The Good Samaritan

Luke 10:25-37: The Samaritan teaches us several important lessons.  First, God comes where we least expect God to be, because God comes for all and to all.  Second, “loving” looks like helping those in need.  And third, the Samaritan, the one who acted as a neighbor, crossed a boundary.  The hatred between Samaritans and Judeans went both ways, and yet this Samaritan stepped outside of his national and ethnic loyalty.  He did not say, “You aren’t my people; I save my compassion for my own people.”  He crossed a boundary that was a hard and fast line to Jesus’ listeners.  When Jesus says, “Go and do likewise,” that’s boundary crossing is part of what he’s telling us to do.  We are to have a higher, broader, deeper loyalty – a loyalty to the well-being of all God’s beloved children, not just to the ones who look and speak and act like us.