Have you ever driven past someone on the side of the road and felt that split-second tug — Should I stop? Is it safe? I’m already running late. — before your foot pressed a little harder on the gas? Or maybe you’ve scrolled past a heartbreaking news story, felt a pang of something, and then kept scrolling. If you’re honest, most of us have been there. I know I have. And I think that’s exactly why Jesus told the story He did in Luke 10 — because the struggle to truly see and respond to the needs around us is as old as humanity itself.

A Story That Was Already Controversial

When a legal expert stood up to test Jesus with the question “Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29), he wasn’t asking out of genuine curiosity. He was looking for a boundary, a limit — some theological permission to love less. Jesus answered him with one of the most well-known and unsettling stories ever told.

In the parable, a man is beaten, robbed, and left for dead on the road to Jericho. A priest passes by. A Levite passes by. Both men were religious insiders — the people you’d expect to stop. Then comes a Samaritan, a man from a group that Jews openly despised. And he’s the one who stops.

“But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.” — Luke 10:33-34 (ESV)

This wasn’t just a feel-good story. To Jesus’ audience, this was shocking, even offensive. The hero was the wrong person by every cultural measure. That was the whole point.

We Are Living in a Jericho Road Moment

Look around at our world today and it’s not hard to see people left on the side of the road — not always literally, but certainly spiritually, emotionally, and physically. We live in an era of deep division: political, racial, economic, and cultural. It is genuinely easier than ever to surround ourselves only with people who look like us, think like us, and vote like us. Social media algorithms feed us what we already believe. Neighborhoods are more segregated than we often admit. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, a real person is lying in a ditch, wondering if anyone will stop.

The Apostle John puts it plainly:

“But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” — 1 John 3:17 (ESV)

That’s a searching question. Not a condemning one — but a searching one. God’s love, when it truly lives inside us, moves. It doesn’t stay comfortable. It crosses the road.

What “Crossing the Road” Actually Looks Like Today

Here’s where the rubber meets the road — or the sandal meets the dusty Jericho path. Loving our neighbor in contemporary culture isn’t always dramatic. Sometimes it looks like this:

Listening without an agenda. The Samaritan didn’t stop to debate politics with the wounded man. He simply saw a need and met it. Can we sit with someone whose pain we don’t fully understand and simply be present?

Crossing cultural or social lines. The entire power of this parable rests on the fact that the Samaritan and the Jewish man were enemies by cultural default. Who are the people in your life you’ve quietly decided are “too different” to reach toward? A neighbor of a different faith? A coworker with different politics? A family member you’ve distanced yourself from?

Inconveniencing yourself. The Samaritan used his own oil and wine, his own animal, and his own money. Real compassion costs something. As Paul writes:

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” — Galatians 6:2 (ESV)

Showing up consistently. The Samaritan didn’t just patch the man up and disappear. He made arrangements for his ongoing care. Love that lasts is love that follows through.

You Are Called — Right Where You Are

Jesus didn’t end the parable with a theological lecture. He ended it with a simple, direct command:

“You go, and do likewise.” — Luke 10:37 (ESV)

Not someday. Not when it’s convenient. Not when the person in need is someone you already like. Go. And do likewise.

Friend, you don’t have to solve the world’s problems to be faithful. You just have to notice the person in front of you today. The coworker who seems overwhelmed. The elderly neighbor who hasn’t taken their trash cans in. The single mom at church who always sits alone. The stranger online who is clearly hurting behind their angry words. These are your neighbors. This is your Jericho Road.

The beauty of following Jesus is that He doesn’t send us out on this road alone. He walked it first — He is, in the truest sense, the Good Samaritan who crossed every boundary, paid every cost, and came to us when we were broken and left for dead. Because He loved us first (1 John 4:19), we get to love others freely, generously, and without fear.

Let’s go cross the road together.

A Prayer for Neighborly Love:

Jehovah, Jesus Christ, Holy Michael — open our eyes today to the people You have placed right in front of us. Forgive us for the times we have passed by on the other side. Give us hearts that are moved with real compassion, hands that are willing to serve, and the courage to cross every line of division in the name of Your love. Make us Good Samaritans in a hurting world. In Jesus name, Amen.