(October 16, 2013 at 9:32 am)max-greece Wrote: Mystified!!
The Good Samaritan Story was used to answer the question: "Who is my neighbour?" This was in the context of "Love your neighbour as yourself."
According to this interpretation you are instructed to love those that will do you a good turn.
That is a hugely disappointing interpretation.
Surely there has to be something in it along the lines of "Be a good neighbour?"
Jesus disappoints, again.
The question Jesus was answering was 'Who is my neighbor'? The answer is literally the Good Samaritan, but being neighbors is a two-way street. The man who fell among the robbers was the Samaritan's neighbor because he needed help. I think the most reasonable interpretation of the admonishment to do likewise is not that your neighbor is the person who helps you, but that you are to act as a neighbor to the person who needs you.
