In another scripture passage, there’s a passage that says, “Take my yolk upon your shoulders, for I am gentle and humble of heart.” Interesting, one of the translations of the word yolk is teaching. “Take my teaching upon your shoulders and learn from me, for I am humble of heart.” Jesus in the gospel today gives us one of the most beautiful of all the teachings. He shares his rabbi’s yolk. Every rabbi had a yolk. Every rabbi had their own teachings. This is one of the most beautiful teachings of Jesus that we hear in the scriptures today.

Someone is there to test Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus knows he’s being tested, he says, “Love your God with all your heart, with all your mind, love your neighbor as yourself.” But then, Jesus goes on to share a teaching. He tells one of the great stories found in our scriptural tradition, the story of the Good Samaritans. You know and I know that the Jews and the Samaritans didn’t like each other. In fact, they couldn’t stand each other. So, Jesus uses this to make a point in and through his teaching.

A Jewish priest walks by the victim, pays no attention to him. And then another, a Levite, walks past and pays no attention. Another Jewish person, walking past their Jewish fellow person laying on the road, beaten. The Samaritan, the outsider, has compassion and is moved with pity and goes and cares for this victim of the robbery. And then, Jesus asks an important question, “Who was the neighbor to the victim?” Obviously, the Samaritan. The one who showed compassion and the one who showed mercy. All of us, as disciples of the Lord Jesus, are to walk in the ways of Jesus. We are to hear the word of God. We are to hear his teachings and put them into practice. To reach out, to enhance, to make better. To help all our sisters and our brothers in need. “Who is my brother and who is my sister?” is asked in the gospel today. We know that we’re all of the family of God, the children of God. We do our best to make better life.