... and Who Is My Neighbor??

I’m preaching a new series this month: Radicals & Rebels.  It’s all about being radically hospitable.  Most will agree that the Great Commandment to “love God and love your neighbor as yourself” is a tall order. But is it so tall we pass it by altogether? 

Jesus gives us so many examples of what this radical hospitality and love look like. The Good Samaritan parable in Luke 10.25-37 is one of the classics.  Jesus is asked what one must do to gain eternal life.  After Jesus responds with a couple of questions of his own, the man replies that the Law of Moses says “you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.”  Jesus agrees that he answered the question right and told the man to live that way and he will truly live. 

But the man couldn’t leave well enough alone.  He goes on, “… and who is my neighbor?”  Jesus always knows when it’s time for a parable; a story with a lesson.  So he begins the story of a man who is beaten, stripped of his clothes, robbed, and left for dead along the roadside.  After a priest (a servant of the Lord God Almighty) walks on by crossing to the other side of the road, and a Levite (a servant of the Temple, God’s house) does the same, the battered and desperate man is left to die in his own misery…

… until Radical Hospitality comes meandering by.  And then everything changes.  The man is not ignored.  He is not made to feel an outcast.  He no longer feels invisible because people walk right on by while saying/doing nothing.  In fact, the man’s life will be forever changed… and that’s not even in the story.  But how could he not be? 

The third person to come by is basically a no body, and yet he could be anybody.  He comes from Samaria, a region that is not thought of very highly. In fact, God’s people won’t even associate with Samaritans.  But God will.  In Jesus’ story, it was this outcast-labeled Samaritan who not only stays on the same side of the road as the man in need, sees the man and sees he is in great need, but he also loves the man.  He goes out his way to care for every need the man has.  Jesus says “the Samaritan saw the man lying there in great need, and was moved with compassion.”  He was moved.  He was moved to get closer to the man lying on the dirt covered in blood, not back away.  He was moved to bandage his wounds, not ignore them.  He was moved to transport the man to safety, not leave him to his own demise.  He was even moved to put up his own resources to pay for all of this, and more.  The man from Samaria gave the Inn Keeper where he stayed the night before, a full two days’ wages to continue the care that he had begun.  He also told the Inn Keeper he’d be back.  He didn’t say “if I return”, but with assurance he said “when I return”.  The man’s hospitality was not complete.  He had a responsibility to the care of this man so he committed to return.  He even offered to pay more when he returned, if more care was needed than the two days wages he was already giving. 

Now that’s radical: long term commitment to someone that others, even God’s people, ignore? …hands on nurturing? …financial support? …to a stranger??  Oh wait.  We need to remember why Jesus was telling this story: as a response to the question “who is my neighbor?”  This wasn’t a stranger.   This was a neighbor… even though they came from opposing backgrounds.  In spite of being rivals, love trumped all.  As it should.  Over the top, unbelievable, doesn’t make sense to most, but makes all the sense in the world to our Creator.  Love God and love your neighbor this week… and next.  And you will truly live