The gospel this weekend came from Luke chapter 10, you know, the parable of The Good Samaritan. The “expert in the law” asks what he must do to inherit eternal life.
Jesus asked the expert what was written in the law and the expert said the law stated to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind. Oh…and one other thing “love your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27
Jesus told him he was correct, “do this and you will live.” vs. 28
There are countless lessons to be learned from this parable. Lessons on compassion, generosity and love, just to name a few. But for some reason that is not the lesson I took away this time.
I don’t know why, but yesterday verse 29 jumped out at me.
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus,
“And who is my neighbor?” Luke 10:29
emphasis mine
It isn’t the neighbor question that gets me, it is the first part of that verse. The justification part.
The expert wants eternal life.
He knows what the law says.
He understands the law.
But let’s have a bit more clarification. (He is a lawyer, after all!)
Just exactly, Lord, WHO is my neighbor. WHO do I have to love?
Surely not the people that are different from me.
Surely not the people that have less than me.
You are not asking me to love the people that do THOSE things, are you, Lord? And what about those people that don’t follow the law, Lord…I have to love them too?
Yes, I think that is exactly what the Lord was telling the expert of the law.
And that is what he telling me too. Our neighbor is everyone. Even those that we really don’t WANT to love…Jesus says we have to love them too.
I wonder if I am as loving toward those that are not like me as I should be. I think I am not.
And if this seems like an unfinished blog post, that is because it is. I don’t have the answer.
I working through the process of learning to love my neighbor. I don’t have 3 bullet points on how to do that.
Or steps to work on. I am just mulling over the fact that I don’t need to be trying to JUSTIFY my decisions, I need to LOVE my neighbor.
And my neighbor is everybody.
Faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13
Do you have trouble loving your neighbor?
Or even deciding WHO is your neighbor?
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And my neighbor is everybody – yes! It's sometimes difficult to hear that we must love the unlovely, but that's really what the gospel is all about. He loved us, the unlovely, first. Thanks for sharing at the Hear it on Sunday link-up! 🙂
So thankful that He loved us…the unlovely!
Great post. We all want to justify our actions, don't we? Instead, we are to love, unconditionally, as Christ did. Linking with Playdates. Kim
So nice to meet you Kim! Thank you for stopping by.
You got me at your title. 🙂 I'm probably not going down as the Good Samaritan either.
Your point about justifying though: I *might* could be accused of that from time to time (if anybody were to ask). Trying to let go of that need to justify and instead just flat-out obey.
Oh, Lisa…I think you and I have a LOT in common! 🙂
I wrote on the good samaritan too! (I actually got to give the sermon this week, since we have a little baby start-up church and the pastor wasn't going to be there. My husband presided; I just preached with my theologian husband's help.) The way I see it, Jesus is answering the self-justifying (because the lawyer knows he is a tiny bit guilty) with a helpful correction: it's not about who the nearby person is, it's about who you are going to be. Maybe you want to look at my whole sermon? highheartedly.wordpress.com
Thanks for your honest reflection. God is at work, rely on him!!
you've got that right, Mary! we're forever trying to make ourselves look good and shrug off what we own, what we're responsible for. we're crazy if we think He doesn't know the deepest depths of our hearts!
Thanks for stopping by my blog today Mary. I had to come over and read your Good Sam post too. I wrote about this passage in a different way for Tuesday's post but am smiling since I see it is similar to yours today. Glad to find your blog. I think we are spiritual sisters.
Justification…..one of my favorite words to throw around when I want to get my way….which is just the problem..God's way is so different from my way. I don't want to love everyone but God is so patient and keeps reminding me that His way is best and that He will help me accomplish His way….What an awesome God we serve…
Thank you so much for this post…Words to ponder for sure….
This is one of my favorite Bible stories–how could it not be? I am always struck by the masterful way Jesus used stories. It wouldn't have been the same had he simply said, "A good neighbor is someone who shows compassion to all, not just those who look like them." The story gives the aha gently.
Leave it to Jesus. Beautiful.