A lawyer asks Jesus how to inherit eternal life, and Jesus affirms that he should observe the two "greatest" commandments - love God and love your neighbor. The lawyer, in an effort to determine the bare minimum he can do to be "saved," asks who he should consider his neighbor.
Jesus responds with a story. It's probably familiar to everyone, but just in case I'll summarize it. A Jewish man is beaten, robbed, and left for dead on the side of the road, and several religious leaders pass him by without helping him. Finally a Samaritan stops, bandages the Jewish man's wounds, takes him to an inn, and pays for his care. After telling this story, Jesus asks, "Who was a neighbor to the beaten man?" The obvious response is the Samaritan - and Jesus tells the lawyer, "Go and do likewise."
First, a historical note. From a Jewish perspective this story would have been shocking. Samaritans and Jews did not get along. At all. There was a significant amount of animosity between the two groups, to the point that they avoided any association with one another.
What is most significant about this parable is that it really does not answer the lawyer's question: "Who is my neighbor?" The lawyer was attempting to limit the circle of people he was responsible to help. Jesus effortlessly correct the question - the appropriate question is not "who is my neighbor?" but "who can I be a neighbor to?" Jesus does so by choosing the most unlikely person to help the man who had been robbed (the Samaritan), after the most likely people (Jewish religious leaders) and already passed him by. Despite the hatred that both men would have felt toward the other, the Samaritan helps someone who by anyone's definition would have been outside the group of people who might be called his "neighbors."
Who, then, is our neighbor? Anyone who is in need. That is the way Jesus answers the question; it is the way we must answer it as well.
2 comments:
I like the distinction you make on how Jesus corrects the question... and completely agree that the focus needs to be more on the level of who we can be neighbors to.
I think that is where most of us tend to fall short - that our concept of neighbor is too small. One of the moments that drove this point home to me sticks out in my mind...
I was waiting tables to support myself while leading in a volunteer role at a large urban church. The pastor had just preached a fantastic sermon about what it meant to "love our neighbors" (I had heard the sermon in the Saturday night service the day before) and I was waiting on several people who had obviously just arrived from the service and wanted to discuss the message over lunch. I caught bits and pieces of their conversation over the hour and a half they were sitting in my section... most of the conversation was brainstorming how they were going to go home and invite their "neighbors" to barbecues and mow their lawns, shovel driveways and the like just to be nice. I'm assuming they were talking about the physical neighbors from thier neighborhoods by the examples I heard them giving. After the meal they proceeded to leave a tip that was somewhere over 5% and less than 10% having monopolized my table for the majority of the lunch rush, giving me the non-verbal message that I must not fall into the "neighbor" category because there's nothing that shows a server that you value them less than if you take their time and leave a horrible tip.
I hope they were successful in their efforts with the people they did call "neighbor," but it seemed very representative to me of the common misconception that many of us have of who our neighbor really is.
Its one of many good examples, Adam. And there's nothing wrong with reaching out to physical neighbors like they were planning. But its sad how completely unreflective people can be about how their actions (in this case, taking up your table and leaving a poor tip) affect those around them in very real ways.
A waiter friend brought this very issue to my attention several years ago - he said waiters hate to work Sundays because church-goers are such notoriously bad tippers. I'm not sure why that is - sometimes because people think they're being good stewards with their money by not tipping, and probably sometimes because people can just be stingy. But I made a decision at that point to change my tipping habits to show appreciation for good service - especially if there was any possibility that the waiter knew I was a Christian. I figure if I cannot afford to tip well, I cannot afford to go to a restaurant where I need to leave a tip.
Back to the neighbor issue - I think its true that Christians often have the same trouble as the Jews did when considering who their "neighbor" is. I'm sure I'm guilty of it myself. It occurs to me, in fact, that when I taught on this passage recently, I was probably guilty even then. All my examples of who is included in the term "neighbor" were drawn from "extreme" categories - enemies, the poor, people with AIDS, Iraqis, etc. Even when we're trying to widen our conception of "neighbor," I wonder how often we miss those who are right in front of our face?
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