Who Is My Neighbor?

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”

And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” Luke 10:25-37 (ESV)

What does it really mean to love our neighbor as ourselves? The parable that we are given here by the author Luke certainly paints an appeal to human decency and leaves us with a passion for reaching out to those in need. The story that Jesus tells has become a model for what it means to serve those who are in need. It is called the Good Samaritan parable – but what if I told you that there was more to it than just helping someone in need?

Luke invites us into this powerful moment by introducing us to a conversation that takes place between a lawyer and Jesus concerning eternal life. The lawyer intended to put Jesus to the test by asking Him what shall he do to inherit eternal life? (Luke 10:25-26) It seems to be a simple enough question to ask but the problem is not with the question but with the intent of the question. The lawyer is attempting to put Jesus into a situation that would ultimately trap Him and force Him to contradict Himself as to what He says versus what the law says.

Jesus answers the question in true Jesus fashion – by putting the answer back on what the lawyer should already know and asking him to point back to the law itself and how it reads to him. That makes me think on the way I read the Bible. I do not think that there is a right way or a wrong way to read the Bible. In fact I think that it is better to read it in a variety of ways. Some are old fashioned and prefer to sit down at a desk and read it scripture by scripture, others enjoy setting up an art station and coloring in their bible, while there are others that prefer for it to be read to them using an audio platform. I do not see any issue in the way in which we read it, but more the way in which we interpret what it is that we are reading. We have to not limit our understanding or be unwilling to open our mind and heart to hear what God is really trying to speak in His word. I recommend to read for the purpose of depth not width. It is not about how much you read but rather about how deep you read it.

The answer that the lawyer gives points back to the truth of the matter which is that he truly did know the answer. He quotes the law that he already knew by using Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18.

“And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And He said to him, “You have answered correctly, do this, and you will live.” (Luke 10:27-28, ESV)

I can see so much in this answer that has to do with myself. So often we have barriers that arise when we want to tell others how much they should love their neighbor or reach beyond themselves to others that are in need but the issue is that there are people who are trying to extend a hand to those around them who have not gotten to the place that they love God with every part of themselves and in reality they do not even love themselves. In order for us to be the salt and light that we are called to be in this life we have to understand the true power of love.

John 3:16 invites us into love put into action. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” (ESV) God loves at a level that changes our life and this same love is the love that we are to come to know and share with others everywhere we go. We cannot share what we have not embraced and been captivated by. We have become more salty and lit than we have salt and light.

When we love God with everything that we are, we are putting our entire life into His hands and recognizing Him as sovereign over everything. When we accept His love as our creator we become appreciative of His creation. We should not walk around with image issues and having identity crisis one after another if we are able to come to know the one in which we are made in His image. It is much easier to extend love to the neighbor when you have become captivated by it in your relationship with your creator.

The conversation between the lawyer and Jesus continues because that did not go as planned. The lawyer was affirmed in his answer which is not exactly what he wanted. He takes another opportunity to scrutinize by asking Jesus the same question I want you to ask yourself – who is our neighbor?

When I read this question I am a little bit puzzled because it seems at first as if the lawyer is trying to expand his understanding of who his neighbor is but in fact the opposite is true. The intention of this question was not to expand his understanding of a neighbor further but it was to limit it. When the lawyer asked who the neighbor was – he was attempting to justify himself in such a way that he would only be obligated to love those who fell into a well defined category. He is hoping for a clear rubric that he can point to and show the level of excellence for his ability to remain within the law.

Religion and being confined by the law will always attempt to give you a clear concise guideline or checklist in order to put your understanding of God in a box so that your performance can be measured by a standard of living. That makes it easy! Bondage is much easier to navigate than true freedom. If you need some help understanding that, just think about how much safer it is on the highway because we have painted lines and markers on the roads and speed limits. If you remove those guidelines then you invite opportunity for chaos and destruction for those who aren’t used to freedom.

Jesus takes this opportunity to teach through a parable. It seems that when we read this parable at first it commends the actions of reaching out to someone else in need or going out of our way to help others. It certainly alludes to a positive outcome when we invest our time and resources into ensuring another person is taken care of. But what if there is more to this story than that?

The Good Samaritan parable takes place on the road that leads from Jerusalem to Jericho. This road was not necessarily the safest place to travel. It would be considered desolate and frequently visited by bandits or robbers among the rugged terrain. We are given the condition of a man that has been left half-dead because he has been attacked by these robbers along this road. This man is a generic victim that is left at the mercy of anyone who might be willing to stop and help. Jesus is careful to explain that the man has been stripped down – which would indicate that everything that society would use to identify him has been taken away. There is no way for anyone to walk up on this man and tell which neighborhood he lives in by what he was wearing. He has also been left in a condition where he is unable to speak since being half dead, I believe we can assume he was hardly breathing in this moment which would mean that he cannot be identified by his accent or call for anyone to come help. His condition has eliminated any opportunity to compel someone to help him other than what they are able to see as they pass by him.

