, if Je­sus had so stated, would have di­rectly in­volved him in the charge of heresy. Je­sus not only con­founded the dis­hon­est lawyer, but he told his hear­ers a story which was at the same time a beau­ti­ful ad­mo­ni­tion to all his fol­low­ers and a stun­ning re­buke to all Jews re­gard­ing their at­ti­tude to­ward the Samar­i­tans. And this story has con­tin­ued to pro­mote broth­erly love among all who have sub­se­quently be­lieved the gospel of Je­sus.