Who is My Neighbor?

CAPTURE (Why should students pay attention to and care about your message?)

Raise your hand if you’ve ever had a great neighbor.

Okay, raise your hand if you’ve ever had a not-so-great, I wish they’d move to Canada type of neighbor.

[Share about John and the Chaka’s.]

My guess is that when I say the word “neighbor,” a specific image comes to mind. Maybe your neighbor is super nice and bakes cookies for the neighborhood… or maybe your neighbor is the “get off my lawn” type.

Regardless of what image comes to mind when you think of a neighbor, it’s safe to say we all know the meaning of the word “neighbor.”

But something that might surprise you is that what we typically think of as a neighbor—the person who lives in the house or apartment next to or across from ours—might be totally different from what Jesus was talking about when He said that we are to love our neighbor.

If you’re unfamiliar with Jesus’ memorable conversation about loving your neighbor, it’s found in Luke 10.

To give a little context, a man is asking Jesus what he needs to do to inherit eternal life. And, in classic-fashion, Jesus turns the question around and asks the man what he thinks the Scriptures say. Here’s how he answers:

Luke 10:25–28 CSB

25 Then an expert in the law stood up to test him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written in the law?” he asked him. “How do you read it?” 27 He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself.” 28 “You’ve answered correctly,” he told him. “Do this and you will live.”

I love Jesus’ reaction here. The man actually answers Jesus’ question perfectly… but suddenly, I have A LOT of questions, like:

How do I love my neighbor like I love myself?

Even better… WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR?

Luke 10:29 CSB

29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

SCRIPTURE (Luke 10:30-35)

Jesus gives the man (and the crowd who had gathered) a clearer picture of what He meant when He used the word “neighbor”. Jesus told a story known as The Parable of the Good Samaritan, which is found in Luke 10:30-35. Let’s have a look:

Luke 10:30–35 CSB

30 Jesus took up the question and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion. 34 He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’

Now, we might say, “Aww. That Samaritan was a really good person, because he did the right thing.” Beyond that, what he did might not seem like a huge deal to us, but I want you to know his actions would have been considered SCANDALOUS to the people listening to Jesus’ story.

Here’s why: the Jewish people and the Samaritans hated one another because of racial and religious differences, and as a result, the two groups didn’t interact with one another, especially when it could be avoided.

[Teacher note: the following line is meant to be voiced in a sarcastic tone to point out the absurdity of the statement.]

Can you even imagine living in a world where people dislike one another because of religious and racial reasons?

Although it might not seem like people have learned a lot about dealing with religious and racial differences these days, we can learn a few things from Jesus’ story if we’re willing.

INSIGHTS (What might this Scripture mean?)

The first thing that I noticed right away in this story is that…

1. Jesus didn’t mind making people uncomfortable.

Jesus didn’t pull any punches when He told this story to answer the question, “Who is my neighbor?”.

He could have swapped the identities of the people in the story. He could have made one of the Jewish religious leaders the hero, right?

But He didn’t.

How He chose to tell the story with those two groups of people (the Jewish religious leaders and the Samaritan) was very intentional.

When Jesus shared the story, His audience was primarily Jewish. This Jewish audience would have most likely expected a different ending to the story. They likely anticipated the hero of this story to be a priest or a Levite, but much to their shock, the hero turned out to be their enemy.

Jesus proved He wouldn’t settle for anything less than God’s design for humanity,

where all people have equal value being created in God’s image.

He wouldn’t let people think it was okay to think less of others based on their ancestry or beliefs.

And then, Jesus doubled down! The offensive part wasn’t just that the Samaritan stopped to help the man who had been beaten and robbed. The Samaritan even went out of his way to pay for the man’s medical bills.

My guess is that it was extremely uncomfortable for the crowd to imagine one of their sworn enemies going out of his way to show such incredible compassion.

The second thing that jumps out at me is that…

2. Jesus didn’t just tell stories to entertain people.

In the Gospels, we have dozens of examples of Jesus telling stories to crowds of people.

And each time, He found a way to use the story to teach the crowd a vital lesson. Sometimes, those lessons were difficult for people to figure out.

But in this particular story, we know exactly what Jesus wanted the crowd to learn because of what happened in the following two verses:

Luke 10:36–37 CSB

36 “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” 37 “The one who showed mercy to him,” he said. Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”

Imagine how difficult it must have been for the man to answer Jesus’ question.

He couldn’t even bring himself to say the word “Samaritan.”

But the real key is how Jesus responded to the man’s answer. “Yes, now go and do the same.”

Let’s just pause and unpack that for a minute.

We know that the crowd hated the Samaritans, right? They surely didn’t like that Jesus made a Samaritan the story's hero.

And now Jesus told the crowd that they should be like the Samaritan, because he was the only one who was a good neighbor to the man.

That was bold! But that’s how Jesus addressed the culture of His time, He didn’t come to entertain crowds; He came to bring people life and point out the beauty of Kingdom of God.

3. Everyone is our neighbor.

Jesus didn’t let anyone off the hook here. If we’re supposed to “go and do the same,” then we can’t be the kind of people who only care for people who live near us, look like us, and believe the same things as we do.

Why? Because our neighbors aren’t just people we’re close to or comfortable with.

Everyone is our neighbor.

And if that’s true, then we need to reexamine how we look at other people, how we feel about them, and how treat them.

Jesus didn’t only tell the crowd to be nice to people who are different from them. He’s said that when we see anyone in need, no matter how different they may seem, we should have compassion on them. Compassion translates to action and to doing whatever we can to help them, even if it means going out of our way and giving sacrificially like the Samaritan.

But how can we obey Jesus’ command to “go and do the same?” Where do we even start?

ACTION (How could we live this out?)

1. Evaluate and confront your own biases.

Identifying and confronting our own biases is not fun, but here are a few questions you might ask yourself to get started:

· Do I treat any person (or group of people) differently just because they are different from me?

· Is there any person (or group of people) I joke about or laugh at when others joke about them?

· Do I have different expectations of people based on their appearance, where they live, or their beliefs? (Those who aren’t a Christian)

The second thing we can do is:

2. Pray for our neighbors (yes, all of them).

Matthew 5:43–45 CSB

43 “You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

This doesn’t mean we should pray for them to stub their toe or lose their phone down a sewer grate.

If our neighbors include those who don’t like us, then one of the best things we can do is pray for them. It’s what Jesus tells us to do!

3. Do something kind for a neighbor this week.

In this parable, the Good Samaritan didn’t plan on doing something nice because there’s no way he could have known ahead of time that someone was going to need his help. He just found himself in a situation where showing compassion and kindness was needed, so he stepped up and did it.

But I’m almost certain that you and I already know neighbors that could use our help. So why wait? What if we decided right now to make a plan to show compassion and kindness just like the Good Samaritan did?

So, while you’re in your small group conversations, I want to challenge you to come up with an actual, tangible act of kindness you can do for a specific person.

Don’t settle for something vague or too general like, “I’ll be nicer to people.” Instead, aim for something like, “I’m going to tell Ella that I love her singing voice,” or, “I’m going to shovel my neighbor’s driveway or wash their car without them even asking.”

Get specific!

[Break off into Small Groups]

[close in prayer]