546th Post Jesus Said Concerning Parables Con't. - Parable of the Good Samaritan Con't. - 7th Post Luke 10: 30 - 37.

Then the lawyer continues his test of Jesus by asking "Who is my neighbor?"  Then Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan.  The lawyer, by answering Jesus' question concerning the Scriptures, tells us that the lawyer already knew who his neighbor was, and how he was to act towards him.  Now this shows Jesus' ability to observe a situation and get to the heart of the problem.  There was a disconnect between the educated people and the common people.  This disconnect can happen in our churches even today, if we are not careful.  In Jesus time, the educated people looked down on the common people as being sinful and not on the same level as they are.  Jesus showed this by the way the priest and the Levite treated the poor man they met on the road.  Jesus did not tell us how rich the poor traveler was before he met the robbers.  He could have been a man of means like the educated people that could not recognize him and then treated him as a commoner.  The fact that these two were the educated Religious Leaders, made this disconnect all the more obvious.  Jews were called on in their Scriptures to show compassion towards all people, as illustrated in the She'ma Law, that the lawyer recited perfectly.  Jews knew the law, but chose to obey it according to their own understanding.  This is not just a problem for these Jews, but for us as well.  We are required to do everything, not just that, that we are comfortable with.  Continued next post.