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A Quality of Discipleship – Neighborliness
Luke 10:25 – 27.
Introduction. The parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the most famous stories Jesus ever told. It has inspired the building of hospitals, orphanages, homes for the infirmed, and has raised more money for them and similar organizations than any others ever written. Yet its familiarity can dull its sharp edge. Jesus told this story not merely to warm our hearts but to search them, to challenge our assumptions about who counts as a neighbor, ad to call us to a radical obedience that crosses every barrier we prefer to maintain.
The context: A lawyer’s test and the desire to justify himself.
The encounter begins when an expert in the law – an educated scribed trained in the Torah – stands up to test Jesus. This probably sounded like a good idea to the scribe, but it’s never a good idea to test the Lord like this. His questions sound so spiritual: “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Luke doesn’t tell us that the motive behind this test was really to expose our Lord as unorthodox or to draw Him into a debate.
Jesus responds with a question of His own: “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” The lawyer responds correctly, citing the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:5 –
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (Deuteronomy 6:5 | TNIV)
And then joins it to the command of Leviticus 19:18 –
” ‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.’” (Leviticus 19:18 | TNIV)
That was truly an impressive answer, and Jesus acknowledges it. This expert in the law knew the right words. He could quote the greatest commandments with precision. But knowing the right words and living them are not the same thing. Sensing the gap, the lawyer asks a clever follow-up question designed to limit his responsibility: “And who is my neighbor?”
This is the pivotal moment. He is not seeking deeper insight; he is seeking to justify himself. He wants Jesus to define the boundaries of “neighbor” so that his obligation to love remains manageable. It may have been that he was hoping for a definition limited to fellow Jews who kept the Law, members of his own religious circle, or at least those ho were not obvious sinners. If the circle is drawn tightly enough, obedience becomes feasible and he can feel good about himself.
But Jesus doesn’t play games. He refuses to define “neighbor” as a restricted category. Instead the Lord tells a story that redefines what it means to BE a neighbor – whoever the person in need may be.
A dangerous road and an anonymous victim.
Jesus, the master story teller, sets the scene on a real and dangerous road: The 17 mile-descent from Jerusalem to Jericho, dropping nearly 3,000 feet through rocky, desolate terrain filled with caves and hiding places. It was notorious for robberies. Travelers who could traveled in groups for safety. This man, however, was alone.
In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.” (Luke 10:30 | TNIV)
Notice how Jesus describes him: Simply “a man.” He was a man with no name, no nationality, no religion, no moral record. He is Everyman in his vulnerability – stripped of his dignity and protection, beaten into helplessness, left half dead. In that condition, he is also ritually unclean. Anyone who touches him, especially if he dies in the process, becomes defiled and unable to perform religious duties until purified. This man is the ultimate inconvenient, burdensome person.
Enter the religious professionals.
A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. [32] So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. (Luke 10:31, 32 | TNIV)
These are not cartoon villains. They are highly respected leaders. The priest had likely been serving in the Temple in Jerusalem. The Levite assisted in worship as a musician, attendant, or guard. They both knew the Scriptures well. They both taught the Law. They represented the people before God.
And yet, when they saw the half-dead man, they crossed to the other side of the road and walked on by. The text doesn’t speculate on their motives, but reasonable inferences include fear for their own safety (if the robbers were hiding), concern for ritual purity (contact with blood or a corpse would defile the for Temple service), the pressure of religious duties that made stopping inconvenient, or simply the human tendency to look away from suffering that would cost us something.
Their failure was not active cruelty. It was the quieter, more respectable sin of omission. They saw a clear need and chose not to get involved. They kept their robes clean and their schedules intact, but they failed the test of love that their precious Law itself required.
Enter the Samaritan who showed what neighborliness really looks like.
But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. (Luke 10:33 | TNIV)
Here is the great shock of the parable. A Samaritan of all people. For Jesus’ Jewish listeners, this was almost a contradiction. Samaritans were viewed as half-breeds and heretics. Centuries earlier, after the Assyrian conquest of Israel, intermarriage took place, and they had established their own worship center of Mount Gerizim rather than acknowledging Jerusalem. Consequently, Jews and Samaritans both avoided each other like the plague. In the very recent context of Luke 9:51 – 56, the disciples had wanted to call down fire from heaven on a Samaritan village that rejected Jesus. No one in the audience would have expected the hero of a story about mercy to be a Samaritan.
Yet, this is the man who sees and acts. “He took pity on him.” The Greek verb comes from the word for bowels or inner parts. It describes a deep, visceral, gut-level compassion – the same strong word used of Jesus when He saw the crowds or the needy widow of Nain. This isn’t mild sympathy from a safe distance. It’s a movement of the whole person that refuses to let him walk away.
