This passage opens with a lawyer who comes to Jesus trying to trick him. This lawyer wants to know what he has to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus poses a question and asks, “What is written in the Law? . . . How do you read it?” (Luke 10:26 NIV).

The lawyer sums up the entire scriptures by quoting from Deuteronomy 6:5: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” (Luke 10:27 NIV).The lawyer goes on to quote a second commandment from Leviticus 19:18 that tells us how to live out the first commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself ” (Luke 10:27 NIV).

Jesus is pleased with the lawyer’s response and says, “You have answered correctly . . . do this and you will live” (v. 28 NIV).

But the lawyer isn’t quite satisfied with Jesus’ answer. He needs the details and he asks Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (v. 29 NIV). The lawyer wants to inherit eternal life but wants to know perhaps the least he has to do. He’s asking, “Could you tell me who I really have to love and who I don’t have to work so hard to love?”

In response, Jesus tells what we now know as a famous parable: the good Samaritan.

A man is traveling on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. In Jesus’ day, this was a scary road to travel—the stuff of horror movies. Jerusalem was 2,500 feet above sea level and the trek was seventeen miles down a windy road to Jericho, which is 800 feet below sea level. This road was noted for the robbers and thieves who camped out waiting for unsuspecting travelers. Halfway into his journey the man falls into the hands of robbers and is beaten and left for dead.

A priest, a modern-day pastor, comes upon the man, sees him seemingly dead in the road and, rather than stop and help, continues his journey down to Jericho. Then a Levite, a lay leader, comes by and sees the man but keeps on walking.

Finally a Samaritan comes down the road. Samaritans were despised by ancient Jews; they were the ones who lived on the wrong side of Jerusalem, on the wrong side of the tracks. They did not keep kosher laws and were considered beyond unclean, almost dirty in every sense of the word. They were “other.”

The Samaritan bandages the man’s wounds, puts expensive oil on his body, places the man on his own donkey, and takes the man to an inn. The Greek word for inn has the connotation of a five-star hotel. It is a much different word than the one used to describe the “inn” where Mary and Joseph couldn’t find room. This inn is top-of-the-line, not a Motel 6 but a Hilton. The Samaritan gives the innkeeper two coins worth at least two days’ wages to take good care of him. The Samaritan promises to return to pay more if needed. This Samaritan bends over backward to care for the man.

After finishing his parable, Jesus looks at the lawyer and asks, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” (10:36 NIV). And the lawyer responds, “The one who had mercy on him” (v. 37).

The lawyer cannot even respond by saying “the Samaritan.” The Samaritan is still so despised that the lawyer can only say, “The one who had mercy.”

This is a real juxtaposition.The lawyer, who claims that he is a faithful follower of God, wants to know whom he has to treat well in order to make it into heaven. And the Samaritan, who was not considered a believer, gives everything he has to show mercy and love the man. When Jesus calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves, Jesus is telling us not to count the cost, not to turn up our noses, but to reach out to whoever may need the love of God.

I once had the privilege of speaking at an interfaith dialogue for women. In the midst of the meeting, I was struck by the idea of “the other” in the parable of the good Samaritan. The Samaritan is the other; in his day, he was despised for existing and breathing. Samaritans were hated “nonbelievers” from the other side of the tracks. And as I sat in a room of Muslims, Buddhists, and Christians, I was struck by who Jesus was calling our neighbors of today.

Who are the others in our society? Who do you think are the despised and hated, like the Samaritans in Jesus’ day? (Allow for a time of response.)

All of the people we have named vocally and in our hearts are considered others. They are despised and unloved. Jesus tells us to reach beyond ourselves, to reach beyond our comfort zones, and to love the others in our society. How are you loving the others?

I heard a woman speaking on this passage and she got the words a bit mixed up. She said, “Prefer your neighbor to yourself.” I almost corrected her misspeak, but then I thought about the wording for a moment: “Prefer your neighbor.” I like that statement. It takes love to that next level—not just that warm, fuzzy Lifetime television movie image of love—but love that “prefers” our neighbor. That is real love; to prefer the other to yourself.

That is what the Samaritan does. When the priest and the Levite are too scared to stop and help, the Samaritan risks his own safety to rescue the man. He prefers the man’s safety to his own. When he could have chosen a Holiday Inn Express, the Samaritan prefers this man and puts him up in the grandest Marriott Suites. And when the Samaritan could have given just a bit of money, the Samaritan prefers his neighbor’s health and offers two days’ wages. The Samaritan goes beyond mere love and takes that love to the next level; he prefers the man to himself.

That is exactly what Jesus is asking of us. When the lawyer wants to know the least amount he has to do to make it into heaven, Jesus tells the story of a Samaritan who goes above and beyond “to love” and “to prefer” his neighbor.

Who are you being called to prefer?