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Jesus elicited from an expert in the law the assertion that the two great commandments were to love God and to love one’s neighbor. These commandments were at the heart of Jesus' own teaching (Mt 22:34-40; Mk 12:28-34) and were based on Dt 6:5 and Lev 19:18. Obedience to these commandments, said Jesus, leads to eternal life.
To illustrate neighborly love, Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho passed through rugged country. But although robbery was a typical incident on that road, it was by no means typical that a Samaritan would rush to the help of a Jew (see comments on 9:51-56).
For a Jewish audience, there was an element of shock in the story. It depicts a reversal of values, a world in which a Samaritan is the hero. But it did much more than unsettle people’s values. It provided a positive ideal by which to live. It portrayed a vivid example of neighborly love. It demonstrated the meaning of love more vividly than any dictionary definition.
Love of neighbor crosses the boundaries of nation, race, and social class. Anyone in need is our neighbor. By depicting the Samaritan as the example to be followed and the representatives of conventional religion as the examples to be avoided, the parable issues a challenge not only to Jews but to Christians as well. “Let us go and do likewise, regarding every man as our neighbor who needs our assistance. Let us renounce that bigotry and party-zeal which would contract our hearts into an insensibility for all the human race, but a small number whose sentiments and practice are so much our own, that our love to them is but self-love reflected” (Wesley, Notes, 241-42).