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The expression Good Samaritan means someone who helps another person in need of
help with no thoughts of reward for themselves. This help can take many forms. A Good Samaritan
might help by constructing homes for poor people, or he might help by getting involved
in a nature conservation project. He does not see this help as an investment for future
gain or as a way of trading for some advantage. He does not think of himself and say, I'm alright,
thank you. Neither does he try to impose his will or gain the upper hand over others. He
does not shut the door on those in need; instead, he always tries to help. The expression is
very old and goes back to a Bible story. At that time the word Samaritan had a very different
meaning. The Samaritans were a group of people who were the enemies of the Jews. A Jew's
image of a Samaritan was very bad. Jesus Christ used this negative image to teach an important
lesson. Jesus taught that you should love your neighbor as you love yourself. Among
Jews, many thought a neighbor meant only other Jews. One day a lawyer asked Jesus, "Who is
my neighbor?" To this lawyer, used to writing clauses in contracts, the definition of the
word neighbor was relevant. Jesus told the story of The Good Samaritan to answer this
question. The story goes as follows. A Jewish man was travelling alone and was attacked
by robbers. They beat him, forced him to submit and robbed him of everything he had. They
then left him for dead beside the road. After a while, a Jewish priest came along and saw
the poor man lying in the soil by the roadside. As a religious man, you would have expected
him to stop and help, but instead he sighed, looked the other way, and kept going, pretending
he hadn t seen the man. Later, a Levite came along. The Levites were assistants to the
priests, so surely you would have imagined that he also would have helped. However, he
acted the same way as the priest and kept walking. Finally, a Samaritan man came riding
by. You would think in the circumstances that the Samaritan man would also walk past him,
as he was his enemy, but instead he took pity on the injured Jewish man. He bandaged his
wounds, and then he put him on his own donkey and took him to the next town where he paid
for someone to look after him. After telling this story, Jesus turned to the lawyer and
asked, Which of the three men who passed by the man was a good neighbor to him? The lawyer
was forced to admit that it was the Samaritan who had treated the injured man as a neighbor
rather than his fellow Jews who had done nothing to help. Jesus then said, Yes, now go and
do the same.