NOTES for Luk 10:25-37
The chief commandment is not far from us, says the book of Deuteronomy. And Jesus' conversation with the lawyer in the Gospel of Luke confirms this: the lawyer knows this commandment. But for it to stop being mere words, someone must come down from heaven and reveal it.
And so Jesus "brings this commandment to life" with the famous parable of the merciful Samaritan, in which all the familiar stereotypes are overturned: the priest and the Levite are wrong, the half-pagan Samaritan is righteous, and the neighbor becomes not the one who showed mercy to you, but the one to whom you showed mercy. That is how life changes when Christ enters it.