We are very familiar with the Parable of the Good Samaritan and what it means (Luke 10:25-37). The lawyer asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” and Jesus responded with the parable. Jesus concluded the parable asking, “Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” The one who treated the man by the side of the road with mercy was neighbor. Jesus makes us consider what kind of neighbor we are. Usually we compare ourselves with the characters in a parable to see where we stand, and again in this parable we are to compare ourselves and see where we are like the Good Samaritan or fail.
St. Augustine left us another way of looking at the parable, a very beautiful way (Questions on the Gospels, Book 2, Question 19). The road from Jerusalem to Jericho is human history. We are the man thrown down by the side of the road. The robbers are the devil. The priest and Levite are the Old Testament law that cannot save. God, in Jesus, has become the Good Samaritan who forgave our sin and saved us and brought us to the inn which is the Church.
The primary meaning of the parable, of course, is the challenge to us to ask ourselves what kind of neighbor we are. But just as St. Augustine saw another beautiful way to look at the parable, I think we could see another way to also look at the parable. Jesus is the one thrown down by the side of the road in the way he is disrespected and forgotten by others now. This began during Jesus’ public ministry in Galilee. In John 6, we read that the people crossed the Sea of Galilee to meet Jesus the day after Jesus multiplied the loaves and fish, but their motives were not pure. Jesus said they were looking for him not because of the miracle but because he gave them enough to eat (John 6:26). When Jesus was preaching to them, they murmured about him and Jesus said to them, “Stop murmuring among yourselves.” (John 6:43) That was in Capernaum but even in Nazareth they had tried to throw Jesus down the cliff after he preached to them there (Luke 4:29). When Jesus concluded his words in Capernaum about the Eucharist in John 6, we read that many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him (John 6:66). So, many times during his ministry, Jesus was left by the side of the road as they passed him by. But there is some hope—during the last supper Jesus said to the apostles, “It is you who have stood by me in my trials?” (Luke 22:28) The apostles remained with Jesus during his trials. They were the Good Samaritan to Jesus during the trials of his ministry and preaching when Jesus was rejected by others and left lying by the roadside. Of course, with the exception of John who went to the cross with Jesus, they also left Jesus by the roadside during his passion, but they recovered, and they suffered martyrdom for Jesus. They joined Jesus lying by the side of the road, ending their lives for him in a way similar to his.
The mistreatment of Jesus continued throughout the history of the Church. Recently we celebrated the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the image of the Sacred Heart, Jesus’ heart is surrounded by thorns representing our sins, as seen by St. Margaret Mary during her second vision. After her third vision of Jesus, St. Margaret Mary said that the pain Jesus felt from the ingratitude and indifference of people was greater than the pain he felt in his passion. Someone might object and say what is important is the way you live your life. Of course the way one lives one’s life is important but next Sunday we will hear about Jesus visiting the house of Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42). Mary sat at Jesus’ feet while Martha was busy preparing a meal for Jesus instead of sitting and listening to him first and then preparing him his meal. Jesus said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken from her.” Martha was like the two men who passed by on the road in today’s parable and Mary was the Good Samaritan as she sat by Jesus’ feet.
In that third vision of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary, Jesus asked her to compensate or make up for the lack of love shown to him by others, in other words, to be the Good Samaritan to make up for the others who were leaving Jesus by the roadside. St. Margaret Mary said to Jesus that her love could hardly make a difference or make up for the ingratitude of so many. But Jesus said he would give her the ability to love him more. In Jesus’ final revelation to St. Margaret Mary, once again he spoke of the ingratitude he was receiving from humanity and asked for reparation. (A helpful book on the Sacred Heart of Jesus and his revelations to St. Margaret Mary is The Sacred Heart: A Love for All Times by Dawn Eden Goldstein.)
If we see Jesus as the one lying by the side of the road in the parable, and as usual compare ourselves with the characters in the parable, and compare ourselves with the good Samaritan in the parable, the question for us is, “Do we love Jesus in such a way as to compensate and make up for those who leave him lying by the side of the road?”
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2025
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Fifteenth Sunday Year C
Those by the roadside today 2022
Jesus is your Good Samaritan 2019
The Good Samaritan: thinking purified by Jesus 2010
Father Damien of Molokai was a Good Samaritan
Related Homilies: Homilies on loving our neighbor as ourselves
Homilies on loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength
stories about helping others seeing God in others