John Hebenton's Podcast

Today’s Gospel reading, despite its familiarity, never fails to challenge my thinking and to kick start my efforts to live out my faith in my life!Today we hear Jesus tell a story in which three men see a man in the ditch – but only one stops to help him. It is a story about being a neighbour and it emphasises Jesus’ priority of loving God and loving one’s neighbour. Having told the story, Jesus turns back to the lawyer again and catches him out on the very question which the lawyer had thought that he would trap Jesus with. “Which of the three was a neighbour?”This is the question that always challenges me. In his response to Jesus the lawyer can’t even bring himself to speak of the Samaritan. The only way that the lawyer could bring himself to acknowledge this was by answering “he who showed mercy”.In telling this story Jesus has shattered the stereotypes of social boundaries and class division. He has shown us the true meaning of neighbourliness. We, like the Samaritan, are sent out to be good neighbours