Tuesday, February 2, 2010

42. The Good Samaritan

"But he (a certain lawyer), wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
Luke 10:29

Just prior to this second question the lawyer asked Jesus how he might inherit eternal life. Jesus asked him what he reads in the Bible and the man replies,

"You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself."
10:27 (quoting Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18)

In the Jews eye, the neighbor was the righteous ones, people who either obviously love God or the ones who are obviously loved by God. Their view on neighbor was based on religion, race, and social status. A sinner was no Jews neighbor, neither a tax-collector or gentile. The mans question was essentially this "who do i have to show love to?" To which Jesus replied with the very revealing story of the good Samaritan. I find it interesting that our Lord does not answer the lawyers question. The lawyer asked "who is my neighbor?" but the story answers, "what is a neighbor?" Changing the question around Jesus also then changes the perspective. Are we more concerned with color of skin, background, language, tattoos or social status than we are about loving people? Jesus points out that this is the wrong way of thinking. Rather we are to love everyone, including the hated among our society. The question was 'who do i show love to?', the answer was 'everyone!'

"So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves? (Jesus asked)" And he (the lawyer) said, "He who showed mercy on him."
Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."
10:36-37

No comments:

Post a Comment