Loving My Neighbor

Those who studied the law frequently questioned Jesus. Some of them had honest questions while others viewed it as a game, looking for loopholes or ways to get out of their obligations. One of these students asked Jesus about the commandment to love God completely and to love his neighbor as himself. He asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”

Jesus answered this question by telling a story, one that is familiar to most of us. A certain man was traveling home and on the way robbers attacked him, leaving him by the side of the road to die. A priest and a Levite passed by, crossing to the other side of the road. Sounds like the beginning of a joke, doesn’t it? No joke, though. They ignored the wounded man.

Jesus doesn’t tell us why they passed by. There could have been reasons. Had either of them touched a dead body they would have been ineligible to serve in the temple that day. They could have been in a hurry for some reason, or without resources to help the man. The reason doesn’t seem to matter. There was a man in need, and they didn’t act out of any kind of compassion.

A third man came along the road, and he stopped. He treated and bandaged the injured man’s wounds, put him up on his donkey and took him to an inn where he could be cared for. He then paid the innkeeper to take care of him. This man was a Samaritan. The Jewish man who was being cared for might have refused his help had he known. Samaritans were considered defilers of the faith. They were descended from Jews who had interbred with Gentiles, mixing religions as well as genetics, and they didn’t worship in Jerusalem. They had built their own temple. Samaritans and Jews hated each other.

And still, the Samaritan felt compassion for the Jewish man. Would the Jewish man have done the same for the Samaritan? We can’t know for sure, but I doubt it.

Jesus gets to the heart of the matter.

Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands? Luke 10:36

Notice that Jesus didn’t ask who the Samaritan man’s neighbor was. He asked who had acted as a neighbor. The Samaritan was the neighbor. This would imply to the lawyer asking the question that the Samaritan was his neighbor. Not only that, but the Jewish lawyer was to go and follow his example.

We all have people who offend us. They smell bad or they are fat or ugly or their religion offends us. We dislike their politics. We hate the way they raise their kids. We are to be a neighbor to them. No excuses. We are to feel compassion. No valid reasons not to. We are to reach out in love to those we find most repulsive. Jesus tells us to.

Why did the Christian cross the road? To love on the other side… Cross the road of poverty, of race and nationality and sexuality, the road of whatever it is that offends you, to reach your neighbor.

Who is my neighbor? You are.