Plese read the passage before reading the commentary.
The road from Jerusalem to Jericho is a road between the religious center to and from a place where many priests lived. The road seems to have been a favorite place for hijackers and bandits. The Samaritans were a people of half-pagan and half-Jewish ancestry and their relations with the Jewish population was strained to say the least. One should probably not put it past the Samaritans to ambush a faithful Jew on pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
A Samaritan traveler happens down to road and sees a man who had fallen in the hands of bandits. He was not journeying from West Milton to Wright-Patterson AFB for Mass. He stopped and took care of the injured traveler. Name a person or a people whom we tend to look down upon, someone whom perhaps we make jokes about, perhaps a political opponent or opposing party, the type of person who would be stupid, ignorant, not worthy of our time and notice. This person, this type of person, is the Samaritan who stops to take care of you as you lie in the middle of the road half-dead. This person, whom we have judged not worthy of our time and love is the true neighbor to us.
There is a twist to the story, however. It is not so much that the despicable Samaritan is willing to be neighbor to the one beaten by bandits. It is also the one beaten by bandits who has to accept the aid given by the foreigner. The victim needed the foreigner’s aid and assistance. He had to recognize the foreigner as neighbor.
I must do this. You must do this, we as a nation must do this. We are all half-dead by the side of the road between our Jerusalem and Jericho. We must recognize our neighbors.