Dear Catholic Exchange,
Does Jesus use parables of the Samaritans only three times (twice in Luke and once in John) to makes points about morality?
Mr. Compos
Dear Mr. Compos,
Peace in Christ!
There is only one parable involving Samaritans, to our knowledge, and that is the famous parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. There are several other episodes involving Samaritans, one in Luke 9 another in Luke 17 and the woman at the well story in John 4 (but these are events that happened, not parables). Like most passages in Scripture these have many levels of meaning, one of which is personal morality. This is most clearly seen in the story of the Good Samaritan. On one level the story is about the necessity of doing corporal works of mercy and helping those who are in distress. But on a deeper level the story (as do all the narratives that involve Samaritans) have as their background the deep hatred between Jews and Samaritans which dated back to the Davidic kingdom falling apart into two separate kingdoms — Judah in the south centered in Jerusalem and Israel in the north centered in Samaria. The Samaritans were the ten tribes of Israelites who broke away from the Davidic kingdom causing a permanent division in that kingdom and tremendous hatred between the Samaritans in the north and Jews in the south. One key role of the Messiah was to restore the Old Kingdom as it originally existed and this meant among other things reconciling the Jews and Samaritans (cf. Jer 31:31-34, Ez 37:15-24, Hos 1:10-11 among many other passages). Understanding this background is the key to reading these stories in the way the author intended and in the way that would have been understood by their original audience. One deeper point to the Samaritan episodes is that reconciliation can take place because the kingdom of God has really been restored! I hope this answers your question.
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