In order for us to truly live out the royal command, “love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27 NIV; James 2:NIV), we must understand it in context. Jesus is calling not only the glib lawyer from our text, but each of us, to first love the Lord your God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, and then… love our neighbor. Christ is calling us to expand our love language, to follow his model of sacrificial loving; exemplified by His eager submission to the Father’s will, even unto death on the cross. Jesus’ ministry was one of a living illustration, as such, we too must be willingly to follow His example and submit our will and ways to the Lord. Allowing for Him to change our hearts and equip us to love those outside of our immediate circles; put another way, those we choose to love, those we feel are deserving our love.
But this is not the way God instructs us to love and certainly not the way Jesus taught us. “Do for others as I have done for you” (John 13:1-17, excerpt). God is a God of order; first we must love Him. Then secondly, through our act of submissive want to please Him, He lovingly transforms us so that others may experience His love. Without Him this is impossible to accomplish this in our own strength. Even the most submitted of us after a time, have the potential to become weary in well-doing, too selfish to sustain aiding our neighbor. We need a heart transplant, as described in Ezekiel 36:26.
The Redemptive, Restorative work of Jesus is mirrored beautifully in this parable used by Jesus to illustrate, both then and now, the broad-scope of who our neighbor truly is.
The Good Samaritan as the allusion of Jesus…
#1. We each are now or once were the wounded man on Jericho’s treacherous and hostile road; “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (Rom. 3:23 NLT).
#2. And Christ, the Good Samaritan comes and reaches down across time and eternity to minister to us. Pouring into our beaten up, half dead bodies, the oil of Spirit and the New Wine of His Shed Blood as our redemptive and restorative covering (Jn.3:16 NIV).
#3. He carries us and pays the price to the Innkeeper for our stay (1Cor. 7:23NLT).
#4. He states He will return and pay any future debt (Heb. 9:28ESV).
The enemy of our soul’s however, is referred to by Jesus as, the thief that comes to kill, steal and destroy (John 10:10 ESV). The robbers on the Jericho road, taking all the man had, is a prevue of Satan who comes to rob us of all that the Father desires to freely give us…“Life more abundantly.”
As Christians, we are not recommended to obey this law, we are commanded to live it out daily. And this command to enlarge our love language from loving only those who love us, to loving our enemies, is of such eternal significance that Jesus wraps it around every commandment; not by eliminating them, but by expanding our capacity to love through His example (Matthew 5:17). This lawyer was familiar with the laws found in Leviticus 19:9-18. He knew the Torah and was skilled in Jewish tradition, that is clearly implied within the dialogue between himself and Jesus (Luke 1:25-28). So too are many in our churches today familiar with the religious rites and rituals, are able to recite the cannons and by-laws, know the Ecumenical Calendar like their own name, but have not love of neighbor in their stone-cold hearts. I know I have certainly had to hit my knees on many an occasion asking the Lords forgiveness for not living out this command.
In explaining this command to the lawyer, the crowd, and to us today, Jesus used a parable. We know it as the parable of the Good Samaritan. For anyone versed in the Bible, it is hard not to see the irony of Jesus’ choice in using this particular group of people. The Jews and Samaritans hated each other; they were lifelong enemies. The Samaritans thought they had the one true religion and served the one true god and the Jews defended God and Judaism as the only true religion and He, as the Only God. Looking to Scripture we become witnesses to how the Jews insulted Jesus by accusing Him of being both a Samaritan and demon-possessed!(Jn.8:48) This will help us to get handle on just how deeply the hatred between these two people’s went. To put this in modern context, think of how the majority of the world regards and reacts towards Muslims today. Seldom are distinctions drawn, Muslim equals ISIS and Isis equals terrorists and terrorists equal death. And there is some truth in all of this, but as with Jesus, most certainly not all! This age-old debate over who is our neighbor precedes the parables lawyer, just look to the Old Testament for confirmation. It is filled with story after story of one group fearing or hating another, and seeking their extinction.
That in mind, let’s fast forward to any-street U.S.A. When faced with our neighbor, will we choose to love them as commanded, or seek to get them and anything associated with them as far from us and ours as we can? (Rom. 12:9) And further still, do we even know how to love as commanded (1 Cor.13:4-13)? Lastly, do our feelings have anything to do with His command? (1 John 4:19) It’s a theoretically loaded question forcing us to examine our hearts and thinking, asking ourselves, do I really love the Lord as I am commanded to do? And truth is, if we know the Lord, we know that answer or are learning it, and it’s a resounding NO! “For all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” We are sinners saved by grace bruising each other in our imperfect attempts at love. How then can we give to another something we don’t possess? If we are not willing to surrender our will and desire for our, my way or the highway thinking how will we ever love another flawed, mere mortal? How do we love the Syrian today seeking asylum in the United States? Wanting to live on our block? The Sunni Living in our neighborhood, next to our children and grandchildren? The Shiite who lives in the same town even! How do we tolerate living side by side with any Muslim today? We as a nation have become Muslim-phobic! like the lawyer in our passage, we too come to Jesus asking about our neighbor… but a Muslim Lord? What if he or she is a terrorist? What if they have Isis affiliations? Do I have to love them? Are they MY neighbor?
Yes. If we are living according to the Word of God.
Remember, when we said yes to the Lord we said bye-bye to being our own boss. Listen to the Prophet Jeremiah, “LORD, I know that people’s lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps.” (Jer.10:23-24). “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps” (Prov.16:9). God’s Word explicitly instructs us to trust Him in all of our ways (Pro.3:5-6). It is solely by the grace of God and in His strength that we are able to live out this type of love. If we weren’t capable, God would never had commanded us to! We must have open and willing hearts, we must truly trust in the Lords divine authority over our lives. We must believe His Word over our feelings and fears, the media, family and friends, or the general consensus of the masses. As a christian, we are called to come out and be separate from the world’s thinking and ways. We are to leave the things of the world behind us and lead by example, just as Jesus did. We are not to respond as either the priest or Levite in our text. Each knew what the right thing to do was, but for unstated reason, they chose not to do it. Perhaps they were afraid? What if they stopped to help this half-dead man his same fate would befall them?
There’s a statement I read by Peter Singer that struck me. He states, “The cost of helping is often great, but to not offer aid is a moral failure.” In closing, allow me leave to pose this question…understanding I ask it first of myself; when you hear of or see those who differ from you, be it by color, religious beliefs, in intellect or through intolerance—what is our first or gut reaction? Let me make this personal, how do you treat those people? I’ll leave you here to ponder, allowing for the Word of the Lord to minister to you… “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” (Matt. 5:43-48 NIV).
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