What does it really mean to Love Your Neighbor As Yourself? This can truly be a tough question. In Luke 10, a lawyer tried to test Jesus by asking him how he could have eternal life. In fashion true to form, Jesus responded to his question with another question, “What does the law say, how do you read it?” The lawyer’s response was not unlike what Jesus himself had said on a previous occasion – You must love the Lord your God… and you must love your neighbor as yourself.
It was the right answer, of course, but unfortunately the lawyer did not fully understand it because he was not satisfied to leave it at just that. He promptly responded with a follow up question – Who is my neighbor? It is from this simple question that we get the story of the Good Samaritan. Of course to a Jew, there was no such thing as a “good” Samaritan, which is what makes the story so ironic. You see, Pharisees like this lawyer believed that obedience to the law was paramount, and so any law that seemed impossible to keep was often re-interpreted to be more easily obeyed. In this case, “love your neighbor as yourself” became “love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” In this way, to be obedient to the command was simply a matter of properly defining “neighbor” and “enemy.”
The problem with the story of the Good Samaritan is that the one who demonstrated that he was a neighbor was the enemy. With the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus wrecked the whole concept of “who is my neighbor” by making the worst enemy the hero of the story. Rather than focusing on “who” was the neighbor, the Pharisees should have been focusing on “how” to love their neighbor. The story of the Good Samaritan makes it plain to us that loving our neighbor is all about being available to help in their time of greatest need. In the story, the Priest and the Levite ignored the need. The Samaritan, however – the one who was the enemy – not only saw the need, but took the time to meet it. And in meeting that need, he went out of his way, inconveniencing himself, to make sure the enemy was properly cared for. To the lawyer, it had to be mind blowing.
I had an opportunity to live out the story of the Good Samaritan this week. Driving down a fairly desolate strip of road, I passed a stranger walking in the opposite direction. It wasn’t just any stranger. If I were the kind of person who judges by appearances, I would certainly have make some fairly negative judgments – Tattoos, bling, white “wife beater” tank top tee shirt (that he was holding, not wearing), baseball cap turned at 90 degrees, and even the baggy pants. He could not have been more cliché if he had tried. From the outside, this person would have been the type of person who would make you think that the safest course of action would be to cross to the other side of the road and pass with some distance between you. He appeared to be the kind of person that would make you worry that you would be the one beat up and bleeding on the side of the road like the man in the story.
At that moment, though, I had a choice. As I said, it was a fairly desolate stretch of road. Clearly he had already walked a few miles and there were probably several more miles before he would get to where he was going – not to mention that along that particular stretch of road, none of the major cell carriers have signal. It was probably the worst place in the whole area to break down. So my choice was to be the Priest, be the Levite, or be the Samaritan. I chose the latter.
Making that choice was a divine appointment. Sure, he looked like a complete hooligan (is that even still a word?), and as it turns out he had lived a very rough life and had done many things (including dealing drugs) that most of us would cringe at. However, that simple act of being a neighbor spoke volumes to him.
His name was Zack. He was a new father and seeing his new baby boy had made him realize he needed to make changes in his life. He was trying to put his life in order. Unfortunately, this had not been a very good day for him. He lost his job, and on the way home his truck broke down. According to Zack, many people had already flown by him, ignoring him, not stopping to help him. He was very grateful for the help. For me, it was inconvenient because he was going in the opposite direction, but I had already decided to see the situation through. So I drove him all the way to his home (about 5 miles away). In our short drive, we had a chance to talk about many things, including spiritual things. He wanted to understand why I was willing to go so far out of my way to help him, so I was able to use that curiosity to direct the conversation to the gospel, which he was also open to hear.
When I finally dropped Zack off at his home, he was still not ready to give his life to Christ; but he said to me that he had never heard anyone speak of Jesus that way. The Jesus to whom I had introduced him was not the one he had heard about through culture and media. I consider it a seed planted and pray that he will eventually give his life to Christ.
The point of the story is this: You never know when loving your neighbor will result in a life changing divine appointment. It can be scary to step out when truthfully you never know what will happen, but that is the kind of love for our neighbor that we have been called to live.
A journey in the daily struggle to totally surrender to Jesus Christ.
Monday, May 11, 2015
Saturday, May 9, 2015
A Christian's Most Important Priority
It has been said that the only constant thing in life is change. For me, the latest change in my life is the fact that I have accepted the call to pastor Pawnee Baptist Church. And in good pastor fashion, I had to come up with my first sermon series. For me, there was no question what that should be. If we (that is, my new church family and I) were going to get off started in the right direction, we would need to be on the same page regarding our Christian priorities.
Of course, there’s no question as to what the number one priority should be. It comes from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and it is what Jesus called the Greatest Commandment – “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” It is called the “Shema” (Hebrew word for “Hear”) because it starts with “Hear O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” The Shema was probably the most important scripture for the committed Jew. It was the center of the Jewish prayer book and was typically the first scripture that a Jewish child would memorize. Jews would write the scripture on the wall of their homes and bind it on their wrists. And because Jesus called it the Greatest Commandment, it should be, by far, the most important priority in the life of the Christian.
A few years ago, I was reading the Shema passage in Deuteronomy after having studied Jesus’ reference to it in Matthew 22 and realized that I did not have the Shema on the walls of my own home. Of course I rectified that immediately – not out of a sense of some legalistic requirement to keep the rules and regulations of the Mosaic Law, but because I need to be reminded every time I sit down on my couch that my number one priority must always be to Love God with every ounce of my being.
