Bible Reading: Luke 10:25-37
Dear Friends
This week’s parable Luke 10:25-37 isn’t really about the lawyer. It’s about all of us. There are so many things we know we should do. And there are so many ways we rationalize why we’re not doing them. Like the lawyer, we know we are to love and serve God; moreover, we know that the best way to do that is to love and serve our neighbour. Ah, we think, but who really is our neighbour?
Nice one. Until Jesus tells a story. A story about a guy who gets beaten by thugs and left for dead. Two people come down the hilltop, each of whom the wounded man and those who first listened to this parable have very good reason to believe will help him. But neither does. Then comes someone the wounded man, as well as those listening to Jesus’ story, know without a shadow of a doubt will not help him.
Why? Because Jews and Samaritans have been in a centuries-long family feud and pretty much despise each other. Yet he does help him. Why? Because he sees this man not as a Jew, not as an enemy, not as a threat. Rather, he sees him as a person in need and for that reason he sees him as a neighbour. Whose the “neighbour”, is it “the person next door” or “the person in need.” Some people would perhaps choose the person who is next door. But what happens when we choose the second one?
God invites us to find our unity not in our ethnic heritage or political affiliation or socio-economic rank or geographical proximity or vocational affinity or even our religious identity. God invites us verily, commands us to find our unity in our need: our common and shared human need. And when we do, we are not only being a neighbour, we also discover neighbours all around us. And suddenly we are loving God with all our heart.
Solomzi