Who is Your Neighbor?

Have you heard the one about the Good Samaritan? A guy gets beat up and left for dead along the road. A pastor and a church leader both pass him by without helping. Then along comes a___. (Fill in the blank with anyone you think very little of; foreigners, politicians, Miley Cyrus, etc.)

When Jesus first told the story, He used a Samaritan, the hated distant cousins of Jewish people. And as Jesus tells the story, the Samaritan helps him out, even paying for his medical expenses.

Jesus tells this story to an ‘expert in the law’, which means He’s talking to a guy who memorized the first 39 books of the Bible. The ‘expert’ had asked who his neighbor was. This story shows that Jesus’ answer equates to anyone we see in need.
What’s interesting here is that the ‘expert’ didn’t just strike up a conversation with Jesus about neighbors. He asked that question when Jesus said loving God and loving your neighbor was a correct answer. The real question was “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25)

If you’ve ever asked what God expects from you, it’s laid out here, very simply in a story kids have heard since their earliest days of Sunday School.

Being a neighbor means loving God. Loving God means loving others, no matter who they are.

As Jesus told the expert, “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37).

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