Questions ... week 2

This week we dug deep into the parable of the "good Samaritan" where Jesus asked "Which of these three was a neighbor to the man ... ?"  We didn't spend a great deal of time on the answer because it was and still is very apparent who the neighbor was.  What caught our attention was something else ... something that brought up our own question.  Would the story have been the same if Jesus had ended it where the Samaritan took the beaten man to the inn and cared for him?  In the next verse Jesus describes the Samaritan as having gone above and beyond and engaging another, the innkeeper to assist in his care.  The answer to our question again seemed to be simple ... would the story have been the same, would it have made any difference had Jesus ended it prior to this?  Of course it wouldn't.  Jesus was not known for wasting words.  In preachers language he knew how to land the sermon.  This means that verse 35 ... the going above and beyond verse, the including another in the care and well being of the beaten man verse ... this verse needs to mean something to us.  Just maybe its another instance of us not taking this journey alone.  The importance of community and the power of "the other" when it comes to displaying love and serving those on the margins could be on display here as well.  Maybe its just a matter of an overlap of last weeks question which demonstrated the completeness of Jesus healing.  Maybe we need to realize that its one thing to bring comfort in suffering, but let's not stop there when we could be involved completely in the whole healing process.