In Luke 10:30-37, a certain lawyer approaches Jesus with a spiritual question: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
How fitting that a legal expert would ask Jesus about a subject he was trained to understand. Jesus points this man and the rest of us to the law of heaven, “Whoever loves God with all their heart, soul, strength and mind, and whoever loves their neighbor as themselves, will have eternal life.”
This arrogant attorney was only pretending to make sure he understood clearly whom he is obligated to love and continued another attempt to justify his prejudice. “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus responds to this second query with the story of the Good Samaritan.
The Good Samaritan was obviously a sensitive and caring person who at significant cost to himself stopped to help a wounded stranger who had been beaten and robbed and was being ignored by everyone passing by. Making his rescue attempt even more remarkable is the fact that he was a Samaritan and the man who was hurt was his Jewish neighbor.