The Good Samaritian

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I've had 3 goes at explaining why this is disappointing, one of which you may have missed:
Love your neighbour as yourself.
Who is my neighbour?
The Good Samaritan is a good neighbour.
Go and do likewise That is some fucked up shit right there. The only way it works if is the guy the Samaritan helps is the neighbour and he's the only bloody one who isn't referred to in that way."

Ah! I see the problem now. The G/S was the neighbor who was loving the beaten jew as himself.

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”[u]

The one who had mercy was the sameritian. So In this story the 'G/S' was the neighbor while the Fellow Jews were not.

I don't think I can explain it any better than the above. If Jesus is saying the neighbour you should love is the one that does you a good turn then he is not saying very much.

Jesus is saying if you do someone a good turn you are that neighbor, even though you may not have any other connection to this person.

If Jesus is saying you should be a good neighbour then he's not answering the question.

If Jesus is saying that the guy the Samaritan saves is the neighbour he's the only one that isn't referred to in that way.

It just doesn't hold together. I know what I think it should say - but I can't get there. On the other hand I am assuming I know what I think it should say - on the basis of who Jesus was supposed to be but maybe you are right and it says what it wanted him to say.

The story relays that one must be more than just linked to someone else either by kinsmenship or simple proxcimity (what dummy would ever think that ) One must actually do something that help someone else even if there are no other connections. That is what makes a neighbor a neighbor.

Like helping a friend at midnight with a loaf of bread, that makes a friend a good neighbor.

This leaves me either disappointed in the message or the means of illustrating the message.

Do you understand the problem now?

simple miss communication.

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