Minister's Column; "Who is My Neighbor?"

“Who is my neighbor?” is the question that prompted the story we have come to know as the Good Samaritan. It’s one of the most familiar stories of the Bible. We even have laws in our country with the same name. It’s the story of a man who fell among thieves on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. They had robbed and beaten this man to near death and then left him to die. Three men came by him that day. Three men had opportunity to be neighbor to the man in need.

The first was a priest. He sees the crumpled body of the man lying there but quickly moves to the other side to avoid even a hint of contact. If the man were dead and he came in contact with him, then the priest would have to undergo a lengthy and costly process of ritual purification.

The second was a priest’s assistant. He comes a little closer and takes a look, but also walks around at a safe distance. The purity law is the same for him as well. God’s law said to love the neighbor and also demanded ritual purity for the priest and Levite. So what were they to do?

The priest and Levite weren’t bad people. They wanted to obey God. But they were legalists. Legalism says you have to keep the letter of God’s law at all costs. True love for God and neighbor is out the window. That’s what the law will do in this fallen world. It can say “love God and love your neighbor,” but it can’t produce even a hint of real love and care. Love as God intends you to show toward the neighbor is an act of freedom, not an act of the law.

What about the Samaritan? Let’s call him “kind” rather than “good,” since he was no more good than the priest and Levite were bad. He was simply free, and that makes all the difference. The Samaritan is, for all intents and purposes, free. There is no law restricting him. He is free to stop, act on his compassion, treat the man’s wounds, put him up at a local inn, give the innkeeper two days’ wages to care for the man and then promise to take care of any additional expenses.

How do you “love your neighbor as yourself”? Have you ever really thought about how difficult that is? You’re watching the game on TV, you get thirsty, you go to the refrigerator and get something to drink, and come back into the room. And just as you enter the room, your spouse or child or friend says, “Would you get something for me, too?” And sad to say, often the first thought is, “ARGH, why don’t you get it yourself?” You naturally take care of yourself and your needs without even thinking – you love yourself, but you don’t “Love your neighbor as yourself”.

How do you “love your neighbor as yourself”? It turns out that only one who is set free from the tyranny of God’s Law can do the Law even remotely. Until you hear and believe that “There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”(Ro 8:1), you will never have the Samaritan freedom to love your neighbor. That freedom comes in Jesus.

God became your neighbor in Jesus. He joined you on the side of the road of your sin and death. Jesus came to be God with us, to do the Law for us, to free us from the burden of the Law. Jesus became your neighbor, embracing you in His death, healing your wounds with His wounds. He forgives your sin and frees you from the tyranny of the Law so that you might actually do the Law – loving God and loving your neighbor. You know who the neighbor is. It’s your spouse, your child, your friend, your enemy – it’s anyone God places in your path.

That neighbor is not some opportunity for you to win brownie points in heaven. He’s there for you to serve with God’s goodness and mercy, to love as you have been loved by Jesus. Don’t look to God’s Law to justify yourself. It will damn you. Look to His Law to define and shape your love for God and love for your neighbor. Your neighbor is a gift and opportunity to serve as you have been served, to forgive as you have been forgiven, to love as you have been loved by Jesus. You get to love God and love your neighbor in kind Samaritan freedom.