Neighbour - an action not an identity
Luke 10:25-37
You will have heard of the organisation called the Samaritans – who get their name from this parable.
That word meant something completely different 2000 years ago.
GK Chesterton said, "The bible tells us to love our neighbours and also our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people".
In this story calling someone a Samaritan would be similar to a Jew talking about a Palestinian today. Or for us it might be a terrorist. The terrorist on the Headrow. “The Parable of the good terrorist”
There are three convictions which Jesus and his hearers would have assumed were in the mind of the religious lawyer - an expert in the Jewish law:
1. The law
The Jews lived lives governed by their religious Law – the Torah (cp Shariah Law). The law said love God. The law said look after the people around you, especially those who are less well off than you. The law said love your neighbour as yourself.
2. Just for us
The Jews thought of themselves as the sole recipients of God’s grace. That they were the special people and salvation was for them alone.
3. Quest for eternal life
The Jews wanted to get to heaven. They wanted to be part of the kingdom of God (just like people do today). How do we get there?
The expert lawyer knows the question. He knows the answer. It is a rhetorical debating device. He is trying to trip Jesus up into saying that either you don’t need to keep the law or that the Jews are not special.
So its question time, the lawyer walks up to the mike to ask the question.
And Jesus affirms the law. Then annoyingly, patronisingly, Jesus turns the question back on the lawyer.
So the lawyer quotes the standard text … but as he says the familiar words they begin to come alive. They stroll out in front of him and turn round and look at him, accusing him, “you can speak us out as words, how are you living them out?”
The seed of doubt is sown and when Jesus says, “that’s the deal, agreed”, the lawyer knows he has failed and is not getting to heaven.
He knows he doesn’t love God like that, “all my soul, all my mind, all my strength!”
He knows he hasn’t loved his neighbour as himself. He remembers the angry word to his wife as he left home that morning, that he had gossiped about a neighbour, he had treated that servant badly, he had lusted after that woman who often walks by in the early evening.
So he makes the big mistake and asks the stupid question. Who is my neighbour was the wrong question. Because it immediately implied that some people are not his neighbour.
He wants Jesus to define the Jewish tribe and exclude others. Conviction 2.
And Jesus tells a story
If the enemy hadn’t done what neighbours do, the man would have died.
So instead of answering the question, “who is my neighbour” he asks the question “how do you love your neighbour”.
Neighbour is an action not an identity.
The question is not:
• Whether the man in the ditch is your neighbour but whether you will be a neighbour to the man in the ditch.
• Whether that lonely person – at the school gate or in the office – is your neighbour but whether you will be a neighbour to the lonely person.
• Whether the young thug locked in a cycle of crime is your neighbour but whether you will be a neighbour to the young thug.
• Whether the asylum seeker is your neighbour but whether you will be a neighbour to the asylum seeker.
• Whether the hungry child of Sudan is your neighbour but whether you will be a neighbour to the hungry child.
Jesus blows open the lawyer’s world. He blows open our world.
Jesus has affirmed the law. But he has used it to show that the good news from God is not just for the Jews but for the whole world. Jesus calls us all to be neighbours – to everyone.
That is a tall order and it is worth a reality check here. Let's take a small diversion.
Think about the terrorist/Samaritan in the story.
- What did he do?
- What didn’t he do?
Think about your own situation. We all have people to whom we can be neighbours – taking action.
- What can you do?
- What can’t you do?
Pray – ask the Lord to show you what you can do and what you can't do, what you don't need to do.
Back to the story:
Jesus has affirmed the law to make the good news available to the whole world.
I said that being a neighbour is not an identity but an action – by all of us for everyone.
The good news of the Christian message, of the kingdom of heaven is that Jesus took the ultimate action to change our identity.
Jesus told this parable to illustrate what he was on the way to Jerusalem to do.
He was about to do the biggest, most sacrificial neighbourly thing possible. Not only sacrificing his life but doing so for everyone in the whole world.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. John 3:16
He has become the neighbour to all of us lying in the ditch. Thus we can all become fellow citizens in the kingdom of heaven. The answer the lawyer was looking for.
Just like the lawyer, none of us can fulfil the requirements of the law to love God with everything and to love our neighbour as ourselves. But the wonderful, redeeming news is that Jesus has loved us and rescued us through his own death, taking our sins on the cross, reaching his hand down into the ditch and all we have to do is hold on.
As he pulls us out, mends us, forgives us, has mercy on us and tends us, we become his neighbour. We are saved.
When that time comes and you know you need to be rescued, you will find him waiting, watching. He loves you and is striding across the road to help. He has taken the action that changes us from being strangers to God into his neighbour, nay his friend, a citizen of his kingdom.
Jesus affirmed the law.
He makes the good news a broadcast to everyone.
His action changes our identity – to become people of his kingdom, the saved, the rescued the ransomed.
May you know what he has called you to do and what not to do.
May you know his love and his rescue.
May you reach out of the ditch and grab the hand he offers.
May you accept the welcome into his kingdom.
David Flowers, 25/03/2012