The Good Samaritan Test (Luke 10:36-37)

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

— Luke 10:36-37 (NIV)

An expert in the law once tried to trap Jesus with a definition. “And who is my neighbor?”

The story Jesus told back is one nearly everyone knows. A man beaten and left for dead. A priest who walked by. A Levite who walked by. Then a Samaritan — the kind of man this expert wouldn’t have shared a meal with — who stopped, cleaned the wounds, and paid for the room.

And then Jesus reversed the question.

Not “who is my neighbor?” but “which of these three was a neighbor?”

Neighbor isn’t a category you sort other people into. It’s a category you become.

Today there is a person bleeding in your life — emotionally, financially, spiritually, somewhere. The question Jesus is asking isn’t whether they qualify for your help. It’s whether you’ll qualify as theirs.

POINT OF REFLECTION

Who is in your road right now that you’ve been hoping someone else would stop for?