Wouldn't You Like To Be My Neighbor?
July 11, 2010
25Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” 27He answered, “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.” 28And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.” 29But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ 36Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” 37He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
Luke 10:25-37
It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, A beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine? Could you be mine?...
Anyone who grew up in the last 40 years knows these words well. Because they were sung to us each week by a friendly man on TV named Mr. Rogers. And on that wonderful show, Mr. Rogers taught us kids about being nice and how to get along with others and he took us on trips so that we could learn all about the world around us. With Mr. Rogers, my generation got over our fear of shots at the doctor’s office and we found out what happened to a letter when we dropped it in the mail. But I think the most important thing I learned from Mr. Rogers is the same question that the lawyer asks Jesus in this passage of Scripture—Who is my neighbor?
And it’s still a good question to ask today. Because even though we hear that word in church and in State Farm commercials, I think we actually have many different definitions of what it means to be a neighbor. When most of us hear that word today, I think our first thought is the person who lives next door to us. So, neighbor has become a geographical term. It describes someone who lives physically nearby.
And certainly, I think we should be nice to the people who live next door, if for no other reason than sheer practicality. If you and I let big weeds grow up in our yard or if we have loud parties all the time, chances are that our neighbors will be more inclined to do the same kinds of junky things. And I’m sure this morning, all of us in here could share a story or two about a next door neighbor who wasn’t exactly pleasant.
I remember the first year that Molly and I were married; we lived in an apartment in Richmond. And we lived on the second floor. And right beneath us lived an old man that we think was Greek, but we didn’t really know because hardly ever saw him. And when we did see him, he never spoke to us, but we noticed that when he carried his groceries in, he would always have a big 24 pack of Sunkist canned soda. And so, being an idealistic little seminarian and wanting to do our good deed of the year, for Christmas, Molly and I bought a 24 pack of Sunkist and left it on the mat outside the man’s door. Wasn’t that nice? And we thought this was really gonna thaw the ice and we were gonna have a neighborly break-through, until the next day, when we opened our door and found the Sunkist sitting on our mat.
I’m not sure how he figured it was us, but obviously, the old man wasn’t having any of our neighborly hospitality. And that’s it goes. You can’t always control who lives next door to you. And sometimes there are honest misunderstandings. I remember the story of Mrs. Smith who lived next door to an elderly widow. And Mrs. Smith began to get worried, because they hadn’t heard anything from her in a few days. So, Mrs. Smith said to her son, "Timmy, why don’t you go next door and see how old Mrs. Kirkland is?" And so, Timmy did that and, a few minutes later, he returned. And Mrs. Smith said, “Is Mrs. Kirkland alright, Timmy?” And Timmy said, “She’s fine, except she’s mad at you.” And Mrs. Smith, “Now why would she be mad at me?” And Timmy replied, “She said it’s none of your business how old she is.”
So, being nice to the person next door is not always easy. But I have to say that ever since I’ve lived in the city of Portsmouth, my idea of neighbor has taken on a whole new meaning. Because out of all the places I’ve ever lived, the people of Portsmouth really identify themselves strongly with their own particular neighborhood. I’ve introduced myself to people before and said, “Are you from Portsmouth?” And they say, “No, I’m from Churchland.”
Ah, my mistake, I thought that was the same place. And sometimes people around here get even more particular than that. They say “I’m from Waterview or I’m from Glenshellah or I’m from Cradock.” And it took me a while to realize that all of those neighborhood names really can tell you a lot about a person once you know how to interpret the secret code. A true Portsmouth native can pretty much guess a person’s race or socio-economic status or education just by knowing which neighborhood they’re from. And God forbid, we get things confused. Because the folks in Shea Terrace do not want to be lumped in with the folks of West Park View and the folks of West Park View do not want to be lumped in with the folks of Park View and the folks of Park View do want to be lumped in with Olde Towne, but Olde Towne won’t have us. There’s all these little social distinctions that are involved. And I mention that because I think the way we define the word neighbor also has a lot to do with the way we define ourselves vs. the rest of the world.
