15th Sunday in Ordinary Time – C
July 13, 2025
Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton 5pm
Good Samaritan
Probably we all know that in the northern part of Baltimore City, there is the Good Samaritan Hospital.
I did a quick check on the internet and learned that there are at least ten hospitals in our country named Good Samaritan. There are also numerous social service centers with this name.
And then, all fifty states and the District of Columbia have Good Samaritan laws. These laws differ in each jurisdiction, but they all try to encourage us to help a person who is in some emergency need.
These Good Samaritan laws give assurance to a person who helps that they will be free of prosecution or lawsuit. So, the term Good Samaritan has a very favorable meaning for us.
Because of that, we can easily miss the punch - and there is a punch in Jesus’ parable today. To get to that, let’s look at each of the persons in this classic story.
The Persons in the Story
First, there is the victim. The story tells us that he was robbed, stripped, beaten, and left half-dead.
He was probably unconscious, and it was difficult to tell whether he was alive or dead. Also, without clothing and without speech, you couldn’t tell what nationality he was – and that is significant and we’ll come back to that.
Then there is the priest. The priests worked in the temple and led the temple sacrifices.
If they came into contact with a deceased person, they were seen as ritually unclean and had to go through a purification ritual. This is probably why the priest sees but doesn’t stop to help the beaten man who might be dead.
Next there is the Levite. The Levites were assistants to the priests.
The same rules for ritual cleanness applied to them. So, he also sees but doesn’t stop to help the beaten man.
The Samaritan
Finally, there is the Samaritan and here is Jesus’ punch.
Unlike our positive feeling for the expression Good Samaritan, in Jesus’ day the Jews really hated the Samaritans. This antipathy had been going on for centuries.
So here, in his parable, Jesus is driving home a lesson by portraying the hated Samaritan as the hero. The passage simply says, “he was moved with compassion.”
He doesn’t try to figure out if the victim is a Jew or a Samaritan or some other nationality. He’s not concerned about whether the victim is worthy or deserving of his help.
The Samaritan just sees him as a person in need. He feels compassion and helps him.
So, Jesus is saying: if a Samaritan, someone you look down on and think is no good, if he does this, you also are to do it. You are to have compassion for others just because they are hurting – because they are beaten and at the side of the road in some way.
Neighbor
Jesus makes this same point in how he flips the question that the scholar of the law asks him.
After he and Jesus agree on the two great commandments, this man asks: “Who is my neighbor?” He seems to be thinking: if I know who my neighbor is, then I will know whom I have to love and, therefore, whom I don’t have to love.
But, as we know, Jesus flips the question. Instead of asking, “Who is my neighbor?”, Jesus wants this man and us to ask: “To whom must I become a neighbor?”
And, of course, Jesus’ answer, as the parable highlights, is: everyone. Anyone who is beaten and lying at the side of the road.
So, I may show compassion by listening to a son or daughter who is feeling lost and unsure of where they are heading. Or by texting a hello to someone who just their job.
I may show compassion by offering a few dollars to a man begging at a traffic intersection. Or by praying for the more than 100 million refugees in our world, and yes, praying for the immigrants in our own country.
Jesus’ lesson is to be compassionate. We cannot literally help everyone, but we are called to be compassionate in some way to all those who are beaten and lying at the side of the road.
This isn’t an easy lesson for me and maybe for you. But it’s pretty central to what it means to follow Jesus.
