Bible stories:Who is my Neighbour?
The story is told of a Jewish man who was going from Jerusalem to Jericho. All of a sudden he was juimped on by robbers who beat him up and stole everything he had. They left him for dead and ran away.
As he lay there bleeding and in great pain a Jewish priest came along the road, he saw the man but crossed over the road and passed him by on the other side. Next came a Levite another type of priest, he too saw the man but crosssed over the road and passed him by on the other side. Then came along a Samaritan, the Jews and the Samaritans did not like each other so did not have anything to do with each other. So a Jew would not expect any help from a Samaritan
But it was the Samaritan who stopped, he gave him some of his own clothes, he helped stop the bleeding and then put him on his own donkey and took him to the local inn. there he paid for a soft bed and food for him. The next morning he had to go back about his business, but he left money with the inn keeper saying, ”look after this man until I come back. If you spend more than I have left I will give you the money on my return.”
Jesus asked, “Who do you think this man’s neighbour was? The two Jewish priests who passed him by or the Samaritan?” The answer of course was the man who looked after him and took care of him. When Jesus told this story to the lawyer, he meant that our neighbours are not just people who live near us or who look like us or people we approve of. Everyone is our neighbour.