The Good Samaritan
When Jesus was teaching the people about God, a clever lawyer stood up and asked him a question, trying to trap him.
'What should I do to gain eternal life? Asked the lawyer.
'What does the law say you should do? Jesus asked him.
'You must love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind, replied the lawyer.
And you must love other people as much as you love yourself.
But who are these people?
Jesus answered the lawyer by telling him this story.
'A Jew who lived in Jerusalem left the city and began the long walk to Jericho.
Although the Jew knew, it was dangerous to travel alone, because there were robbers on the road, he went on his own.
'When the Jew came to a lonely stretch of the road, some thieves were waiting for someone to rob. They rushed out of their hiding place and attacked him. They beat him, knocked him down and kicked him.
Then they stole all he had with him and ran away, leaving him lying on the ground, badly wounded.
'After a while, a priest who served in the Temple in Jerusalem came down the road. He saw the Jew lying in the dust, but he dug his heels into his donkey's sides and trotted quickly away.
'A little later, a man who worked in the Temple came by. He looked at the wounded man as he passed, but he didn't stop. He hurried away down the road.
'Then a Samaritan trotted past on his donkey. Everyone knows the Samaritans and the Jews have always hated each other, but this Samaritan felt sorry for the Jew.
He stopped immediately and got off his donkey. Then he opened his pack and, kneeling in the dust beside the man, he poured oil on the Jew's wounds to ease the pain, and wine to heal them.
Then he bandaged up the wounds with strips of cloth. 'When he had done everything he could, the Samaritan lifted the Jew up on his donkey and led it down the road to an inn.
There he put the Jew to bed and bought him some supper.
'The next morning, the Samaritan paid the innkeeper and said; 'Look after this man for me, and I'll pay you any extra money I owe you when I come this way again.
'Now, Jesus asked the lawyer; 'which of these three men do you think was kind to the man who was attacked by robbers?
The Samaritan, of course, answered the lawyer.
'Go and be like that Samaritan. Be kind to everyone, said Jesus.
'Not just your family and your friends, but everyone.
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