Jesus introduces us to 3 individuals that pass this man and his condition. The first one is the one that we would all expect to do something because of his position and status in society. The priest that more than likely was on his way home from his religious duties in the temple nearby finds himself on the same road as this man and going in the same direction. The priest does not do what we would expect him to do in our mind but for the purpose of his day it would have been excusable for him to avoid being near this man because of the risk that he would become ceremonially unclean by touching another person that appeared dead to him. He decides that rather than to pass by him he would avoid this by going to the other side of the road.

The next individual that Jesus shares on happens to be the Levite that apparently decides to do the same thing as what the Priest did and pass by this man on the other side of the road. Interestingly enough the Levite would have been an assistant to the Priest in the temple so it makes sense that He would follow in the footsteps of the one that would be considered his leader. (Remember that discipleship is important)

Two different people have passed by someone that clearly has been harmed and needs assistance. Surprisingly enough – or maybe it isn’t a surprise to you – these would be considered religious church folks. Jesus does not give more information in this story concerning either of the first two individuals. The plot twist is when he introduces us to the 3rd individual.

The parable itself is named after the 3rd man that passes by – the Samaritan. The term “Good Samaritan” has been attached to this parable but it certainly would not have been acceptable during this time. It would have been detested in every way to place the word good next to Samaritan because they were certainly not considered good by any means to the Jews. The Samaritans were a despised, half-breed, mixed race of people that were not accepted and always avoided.

I can imagine the look on the lawyers face as he is listening to Jesus explain this parable when he identifies the next character as being a Samaritan. I am sure something inside of him became tense and his mind for a moment jumped to all that he was taught to do in order to avoid this group of people.

What is really interesting about this story is that for the Samaritan to be on the road in the first place would have been unlikely. It would not have been impossible but certainly not something you would see everyday. It would have been a distance for the Samaritan to travel to get to this road in the first place and to do so at the risk of being so despised and rejected by most in that area makes it that much more meaningful.

We are able to read just how the Samaritan responds to the man in need by reaching out to him, and getting him to a place of healing nearby. He not only takes him to a nearby inn but he uses his resources to ensure that the man will not be in debt because of this. He even tells the innkeeper that if there are additional charges, I will cover them. That really does seem like he is loving his neighbor.

But the man in need is actually not the neighbor. Wait? Huh? I thought the parable was an example of how to love your neighbor. You are correct – it does point to a way that we can love our neighbor – but that was not the question that was asked by the lawyer. The question that was asked by the lawyer was “who is my neighbor?” Jesus is telling a parable here that at first does not seem like He has fully answered the question. We typically place the man in need as being the neighbor because certainly he becomes a neighbor to the Samaritan but Jesus is defining the concept of neighbor by telling the lawyer who the neighbor actually is.

The neighbor for the lawyer was the Samaritan. The Samaritan was the one that was despised and rejected by the lawyer and the one that is nothing like the other two individuals that Jesus used as examples. The lawyer would have certainly claimed the Priest and the Levite as being his neighbor, and might have even attended his religious services at the temple where they served but never the Samaritan.

The answer is given to us clearly as to who the neighbor is because at the end of the parable Jesus questions the lawyer to force him to identify him. He asked the lawyer “which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He turned the tables on the one that was trying to test Him by issuing a test Himself. The lawyer asked who is my neighbor and Jesus concludes His parable with asking which of them proved to be a neighbor.

Jesus was inviting the lawyer to love the one that was so despised and rejected by all of those who are consumed by religion in such a way that he would love himself. The example of how to do that can be found in this story but the truth revealed at another level is that our neighbor is not the one we would expect. Our neighbor is the one that everyone else will avoid and rejects. Loving your neighbor as yourself is living countercultural to what our society has decided to accept. The one that most of the churches deny or reject is the one that we are called to love. The one that does not fit in with the rest of the accepted crowd and most certainly does not have a spot on the worship team week after week but the one that is broken and bruised by life and left stripped of everything.

Salt and light to the world around us is not going to church and serving our church community so that we can announce all of the good work that we have done. Salt and light to the world around us is being the example that loves the one that seems to make everyone else uncomfortable.

The lawyer was forced to answer the question and he understood exactly what Jesus was saying because in his cultured response he even refused to call the man the same that Jesus called him, he identified him as the one that showed mercy rather than the Samaritan. Jesus affirms his answer yet again with a commandment and a commission – “Go and do likewise”.

I want to encourage you to go and do likewise in your walk with Christ. You do not have to be worried about what other people will think of you just because you embrace those that others find a disgrace. You do not owe anyone justification for the way that you love someone else when you are loving them the way that Christ commands us to. Your neighbor is not the one you would expect so as you contemplate on this question I want to challenge your neighborhood perspective and step outside of your comfort zone and step into your commission of loving at the level Christ calls you to.