“Who is my Brother?”
This question was asked to Jesus just before the telling of the Good Samaritan story. The story seems to be well known to many people. In fact many state legislatures have passed laws with that name; indicating that there should be no blame placed on a person who attempts to help another. Unfortunately, that isn’t the story.
The story goes that a man, walking on the road was attacked by gang of outlaws, robbed, beaten and left for dead. Over the course of the next few story lines, the man was summarily passed over by a significant religious leader and then by a fine upstanding role model citizen. The Samaritan (a person who was looked down on by the Jews of the day) came along, bandaged up the man’s wounds as best he could and then took the man to safety where he could recover AND paid in advance for the man’s needs.
Who do you look down on? Are you like the people in the audience , listening to the story being told – feeling maybe a bit angry? A bit guilty? The story was told so that the people listening would know that they have a responsibility to help each person. Everyone is the neighbor. We shouldn’t be like the first two who walked around with noses in the air.
Who looks down on you? Have you been the subject of derision? Does your skin color or manner of speaking make you a target? The Samaritan had every reason to hold back and continue walking because that was exactly how his people were treated at that time. Yet, the Samaritan offered assistance, and more. Compassion was given to a person of the class that would put him down.
So, we have no cause to withhold doing good. It matters not who the other people are or what faith is a part of their life. That is not our responsibility. Our responsibility is to love God first and then to love our neighbor.
But, to have a neighbor, you have to live in a neighborhood. We cannot go it alone – either isolated in our own lives; or, even worse, isolated in a community that doesn’t touch the world.
Go. Be the neighbor.
The story goes that a man, walking on the road was attacked by gang of outlaws, robbed, beaten and left for dead. Over the course of the next few story lines, the man was summarily passed over by a significant religious leader and then by a fine upstanding role model citizen. The Samaritan (a person who was looked down on by the Jews of the day) came along, bandaged up the man’s wounds as best he could and then took the man to safety where he could recover AND paid in advance for the man’s needs.
Who do you look down on? Are you like the people in the audience , listening to the story being told – feeling maybe a bit angry? A bit guilty? The story was told so that the people listening would know that they have a responsibility to help each person. Everyone is the neighbor. We shouldn’t be like the first two who walked around with noses in the air.
Who looks down on you? Have you been the subject of derision? Does your skin color or manner of speaking make you a target? The Samaritan had every reason to hold back and continue walking because that was exactly how his people were treated at that time. Yet, the Samaritan offered assistance, and more. Compassion was given to a person of the class that would put him down.
So, we have no cause to withhold doing good. It matters not who the other people are or what faith is a part of their life. That is not our responsibility. Our responsibility is to love God first and then to love our neighbor.
But, to have a neighbor, you have to live in a neighborhood. We cannot go it alone – either isolated in our own lives; or, even worse, isolated in a community that doesn’t touch the world.
Go. Be the neighbor.
posted by genebko at 6:12 PM
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