We draw lines. We put up fences. Benjamin Franklin once said, “Love thy neighbor, but don’t pull down your hedge.” And I think that’s a pretty accurate assessment for most of us in here. We want to be nice to the people around us, but we also want to maintain our distance. We want to be involved, but not too involved. And so, we’re constantly flirting with the issue of boundaries—How far should we go? How much should we help? Is there a limit to being a good neighbor?
I think that was really what was on the lawyer’s mind when he asked Jesus this question here in Luke, Chapter 10. Because the text says he already knew the law. He knew that he was supposed to love God and love his neighbor. The law teaches that quite plainly. But the lawyer wanted some clarification, so he pushed Jesus.
And in response, Jesus tells one of the most famous stories in all of Scripture. It’s become known as the parable of the Good Samaritan. And it’s one of those stories from the Bible we’ve heard so many times before that it’s become a cliché. It’s like a bad children’s sermon—“Boys and girls, how are we supposed to treat other people? We’re supposed to be treat them well, aren’t we, just like the Good Samaritan.”
That’s usually how the lesson goes, and I guess for what it is, it’s a pretty good lesson. But I think there’s more for us to learn from this parable. And I think that what seems like a simple story might really be more challenging than we’ve ever considered. So, what I want to do this morning is to look at this story again. But this time, I want to focus on a different character. Because usually, the emphasis is on the Samaritan. And that’s fine. He is important to the story. But today, I want us to think about this parable from the perspective of the man who was beaten and robbed.
Jesus says that he was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. And going down was quite literally the truth because the road from Jerusalem to Jericho dropped over 3,000 feet in elevation in just under 18 miles. It was a dangerous and desolate road, out in the wilderness, and for that reason, it attracted bandits who could waylay their victims on the road and then make a getaway up into the hills.
And that’s exactly the scenario that Jesus describes in this story. It would be the equivalent of us running out of gas somewhere way out on one of those desert highways in Arizona, and then getting attacked by a carjacker. It was basically the worst possible place for this kind of thing to happen. And because this guy was like me and too stupid to carry his cell phone in case of an emergency, he was left for dead on the side of the road.
It’s a terrible tragedy. And we could just chalk it up to bad luck. But it’s not a coincidence that the story takes place where it does. By setting his story in the wilderness, I think that Jesus was trying to broaden our idea of what it means to be a neighbor. Because in the wilderness, there’s not anybody who lives next door. And one of the questions I think this story makes us consider is--Who is our neighbor when we’re out by ourselves? Who is our neighbor when something bad happens and there’s nobody else around?
Because if this beaten man had to wait for his next door neighbor to show up, things might not have worked out so well. Fortunately for him, there were some other travelers on the road that day. Jesus says that first a priest and then a Levite saw the man, but they continued by without stopping to help. And no explanation is given as to why they kept going. Maybe they were worried about getting robbed themselves or maybe they didn’t think it was their problem or maybe they were just in a hurry. But no matter the reason, from the perspective of the man in the ditch, the priest and the Levite were useless.
So, along comes that Samaritan. And because most of us in here grew up in church, we know that the Samaritans were one of the most hated groups of people in ancient Judea. Like most people that you and I dislike, the Samaritans weren’t really all that different from the majority population but their differences were just enough to get on the average Jew’s nerves. And so, the lawyer and the others who were listening to Jesus’ story would probably have been taken aback by the Samaritan’s willingness to stop and care for the wounded man. These were two groups of people that generally tried to avoid each other whenever possible.
