Who is Your Neighbor?

 By: Joanne Viola

 

There was a time our youngest granddaughter loved to use the word “humans” in conversation. As often as she could, the word would be inserted and it rolled off her tongue in a most curious way.

It would cause me to realize the sanctity of the word. Humans are people who share some common characteristics and those very characteristics make us all equal in some way.

“We’re all neighbors. Everybody’s different. And there are some things about everybody that are the same. That’s what’s wonderful. That’s what helps us to understand each other. That we’ve got some things inside of us that are the same as somebody else’s. We’re all humans.” (Mr. Rogers)

Neighbors are those persons who are near to one another. Maybe that is what became confusing to the lawyer who asked Jesus the question,

“And who is my neighbor?” 
(Luke 10:29, NASB) 

Jesus proceeds to answer the question with the parable of The Good Samaritan. The Samaritans were hated by the Jews. Jesus wisely flips the hero of the story to be the Samaritan. It wasn’t the Jewish people helping the Samaritan, robbed and badly beaten. It was the Samaritan who displayed love to the one who hated him. It was the Samaritan who risked his life and spent his own money to tend to the Jew and make sure he was well cared for as he healed.

It was the Samaritan who defined the word “neighbor” not only for the Jewish lawyer, but for us all.

Our neighbors are those who:

• live on either side of us
•  live in the same house as us
• sit next to us in church
• are in line at the supermarket with us
• sit near us in the doctor’s waiting room
• are in school with us
• work with us
• drive on the same roads as us

Neighbors – they are all around us each and every day.

As the conversation between the lawyer and Jesus continued, Jesus asks him a sobering question:

“Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor 
to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” 
(Luke 10:36, NASB)

Two men had literally walked passed the beaten man without offering any help. The lawyer had heard the story and rightly responds, 

“The one who showed mercy toward him.”
(verse 37, NASB) 

We don’t need any reason to offer mercy to another other than they are a human, a person in need. Jesus tells the lawyer, and us today,  

“Go and do the same.” 
(verse 37, NASB)

“O people, the Lord has told you what is good,
and this is what he requires of you:
to do what is right, to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God.”
(Micah 6:8, NLT) 

 

Reflection: 
Who might God be identifying as your neighbor today? 

 

Image by dlsd cgl from Pixabay