Article November 10, 2014 Issue

Neighborhood watch

Joan S. Hunt

Neighborhood. The very word evokes a friendly tenor. One envisions people chatting over the back fence, gathering at the corner, or kibitzing comfortably on a park bench.

Christ Jesus’ well-known parable of the good Samaritan (see Luke 10:29–37) begins in response to the simple question, “Who is my neighbour?” Jesus tells the tale of a traveler who made helping a stranger in need his top priority. Several other passersby had paid no attention to the robbed and beaten man on the side of the road, simply “pass[ing] by on the other side.” But the traveling Samaritan exhibited care and genuine love for this man, at a time when the Samaritans were despised by the Jews; he “had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, … and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.” Before the Samaritan left, he gave the innkeeper instructions to continue to care for the man, at the Samaritan’s own expense.

At the conclusion of this parable, Jesus’ instruction is simple but direct: “Go, and do thou likewise.”

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