Jesus’ telling of the parable of the good Samaritan was prompted by the question, “who is my neighbor?” At the end of the parable, it is clear that the despised samaritan is the neighbor and so we learn that everyone is our neighbor. That’s the key point of the parable, but Søren Kierkegaard makes the point that the parable itself actually says less about who the neighbor is than about how to be a neighbor:
“The one to whom I have a duty is my neighbor, and when I fulfill my duty I show that I am a neighbor. Christ does not speak about knowing the neighbor but about becoming a neighbor oneself, about showing oneself to be a neighbor just as the Samaritan showed it by his mercy. By this he did not show that the assaulted man was his neighbor but that he was a neighbor of the one assaulted.” — Søren Kierkegaard, Works of Love.
This reading the parable is supported by Jesus’ final word of instruction: “go and do likewise.”