In the Gospel of Luke, a legal expert is trying to trap Jesus with questions. He asks Jesus what he must do to gain eternal life and Jesus asks what the law says, the man replies, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus told him that was correct, do that, and he would live. The legal expert retorts, “and who is my neighbor?”
Jesus responds by telling this parable:
A man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho is robbed, beaten, and left to die on the side of the road. Not one, but two religious leaders see him and decide, “this has nothing to do with me” and cross the road to avoid him. Some time later a Samaritan sees the man, binds up his wounds, puts him on his donkey, takes him to safety, and pays for his treatment.
Jesus asks the legal expert, “who was a neighbor to the man?” and the legal expert answers, “the one who had compassion on him.” Jesus tells him to go and do the same.
In its most simplest terms, “love God, love neighbor” is what it means to be a Christian. Unfortunately, way too many people look at what’s happening around them and say, “this has nothing to do with me.” Yesterday I read a comment that basically said, “I can love my neighbor and keep living my life the way I want.” First of all, this idea that we walk around independent from anyone else is a lie. Second, the belief if we aren’t directly responsible for the suffering that it has nothing to do with us is callous.
The religious leaders in the parable weren’t responsible for the man being beaten - but they would have been complicit in his death if no one had stopped to help him.
We are on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho right now. Will we see the suffering and say, “this has nothing to do with me” or will we walk toward it and do everything in our power to alleviate it? Will we make ourselves uncomfortable and allow our lives to be inconvenienced so that someone we don’t know will live?
God, I hope so.