In Luke’s Gospel of the Good Samaritan, Jesus uses a Samaritan as the hero of his story. Compared to the Priest and the Levite, who held significant positions within Jewish society, the Samaritans were considered unclean because of their different religious beliefs and practices. Yet Jesus tells us that it was one of the least among them who chose to treat the traveler in dire need with incredible mercy.

This gospel has always reminded me of growing up in a poor Japanese village in the early 1960s with my family, which included six children. As children, we would walk by the Japanese homes and witness every morning how they burned incense, rubbed their hands together, chanted, and seemingly prayed to urns which contained the ashes of their ancestors. In the Biblical sense, they were not Samaritans, but they certainly seemed strange to us with their different religious beliefs and practices. As children, we were not always kind concerning these differences.

As our first school year in Japan approached, it was one of these Samaritans who came to our simple home and walked us children into the village for new shoes. Likewise, as Christmas approached, a different group of Samaritans gifted my mother some amount of Japanese Yen. My mother quickly announced that for the five of us, our Christmas gifts that year would be walking to the village market and helping her pick out a Christmas gift for our youngest sibling. My most memorable Christmas ever was made possible by these Good Samaritans.

In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus highlights the importance of compassion and neighborly love, regardless of social or religious boundaries. It may seem aspirational, but as with all things with Jesus, it is possible.