Be the Neighbor

25¶And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

26He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”

27And 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.”

28And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

29¶But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30Jesus 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.

31Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.

32So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

33But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.

34He 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.

35And 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.’

36Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”

37He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” Luke 10:25-37

There is so much in this story that is important and relevant! The reason Jesus tells the story commonly known as The Good Samaritan is as important as the story itself. 

The term "lawyer" used in this passage to describe the man who wanted to engage Jesus in a discussion about what one needed to do to be saved, or 'inherit eternal life," bears no resemblance to lawyers of today. This man was a student of the Mosaic Law and his job was to minimize risk, by carefully defining the obedience requirements and then codifying them into additional supporting laws that would ensure compliance with the primary Law. 

His question then was not even from a place of personal desire to be saved, but rather from a desire to minimize the risk of not inheriting eternal life by nailing down the specifics.

Jesus, therefore, referred the man to his own area of expertise, The Law, and asked him what he thought the answer was. As Jesus expected, the man gave him the accepted response, to love God and your neighbor.  And Jesus agreed. 

But the man then pressed the question that must have been his real concern: "Who is my neighbor?" Again, this question came from the original context: "What is it that is actually required?" The question had nothing to do with love, its purpose was to identify the minimum compliance necessary to achieve the desired end, which was inheriting eternal life. 

I can almost hear Jesus saying, "I'm glad you asked," as he begins his story. You can read the story above. 

The lawyer would have known that the priest and the Levite should have been the good ones in the story. They should have been the ones who cared most about obedience to the Law. They were the very ones who were appointed to offer the sacrifices for the atonement of all who had broken God's laws. Yet, in this story, they distanced themselves. 

There is a lot of backstory here, because they would actually have been breaking some ceremonial laws involving touching blood if they had helped the man, so the Lawyer may actually have been agreeing with what the priest and Levite chose to do at this point in the story. 

Then, along came the Samaritan. An interesting point is that, in Jesus' time, the both Jews and Samaritans considered each other to be defiled. In other words, neither of them wanted to be touched by the other. Each would have been equally disturbed by what happened next.

Jesus goes into great detail about the lengths to which the Samaritan went to minister to the needs of this wounded man. By the time the story is finished, even the lawyer knows the answer to the question that Jesus poses, but first, let's look at that question. 

Remember, the lawyer's question was, "Who is my neighbor?" 

By the end, Jesus asks, "Who proved to be a neighbor?" What happened there?

Ponder with me a moment. My neighbor and I are neighbors to each other. The very term excludes one sidedness. We are both neighbors. The original question was, in essence, "Who do I have to love?" 

Jesus' story and question show that we become neigbors to someone when we see their need and respond to it. We are to be a neighbor to anyone in need. 

The lawyer's question was intended to narrow the field--to be exclusive. Both Jesus' story and his question were intended to broaden the field, even to perceived enemies--to be inclusive. 

The Lawyer's answer, in the end, was that the one in the story who proved to be the neighbor to the victimized man was the one who showed mercy to him. Jesus acknowledged his answer as correct and told the lawyer, "You, go and do likewise."

If we think carefully about this story, we will realize that we, humanity, are the ones lying bloodied by the side of the road and that Jesus alone is the One true Neighbor, who provided everything that was necessary for our healing. That is the most beautiful understanding of it. 

But that understanding provides the only true basis for us to go and do likewise. Not in the way of the lawyer, searching for what requirement we must meet to be saved, but with unbridled gratitude for the gift of salvation that is already ours, in Christ!

As Christians, we can relate to every situation we encounter by asking ourselves to identify those in greatest need and the most selfless and loving way we can respond to that need, because that is what Christ, our neighbor, did for us.