Who Is My Neighbor?

When an “expert in the law” stood to challenge Jesus, he asked him “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”.   (The man knew that all are commanded to Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind; and to love your neighbor as yourself.)  Jesus tells the man to “do this and you will live”. 

Pressing matters a little deeper, the man asked Jesus “And who is my neighbor?”.  In response to this, Jesus tells the parable of the good Samaritan.  I’m sure you’re familiar with the story, but let’s do a little recap here. 

A man was travelling to Jericho from Jerusalem when he was stripped, beaten, and left half-dead by robbers.  Abandoned on the side of a well-travelled road, several people encountered the victim of this roadside crime-some of those being a priest, a Levite, and a Samaritan.
Now us nice, churchy people would love to assume that either the priest or the Levite would be the one to stop what they were doing to see to the obvious needs of this individual, but sadly, that is not the case. 

Instead, the Samaritan is the one to go above and beyond to look after this man.  Note: In Bible times Samaritans were considered lowest of the low. Like people literally went out of their way in order to avoid walking through Samaria. 

Upon finishing the story, Jesus looks to the man and asks “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”.  With the answer being quite obvious, the man says “the one who had mercy on him” to which Jesus replied “Go and do likewise”. 

One of the struggles in our current culture is that Christians are viewed as hateful, exclusive, and critical.  Sometimes even avoiding those that need our love the most. 

In a culture where acceptance and non-judgement has become the gospel of the masses, what does it look like to truly love our neighbor? (PS: Scripture instructs us to love our neighbor as ourselves…think we may be missing the mark here?)

 What about when our neighbor is nothing like us?  Or is a different nationality, race, or socio-economic class?

The Jesus I know and serve calls me to love all people; not just those that are like me.  Who are you in the parable? 

The Priest? Whom “lives by the law” and “belongs to God”, but is unwilling to love and serve His fellow man.

The Levite? Whom is involved in the Church, but unwilling to be the Church.

The Samaritan?  Whom sees no race, tribe, or monetary barriers in helping his fellow man.

May we go and do likewise.