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DAVID'S EMAIL BIBLE STUDY:
Won't You Be My Neighbor?

 

A. INTRODUCTION ... Jesus was such a great teacher that people called him "Rabbi", even though he had no formal training or a title. He was a master story-teller, using stories as parables to teach a lesson. Some have called his parables the greatest short stories ever written. O'Henry is second, I'm third! Today's scripture is one of the world's most famous stories, The Parable of the Good Samaritan.

 

B. TODAY... Luke 10:25-37.

 

C. SUMMARY. The intro to the story is key. A man asks Jesus how to gain eternal life, i.e., how to get to heaven, how to please God? Jesus tosses the question back, and the young man correctly quotes prominent Jewish/Biblical teaching: Love God completely, love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus tells him "that's it, do it." Then the man asks the key question, "who is my neighbor?" Jesus answers with this story. A man gets badly mugged, left for dead. Two religious professionals walk on by. Then a hated Samaritan, a despised religious and political and social enemy of the people, stops, cares for the victim, carries him to safety, and pays for his treatment to recovery. Jesus concludes the story by asking "who is the real neighbor?" The young man wisely says that the true neighbor is the one who helped.

 

D. KEY POINTS

  1. Who gets ETERNAL LIFE, and how? Classic Christian teaching is divided on eternal life. My grandfather's denomination taught that it is a gift that God bestows on the righteous and denies to the unrighteous. It is either heaven or you get extinguished in "the lake of fire", a second, and final, death. The other view is that everyone gets eternal life, some to a great place, some to an eternity of torment. Either way, we all want the good eternity: heaven, paradise with God, reunion with loved ones. Jesus' questioner, like everyone, wants to know the correct path to heaven's eternal life. He and Jesus agree with the Old Testament's dual commands to love God and neighbor, fully and without prejudice, with a love equal to the strong feelings you have for yourself. It is an all-encompassing love for God and neighbor.
  2. BUT WHO is my NEIGHBOR? Way back to the beginning of time, in Genesis, Cain kills his brother and, when questioned by God, asks "Am I my brother's keeper?" Well, God says, actually you are. At that time there were not many others around, so to be responsible for one's brother was pretty much the same as being responsible for everyone. As populations grew, cities and nations and society got organized, there was still the idea that you cared for those nearby, your "neighbor". Chances were that your neighbor was much like you - same religion, culture, food, language, probably related. To care for one's neighbor was not a stretch.
Jesus' Parable is a radical reimagination of "neighbor", and for whom we are responsible. The hero and the victim were bitter enemies. The Samaritans, though living in Israel, were hated foreigners, perpetrators of ethnic cleaning from when Babylon conquered Israel. Some Babylonians had moved to Israel, took over land and businesses, stayed on for centuries, warped or usurped the Jewish religion. They were hated and shunned. Yet Jesus makes the Samaritan the hero, in contrast to the "Priest" and the "Levite" who totally ignored the victim. So, who is the true neighbor? Jesus' lesson is two-fold: the neighbor is the one in need AND the one in position to help. Neighbor is no longer defined by blood, proximity, familiarity, likeness of any sort. We are to love our neighbor as yourself, no matter who or where they are. Suddenly, flood victims 1,000 miles away, or a poor person downtown, or the refugee escaping Middle Eastern madness, or a cancer patient needing a ride for treatment - these are our neighbors. The ramifications are immense, on this life and the next. It is Jesus' guarantee for heaven.


 

3. BUT...! Why didn't the two religious guys stop to help? We all have our reasons for not helping. Maybe it's a scam. Don't want to get involved. Can't afford to help. Could be dangerous. If I give them money they'll just use it for booze or drugs. Let's not enable or create dependency. It's not my business. There's so much need. Etc. Jesus' answer is simple. We are not responsible for the whole world. We are not responsible for the situations in which we are the only on-time help. When we are the answer to "If not me, who? If not now, when?" then that's the neighbor we better love like ourselves.
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