Luke 10:33-35

The Samaritan.

For the sake of contrast, Jesus chooses a Samaritan, a member of that half Gentile people who were separated from the Jews by an old national hatred. In the matter about which priests are ignorant, about which the scribe is still disputing, this simple and right heart sees clearly at the first glance. His neighbour is the human being, whoever he may be, with whom God brings him into contact, and who has need of his help. The term ὁδεύων, as he journeyed, conveys the idea that he might easily have thought himself excused from the duty of compassion toward this stranger.

In every detail of the picture, Luke 10:34, there breathes the most tender pity (ἐσπλαγχνίσθη).

Oil and wine always formed part of the provision for a journey.

We see from what follows that πανδοχεῖον signifies not a simple caravansary, but a real inn, where people were received for payment. ᾿Επί, Luke 10:35, should be understood as in Acts 3:1: Toward the morrow, that is to say, at daybreak. The term ἐξελθών, when he departed, shows that he was now on horseback, ready to go. Two pence are equal to about 1 Samuel 4 d.

After having brought the wounded man the length of the hostelry, he might have regarded himself as discharged from all responsibility in regard to him, and given him over to the care of his own countrymen, saying: “He is your neighbour rather than mine.” But the compassion which constrained him to begin, obliges him to finish.

What a masterpiece is this portrait! What a painter was its author, and what a narrator was he who has thus transmitted it to us, undoubtedly in all its original freshness!