The thing is, though, being reminded to Love God doesn’t actually make it happen. I can be reminded all day long to Love God, but if I really don’t know how to Love God, then I never will.
Believe it or not, the secret to actually loving God is found in the Shema itself; but if we are not careful, we might actually misread and misunderstand it. The Shema tells us to love God with our heart, then our soul, then with all our might. The problem with that is what we call in biblical interpretation as “cultural distance.”
The meaning of heart, soul, and might to the ancient Jew is not the same as what we would consider them to be today. Think about it, what comes to mind when you think of your heart – not the muscle that pumps your blood, but the other heart. Of course, we think about Valentines hearts and sweethearts because when we think about the heart we think of emotions and passion. At the same time, when we think about our soul, we think of our inner self, our volition, and our will.
Based on this understanding, if we are to love the LORD our God with our heart, we would begin with our passions and emotions. We would strive to create within ourselves some sense of passion for God. To do this, we would try to seek out spiritual experiences that move us at the emotional level. In truth, this is how so many people seek out God every day. There are even churches whose worship styles are designed specifically to create the kind of emotional experiences we are talking about. They believe that such an emotional experience helps develop the believer’s actual love for God.
The thing is, we cannot always maintain that level of passion based on experiences – and we shouldn’t even try because that is not how the ancient Jews understood the Shema. To the ancient Jew, the understanding of the concepts of heart and soul were completely reversed from how we understand them. The heart was the seat of the volition and will whereas the soul was the seat of passions and desires. In other words, if our pattern for knowing how to Love God is the Shema, then there is a good chance we are going about it completely backwards. Because of our cultural understanding of heart and soul, we are seeking to love God the wrong way.
If we are to truly learn how to Love God, then we must begin first with our will. It is a choice. We decide to commit ourselves unconditionally to the prospect of Loving God and we dedicate ourselves to finding out what it means to know Him. After all, isn’t that how true unconditional love between humans is fostered? First you get to know the person better and then true love starts to grow? The same is true with our love for God. As we grow to know Him personally, an amazing thing happens – we begin to develop a passion for God that is not dependent upon experience or emotion, but rather on a personal relationship with a creator-God who first loved us before we ever loved Him.
So if you really want to be faithful to the most important Christian priority, make a simple choice. Decide to get to know God more personally and see if a deep passion for God does not develop as well.
Of course, there’s no question as to what the number one priority should be. It comes from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and it is what Jesus called the Greatest Commandment – “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” It is called the “Shema” (Hebrew word for “Hear”) because it starts with “Hear O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” The Shema was probably the most important scripture for the committed Jew. It was the center of the Jewish prayer book and was typically the first scripture that a Jewish child would memorize. Jews would write the scripture on the wall of their homes and bind it on their wrists. And because Jesus called it the Greatest Commandment, it should be, by far, the most important priority in the life of the Christian.
A few years ago, I was reading the Shema passage in Deuteronomy after having studied Jesus’ reference to it in Matthew 22 and realized that I did not have the Shema on the walls of my own home. Of course I rectified that immediately – not out of a sense of some legalistic requirement to keep the rules and regulations of the Mosaic Law, but because I need to be reminded every time I sit down on my couch that my number one priority must always be to Love God with every ounce of my being.
The thing is, though, being reminded to Love God doesn’t actually make it happen. I can be reminded all day long to Love God, but if I really don’t know how to Love God, then I never will.
Believe it or not, the secret to actually loving God is found in the Shema itself; but if we are not careful, we might actually misread and misunderstand it. The Shema tells us to love God with our heart, then our soul, then with all our might. The problem with that is what we call in biblical interpretation as “cultural distance.”
The meaning of heart, soul, and might to the ancient Jew is not the same as what we would consider them to be today. Think about it, what comes to mind when you think of your heart – not the muscle that pumps your blood, but the other heart. Of course, we think about Valentines hearts and sweethearts because when we think about the heart we think of emotions and passion. At the same time, when we think about our soul, we think of our inner self, our volition, and our will.
Based on this understanding, if we are to love the LORD our God with our heart, we would begin with our passions and emotions. We would strive to create within ourselves some sense of passion for God. To do this, we would try to seek out spiritual experiences that move us at the emotional level. In truth, this is how so many people seek out God every day. There are even churches whose worship styles are designed specifically to create the kind of emotional experiences we are talking about. They believe that such an emotional experience helps develop the believer’s actual love for God.
The thing is, we cannot always maintain that level of passion based on experiences – and we shouldn’t even try because that is not how the ancient Jews understood the Shema. To the ancient Jew, the understanding of the concepts of heart and soul were completely reversed from how we understand them. The heart was the seat of the volition and will whereas the soul was the seat of passions and desires. In other words, if our pattern for knowing how to Love God is the Shema, then there is a good chance we are going about it completely backwards. Because of our cultural understanding of heart and soul, we are seeking to love God the wrong way.
If we are to truly learn how to Love God, then we must begin first with our will. It is a choice. We decide to commit ourselves unconditionally to the prospect of Loving God and we dedicate ourselves to finding out what it means to know Him. After all, isn’t that how true unconditional love between humans is fostered? First you get to know the person better and then true love starts to grow? The same is true with our love for God. As we grow to know Him personally, an amazing thing happens – we begin to develop a passion for God that is not dependent upon experience or emotion, but rather on a personal relationship with a creator-God who first loved us before we ever loved Him.
So if you really want to be faithful to the most important Christian priority, make a simple choice. Decide to get to know God more personally and see if a deep passion for God does not develop as well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)