But I think perhaps even more shocking than the Samaritan who stopped to help was the fact that the man who had been beaten allowed a Samaritan to help him. And that’s where I want us to focus for a few minutes. Because I think that a good neighbor is not just a person who offers compassion; a good neighbor is also one who is able to receive compassion. And if we are really looking at this parable from the beaten man’s perspective, then that becomes a very important factor. Amy-Jill Levine, who is a New Testament scholar at Vanderbilt University, put it this way—Are there people out there we dislike so much that we would rather die than receive their help?
That’s an interesting question, isn’t it? Are there people out there who bother us so much for whatever reason that we would simply refuse their assistance, even if we needed it? Because that’s precisely the situation in which this beaten man found himself. He had been attacked and wounded. But when he saw a man approaching to help, he discovered it was not his friend, but one of his sworn enemies. And by crafting the story in this way, Jesus is helping us realize that being a neighbor is far more than just living near somebody. Being a neighbor is about allowing others to care for us, even when we find them repulsive. And our decision about what we will do can be the difference between life or death.
What a powerful challenge for us today. Because by and large, I think that you and I do a good job of caring for others. We try our best to be nice and neighborly. We may even stop to help a stranger on the interstate or give some money to people we don’t know asking for a handout.
But where we may need a little help is in learning how to receive care from others. Because we’re not always so good at that. There’s a story that Christian writer Tony Campolo tells about walking down the street one day in Philadelphia, when a bum came up to him. He was a dirty guy, completely covered in grime. He had a huge beard and there was rotted food stuck in the beard. And as he approached Tony, the guy held out a cup of McDonald's coffee and said, "Hey mister, want some of my coffee?"
Tony took one look at the guy and said, “Thanks, but no thanks” and he kept on walking. But suddenly, Tony realized that he had done the wrong thing and so, he turned around and said, “Excuse me. I would like some of your coffee." So, Tony took a sip of coffee and then handed it back to the man. And then he asked, "How come you're being so generous today?" And the bum said, "Because the coffee was especially delicious today and I think that when God gives you something good, you ought to share it with people."
When God gives you something good, you ought to share it with people. But I wonder--Would we have taken a sip from that man’s cup of coffee? Or for that matter, would we let a stranger help us out at all? We’ve gotten so paranoid these days about staying safe, that I think we have almost forgotten what it means to be a real neighbor. I can’t help but think about all the recent controversy in our country over the topic of illegal immigration. And I’m not going to offer an opinion on that issue one way or the other this morning, because I’m smarter than that and I want to keep my job.
But I will say that by the standards of this parable, we should consider most illegal immigrants in this country to be our neighbors. Because they are the ones who are showing us mercy. They are the ones working in our fields to provide us with cheap fruits and vegetables all year round, and the ones caring for our elderly relatives in nursing homes and hospitals, and the ones doing the dirty disgusting jobs that nobody else wants to do. And so, I think either we have to begin refusing their assistance or else we have to start calling them neighbor.
Because our neighbors aren’t just the people who live next door to us or the people who look like us or the people who act like us. Neighbors are the ones who show us compassion. And it doesn’t matter if it’s Mexican vs. American, or Christian vs. Muslim, or black vs. white, or straight vs. gay, or Republican vs. Democrat, or Park View vs. Westhaven—the point is, we’ve all got these labels. And so, sometimes even when we need help the most, we refuse what others are offering because we’re too proud and we let those labels stand in our way. It’s us vs. them and it doesn’t really matter who “them” is, as long as the rest of us stick together.
And we have that prerogative. You and I have that choice. But remember the man in the ditch. Because he, too, had a choice. He could have refused the Samaritan’s help. But instead, he chose to look past our human-created labels and saw the Samaritan as his neighbor. And in doing so, he chose salvation.
I think that maybe that’s what Jesus is trying to tell us in this story. I think he’s trying to tell us that by allowing ourselves to be cared for, particularly by those whom we reject, we open ourselves up to the grace of God in a new and powerful way. That is what it means to be a good neighbor. And I think that if Mr. Rogers was alive today, he would echo the words of Jesus and tell us to “Go, and do likewise.” AMEN