The life and ministry of Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, powerfully shows us how God intends for people to be treated. Jesus bucked the cultural practices and prejudices of His day to go into Samaria and talk directly to a Samaritan woman and even to stay among the Samaritans for two days. Remember, the Samaritans and the Jews hated each other, and women were considered to be inferior to men. Jesus’ actions demonstrated He had a perspective that was very different from that of the prevailing culture. Despite “the hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans, Jesus broke down the barriers between them, preaching the gospel of peace to the Samaritans (John 4:6-26), and the apostles later followed His example (Acts 8:25)” (also go here).
There’s more! Against the cultural backdrop of this racial animosity, Jesus told His parable of the good Samaritan. Having been reminded that God’s greatest commands were to love the Lord wholeheartedly and one’s neighbor as oneself, a lawyer asked this question of Jesus to “justify himself”: “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus responded to the inquiry by sharing the parable and then asked the lawyer who among the three men who had seen the man in need had acted as a neighbor to him. Unable to bring himself to utter the term Samaritan, the lawyer responded, “He who showed mercy on him.”
Both the life and teachings of Jesus advocated service to others without favoritism, not expectations of being served. The apostles also echoed these teachings.
Copyright © 2020 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture has been taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
top image credit: Jesus talks to the Samaritan Woman at the Well by Angelika Kauffmann