Who is my neighbor?

The parables of Jesus make it easy to understand what he’s saying, and why. However, even during Holy Week and Easter, it’s not nearly as easy to follow what the Son of God says.

My favorite is the parable of the Good Samaritan found in Luke 10:25-37. Jesus is asked by a lawyer (of course), “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus responds by asking the lawyer what is written in the Law of Moses. The lawyer then answers, “You shall 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.”

Being a human with the desire to justify himself, the lawyer asked, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus answers by telling the story of a man who was stripped, robbed and beaten until he was half dead.

As the parable goes, a priest walked by the man, only to keep on going by. A Levite came across him next, passing him on the other side of the road. Yet, a Samaritan – a group of folks who were looked down upon as second-class citizens by the masses in Jerusalem – had compassion when he saw the man, tended to his injuries and set him up with a room at a local inn to recover.

“Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” Jesus asked the lawyer. “The one who showed him mercy,” the lawyer replied. To which Jesus said, “You go, and do likewise.”

Jesus is the best at summarizing complex subjects in simple statements. However, that doesn’t make His commands any easier to obey, even 2,000 years later.

Mike Crowe, pastor of MountainView Church in Murphy, shared a superb message on this subject on Feb. 23, which you can listen to online. He clearly answered the question “Who is my neighbor?” for those of us reading the parable of the Good Samaritan today.

Scripturally speaking, your neighbor is not just anyone who lives near you or believes in the same things, as God has a much broader definition in mind. Loving one’s neighbor is also more than simply loving those who are more like us and who can love us back in return.

What kind of love are we talking about? The same kind of love our Savior showed us. The Lord’s Prayer asks God to “forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors,” making it clear that we can’t be forgiven unless we show the same mercy to them that Jesus showed us when our sin was nailed to His cross.

To be sure, loving others does not mean agreeing with everything they say or do, nor does it mean acting in ways that always gain their approval. Loving our neighbors means attending to their needs – both physical and spiritual – as Grace Bible Church posted online. We love our neighbors best when we take care of them while sharing God’s truth.

Think about it. If you came across a person robbed and beaten, I’m sure you would stop to help if they were a family member, friend, work associate, member of your church or civic club. But what about if that person had a different skin color? Spoke a difference language? Belonged to a different political party? Would you still consider them to be your neighbor and deserving of assistance?

Thankfully, in Cherokee County and across the South, there are plenty of times when our differences seem to disappear. Firefighters have been known to take clothes out of their own closet to give to someone their size who just lost their home. Volunteers generously give of their time, and donate from their own pockets, for the benefit of complete strangers. There are lots of good people here coming from all sides.

So, who are our neighbors? They are Democrats and Republicans, Libertarians and independents, socialists and fascists. They are pro-life activists and pro-choice activists, atheists and theists, racists and rednecks, the LGBTQ+ community and men overflowing with testosterone.

Our neighbors work for the government, prefer stronger government programs or want to get rid of it altogether. They are the millionaires and billionaires who own corporations, along with the thousandaires who work for them.

And when all else fails, remember the Golden Rule and treat your neighbors they way you want to be treated by them.

David Brown is publisher of the Cherokee Scout. Call him at 828-837-5122 or email dbrown@cherokeescout.com.