A Vivid Picture
If you serve at a church in any capacity—leadership team, worship team, choir, administration, or staff—you know how easily and quickly schedules fill up. There is always something that is demanding our attention. Our personal lives are not much different. There are the daily household chores such as cleaning, cooking, laundry, shopping, and paying the bills. Outside of the home, there is work, getting the kids to soccer or cheerleader practice, and small group meetings. Just like that, our lives are packed with activities.
If you were to examine your weekly schedule, how much time would you find is given completely to growing in personal holiness as shared above? If you are in full-time ministry, how much of your day or week do you have built into your schedule for intentionally developing in personal holiness? What amount of time is spent in the relational ministry of being a neighbor?
In Luke 10, the Parable of the Good Samaritan provides the quintessential biblical text on the topic of neighborliness. Here, the expert in the law stands up and asks how he can inherit eternal life. The question is a significant one. He is not asking for an answer to a procedural question or a small functional matter. He is asking about eternal life, life that will last forever. It was only natural, and rather urgent, that the expert wanted to know who his neighbor was.
Before further examination of this text, we need to know the context so that we can accurately grasp the expectations of the writer. Trying to understand who our neighbor is can be a fruitless effort if we have no idea why we should know them. Mister Rogers, the Presbyterian minister who educated and entertained children for decades, sang a simple but profound song to children every day for more than forty years, asking them, “Won’t you be my neighbor?” Have you ever lived in a community where his lyrics were true?
We learn about the good people serving our neighborhoods. However, when Jesus taught about neighbors, that was not exactly what he had in mind. It is good to be neighborly to the people who are in the house across from ours, and to those who are just like us. They will likely return the kindness with warmth and goodwill. But, if an occasional exchange of pleasantries is the extent of our neighborliness, we do not understand the biblical idea of being a neighbor. We need to drastically change our expectations if we are to have standards of neighborliness that align with the will of God.
What Would You Do?
Luke 10 has an interesting structure. Immediately before this parable of the Good Samaritan, we read about the sending of the seventy-two. You may think the two are unrelated, but they are intimately connected.
Jesus sent out the seventy-two to different towns ahead of his arrival to prepare the way, much like John the Baptist did. When you meet different people at work, at the store, or on the bus, have you ever considered yourself as the one who prepares the way of the Lord? If you became more deeply aware of this reality, how would it change the way you talk to others, conduct business, dress, spend money, or live your life? We must remember that we are the only Bible many people ever read and the only church they encounter.
In 10:3, Jesus said that he sends them out as lambs among wolves. These followers of Jesus were armed only with the Good News of the coming Kingdom of God, and were to heal those who could be vicious, dangerous, unwelcoming, ungrateful, unscrupulous, deceptive, and unthankful for the help offered them. Why would Jesus send them among the wolves? Can the so-called “wolves” receive healing and the message of God? Are they deserving of healing?
Who do you perceive as “wolves”—dangerous individuals, groups, or people with whom you would have a difficult time sharing God’s healing? Like the seventy-two, Jesus sends us out into the world, into our neighborhoods, our places of work, immigrant and refugee communities, children’s soccer communities, and ballet performances regardless of the conditions these situations present.
It is interesting that the warning in verses 13–15 does not have to do with the response of individuals. The warnings have to do with towns or communities that are welcoming or un-welcoming.
Verse 5 of Luke 10 deals with another revealing aspect—peace. In the context of individuals, peace is the quality of a person’s character that connects with the same quality in another. This, again, is prior to sharing any message. Can a “wolf” be a person of peace? Can there be people of peace among groups that we may perceive as “wolves”? Is anyone beyond redemption and healing? Examine your heart and how you perceive different individuals, races, and nationalities. Then, consider what Jesus would tell you about reaching them with his healing and love.
A Vulnerable Kingdom
Verse 9 has another lesson: “Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you (NIV).’” Our assumptions about what the Kingdom of God is and how neighborliness works are challenged by Jesus. We live in an individualistic culture where life is about “me” and doing what I want to do the way I want to do it. Other individuals and groups are free to do their own thing as long as they respect and do not challenge me. We are usually private about our affairs and how we handle them.
Gospel neighborliness is the opposite of our cultural ways. Yes, Jesus is counter-cultural. Gospel neighborliness puts us in a place of vulnerability. It means that our family in Christ who genuinely cares for us will ask loving, but sometimes probing questions. They will concern themselves with what is best for us. Neighborliness opens us up to being changed as well as being used by God to bring change into others’ lives. Healing the sick means that our sickness can be exposed as we serve others and are being served, unless we think that we are fully perfected and have no sin or sickness in us.
Neighborliness is a process in which God confronts our prejudices, fears, shames, weaknesses, and insecurities—known and unknown. It is a process of discovery and learning. Are we, who are still being healed and still sin, willing to be vulnerable so that God can use us, and in the process, heal us?
My Neighbor Is (Dignity and Choice)
Jesus tells his disciples that they will go to places where many people will not be loving or welcoming, but he sends them anyway. Jesus teaches us just as he taught the seventy-two that we are to respect the dignity of others and allow them to make choices. The stern warnings of verses 13–14 are additional examples of how to treat others with dignity and respect. We are to speak the truth in love, rather than treat lightly matters with serious consequences or coddle someone to merely appease them. Speaking the truth in love is treating others with dignity.
I am a Muslim-background believer and it is my passion to share with others my story of God’s healing and transformation. When I was in seminary, I met with the person in charge of evangelism for a church. As we were discussing Muslims, she said that she never talked about her faith or God’s work in her life with Muslims because she wanted to respect their belief. I believe her intentions were good. But, as someone with many family members who are Muslim, I could not help but interpret the comment as offensive to the dignity of Muslims as people created in God’s image. What I heard was that she was making the decision for her Muslim friends that they did not need to hear her story of God’s work. I heard that her Muslim friends did not have the ability to discern, to be led by God and to make a choice; she made the decision for them. What I heard was a colonialist attitude that said, “I know better than you and I choose for you,” rather than sharing from her heart within the context of genuine friendship and love, then allowing her Muslim friends to choose. Jesus calls us to treat others with respect and dignity even when they may not receive what God has for them.
This principle is true, not only in regard to spiritual matters but also practical ones. Inside my ministry, Gateway of Grace, we serve refugees from various countries and different religious backgrounds. We see spiritual realities within communities and individuals whom we serve. As people with dignity, they choose whether or how deeply to engage with our staff and volunteers. Perhaps the most important lesson about our neighbor is that our neighbor is the person or persons with dignity who are free to make choices, and sometimes that choice means rejecting us, our help, and yes, even our love. We are not their savior. And we are not the Holy Spirit who