Love That Costs: Jesus, the Good Samaritan, and the Enemy Next Door

How to cite this article: Katia Motzeva, “Love That Costs: Jesus, the Good Samaritan, and the Enemy Next Door,” Jerusalem Perspective (2026) [https://www.jerusalemperspective.com/34672/].

Most people think of the parable of the Good Samaritan as a story about a kind man who helped a stranger in need—like someone paying your grocery bill at the store, stopping to help you change a flat tire, or offering a hand when you’re struggling to carry a heavy load. Yet the parable is far more than a heartwarming moral tale. It is a story about rival enemies, bound by a shared past marked by betrayal, mistrust, and resentment, whose encounter becomes a radical call to action: to act with compassion and self-giving love, even when it comes at great personal cost.

The parable appears in only one of the four Gospels—the Gospel of Luke. It begins with an “expert in the Law” approaching Jesus with a question:

And look, an expert in the Law stood up (in order) to test him, saying, “Teacher, by doing what will I inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25)

Some translations refer to the man as a “lawyer,” but this can be misleading for modern readers, as it commonly suggests someone working within a criminal justice system. The Greek term translated as “lawyer” refers instead to an expert in the Law.^[1] And in a Jewish context, “the Law” means the Torah—the first five books of the Bible, also known as the books of Moses.

Thus, it was a Torah scholar, a respected expert in the Jewish Law, who questioned Jesus. His inquiry, “By doing what will I inherit eternal life?” should have been straightforward for someone well-versed in the Torah. Therefore, it seems unlikely that he asked merely to acquire knowledge. More likely, he sought to discover Jesus’ own position on the matter.^[2] 

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Notes

1. The Greek term used here is νομικός (no·mi·KOS), which refers to “matters relating to law,” or to one who is “well informed about law, learned in the law,” hence its frequent translation as “legal expert,” “jurist,” or “lawyer” (“νομικός” A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature [BDAG], (Fredrick William Danker, rev. and ed.; Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000), n.p., OakTree Software Version 2.8). The term no·mi·KOS is a synonym for the more common γραμματεύς (gram·ma·TEVS), often translated as “scribe.”

   During the Second Temple period, there was no fixed definition of a “scribe,” and the term’s meaning varied based on time, location, and individual usage. “Scribes and Scribalism” in The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism, (ed. John J. Collins and Daniel C. Harlow; Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2010), 1202. As G. Thellman notes, “there was a broad range of Second Temple Jewish scribes. However, they shared in common a role as the keepers, interpreters and teachers of Israel’s Scriptures and traditions that often led to their prominent roles in society and politics… They were closely aligned with and, in many cases, overlapped with the priesthood and temple establishment, as well as with parties like the Pharisees, and their positions afforded them both religious and political authority. According to the Synoptics, Jesus criticized the scribes for abuse and neglect in this authority as well as for failing to rightly interpret the eschatological fulfillment of Scripture and recognize Jesus’ messianic identity and authority. Nevertheless, Matthew maintains that there is still a role for the scribe discipled in God’s kingdom (Mt 13:52).” G. Thellman, “Scribes” in Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels (ed. Joel B. Green, Jeannine K. Brown and Nicholas Perrin; 2d ed.; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, 2013), 844. ↩

2. In b. Berakhot 28b, the disciples of Rabbi Eliezer ask him a similar question. ↩