But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29)

To the first-century Jewish mind, the Parable of the Good Samaritan is scandalous.

I remember hearing it as a kid, and without any understanding of the historical setting of the story, it still made sense. Out of three who saw the injured man, only one was willing to love his neighbor. It wasn’t the pastor (the priest) or the person with the priestly heritage (the Levite), it was the Samaritan, whatever that is. 

The moral of the story was clear: don’t be a religious person who’s unwilling to put faith into action. Don’t say you follow Jesus if you’re not willing to help others. Christians always love their neighbors.

And then one day, I learned who the Samaritans were.

To put it mildly, the Samaritans were the rejects of 1st-century Jewish society. They were the half-breeds; the derelicts; the people who had been ethnically corrupted by their exile by the Assyrians around seven centuries before Jesus’ day.  They were so debased in Jewish society that they were segregated and confined to a specific parcel of land in the middle of the country – Samaria. 

The Samaritans were not only considered ethnically impure, they were also bitterly reviled for refusing to join the Jewish rebellion against the Seleucids in the War of the Maccabees less than two centuries before Christ was born. 

There was history between the two groups, Jews and Samaritans. Bad history.

Samaritans weren’t just considered a lesser people-group, and they weren’t just the objects of Jewish prejudice in the first century. Even though their religion and their history were inextricably intertwined, many Jews living in the first century considered Samaritans to be enemies.

And thus, Jesus’ words in the Parable of the Good Samaritan take on a whole new meaning. 

Loving your neighbor doesn’t just mean being friendly to the guy next door who gets your mail when you’re out of town, or the lady who grooms your dog, or the letter carrier who delivers your mail. Those are a given in the Kingdom. To put it in Jesus’ words, loving your neighbor means “loving your enemy,” and “praying for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).

How do we love our enemies? It starts by realizing that Christ died for all people, not just some (1 Timothy 2:4). And even when we think someone is beyond hope, the truth is that Jesus wants to touch that person and transform their life with His love and forgiveness. 

When we begin to realize the depth of God’s love for others, God begins to transform how we see the world. Our biases, judgements, and prejudice get scorched under the weight of God’s love for people. Are you willing to accept the fact that God loves others – even your enemies – as much as He loves you?

This week, invite God to take you on a journey. Start by asking Him to convict you of sin and expose the ways in which you’ve accepted His love and not, in turn, extended it to others. Then, ask Him to reveal to you the depth of His love for all people. But beware, once He reveals to you His love for others, you’ll be obliged to act on it.