Who Is My Neighbor? Jesus and the Good Samaritan
A lawyer once stood up to test Jesus with a simple question: who counts as my neighbor? Jesus did not answer with a list of people. He told a story about a man left half-dead on a dangerous road—and about the unlikely traveler who stopped to help.
One simple fact
Only Luke records this parable. A man is going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when robbers strip him, beat him, and leave him for dead. A priest and a Levite pass by on the other side. A Samaritan sees him, has compassion, binds his wounds with oil and wine, carries him to an inn, and pays for his care. Then Jesus asks which of the three proved to be a neighbor—and tells the lawyer to go and do the same. Read Luke 10:25-37 (ESV, Bible Gateway)
The words of Jesus
"Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed him mercy." And Jesus said to him, "You go, and do likewise."
Luke 10:36-37 (ESV) Bible Gateway
The lawyer had already quoted the command, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Luke 10:27). Jesus turned the question around: the neighbor is not the person you prefer—it is the one who needs mercy, and the one who shows it.
A historical reference: the Jerusalem–Jericho road and the Inn of the Good Samaritan
The road Jesus named was real. It drops from the heights of Jerusalem into the Jordan Valley toward Jericho—steep, lonely, and long known as risky ground for travelers. The ascent along that route was called Maʿale Adummim, the "Red Ascent," after the reddish rock of the Hatrurim Formation. In late antiquity, Jerome wrote that a military fort stood there and linked the place with blood spilled by robbers; Christian tradition identified a roadside inn on that stretch with the inn in Jesus' parable.
Today the Israel Nature and Parks Authority runs the Inn of the Good Samaritan Mosaic Museum near Maʿale Adumim, roughly halfway between Jerusalem and Jericho. The site preserves remains of ancient inns and a Byzantine church tradition, and it displays mosaics from churches and from Jewish and Samaritan synagogues—an archaeological reminder that the road, the inn, and the tense history between Jews and Samaritans were part of Jesus' world. First-century writer Flavius Josephus repeatedly marks Samaritans as a people Judeans often treated as outsiders, which makes Jesus' choice of a Samaritan as the story's hero all the more pointed. Israel Nature and Parks Authority: The Good Samaritan Museum · Bible Interp: Josephus on Samaritan Origins
A firsthand testimony: "He'd send help from his servants who listen"
In an account published by the Near Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF), Derry B describes a near-fatal car crash that left her on a ventilator in a coma. As she reported it, she walked with Jesus in a bright heavenly garden, recognized Him as a familiar friend, and felt His compassion. She wanted to return to earth only if she could help herself and others. Jesus, she said, promised never to leave her—and to send help through people who listen:
"Jesus promised me that I'd never be alone, his spirit would always be with me, strengthening me, giving me courage. Jesus told me he'd send help from his servants who listen to him. Jesus told me that he had compassion for me, that he loved me, that he knew I'd come back to him, and that he'd give me the help to do so."
Derry B, NDERF Experience #198
She came out of the coma against the odds. Church friends signed up to walk with her during rehabilitation—ordinary neighbors who became, in her words, "the Lord's servant[s]." The parable and her testimony land in the same place: mercy often arrives through someone who stops, listens, and stays.
Today
Neighbor is not a category on a map. It is whoever is in front of you when help is needed—and whoever you become when you choose mercy. "You go, and do likewise" is still the assignment.