The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) may be Jesus’ best known parable. It shows a person (a Samaritan) helping someone in need: being a good neighbour.
But not just any person.
To Jesus’ earliest followers the Samaritans would have been an out-group. They would have been considered “Other”, not “Us”. The parable challenged listeners and readers to consider the low-status Samaritan not by the group they belong to, but the good that they do.
Samaritans are no longer an out-group today. Today, we have new out-groups. But the parable’s principle remains the same.