Wednesday, February 28, 2024 – Lent Three: Jesus Asks! Tough Questions for a Lenten Faith

“Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked.  (Luke 10:36, NLT)

                 Jesus can be very wily with his questions.

                The “expert in religious law” (v.25) came to Jesus with the question, “who is my neighbour?” Being an expert, he knew as a pious, devout religious practitioner that he could list those whom weren’t his neighbours – the Samaritans, the Romans, the gentiles, the unclean, the chronically ill, some women. You let these sorts of people in and there goes the neighbourhood. He was probably wanting and expecting that Jesus, a good Jew, would confirm his biases.

                But Jesus turns the tables with the well-known parable of The Good Samaritan. We all know the story well. A man, a Jew most likely, was robbed and left to the side of the road. Two highly regarded religious persons walked by the man and crossed the road to avoid him. But “a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him.” (v.33). In fact, he bound up the man’s wounds, put him on his donkey and got him to a hostel and paid for his room and board and care.

                Jesus turns the tables on the religious expert. Not “who is my neighbour?”, the emphasis being on the word “my” but rather who am I a neighbour to. The responsibility of neighbourliness is now yours and my obligation.  Who are you and I called to be neighbours to, with compassion, assistance, mercy and good works?

                To modernize the parable a bit. It would be like a despised Palestinian helping an Israeli or a despised Ukrainian farmer  helping a  Russian soldier. It would be like a despised transgender person helping a fundamentalist, Baptist pastor. It would be like the despised homeless person helping a rich person.

Most of us, if truth be told, would rather walk by, not get involved, let the government handle it.          

In Jesus’ world, i.e. his Kingdom, it simply doesn’t work this way. “ Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (vs.27) Jesus initiated the subject of neighbourliness just before he told the parable. It is one of the keys to eternal life. We know, elsewhere, he said that we should even love our enemies (Matthew 5:44) It would appear that Jesus has a very broad definition about who is our neighbour. But it begins within the heart of each one of us and spreads outward.

Another way of saying this is found in the Golden Rule: “Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God’s Law and Prophets and this is what you get.” (Matthew 7:12, The Message Bible)

It is very hard to wriggle out of these commands. Jesus always lays the responsibility upon you and me. It is hard to put limits and conditions to what Jesus is teaching. It is difficult to just love only those who appear like us.  We are charged with a task of loving anyone who crosses our paths, who needs a helping hand, who needs our acceptance, who simply needs to be loved because nobody else will.

“For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Galatians 5:14, NLT)

 And by neighbour, it means also those who are, sometimes, unlikable, different, disagreeable, unfriendly, broken, lost, despised by others, or those who have harmed us in the past, etc. etc. And not just some superficial observance, some legalistic approach, but with genuine, authentic, trustworthy love. “If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:3, NLT)

Mr. Rogers introduced his children’s TV show with the song, “Won’t you be  my neighbour?” but I think he meant it in a Jesus way:

It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood
A beautiful day for a neighbor
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?

It's a neighborly day in this beautywood
A neighborly day for a beauty
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?

I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you
I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you

Dale