Luke 10:29 NIV
But he wanted to
justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
Are You Trying To Find Your Neighbor?
The famous “Mr. Rogers”, built a career by singing
about being a neighbor. In a world that is
growing more and more packed with people, are we neighbors or billions of
individuals walking about on our own?
The most critical concern we have is almost always tied to what we face
ourselves or perhaps what those closest to us are facing. Yet, are we made to be that way? Are you supposed to be disconnected from the
world about you? The news makes you
constantly aware of those who need help, whether it is the story of the woman
who is kidnapped or the account of villagers whose homes have been wrecked by
earthquakes. Yet the more you know about
the problems of the world, the less you know about the problems of those right
next to you. It may seem presumptuous to
ask, but what is your normal response when you realize someone needs help? How do you react to real problems those near
you face? It is strange perhaps to ask
if you love your neighbor because of course you do. Who doesn’t?
Yet we must give it some thought, this question. Do we love our neighbors? Do you?
Famously, a Jewish expert on Old Testament Law
approached Christ and asked Him, "What
must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Luke 10: 25 NIV) The Lord flipped the question around and
asked the man what the Law said about it.
He answered: "'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, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" (Luke
10:27 NIV) Jesus affirmed this answer and
told the expert on the Law, "Do
this and you will live." (Luke
10:28 NIV) Then came the most memorable
question, “Who is my neighbor?” It is a
good question if I am to love my neighbor as myself. Who is my neighbor then? It is fascinating though how Jesus in His own
way of giving answers to the questions of skeptics and critics did not actually
answer that specific question. He
answered a completely different question with his story of the “Good Samaritan”.
When two Jewish religious leaders ignored the beaten
Jewish victim of a mugging as they walked along the road where his broken body stretched
out on the side in plain view, it was a Samaritan, one whose nationality made
him hated by Jews, who came to the Jewish man’s rescue and took care of
him. Then Jesus when He finished the
story asked the teacher of Jewish Law who it was that was the neighbor to the man
that was beaten. It is a subtle but
critical shift Jesus made. He did not
give a reply to the question, “Who is the neighbor that must receive love” but
told the skeptic through His story who the neighbor is that gives love. That is a completely different question and
answer and the man who asked the question originally was so stunned by the
direction Jesus’ story took that He did not even acknowledge or maybe even
realize how thoroughly Christ shifted the focus. We are never to ask who our neighbor is that
we are to love but always probe to discover if we are the neighbor who
loves. It is as if Jesus was asked, “Who
is the patient?” and He told instead who the doctor was. Or perhaps He might have been asked whose
house was on fire and instead He told who the fireman was.
The first sign Jesus gave to the world that He was
the Messiah was turning the water into wine.
He was at a wedding feast with His mother, Joseph, the one chosen by God
to act as father to Jesus having passed away by then, and Mary was either told
or discovered on her own that the groom had run out of wine for all the
guests. This was one of the most
humiliating things that could happen to a young man, a blunder that would most
likely be remembered and retold in his village at least the rest of his
life. Mary, recognizing just how
traumatizing this would be for the young couple as they started off their new
life together, came to her son Jesus and told Him the situation. Jesus’ reply is almost shocking, given what
we know of Him now. Literally, He
responded to her news, “What to you and to me?”
“What does this have to do with us?” (See John 2: 4)
When it comes to being a neighbor or loving as a
neighbor, this is the second most important question you must ask
yourself. The first is, “Am I a neighbor
who loves?” The second is, “What does
this have to do with me?” “Is this my
problem?” When Jesus cast this question
upon Mary, His mother’s response shows how profoundly she trusted Jesus to do
what was right. Rather than replying to
Jesus, she went back to the servants of the groom who may have been panicking
at the moment over what to do about the lack of wine, and told them to follow
exactly Jesus’ instructions. "Do whatever he tells you."
(John 2:5 NIV) Mary did not try to argue
the immensity of her cause, did not plead with Jesus to help the poor couple
not lose faith. She simply trusted Christ
to do what was right. Does God have the
same trust in you to do what is right?
Will you be a loving neighbor?
Many who look at Acts 6 give the chapter the wrong
emphasis. They see it as primarily about
the institution of the deacon ministry.
Although that is integral to what is described, it is mostly about how
the Christian community considered the “Love your neighbor as yourself” dilemma. Because of the violent persecution the early
Church faced and the way it expanded, there were a vast number of Christian
widows who did not have enough money to even buy food. Many of the widows were left without any
family members to help them so the Church began to provide for them. However,
as we often see in our world, certain types of people are more loved and valued
than others. In this case it was the
Jewish Christian widows who got more help than the non-Jewish Christian
widows. In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian
Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were
being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. (Acts 6:1 NIV) All
the widows needed the Church to get them through the crisis though and so the
non-Jewish Christian widows went to the Apostles and pleaded for help. Rather than declaring that this matter was
not their problem, the Apostles and the other leaders in the Church selected
seven men to be in charge of making sure that all the Christian widows had
enough to eat, whether they were Jewish or not.
This was of course the precise way Jesus responded to the question, “Who
is my neighbor?” “You are the neighbor!” The Church saw a specific need, widows
without food, and they did something practical to meet that need. They were neighbors who loved.
You have a very important question to ask
yourself. Are you a neighbor who loves? Depending upon how you answer, a second
question comes. “What does that have to do with me”? It is strange to think that God has entrusted
so many people who need a neighbor who loves to you. The other day I was talking to a teacher who
was obviously stressing over a meeting she was going to have with a parent and
the principal. What does a neighbor who
loves do in that situation? You come
across someone who has anxiety attacks. What
does a neighbor who loves in that situation do?
There are dishes in the sink and your mom is busy working on
dinner. What does a neighbor who loves
do? A co-worker just got chewed out by
her supervisor. What does a neighbor who
loves do? Someone you know is in the
hospital. What does a neighbor who loves
do? Across the street a young mother has
just been diagnosed with Parkinson’s.
What does a neighbor who loves do?
Your sister-in-law just started drinking heavily and the family is
blaming her for her marriage. What does
a neighbor who loves do? The question
for you and me is never, “Who is my neighbor?”
It always is, “Am I a neighbor who loves?” How we answer that question clearly has an
eternal ramification!
