NOTES for Luk 10:25-37

The chief commandment is not far from us, the book of Deuteronomy says. Jesus’ conversation with the lawyer in the Gospel according to Luke confirms this: the lawyer knows this commandment. But for it to cease being mere words, someone must come down from heaven and make it manifest. Jesus “brings this commandment to life” through the famous parable of the Good Samaritan, in which all the familiar stereotypes are overturned: the priest and the Levite are wrong, the half-pagan Samaritan is righteous, and one’s neighbor is not the person who showed mercy to you, but the person to whom you showed mercy. This is how life changes when Christ enters it.