Loving My Neighbor

 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” (Mark 10:36-37)

The one who had mercy - that's the definition of loving our neighbor. It is a love that is active. Practical. Inclusive. It is a love that gives up something of value for the sake of the other. It will consume our time. It will require that we show respect and compassion. It requires looking beyond, and putting aside, differences and instead looking squarely to the humanity, the imago dei, of the other.

Woof. This was a Word for me this morning.

I want "loving my neighbor" to be an abstract, woowoo kind of love that doesn't require much of me other than to "pray for them" -- to talk about them in quiet, concerned tones in my circle of friends at church or in Bible studies or around coffee shop tables -- with folks that are mostly like me. THAT is not love, according to Jesus. 

I want "loving my neighbor" to be spouting "the truth" on social media about them. THAT is not love, according to Jesus.

I want "loving my neighbor" to somehow include laws that dictate and leveraging power that pushes those I disagree with to the margins - or out all together. THAT is not love, according to Jesus.

I want "loving my neighbor" to leave space for casting dispersions, for judgement, for accusation. THAT is not love, according to Jesus.

I've heard my whole life, in bits and pieces, about the age old animosity between Jews and Samaritans and how Jesus was disrupting the status quo by making a Samaritan the hero of the story -- but the edges are always softened when we start looking for ways to make it practical today. It. Was. Radical. To many of His listeners, it was heretical. There was nothing soft-edged or even safe about the way Jesus crafted and told this story.

Who is my Samaritan? Who is your Samaritan? Who is almost beyond redemption in your mind? Whose sin, in my mind (in yours) does Jesus hate the most? THAT'S our neighbor.

Active. Practical. Inclusive. Respectful. Compassionate. Disruptive. Time consuming. Resource consuming. 

THAT is loving our neighbor, according to Jesus.