Monday in the 27th Week of Ordinary Time, October 6, 2025

Luke 10, 25-37

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead. A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn, and cared for him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, ‘Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.’ Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

The Lord Jesus speaks in this parable of “a Samaritan traveler who came upon [the wounded Jew] was moved with compassion at the sight.”  Now, probably the Samaritan knew this man was a Jew, since the road lay in land between Jericho and Jerusalem, that is, in Jewish territory, although not far from that of Samaria.  Yet Jesus expressly tells us that this Samaritan “was moved with compassion” at the sight of this wounded and perhaps dead Jewish man.  Luke uses Greek verb here to tell us how Jesus felt when he saw the widow whose son had died, and whom he would raise (Luke 7, 13).  The Lord then touched the bier on which the dead man was being carried out of the city to his grave, causing those who were carrying it to stop in their tracks.  With the words, “Young man, I say to you, Arise,” the man sat up and began to speak.  Luke concludes this account with the words, “And he gave him to his mother.”  Something similar happens in the parable.  The Samaritan is so moved to compassion that he does not fear to touch even death, but does so and finds the man still alive.  Hurrying, the Samaritan unburden his beast of whatever merchandise or goods it was carrying and put the man on it, which must have taken a good deal of work to do this by himself.  Then, cleaning his wounds and binding them up, he left his goods behind, possibly hiding them in nearby caves, and took him to an “inn”.  This inn would have been something like a bunkhouse, or a cabin with several beds or simply straw mattresses on the floor.  Privacy would have occurred only if there were no other occupants to the place.  The Samaritan left the (Jewish) innkeeper with instructions to care for the wounded man, with promises of further payment if that was necessary.  And just as Jesus gave the son back to his mother, the Samaritan gives the wounded Jew back to his compatriot, the innkeeper, who must have been as astounded in the story as the “scholar of the law” was to hear this.  Here, the outsider teaches mercy.  Jesus teaches it to the crowd, and the Samaritan teaches it to the innkeeper as well as to the wounded man, who seems unconscious throughout the story.  Of course, Jesus raising the dead man is a sign for how he will touch death and destroy it by entering into it, out of compassion for us travelers wounded nearly to death by sin.

The Samaritan in the parable did not need to save the Jew, but he did not let the Jewish man’s animosity for his people stop him from acting on the compassion he felt.  He loved the man anyway, at some risk and at some cost.  So we should “Go and do likewise”, showing the compassion of Jesus to those around us.