"What is written in the Law?" He replied. "How do you read it?"
In response, the lawyer quoted the shema: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'... then he quoted from Leviticus: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
Then the man asked Jesus the burning question of the day...
"who is my neighbor?"
As we read that question today, two thousand years after it was asked, we may miss the significance. Because, to me, it seems like a superfluous question... 'who is my neighbor?'...
But I have to keep two things in mind: this guy was 'trying to test Jesus'... and, his question was asked from the standpoint of 'have to'... in other words, he's asking Jesus whom he must love...
so, in typical Jesus fashion, He did not satisfy the guy with a tidy answer. I don't know what this dude was expecting Jesus to say, but I doubt it was what he got.... Jesus wasn't given to providing tidy 'one-liner-wrapped-up-in-a-nice-bow' theological snippets. He provided his audience with a real life application in the form of a parable.
He draws a stark contrast between the two men who were too busy and important and 'clean' to help... and one guy who took time to stop and provide aid. The characters Jesus used in His story were, not so coincidentally, people with whom His audience was very familiar: a priest - a person of considerable position and wealth (probably there were a couple in his audience), a Levite - a pure, blue-blooded priest (again, probably a couple within the sound of His voice), and a samaritan (the lowest-class half-breed kind of person anyone could think of).
I am not sure what this slick lawyer expected to hear. Usually I can see the 'angle' of these guys who tried to trap Jesus... but, to be frank, I have never really been able to figure out what this guy wanted to get out of Jesus in this case.
Maybe he wanted Jesus to specifically define what a 'neighbor' was.... perhaps he had his quill and vellum poised and ready, expecting to hear a profound list of characteristics of the prototypical neighbor.
Whatever his motive for the question, Jesus intentionally uses the lowest scumbag of an example to describe what a neighbor 'looks like'...
According to Jesus, a neighbor is not defined by nationality, or by skin color, or by political position or station in life... a neighbor is not from a particular family or geographical proximity.
Simply put, according to the Savior of the world, a neighbor is anyone who sees someone in need and fills that need.
Wonder what the lawyer thought of that definition?
What do we think?
May we never be too busy to see those who need help... and help them.
Blessings!
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