Discover the Neighbor in Luke 10:25-37: Part 1 of 3 in this Love Your Neighbor series

I spent most of my childhood in central Florida and most of my adult life in Yankee territory. My neighbors have varied in culture, socioeconomic status, race, age, and religious affiliation. I’m grateful for their stories, the memories, and lessons along the way.

I learned that some neighbors will play soccer with you ALL.DAY.LONG. Some invite you over for sleepovers. Some have dogs that will hump your leg.

Some let you play their Nintendo games with such intensity that you forget the clock. Some are paranoid gun-owners with shifty eyes.

Some accidentally crash their car into your parked car when alcohol is driving. Some quietly watch from their windows while your dad screams in agony after a painful fall from a truck ramp.

Some join you on spying adventures. Some make you laugh so hard you wet your pants. Some speak English as their second language.

Some sheepishly give out canned baked beans at Halloween because they forgot to buy candy. Some steal your vine-ripened cherry tomatoes only to waste them on passing cars and bike tires.

Some live above you and snore. Some host loud weekend parties that last until 3 AM. Some are so kind and hilarious and present on the dark days that you want to be neighbors FOREVER.

Some show up at your front door with fresh blue crabs from the Bay. Some offer cookies and hugs and tender moments of shared grief.

Some pull out your gorgeous, took-you-forever-to-grow Gerber daisies and you want to smack those devilish hands but they’re children, after all. (Did they have to take ALL of them, though? I mean, really.)

Some knock on your door in need of money, a ride, an egg, a cup of sugar. Some help you load your sad Penske truck, their vision–and yours–blurred by tears and you wonder if you’ll ever recover from those painful goodbyes.

Some neighbors become lifelong friends. Others–just for a season.

To better understand what Jesus meant when He told His followers, “Love your neighbor as yourself”, I’ve put a stake in Luke 10:25-37, where we’ll camp out for the LYN series. In this post–and the next two–I hope to bring a little more clarity to this simple command.

In this particular text, we read about a lawyer–let’s call him ‘Lawyer’–who asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. As a justice meter and legal expert, Lawyer relies on his knowledge of the rules to challenge Teacher. Seeing Lawyer’s deeper motive, Jesus responds to the brilliant, proud academic, “What is written in the law? How does it read to you?” Lawyer answers by perfectly quoting the Torah: “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 YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”

Jesus affirms his answer.

But the dissatisfied Lawyer continues, “And who is my neighbor?” Master of every jot and tittle, skilled in detailed contracts, Lawyer tries (but fails) to find a more thorough explanation that will justify his ‘good’ deeds and trick Teacher.

To help Lawyer with his limited perspective, Jesus tells the familiar story of The Good Samaritan: A man walking along a road is attacked and beaten by robbers. A priest and a Levite pass by–crossing over to the other side to avoid the bloodied, dying man. (We’ll address this in later posts.) Some scholars believe these two characters refused to help because the law prevented priests or Levites from ‘touching’ a dead person. They may also have been afraid of robbers using the ‘dead’ body as bait to lure more victims. Regardless of their rationale, self-preservation and fear of breaking a cultural law kept them from mercy.

The third traveler, a Samaritan–a member of the blended ethnic group, rejected and cursed by the Jews, viewed as an enemy and traitor–is the hero in this narrative. He chooses interruption over indifference, inconvenience over itinerary, and compassion over cultural norms. The Samaritan tends to the victim’s wounds, uses his own animal to carry the man to an inn, and pays for his stay and extended care.

In this passage, the Greek word for neighbor is plesion, meaning ‘outward nearness; whoever is physically close to us should be our concern.’ Jesus offered no other qualifiers for ‘neighbor’. Based on this text and its place in the broader frame of Scripture, ‘neighbor’ included everyone within reach. Followers of Jesus were to concern themselves with the poor, widows, orphans, prostitutes, tax collectors, those who were lame/mute/blind, those beyond the walls of their homes and beyond their own culture–like say, a beaten, bloodied man whose only connection to his ‘savior’ was a dusty road.

Lawyer’s questions seem more like excuses to avoid caring for those marked ‘okay to ignore’ by a culture steeped in religious tradition and ethnic superiority. When he finishes the story, Jesus asks Lawyer, “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” Unable to find any more excuses, Lawyer replies, “The one who showed mercy to him.” Teacher admonishes Lawyer to do likewise.

Jesus removed the limits on who *should* receive compassion and graciously told a story that dismantled the man-made barriers between ‘us’ and ‘them’. He proved that mercy crosses ethnic, religious, and racial lines. Mercy gives permission to break the rules, push cultural boundaries, and disrupt social constructs in order to ‘love your neighbor’.

And He used a ‘dirty’ outcast from Samaria as the example for Lawyer to follow.

So, who are your neighbors? Who exists in proximity to you? Who are you ignoring or avoiding and why? Is mercy leading you to connect with those who differ from you or are you bound by fear and self-preservation? What social constructs need dismantled in your own life?

I welcome your thoughts on this passage–and any stories you’d like to share on discovering your neighbor.

Next week, we’ll explore part 2 of this Love Your Neighbor series:

1. Discover the neighbor in Luke 10:25-37
2. Define ‘love’ in Luke 10:25-37.
3. Determine our role as it relates to Luke 10:25-27.