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A Place · The New Testament World
Jesus set His most famous parable on a real and dangerous road. Know that road, its steep descent, its robbers, its travelers, and the story of the Good Samaritan stops being a nice moral and becomes the gospel itself.
Before You Read
The road dropped about 3,300 feet over some 17 miles, from Jerusalem down to Jericho. "Went down" is literal.
Winding through rocky desert with caves and cliffs, it was infamous for bandits and ambush.
A priest and a Levite, temple servants, saw the wounded man and crossed to the other side.
A member of the people the Jews despised stopped, treated the wounds with oil and wine, and paid for his care.
"Who is my neighbour?" Jesus answers by telling us to be one.
Mercy fulfills the law, and many have seen the rescuing Samaritan as a picture of Christ.
Step Into the Moment
He had made the mistake of traveling that stretch alone. The road twisted down through the bare hills, past cliffs and caves that were perfect for hiding, and the men had come out of the rocks fast. Now they were gone, and so was everything he had, his clothes, his money, nearly his life. He lay in the dust, bleeding and barely conscious, when he heard the sound every wounded man prays for: footsteps. A priest, a holy man of God. Surely help had come. But the footsteps slowed, moved to the far side of the road, and passed. Later, more footsteps. A Levite. The same. And then a third traveler approached, and of all people, it was a Samaritan.
To feel the shock of what happens next, we have to know this road, and we have to know who these three men were.
The Place
Jesus began, "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves" (Luke 10:30), and every word is exact. Jerusalem sits high in the hills, around twenty-five hundred feet above sea level. Jericho lies far below near the Dead Sea, below sea level. So the traveler literally "went down," dropping about three thousand three hundred feet over some seventeen miles of steep, twisting desert road.
That desolate route, with its rocky gorges, blind curves, and countless hiding places, was notorious for robbers. It was so dangerous it later earned the nickname "the Bloody Way." When Jesus said the man "fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead," His listeners did not think it far-fetched. They thought, "Yes, that road." Everyone knew someone it had happened to.
The Two Who Would Not Stop
The first two travelers were the most religious men imaginable: a priest and a Levite, both servants of the temple, on that very road that so many priests used between Jerusalem and Jericho. And both "passed by on the other side" (Luke 10:31–32).
An honest note: Scripture does not tell us why they refused to help. It may have been fear that the robbers were still near. It may have been concern for ritual purity, since touching a dead or bleeding body would make a priest ceremonially unclean and unable to serve (Numbers 19:11; Leviticus 21:1). We are not told. But that is part of the point: no reason, not even a religious one, excused walking past a dying man. Their devotion to the temple had somehow left them able to look at a broken human being and step around him.
The One No One Expected
Then Jesus chose the last person His Jewish audience wanted to be the hero. The Jews and the Samaritans despised one another, "the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans" (John 4:9). Yet it was the Samaritan who did what the holy men would not:
"But a certain Samaritan... when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him."Luke 10:33–34 KJV
Every detail costs him. He pours out his own oil to soothe the wounds and his own wine to cleanse them, the common first aid of the day. He gives up his own beast and walks. He brings the man to an inn, a roadside lodging for travelers, and stays to nurse him. And the next day he pays the innkeeper two pence, two full days' wages, and promises, "whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee" (Luke 10:35). The man the Jews called an enemy loved like a brother.
The Question Turned Around
Jesus told this whole story to answer a lawyer who, wanting to justify himself, had asked, "and who is my neighbour?" (Luke 10:29). It is a question about limits: who counts, and who can I leave out? But Jesus refuses to draw the line the man wanted. He asks instead which of the three "was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves." The answer was undeniable: "He that shewed mercy on him." And Jesus said:
"Go, and do thou likewise."Luke 10:37 KJV
Do you see the turn? The lawyer asked, "Who qualifies as my neighbour?" Jesus answered, "Be a neighbour to whoever is in need in front of you." Love does not ask who it is allowed to exclude. It asks who it can serve. The despised Samaritan understood the heart of the law, "thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (Leviticus 19:18), better than the priest and the Levite who recited it.
There is a deeper layer many have seen here, offered gently, since the parable's stated point is "go and do likewise." We were the man on the road, stripped, wounded, and left half dead by sin. The law, pictured in the priest and the Levite, could look at our condition but could not save us. And then One came whom His own people despised and rejected, whom His enemies even sneered at as "a Samaritan" (John 8:48). He had compassion, came where we were, bound our wounds, paid the full price for our care, and left us in the keeping of the inn, His church, with a promise: "when I come again, I will repay." The Good Samaritan tells us to show mercy, and it also shows us the mercy that was shown to us.
For You
It is easy to be religious and still step around people. The priest and the Levite were not villains; they were busy, careful, respectable men with somewhere to be. And they missed the whole point of God while walking straight down the middle of His road. Mercy is not admiring the law from a distance. It is crossing over to the one who is bleeding.
So look for the person the world has passed by, the one it is inconvenient or costly or awkward to help, and go to them. Do not ask whether they qualify. Do not wait until it is safe. Pour out your own oil and wine. Be a neighbour. That is what was done for you.
Carry It With You
Luke 10:36–37 KJV
"Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise."
For the Historical Notes
Scripture is quoted from the KJV. Details of the road and customs are drawn from the biblical text and standard, well-established sources.
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