The lawyer in Luke 10 asked Jesus a dangerous question, “Who is my neighbor?”. It is not a bad question, it’s just dangerous when it is asked with the intention of disassociating ourselves from the people God has called us to love. The question seeks minimal neighboring. The response calls us to maximal neighboring.
Minimal Neighboring
The human impulse is to minimize love. The lawyer knew the law given in Leviticus 19:18 was to “love your neighbor as yourself”. He also knew of a loophole written in the text. It was possible to restrict the definition of “neighbor” to only include “sons of your own people”.
Leviticus 19:18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
Jesus targeted this minimal neighboring error in the parable he responded with. He chose people who the lawyer would have identified as his neighbor, a priest and a Levite. Then he portrayed them as minimal neighbors.
The Jews had become masters of building walls as relational barriers. There was a 4.5’ tall wall in Herod’s temple separating the outer court, also called the court of the Gentiles, from the inner court. On the wall were multiple inscriptions that read, “Whoever is caught will be personally responsible for his ensuing death.”[i]
Minimal neighboring loves whenever it must and hates where and whenever it can. If we “love” only when we are required to, it isn’t love.
We are all wall builders. We build walls between ourselves and those people who don’t look like us, think like us, vote like us, worship like us, interpret COVID statistics like us, think about vaccinations like us, share hobbies like us, have a standard of living like us, prefer Microsoft products like us, or eat a vegan diet like us.
The Jews took their dividing wall seriously. Paul was arrested when it was believed that he took a Gentile into the inner court (Acts 21:16-30). He knew how they felt about walls. He also knew how Jesus felt about walls. He wrote to the Gentile converts in Ephesus, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.” (Ephesians 2:13-14)
We all have the natural inclination toward minimal neighboring. We intrinsically look for ways to reduce love. We easily build walls of division. God tears them down.
Maximal Neighboring
After portraying the lawyer’s own people as poor neighbors, Jesus portrayed the man’s enemy as the protagonist. Jesus was stretching the man’s minimal mind to a maximal neighboring possibility in pushing him to think of a Samaritan as a good guy.
To feel the weight of what Jesus was doing here it is helpful to understand a bit of history. The Jews and Samaritans had a history of nearly 1000 years of not being good neighbors. Jews despised Samaritans as “half-breed” apostates.
When Jesus made the Samaritan the good guy in the parable, he was communicating that Samaritans are human too. The people that we see as our worst enemies, Jesus sees as our neighbors. Jesus has a big neighborhood!
Matthew 5:44 Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Maximal Neighboring Principle #1: See everyone as a neighbor!
Let’s make it practical.
Our world is big. The world we personally experience is relatively tiny. If everyone is my neighbor, that’s a lot of neighbors. Let’s put some numbers to it. As of Monday, January 24 at 3:54pm, there were estimated to be 7,922,563,694 people on the planet.[ii]
They are all a part of Jesus’ neighborhood. But they are not part of our personal world. So, what does a good neighbor do with these facts? They might all be my neighbor, but I can’t be a neighbor to all of them.
Notice a key principle from the parable of neighboring well in Jesus’ big neighborhood. Jesus says, “But a Samaritan, as he journeyed…” The good Samaritan wasn’t on a mission trip. He wasn’t on a crusade to save the world. He simply shows love to the person in his path.
Maximal Neighboring Principle #2: Prioritize the people in your path!
Don’t be overwhelmed by all the people you will never interact with but be engaged with those that do cross your path. Spend your energy doing what you can do and not worrying about what you can’t. You may not be able to shovel the driveway, but you may be able to share a smile with them. You may not be able to give them four hours, but you might be able to give them five minutes.
We can’t be present everywhere. But we can be fully present where we are. Don’t try to share yourself with the whole world. Instead, bring your whole self into the world around you. This is maximal neighboring.
This principle is summed up so well by Andy Stanley, “Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone.”[iii] That is so good. Do for the people along your path what you wish you could do for everyone in the world.
Ask the dangerous question, “Who is my neighbor?”. But ask it with a sense of curiosity about the person God has placed in your path and with a desire to love that person the best you can.
[i] https://theancientpathblog.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/the-dividing-wall-of-the-court-of-the-gentiles-in-herods-temple/
[ii] https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/
[iii] https://twitter.com/andystanley/status/1105084218101641217?lang=en