Ramblings from Retirement – Who Is Your Neighbor

Ramblings from Retirement – Who Is Your Neighbor
By Retired Pastor Lee Hemen
May 29, 2021

Sitting here this morning I did what I always do, I prayed for my neighbors. I pray for them by name and street address. I use the Bless Every Home app. You can also go onto their website and do it that way. I like it because I can edit the names to keep them as up-to-date as possible. I also try to walk three to four times a week throughout my neighborhood with my grandkids or by myself, for exercise and to keep up with what is happening in my neighborhood. I’ve met more neighbors on my walks, waved to them, said “Hi.” or stopped to talk with them. I pick up concerns and blessings which I pray for when I pray for them and this brings me to one of my favorite passages of Scripture.

In Luke’s gospel we find Jesus speaking to a very intelligent young man: “On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘What is written in the Law?’ he replied. ‘How do you read it?’ He answered: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, love your neighbor as yourself.’ ‘You have answered correctly,’ Jesus replied. ‘Do this and you will live.’ But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’ (Luke 10:25-29 NIV)” Jesus then goes into the discourse of relating a story concerning a Priest, a Levite, and a hated Samaritan. They all come to a man who has been robbed, beaten, and left in a ditch by the side of the road. It is only the Samaritan who stops and helps the man. While the story is a fantastic teaching the best part for me is the first section I shared.

Our world today, including a lot of Christians, think that simply by having empathy, throwing money at a situation, or by trying their best they have succeeded in loving other people. This is simply false. We hear the simplistic phrase “it takes a village” and think “how adroit” but this is mere societal pap.

Here in Luke we see a seemingly very intelligent guy who is described as “an expert in the law”. He would be considered in our day like a well paid lawyer, perhaps a Harvard Law School graduate. He thinks he can trick Jesus and so asks him a simple question with huge implications if Jesus answers it incorrectly: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” You see most religious Hebrews of Jesus’ day thought that by doing good works and following the Law of God as laid out by the ridged rabbinic teachings was how one should live. And we know by his parsing of the question he probably was a Pharisee who believed in eternal life after death, which the Sadducees did not believe. The Pharisees followed a ridged code of good works, tithing, alms giving, sacrifices, and religious observances hoping that they had done enough by following the Law that they would enjoy eternal life with God. Jesus does something unexpected and responds with a question of his own, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” It is now this lawyer’s chance to prove his intellect and knowledge of the Law he so rigidly followed. So he answers exactly like a lot of “religious”, “spiritual”, or “empathetic” folks do with the correct sounding answer of: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, love your neighbor as yourself.”

He probably felt proud of his answer but then Jesus responds, “You have answered correctly, do this and you will live.” So the young man asks, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus then relates the story of the Priest, Levite, and the Good Samaritan as they interact with their neighbor who needs more than their compassion, money, piety, or help. He needed one of them to get actively involved. Jesus then says, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” Now the lawyers is cornered in front of a crowd of people who had moments before seen him as the epitome of knowing the Law of God but has been reduced to now answering his own question publicly revealing what his real views as a person are and not just the right answer expected of him. Luke relates that “The expert in the law replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’ Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise.’” So today dear child of the Lord, “Who is your neighbor?”

This article is copyrighted © 2021 by Lee Hemen and is the sole property of Lee Hemen, and may not be used unless you quote the entire article and have my permission.

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