parable.school
Sumi-e ink brushwork of a single robed scholar standing with one hand raised in a question, alone in empty space

A lawyer stood up to test him. “Teacher,” he said, “who is my neighbor?”

Sumi-e ink brushwork of a seated robed teacher with one hand lifted in a calm teaching gesture, alone in empty space

Jesus answered with a story.

Sumi-e ink brushwork of a single man lying fallen on a dusty road between low hills, robes torn, alone in empty space

A man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Robbers fell on him. They stripped him, beat him, and went away — leaving him half dead.

Sumi-e ink brushwork of a single robed priest walking on a path with head turned slightly aside, alone in empty space

A priest came down that road. He saw the man. He passed by on the other side.

Sumi-e ink brushwork of a single robed traveler walking with back turned slightly away, alone in empty space

A Levite came to the place. He saw the man. He passed by on the other side.

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Sumi-e ink brushwork of a robed traveler leaning toward a fallen figure on a road, one hand reaching out, alone in empty space

But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where the man was. He saw him — and was moved in his gut with pity.

Sumi-e ink brushwork of a robed figure supporting a wounded man leaning against a small donkey, alone in empty space

He went to him. He bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

Sumi-e ink brushwork of two robed figures at the doorway of an inn, one extending a small object into the other’s hand

The next day, he gave two denarii to the innkeeper. “Take care of him,” he said. “Whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.”

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Sumi-e ink brushwork of a seated robed teacher gesturing with an open hand toward another seated listener, both calm, alone in empty space

“Which of these three,” Jesus asked, “proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”“The one who showed him mercy.”“Go, and do likewise.”

ἔλεος
éleosmercy

lineage

The parable appears only in Luke. A lawyer — a teacher of Mosaic law — wants to clear a boundary: who counts as my neighbor, who doesn’t. Jesus answers a different question. He shows what a neighbor does.

ἐσπλαγχνίσθη

“He was moved in his bowels.” Luke’s verb for compassion — the same one used elsewhere for Jesus himself.

The road from Jerusalem to Jericho drops some three thousand feet over seventeen miles of bandit country. The detail was not metaphor for Luke’s first hearers. Travelers were robbed on it. Priests and Levites used it.

And Samaritans — a people the audience held in religious contempt — were the wrong shape of hero. That is the parable’s point. The despised one stops. The respectable ones step around.

The lawyer asked who his neighbor was. He left being asked to become one. Mercy in Luke is not a category. It is an action — done at cost, before the question of category arises.