What follows in one of the most detailed pictures of practical, costly mercy in all of Scripture. The Samaritan doesn’t just feel compassion; he pours himself out.
- He went to him. He didn’t shout instructions from across the road or throw money at him. He approached the place of danger and got close to the suffering.
- He bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Oil to soothe and protect the wounds, wine to cleanse as an antiseptic – the best first-aid measures available. He used his own limited resources on stranger from a hostile people.
- He put the man on his own donkey. Now the Samaritan is walking while the injured man rides. He gives up his own comfort and means of transportation.
- He brought him to an inn and took care of him. He didn’t drop the man off at the door and leave. He stayed through the night, personally nursing him back from the edge of death.
The next day, the Samaritan took out two denarii – roughly two days’ wages for a common laborer – and gave them to the innkeeper with clear instructions.
‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ (Luke 10:35b | TNIV)
He makes an open-ended financial commitment and promises to return to settle accounts. He takes personal responsibility for the man’s full recovery with no guarantee that the innkeeper will be honest or that the man will survive.
This is neighborliness in action: Personal, sacrificial, practical, ongoing, and extended without regard to whether the recipient could ever repay or even belonged to the “right” group.
The quality of neighborliness redefined.
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” (Luke 10:36 | TNIV)
It’s a natural question Jesus asks the lawyer, and the lawyer answered honestly, but he can’t bring himself to say the word “Samaritan.”
The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:37 | TNIV)
In a single sentence, Jesus has transformed the entire conversation. The lawyer wanted to know the bare minimum – who counts as my neighbor so I know whom I am required to love. Jesus answers by showing what love looks like when it’s real and alive. Neighborliness is not a label we place on certain approved people; it’s a way of life we choose to live toward anyone in need. It’s not defined by identity or worthiness of the other person but by the response of the one who sees suffering and refuses to pass by on the other side.
This quality is essential to true discipleship for several reasons.
First, neighborliness fulfills the law of love that the lawyer himself quoted. The apostle Paul later wrote this in Galatians 5:14 –
For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:14 | TNIV)
James calls it “the royal law.” And John says that that if we know a brother or sister is in need but don’t do anything to help them, then the love of God can’t be in us. We can’t claim to love the God we can’t see while refusing to love the brother or sister we can see who is in distress.
Second, neighborliness crosses every barrier the world considers decisive. The Samaritan helped a Jew despite centuries of hostility and despite the fact that Jews generally despised Samaritans. In our own context, genuine neighborliness may require us to s how mercy to some one we don’t like, someone from a different political party, a different economic class, a different racial or ethnic background, or someone whose lifestyle or choices we find offensive. It doesn’t require us to approve of sin or to compromise Biblical truth. It does require us to refuse to let those differences become an excuse for indifference or contempt.
Third, neighborliness is costly. The priest and the Levite counted the cost – possible danger, possible defilement, possible disruption of their plans and reputation – and decided it was too high. The Samaritan counted the same cost and paid it gladly. Real mercy will sometimes cost us time we don’t have, money we could spend on other things, emotional energy, or even our standing with certain people. When we help “the wrong person,” some may criticize us. Jesus never promised that following Him would be convenient or popular.
Fourth, neighborliness flows from the Gospel we have received. We must be honest with ourselves: Left to our own fallen nature, we are far more like the priest and the Levite than the Samaritan. We have all passed by on the other side at times – out of fear, busyness, prejudice, or simple selfishness. The glorious news is that Jesus is the true and Good Samaritan. When we were spiritual beaten down by sin, stripped of righteousness, and left half-dead, He didn’t pass us by. He came to us. He bound up our wounds at the infinite cost of His own blood. He carried us when we couldn’t walk. He paid the full price for our healing and continues to care for us as our Great High Priest and Shepherd. Because we have received such undeserved and costly mercy, the Spirit of Christ now lives in us and produces the fruit of mercy toward others. We love because He first loved us.
Conclusion. Neighborliness stands as a culminating and essential mark of those who follow Jesus. It really is just basic obedience to the command of the Lord. May the Holy Spirit open our eyes to see the half dead people God places in our path this week. May He soften our hearts to feel their pain with something of the gut-level compassion that moved the Samaritan and that moved our Savior to many in need. May He strengthen our hands to bind up wounds, our feet to walk the extra mile, and our resources to meet real needs without partiality. And may He give us the courage to do it even when it is inconvenient, costly, or unpopular.
For when we live this way, we are not just being nice people or good citizens. We are showing the world what Jesus looks like. We are proving the kingdom of God has come near. And we are demonstrating that we truly are disciples of the One who did not pass us by when we were in desperate need but came to us at a great cost.
