In the gospel reading today we meet the Samaritan once again in Luke’s gospel: the first time is in Luke 10 with the parable of the “Good Samaritan”, the second time is here. The Samaritan is both an actual figure and a representative one: representative of the outsider, the outcast, even the enemy. In this gospel reading, as in the Good Samaritan story, it is the Samaritan who is held up as the exemplar: the only one who returned to give thanks.
