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

This, of course, is the set up to the parable of the Good Samaritan a story where Jesus turns the tables upside down.  He makes the “expert” admit that the Samaritan was the neighbor to the man beaten and left in a ditch.  The Samaritan, you know, the foreigner who Jewish people of the day were not supposed to avoid.  There was a long-standing division between the two peoples, over religion, politics and beyond.  But here Jesus states something different – He makes the Samaritan the hero of the story forcing the expert to admit it. 

Who are the Samaritans in your spheres?  Who are the ones you are not supposed to associate with, to speak with, to consider friend?  Or, to ask a different question, if you were robbed, beaten and dying in a ditch, who would you want to be your neighbor?  Someone so self-absorbed that they walk on by, or the one who everyone considers an outsider?

As you journey through this week, look around at your neighbors.  Pray for them, talk with them. Show them Christ’s love no matter who they are, where they are from or what they do, for you have something in common with them, the image of God.

Peace,

Pastor Bill