On Just Who Is My Neighbor? 

Luke 10:25-37 MSG

²⁵ Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?”

²⁶ He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?”

²⁷ He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.”

²⁸ “Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.”

²⁹ Looking for a loophole, he asked, “And just how would you define ‘neighbor’?”

^30-32 Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.  ^33-35 “A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I’ll pay you on my way back.’

³⁶ “What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?”

³⁷ “The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded.

Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”

Observation

The Samaritans were a racially mixed people of Jewish and pagan ancestry. Although they worshiped Yahweh, their religion was not “pure” Judaism.  So, the Samaritans were a despised people by this religion scholar.  The divide was so marked that, even though passing through Samaritan territory was the most direct route between Judea and Galilee, “to avoid contamination” Jews who were traveling from Judea to Galilee or vice versa would cross over the river Jordan to the east in order to bypass setting foot in Samaria, only crossing over the river again to the west as they neared their destination.

The antipathy and enmity existing between Jews and Samaritans gave this story so much more sting.  The only man who inconvenienced himself to show kindness, care and compassion, even at a significant cost to himself, was the hated Samaritan.  Here was an in-your-face story providing the unexpected and challenging answer to the religion scholar’s interpretation of the Law.  Jesus is making it very clear that the law of love has priority over ritual law in God’s Kingdom and sets no limits on who we are to consider our neighbor.  Jesus defines neighbor as anyone who needs our help.

We need to understand that those hearing the story would have understood how the priest and the Levite rationalized avoiding the man.  Touching him would have made them unclean and unable to perform their religious duties for a period of time.  (We’ll keep the clean and unclean issue for another time.)   However, it is interesting to note that they were traveling away from the Temple, not toward it (“down the road” would be away from Jerusalem).  Jesus was making a point to this religious scholar about placing ritual and duty before mercy.  This was not the only time He did so.

Matthew 23:^23-24  PHILLIPS “Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you utter frauds! For you pay your tithe on mint and aniseed and cummin, and neglect the things which carry far more weight in the Law—justice, mercy and good faith. These are the things you should have observed—without neglecting the others. You call yourselves leaders, and yet you can’t see an inch before your noses, for you filter out the mosquito and swallow the camel.

Impact on Me

“And just how would you define ‘neighbor’?”  Webster’s dictionary defines it as “1: one living or located near another; 2:  fellow man.”  Neighbor as illustrated by Jesus in the story of the Good Samaritan fits this description exactly. There is no indication of race, religion, political beliefs, lifestyle – no tags to identify anything about my neighbor other than location and member of human race.  It is easy to be kind and compassionate to nice, friendly, pleasant friends or strangers.  However, it is more challenging for me when the person is “difficult,” such as:

• a family member who is critical, divisive or vengeful,
• one I might think is deserving of what he or she gets,
• one who has opposing traditions, values, or ethics,
• a believer who shames the Cross by the way he or she lives, or
• one who is angry, arrogant, antagonistic or passionately disagrees with me in areas I consider non-negotiable.

All of these and more are my neighbor according to Jesus!  I must honestly confess that there have been times when I shamefully recognized myself as that priest or Levite – allowing commitments to get in the way of compassion, unwilling to get involved, too busy with my own affairs, primarily concerned with what I would be required to invest in time or resources, and so on.  It is then that the Holy Spirit reminds me that I have been all of the characters in that story at some point –  the victim, the priest or Levite as well as the Good Samaritan. The one constant throughout has been God’s unwavering love, compassion and care for me in all of those roles, whether I was stranger, friend or foe to Him at the time.

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8 NASB).   When I first came to Christ, I was the half-dead victim along the side of the road, beaten up by life and robbed of hope.  So many in my Christian walk have been like the Good Samaritan demonstrating God’s law of love at their own expense.   The Levite and the priest thought they were serving God by strictly observing rituals and performing their duties.  They completely misunderstood the service God was asking of them.  I don’t want to do the same.

Prayer

I bow before You and remember that You are Love, the One Who created and redeemed us all.  Lord, redeem my perspective of Your heart for us all.   Expose and replace with Your truth any misunderstandings rooted in my upbringing, traditions, values, and ethics, so that all I am and do will be rooted in and activated by Your eternal perspective. Let me see through the eyes of Your Holy Spirit rather than with my limited, prejudiced viewpoint. I pray that I will be able to see past the barriers and strongholds that make someone difficult for me to the battered soul that needs Your love.  Help me to be willing to invest myself as did the Good Samaritan to see that battered soul redeemed and restored. Never let me forget that all I am and have I owe to You. I pray all of this in Jesus’ name.