The Good Samaritan Bible story for kids

Jesus often told stories.

Not long, tangly ones. Little stories, with big surprises tucked inside. And sometimes he told a story to answer a question.

This is one of those.

By now, Jesus and his friends were on a long walk toward Jerusalem. And one day, a man stood up to ask him something.

The man was a lawyer. Not the courtroom kind. He was an expert in God's law, the old words God gave to Moses. He knew them very, very well.

"Teacher," he said, "what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"

That's a very big question, little one. But the Bible says he asked it to test Jesus.

And Jesus answered it... with two more questions. "What is written in the law? How do you read it?"

So the man answered his own question. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."

Love God. Love your neighbor.

"You have answered correctly," said Jesus. "Do this, and you will live."

But the man wasn't finished. The Bible says he wanted to justify himself, to show he was in the right. So he asked one more thing.

"Who is my neighbor?"

And Jesus told him a story.

Once there was a man going down a road. Down from Jerusalem, high up in the hills, all the way down to Jericho. Do you remember Jericho, where the walls came tumbling down? This was a long, long time after that. And the road to it went down, and down, and down.

Maybe it was dusty. Maybe the rocks were warm in the sun.

And on that road, the man met some robbers. They took his things, even his coat. They hurt him, and they went away. And he was hurt too badly to get up.

But that's not the end. Listen.

Someone was coming. A priest, one of the men who served God at the temple, going down that same way. He saw the man.

And he passed by on the other side.

Someone else was coming. A Levite, one of the temple helpers. He came to the place, and he saw him, too.

And he passed by on the other side.

Why? Jesus doesn't say. I wonder.

And then someone else came along the road. A Samaritan.

Now, let me tell you about the Samaritans. They lived in the land in between, in the hills between Galilee, where Jesus grew up, and Jerusalem. They had the old words of Moses too. But they worshipped God on their own mountain, not at the temple in Jerusalem. And for a very, very long time, Jesus's people and the Samaritans had not gotten along. They kept away from each other, each on their own side.

Not long before this, a Samaritan village would not welcome Jesus. And now, in Jesus's story, the one on the road was a Samaritan.

And the Samaritan "came where he was."

Not across the road. Right where he was.

He saw him. And Jesus says "he was moved with compassion." That means his heart went out to him, all the way.

He went to him. And he "bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine." In those days, people used wine to clean a hurt and oil to soothe it. Imagine his careful hands. Slow, and soft, and taking his time.

Then he set the man on his own animal. Maybe it was a donkey. Jesus just says "his own animal." So maybe the Samaritan walked beside it, step by step.

And he brought him to an inn, a place where travelers could stop and sleep. And there, he took care of him.

I wonder if he sat up beside him while the lamp burned low.

When the next day came, the Samaritan went on his way. But first he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper.

"Take care of him. Whatever you spend beyond that, I will repay you when I return."

Whatever it costs. He didn't set a limit.

So the hurt man was not alone on the road anymore. He was safe inside, with someone to look after him.

Then Jesus asked the lawyer a question. "Now which of these three do you think seemed to be a neighbor to him who fell among the robbers?"

Which one was a neighbor to the hurt man?

The man didn't say "the Samaritan." Maybe that was hard to say. He said, "He who showed mercy on him."

Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

Go and do the same.

The man had asked, who is my neighbor? And Jesus answered with a road, and a man who needed help, and a traveler who came where he was.

Jesus had many more stories to tell. But those, little one, are stories for another night.

And God was with him. God was with her. God is with you, too.

Lie still, little one. May the same God who told a story about a traveler who did not pass by, but came right where the hurt man was... be gentle with every sore place you have, the outside ones and the inside ones.