Bad Samaritans and Good Samaritans

 There are apparently people saying the guy who killed Jordan Neely on the subway in NY is a good Samaritan. It's astonishing that most of the people saying this - are Christians and clearly DON"T understand the parable of the Good Samaritan.

So - For anyone who's actually read it - and not just been told about it - but actually read the story for themselves it's clear that the parable as 2 morals. 1) be kind and help strangers in need. 2) don't judge strangers as evil just because they are strangers.

The context of this is that Jesus' audience hated Samaritans. In modern times think of Christian Nationalists describing black people as "thugs" or as describing hispanic people as "illegal immigrants." Same thing. When Jesus was talking about the Samaritan, he's talking about someone his audience thinks of as a lawless thug. To them, there is no such thing as a "good Samaritan." The parable is Jesus correcting them.

Next - the parable is about how someone the audience thinks of a lawless thug (aka - a Samaritan) does not KILL or steal or harm the beaten suffering man as the audience would expect. Instead, the Samaritan helps him. And Jesus' audience finds that shocking because - he's a Samaritan! But this Samaritan is a good Samaritan not a bad Samaritan. Don't judge all Samaritans as bad. They are humans capable of goodness. And in this case they display more kindness and compassion than Jesus' audience does. Jesus is totally shaming his audience for their lack of compassion.

The guy who strangled a stranger to death in the subway isn't a "good Samaritan." He's the guy who injured the stranger who was left for dead on the side of the road in the parable. He's the bad guy. The good Samaritan is the person who HELPS the stranger on the side of the road. Not the guy who injures/kills the stranger.

And again, the only reason he's a "good" Samaritan is because Jesus' audience thought all Samaritans were bad. So - when you hear Christians demonize anyone, or when they call people thugs or illegal understand that they are still doing what Jesus admonished his followers for doing with this parable and that NONE of them understand the parable of the Good Samaritan. Despite saying they are Christians, they clearly don't understand Jesus' message.