How to Be A Neighbor

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.