The story of the good Samaritan is perhaps the most misunderstood of all Jesus’ parables. We’ve lost sight, over the nineteen centuries since Jesus told it, of its real impact. Since we’re not familiar with the original context in which its hearers heard it, we’ve seen it reduced to a good neighbor story, a Boy Scout doing a good deed a day, a driver stopping to help a little old lady change a flat tire. The emphasis is on the good Samaritan, the one who stops to help. Although that’s a wonderful value to impress on our young people -- helping neighbors in need -- that wasn’t where the original focus was.

You see, the impact was on the hearers. They were suddenly exposed -- very suddenly and abruptly exposed -- to the reality, to the presence of the Kingdom of God. They had thought this K…