[Then, Jesus said], "Which of these three do you think was a
neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy
on him." Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
(Luke 10:36-37, NRSVue)
Jesus appears as a character in his own parable in this final image in my series on the Good Samaritan by Fikos, a Greek artist who paints in what he describes as a "Contemporary Byzantine" style. In the epilogue to the parable, Jesus turns the table on the legal expert by asking him a question about who proved to be the good neighbor in this moral tale. The disconcerted scholar avoids mentioning the Samaritan by name. Instead, he gives a general answer: "the one who had mercy." "Mercy" is an old-fashioned term we can easily replace in a modern context with "empathy." Let's follow the words of Christ and put "empathy" into practice. (John Kohan)