A good Samaritan, according to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary is, “a person who gives help and sympathy to people who need it”. This concept goes back to Biblical times, specifically the book of Luke, chapter 10, and the “Parable of the Good Samaritan.”
Jesus told the story of a man who was robbed, beaten, and left for dead. A priest and a Levite both saw the beaten man and walked past him, crossing to the other side of the street. But the Samaritan stopped to help the injured man, attending to his wounds, bringing him to an inn, paying the innkeeper to care for him until he was well.
Jesus asked, “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” And he answered his own question, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
Is that still possible? Or rational?
Flash forward 2000 years and play this parable out again. Who is the good Samaritan and who is the chump and potential criminal for following the words of Jesus?
Good Samaritans can do far more than attend to an injured fellow human. They can also protect others from harm. But today such actions may lead to trouble for the good Samaritan such that the smarter course of action is to act like the priest or Levite in the parable, crossing to the other side of the street, saying and doing nothing, just walking away.
Two recent news stories illustrate how Jesus’s teachings are falling on modern society’s deaf ears.