A teacher of the law wants to test Jesus. He asks him, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus turns the question back on him: well, you know the Torah. What does it say? The lawyer cites the Bible from memory: I need to love God and love your neighbor. That’s it, says Jesus! 
Then the lawyer takes a second pass. ‘But who is my neighbor?’ Luke tells us that the lawyer ‘wanted to vindicate [or justify] himself’ by asking that question. He wants to show that he is in the right—and by extension that Jesus is in the wrong. 
Jesus responds by telling a story. It’s the parable of the Good Samaritan, and may be familiar to some of us. A man on a long journey gets beaten up, robbed, and left for dead on the side of the road. Two Jewish religious leaders, a priest and a Levite, come walking by. They see him and his dire need, but do not intervene. A third man approaches, a Samaritan, a member of a religious sect at odds with the Jewish mainstream. At great personal expense and inconvenience, the Samaritan takes care of the man. Jesus asks, who was that man’s neighbor? ‘The third guy,’ says the lawyer. Well, go and do likewise, says Jesus. 
To hear this story in all its power, we need to see how stunning it would have been for Jesus’ audience, how much it reverses their expectations. To understand why, you have to learn something about Samaritans
Luke 10:25-37

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