The one who stopped

A lawyer asks what he must do to inherit eternal life, and Jesus turns it back on him. He answers correctly: love God with everything, and your neighbour as yourself. Then, wanting to justify himself, he asks the question people ask when they want a manageable list: and who is my neighbour? Jesus tells a story. A man is robbed and left half dead. A priest sees and crosses over. A Levite does the same. Then a Samaritan — a foreigner, a heretic, the audience's least favourite kind of person — stops, treats the wounds, carries him to an inn and pays for his care. Which of these was a neighbour? The lawyer cannot even say the word Samaritan; he says the one who showed him mercy. Go and do likewise.