It sounded to the lawyer as though Jesus were saying, "If you knew all along, why did you need to ask me in the first place?" The lawyer thought that he would get the better of Jesus, so he replied, "Well, just who is the neighbor that I am supposed to love?" [Illustration] Jesus answered with a story: "A man was traveling on the lonely road between Jerusalem and Jericho. As so often happens there, some thieves jumped out of a hiding place, and robbed him and beat him. He was lying there half dead, when a priest from the Temple in Jerusalem came along. He took one look at the wounded man, and kept on going along the other side of the road. Then somebody else from the Temple, who was supposed to be a very religious sort of person, passed by, and the same thing happened. "Finally a Samaritan came along. I don't need to tell you how Samaritans and Jews hate each other! But this Samaritan was sorry for the wounded man. He put bandages on his wounds, and took him to an inn. Before he left next morning, the Samaritan went to the innkeeper. He paid the bill for the man who had been robbed. Then he told the innkeeper to take care of the man, and the Samaritan said he would pay for anything more that was needed the next time he came. "Now, think of those three men who passed along the road. Which of them was a real neighbor to the man who was robbed?" The lawyer said, "Why, the one who helped him, of course." "Then," said Jesus, "go and do the same." What Jesus wanted the lawyer to understand was: "You really know what a good neighbor should be, because God has been good to you. But you are not much interested in being a neighbor to people who need your help." But if the lawyer did not see that for himself, there was no use telling him. He would be too proud to understand. Another day there was a man who came to Jesus and said: "Master, I wish you would speak to my brother. Our father died a little while ago, and my brother is keeping all the property for himself. Make him give me my share of it." Jesus would have nothing to do with the quarrel. He told this man: "You ought to think of something besides money and property. There is more to life than owning things. Let me tell you a story. "There was a farmer whose crops were so good that he had no place to put all the harvest. He said to himself: 'I will pull down my old barns, and build bigger ones, and put my crops in them. Then I will take life easy, for I have enough money to last me for many years.' "But do you know what happened? That very night God said to him, 'You fool, you are going to die tonight; and what good are your crops and your money going to be to you then?' That's what becomes of people who keep all their money for their own selfish use, and never think about God." There was another man who was a great disappointment to Jesus. He was a young man--rich, and a leader in the community. He came and kneeled before Jesus, and said,