Who is my neighbor?

Luke 10:25–37 (LEB)

And behold, a certain legal expert stood up to test him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do so that I will inherit eternal life?” And he said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” And he answered and said, “You shall love the Lord your God from all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.”

But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” And Jesus replied and said, “A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who both stripped him and beat him. After inflicting blows on him, they went away, leaving him half dead. Now by coincidence a certain priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. And in the same way also a Levite, when he came down to the place and saw him, passed by on the opposite side. But a certain Samaritan who was traveling came up to him and, when he saw him, had compassion. And he came up and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine, and he put him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And on the next day, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of him, and whatever you spend in addition, I will repay to you when I return. Which of these three do you suppose became a neighbor of the man who fell among the robbers?” So he said, “The one who showed mercy to him.” And Jesus said to him, “You go and do likewise.”

(Lawyer )exspert of the law stood up to test Jesus. (the people were seated; evidently Jesus had been teaching) Lawyers don not ask questions if they do no already know the answer.

He put Jesus to the test. That is to say he asked his question, not in the search for information, but to see what kind of answer Jesus would produce. He may even have been hoping that Jesus would do badly and that he would have the opportunity of showing him up.

But the lawyer would not let it rest there. He wanted to justify himself. (to show proof to be right /righteous)

He wanted Jesus to set boundaries and make it clear who is and is not his neighboor. Legal defenition of who my neighbor is.

His basic attitude was still wrong: he had not understood the implication of his own words. So he went on to ask, And who is my neighbour? He saw that it meant more than the man next door. But how much more? There were different ideas among the Jews on this point, but they all seem to be confined to the nation Israel; the idea of love towards mankind had not reached them.

Eternal life is something to be inherited. And to receive an inheritance, you have to be an heir

‘Who is my neighbour?’ not, ‘What must I do to be saved?’

Road from Jerusalem to Jericho (17 mile road, known to be dangerous)

Certain man

Jesus didn’t spesify who he was, his backround, his political or social statice, race, or religious beliefs. All He said was it was a certain man, which could be any man.

Stripped, beaten and left to die.

2. Priest and Levite

He saw -payed attention, understoon

passed by on the other side. (eyecontact )

They didn’t want to be inconvenienced. If he is dead then if they touch him they would be defiled and would have to go through a ritual.

It happened that a priest came by while he was still lying there. Since the man was ‘half dead’ the priest would probably not have been able to be certain whether he was dead or not without touching him. But if he touched him and the man was in fact dead, then he would have incurred the ceremonial defilement that the Law forbade (Lev. 21:1ff.). He could be sure of retaining his ceremonial purity only by leaving the man alone. He could be sure he was not omitting to help a man in need only by going to him. In this conflict it was ceremonial purity that won the day. Not only did he not help, he went to the other side of the road. He deliberately avoided any possibility of contact. Other factors may have weighed with him, such as the possibility that the robbers might return, the nature of his business, and so on. We do not know. We do know that the priest left the man where he was in his suffering and his need. . Much the same happened when a Levite came by. He also was a religious personage and might be expected to be interested in helping a man in need. But he also was a man interested in ceremonial purity. He also thought it better not to get involved. And he also passed by on the other side.

Looked like in our day and age saying my thoughts and prayers are with you.

3. Samaritan man

For Jesus to bring a Samaritan man into the story was very offensive, especially when one chapter earlier His disciples and Jesus weren’t welcome in Samaria. (how disciples must of felt when just a little bit ago they wanted to burn them )Luke 9:52-55

Jews did’t associate with Samaritans because they were considered unclean. They hated each other. They would cross the street to avoid each other. The relationship between them was hostile. They were despised enemies of the Jews.

Jesus makes their enemy a hero of the story.

He saw

Had compession

that led him to action (True compassion will lead you to action )

He used what he had to help him

Put wine (disinfected the wounds)

Put oil (soothed his wounds)

took him to the inn

took care of him

hired a person to continue taking care of him

4. Jesus the Samaritan

Jesus didn’t call samaritan “good” people did.

Luke 18:19 “And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”

Samaria means keeper of the Law (Jesus came to fulfill the law)

wine - represents his blood

oil - the holy spirit

Jesus saved the man from death but brought them to the inn for healing. James 5:16 “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous person accomplishes much.”

Jesus did’t come to help the men that could help themselfs he came to those who could’t/

Certain man is me

Every one of us were or maybe even still are today like that man who was left to die. Half dead - spiritually dead but alive in the body. We were all lost, broken, helpless and hopeless.

feeling unfortunate, asking why do these things happen to me, many people went down this road but why did I have to be the one that almost died. Why did my father leave, why was i obused or malested, why don’t i have children, why was my husband or wife unfaithful, out of the whole company why was i let go when i needed that job the most, why did my loved ones pass away, why do all these bad things happen to me.

and maybe you feel unfortunate today, lost, broken, beated down by life, surviving not living , half dead . There is a samaritan that is walking your way . He wan’ts to save you and heal you.

maybe people passed you by before, didn’t notice you or pretended they didn’t but be sure He sees you. He knows you by name. He loves you. He went out of His way to save you. He left the glory of heaven and came and became a man so he could be close to us. He broke all the stereotypes of who our neighbor is and where does our neighborhood end and died for all. His blood was shed for ALL. So who am i not to love or except someone because they look differently then i do, they think differently, dress diffrently, speak diffrently. just like in those days there are groups of people that can’t stand one another, despises and hates each other.

5. Worker at the inn (second super hero)

Is us

God brings people into our lives for healing. What if we will be willing to be inconvinienced like the inn keeper was. i’m sure it wasn’t in his plan when he woke up that morning to take care of a person that almost died.

James 5:16 “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous person accomplishes much.”

The lawyer asked Jesus to define who is his neighbor and instead Jesus turned his attention unto himself and defined who he is as a neighbor.

The whole point of the story is to answer the question who is my neighbor. There are no limist, no ethnic, no geographical limits to the neighborhood of God.

There are no universal brotherhood. Our brothers and sisters are those who believe in Christ. But there is universal neighborhood. Every human being is my neighbor even if he is not part of the brotherhood or the family of God.

When we see a person in need our job is not to ask them how he got there , our job is to help them. If we don’t identify who our neighbor is then the world will tell us who it isn’t.

I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least.

The biblical test case for love of God is love of neighbor. The Biblical test case for love of neighbor is love of enemy.

we can safely assume that we have created God in your own image when it turns about that God hates the same people that we do.

The bible tells us to love our neighbors and to love our enemies probably becausse they are generally the same people.

God calling us back to a place of what does it look like to love our neighbors.

If we don’t put our faith above our culture, gender, race, traditions we will never be able to love all people like Jesus modelled.