BIBLE STORIES

  One day while Jesus was teaching, a lawyer asked him a question. “What do I need to do to be given eternal life and live forever?” he asked. Jesus said to him “What have you been told? What do the books say?”

 

  The lawyer thought for a moment and said “They say I should love the Lord my God with all my soul, all my strength and all my mind, and that I should love my neighbour as I love myself.” Jesus was happy with that answer and told him he was right.

 

  But the lawyer still wasn’t sure. He wanted to know more. “Who is my neighbour?” he asked Jesus. So Jesus told him the story of the Good Samaritan.

 

  A man was travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho when a gang of robbers jumped out and attacked him. The pushed him over, kicked and punched him and then ran off, leaving him all alone in the road.

 

  The man was very badly hurt and couldn’t get up. He lay in the road moaning and groaning and hoping that someone would come along and help him. It was a very hot day. The sun was shining brightly in the sky.

 

  At that moment, a Priest came along the road. He saw the injured man but did not stop. The Priest was in a hurry, and so he crossed over to the other side of the road and carried on walking.

 

  A bit later on, another man came along. He was a Levite. He was also in a hurry, and carried on past the injured man, also crossing to the other side of the road.

 

  Another person came along. This man came from Samaria and was a Samaritan. When he saw the man lying in the road, he rushed over to help him. He bandaged the poor man’s wounds and took him into the town on his donkey.

 

  This man was a very kind man, and when they reached the nearest town, he found an inn where the injured man could stay, and stayed with him the whole night looking after him.  In the morning he gave the innkeeper two silver coins and asked him to carry on looking after the poor man.

 

  “So, which of these men was a good neighbour?” asked Jesus to the lawyer. The lawyer thought for a moment, “The Samaritan, of course!” he said. Jesus agreed and said that the lawyer should go and behave like the Samaritan.

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THE GOOD SAMARITAN