Who Is My Neighbor?
Luke 10:25-37
Most of us know this story of the Samaritan who assists a man beaten by robbers. We call this the story of the good Samaritan. This story was told in response to a question Jesus receives. “Who is my neighbor?” Luke is the only gospel writer to tell this particular story and sets the question up to suggest the questioner is trying to find a loophole to being faithful. That’s usually how we hear this story. But as I pondered this passage over the last week I wondered if Luke’s editorial about the intention of the question was accurate.
Most mornings before coming to work I stop by a local coffee shop in my neighborhood. It is one of those places where you often see a lot of the locals from the area. The owner of the place is very friendly and gregarious. He usually has my hot Earl Grey and my chocolate croissant ready for me before I get to the counter. Some would call it good customer service. I think it is one of the things that makes the place so inviting. As I sat there one morning looking around at the folks coming through there was the usual cast of people. A table of five construction contractors was involved in conversation about plumbing and bathroom tile. The last one who came in greeted the others with, “How are the happy heteros?” Those waiting at the counter were dressed either in work clothes or jogging outfits, depending on where their day was taking them. Several dogs were tied to trees out front waiting on their owners to come sip coffee in the shade. This is my neighborhood. And it made me think more about the question asked of Jesus? Who is my neighbor?
We usually define that term by location. Neighbors are people who live close to you, who share the block or whose children attend the same school. Neighbors are those people you wave to as you’re being yanked down the street by three dogs anxious to get to the next fire hydrant for a sniff.
Some of the neighbors on our block, Bill and I consider friends. When Bill’s dad had a heart attack several years ago, we knew we could go to our next-door neighbors, Tammi and Gary, to ask them to keep an eye on our pups while we drove to Duluth that night. Some of our neighbors are simply people you say hi to. Others seem a bit cool to us. Bill knows all the dogs in the neighborhood by name but don’t ask him the owners’ names – not nearly as important.
We use the term neighbor fairly generically. I wonder if something about how Jesus talked about loving one’s neighbor as one’s self intimated that he meant something more intentional about the term. Could there have been genuine interest in the question that was asked of him? From the response of the story of the Samaritan we learn that Jesus indeed defined neighbor in a more specific way than is traditionally understood. “Who was the neighbor to the man who was beaten?” “The one who showed mercy.” “Go and do likewise.”
Maybe the questioner wasn’t looking for a loophole that day. Maybe he actually had one of those light bulb moments where the creative juices pulled together a new understanding.
To be a neighbor is to show mercy. Why mercy? Mercy is something we give to another not because they have earned it from their action but because we value who they are. The great scandal of this original story was that the hero was a Samaritan and the ones who refused aid to the mugging victim were those geographically, ethnically or religiously like the victim. Clearly the intent of the story was to show that sharing the same religious tradition, being of the same ethnicity and coming from the same region didn’t necessarily make one a neighbor. The normal things we usually think of to define our neighbors are not particularly cogent in this spiritual sense.
What makes me a neighbor?
Being someone that others can depend on
Being someone who respects and values others
Being someone who sees more than the mistake, the fault, or the failure and knows the other person’s value is more than those things.
We usually read this story from the point of view of the Samaritan. But Jesus’ question was not who was the Samaritan’s neighbor, it was about the man on the side of the road. The Jew in the ditch needed help and the one who came to his aid was a Samaritan.
The neighbor is the one who shows mercy – the one who cares enough to get involved – the one who risks the stigmas associated with groups of people and still offers grace because it is the right thing to do.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” was on TV this past week – that classic story of bravery of attorney Atticus Finch who lived in the deep South during a time period very familiar to me. Finch defends an innocent black man against the accusations of rape by a white woman. The title of the story comes from the idea that when boys were learning to shoot guns, they would inevitably start to target birds. The fathers of the boys teach them not to target Mockingbirds because they don’t harm crops, they don’t cause problems for people and they have beautiful songs that they freely share. To kill a Mockingbird is senseless because you are killing something that only brings joy and beauty to life. When you are able to see the joy and beauty someone brings to life, you value them, even if they are very different from you and even if it is personally costly to do so.
This week the national Presbyterian convention met here in Minneapolis and among their decisions to make was the question of ordaining openly GLBTQ clergy and whether to hold heresy trials for clergy who marry gay couples. At the public “Pray In” that Soulforce organized on Thursday I looked around at the crowd of supporters and wondered if the Presbyterian Church would be their neighbor. Would the institutional church show mercy to a maligned group within its own body? The gospel speaks not only to the world, but also to the church.
According to the gospel, a neighbor is anyone who shows mercy, respect or care for another human being. I don’t have to know your name. I don’t have to speak your language. I don’t have to share the same religion or ethnicity or culture. If I show respect for the value of your presence in this world, I am your neighbor.
Sources:
www.homileticsonline.com The Bad Samaritan, July 2010.