Who is your neighbor? I will answer this very question at the end of the post. For now I want to provide the reason I asked the question.
There is a passage in the book of Luke where a lawyer was tempting Jesus Christ. The lawyer asked Jesus, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life”? Jesus answered him this way, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.” (Luke 10:27) It was then the lawyer tried to justify himself and asked, “And who is my neighbour?” (Luke 10:29)
I will paraphrase what happens in the next seven verses. This is how Jesus used a parable to explain who your neighbor is. Please keep in mind as you read this account of the parable that Jews and Samaritans were enemies. They were never seen together and if anyone had a reason to keep walking and ignore a Jewish man needing help it is a Samaritan. A man (a Jewish man) was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by a bunch of thieves and thugs. They robbed him and beat him and left him lying in the road half dead. Well, along the road came a priest and a Levite. These two were travelling the same road and saw the man lying there in dire need of someone to help him. These two men took a quick look at the man and rushed off refusing to help him. The next man that came through was a Samaritan. This Samaritan stopped and offered his assistance. He bandaged the man’s wounds, picked him up and placed this wounded Jewish man on his donkey. He then took him to a nearby inn and paid the innkeeper to nurse him back to health. (Luke: 10:30-37) This parable exhibits gentleness and I should point out a miracle by Christ in Luke 17:11-19 which also involves a Samaritan, the coinciding miracle of the Cleansing of Ten Lepers exhibits gratitude. Of the ten lepers only one was a Samaritan. The Samaritan fell at the feet of the Savior and worshipped and thanked him. The others, Jews, ran off to the temple priests without giving thanks. They had committed the ultimate sin of thanklessness. A thankful person is a humble person. Someone made an observation of, “Be careful for nothing, be prayerful in everything, and be thankful for anything!”
Ok, let’s get back to the neighbor thing. There is some irony at play here. If anyone should have helped the injured Jewish man it was the Priest or the Levite. The Priest probably was leaving Jerusalem after being in the temple presenting sacrifices to God. The Levite would have been in the temple proclaiming the scriptures. Isn’t it just like some things we see today in that neither of them would lift a finger to help a fellow human being in need? Talk about irony; look at the one that provided the help. This man that stopped to help was a Samaritan and a member of a race that was hated by the Jews. “But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion [on him]”, Luke 10:33.
The question the lawyer asked is “Who is my neighbor?” and the answer is that your neighbor is anyone you can help.
About 500 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Confucius preached the Golden Rule and some accused Jesus of borrowing words from Confucius. The Golden Rule is “Don’t do to others that which you would not have them do to you.” That is in no way the message Jesus wants us to hear and is vastly different. Here is the Golden Rule that Jesus gives, “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets”, Matthew 7:12.
Which advice did the Priest and the Levite follow? It appears they followed the advice of Confucius because they didn’t beat or rob a man because they wouldn’t have wanted it to be done to themselves.
It seems the Samaritan was the only one to follow the advice of Jesus and the Golden Rule. Not only had the Samaritan not inflicted any additional harm to the injured man, he actually did what he would have desired for someone to do to him. He would have wanted someone to stop and help him and to care for his wounds as Jesus advised.
There are three different attitudes present here. The first attitude comes from the robbers. Their attitude is “What is thine is mine.” I don’t want to get distracted here but we surely see lots of this devilish attitude amongst us today. The second type of attitude comes from the Priest and the Levite. They have the fleshly and self-righteous attitude of, “What is mine is mine”. Lastly the Samaritan has an attitude that is Devine, “What is mine is thine”.
The Samaritan stopped and helped while others just walked on by. The Priest and the Levite should have helped and did not.
Who is your neighbor? It is whoever is in need.
Who is my neighbor? It is the man who is in need.
Be thankful always and love your neighbor as yourself.
“The Tubthumper”