There are many good questions in the Bible. Really good questions, like... "Am I my brother's keeper? Why do you seek the living among the dead?" and many more. There are many life-changing questions in the Bible... and as part of my ongoing "series" on the questions that are particularly important to me, I am updating a blog that I published some time ago because it brings us face-to-face with this question: who is my neighbor? Who is my neighbor? And in what way am I "neighbor" to them?
According to the Bible story about the "Good Samaritan," a religious man asked Jesus, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" This is a life-changing question in itself, but when Jesus pointed out that the Law required him to love God with everything he had (mind, heart, and soul)... and to love his neighbor as himself... the same man asked him a second question, "Who is my neighbor?" Who is my neighbor, Jesus? Who really is my neighbor? Whom are you asking me to love as I love myself"
Who is my neighbor? The couple who live next door (to the north) are my neighbors. They are good, hard-working white people. I like them, and I consider them to be my neighbor. However, the single man who lives next door (to the south) is a loner, and given what you hear about loners, I wonder... if this man can really be my neighbor. Then there's the family who just moved in to our neighborhood. They are from a country in Asia, and they just smile when I talk to them. The single man who lives behind us in the alley is also hard to know, and until recently, he was ruining our view because his garage door was an absolute disaster! Now that he has painted it, he feels more like a neighbor to me.
I could go on, but you get the point. No one knows who, or how many, people, live in the yellow house across street, and therefore, we don't know whether they're neighbos or not. But then again, who are my neighbors? People who look like me? People who agree with me? People who have the same values as I have? Am I neighbor with people who don't go to church, mow their lawns, or paint their garages? Am I neighhbor with people who have a different skin color? How about the tatoo parlor at the end of the alley? Are they my neighbors? Lord, I pray that you will show me my neighbors, and also... please show me how to BE NEIGHBOR to them. Jesus, what does it mean to be a neighbor? Let me tell you a story, he might say. Let me tell all of you a story. There's a stranger lying beside the road-robbed, beaten, wounded, maybe dying. He's in great need...when two very religious men (one a man of the cloth) came down the road, one after the other. They see him lying there. Maybe the victim will be blessed. Maybe his prayer has been answered... maybe, but both of these self-righteous men walked on by.
You know how it is- sometimes when you're walking down a street, you see a homeless beggar with a sign, or an unkempt man who may be dangerous. You see them and you see that they probably need help. You know that it will take a lot of time, energy, and courage to get involved. You have other things to do. You don't know them... so you walk on by and pretend that you didn't see what you saw. You know how it is, and the religious leaders in Jesus' story did too, which is why they walked to the other side of the street and hurried by just as fast as they could go. You've been in these situations and you can empathize with the religious leaders. Maybe you've even walked by someone who was in obvious need of attention. In any event, there is a Samaritan "half-breed" coming down the road as well. He's a half-breed because all Samaritans are. They've intermixed with other cultures for centuries. They don't worship in Jerusalem, and they're held in contempt by every faithful Jew. Picture the kind of person you most detest coming down the road, and think of him as a Samaritan for a moment. He isn't anyone's neighbor, it seems, but upon seeing the man (who is also a stranger to him), the Samaritan is filled with mercy. He identifies with the man who's been beaten- so much so that he sets his fears aside and gives him concrete help. He doesn't simply check to see if the man is dying. He doesn't simply tell the man that he will "keep him in his prayers and thoughts." Instead, the man we now know as the "good" Samaritan, tended to the victim's wounds, took him to a place where he would receive assistance, and paid two day's wages in advance... for the stranger's care... out of his own pocket.
Which one was "neighbor" to the man who had been beaten and left to die? A fellow Jew? Someone who lived just to the north, or the south, of the man? Someone who had all the time in the world to spend helping strangers? Someone actively engaged in "victim's rights" causes? A family member? No, not at all. The smart, religous teacher was smart enough to get this question right. Who was neighbor to the man who needed help? The one who had mercy on Him. The one who related to him as a child of God. The one whose empathy and mercy demanded action. The one who put service ahead of self. Being neighbor has nothing to do with proximity. It has nothing to do with the things that attract us and deeply divide us. Being neighbor is all about seeing Christ in... and being Christ to... others, especially the least among us. It is about identifying with others at a level far deeper than skin color, political views, or sexual preferences.
We all sin. We all go astray. We are all lost. We all get mugged. We are all in need. Seeing and responding to this is what neighbor's do. If Christ can forgive us because we "don't know what we're doing," we can reach out and be neighbor to anyone- even those who have ugly garages. What is more- my own focus needs to be on how I can be a "neighbor" to others.... and not on who is qualified to be a neighbor to me? I need to invest more energy in doing what God has commanded and less time wondering about who deserves my love. At times, the log in my own eye blinds me to the most obvious truths! Amen/
No comments:
Post a Comment