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Special Guest Preacher: David LaMotte

The Good Samaritan might be the most quoted story in Christianity and also one of the most misunderstood. We sit down with singer-songwriter, speaker, and author David LaMotte to hear why Jesus tells this parable in a way that would have sounded outrageous to his first listeners, and why its sharp edge still matters in a time of polarization, war, and rising dehumanization.

We talk about how stories work on us differently than lists of rules, and why “being good” can shrink into “not doing wrong” instead of becoming active love. David unpacks the real historical hatred between Jews and Samaritans and shows how separation fuels bigotry when we only know one another through distorted narratives. We also explore a key spiritual framework: the law is love God and love your neighbor, while statutes are the rules we build around that law, and sometimes those rules collide with love.

Then the sermon takes its hardest turn: the Samaritan is not the person in the ditch but the hero, which means Jesus is asking us to see through the eyes of the person we least want to understand. David connects that to reconciliation stories from Northern Ireland, the work of standing with the marginalized, and the demanding truth that peacemaking is not making nice and justice is not retribution. If you want a deeper take on the Good Samaritan, empathy, and what it means to love your neighbor in real life, this conversation will challenge you in the best way.

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