United Methodist Church Of Westlake Village

Send us a textThe parable of the Good Samaritan might be the most familiar story Jesus ever told—so familiar that we risk missing its truly radical message. Stepping into the pulpit, Guest Preacher Rev. Gary Keene offers a fresh perspective by reading this well-worn tale through a transliteration of the original Greek, creating just enough distance for us to hear it anew.Through careful textual analysis, Gary reveals two profound subversions Jesus embeds in this simple story. The first is obvious: making a despised Samaritan the hero would have shocked Jesus' original audience, challenging their deeply held stereotypes about who could be "good." The second runs deeper: by stripping the victim naked and rendering him unconscious, Jesus removes all identity markers that would tell passersby who this person was—Jew, Gentile, friend, or enemy.This nakedness completely transforms the lawyer's original question from "Who is my neighbor?" to "Who am I when confronted with human suf