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Politics always involves “neighbors”

October 16, 2024
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Daily Scripture

Luke 10:25-37

25 A legal expert stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to gain eternal life?”
26 Jesus replied, “What is written in the Law? How do you interpret it?”27 He responded, “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.” [Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18]
28 Jesus said to him, “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.”
29 But the legal expert wanted to prove that he was right, so he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 Jesus replied, “A man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. He encountered thieves, who stripped him naked, beat him up, and left him near death. 31 Now it just so happened that a priest was also going down the same road. When he saw the injured man, he crossed over to the other side of the road and went on his way. 32 Likewise, a Levite came by that spot, saw the injured man, and crossed over to the other side of the road and went on his way. 33 A Samaritan, who was on a journey, came to where the man was. But when he saw him, he was moved with compassion. 34 The Samaritan went to him and bandaged his wounds, tending them with oil and wine. Then he placed the wounded man on his own donkey, took him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day, he took two full days’ worth of wages and gave them to the innkeeper. He said, ‘Take care of him, and when I return, I will pay you back for any additional costs.’ 36 What do you think? Which one of these three was a neighbor to the man who encountered thieves?”
37 Then the legal expert said, “The one who demonstrated mercy toward him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Daily Reflection & Prayer

Hatred and distrust between Israelites and next-door Samaritans went back at least 500 years, to Israel’s return from exile in Babylon (cf. Ezra 4:1-5). Yet Jesus saw “those people” as “neighbors.” He told a parable about a Samaritan’s far-reaching mercy to relieve a Jewish person’s suffering. Jesus’ call was “go and do likewise”—offer profuse, practical mercy that costs something. It wasn’t just talk. In hostile Samaritan territory, Jesus modeled treating them as neighbors for his disciples (cf. John 4:27-40).

  • Jesus’ disciples were “shocked” to see him talking to the outcast Samaritan woman at the well. * They might have understood him shaming her about her racial or moral inferiority. But he offered her “living water” (John 4:10) and told her he was the Messiah everyone hoped for (John 4:26). In short, he treated her like any other human being worthy of love and care. How can Jesus’ example upgrade the way you treat and relate to any “Samaritan” people you encounter?
  • Later, as Jesus’ ordered (cf. Acts 1:7-8), the apostle Phillip preached in Samaria. If any doubt was left (and it was), God’s Holy Spirit accepted Samaritans like everyone else (cf. Acts 8:4-8, 14-17). Then Peter baptized Roman soldiers, and told upset Christians, “If God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, then who am I? Could I stand in God’s way?” (Acts 11:17) Can you welcome anyone who wants to be part of God’s human family, however different from you?
Prayer

Lord God, you made many different trees, flowers, birds, and horses. Forgive me for ever sinfully imagining that somehow you only made and loved humans who were a lot like me. Amen.

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Picture of Jennifer Creagar

Jennifer Creagar

Jennifer Creagar serves as the Community Assistance Coordination Director in Resurrection's Congregational Care Ministry. She is married and loves spending time with her family, and she enjoys writing and photography.

 

I love the way Jesus challenges us, but it often makes me very uncomfortable. I’ve learned, over the years, that that when a parable or account of a conversation Jesus has with his disciples makes me squirm, I should pay attention. Today’s Scripture reading can be pretty challenging if we really listen.
 
The world seems more divided than ever right now. If we are honest, every one of us can name someone, some group, some geographical, social, or political category, that we think of as “those people”–at least in our most private thoughts. Most often, it seems that “those people” are individuals or groups that somehow spark fear in us. Fear of values that seem contrary to our own, fear of lifestyles or experiences completely outside our experience and comfort zone. Fear that, somehow, “those people” might exert influence over us or seek to control us in some way. There is also the fear that we might learn something new or have to change our minds about something. So, whenever we can, we look the other way, thinking it is the most polite, well-behaved, and safest way to deal with “those people,” and the discomfort that comes with them. Like the legal expert in Luke 10:29, we like to think, “Well, I don’t really have anything in common with that person. Obviously, we have different outlooks on things. How can this person be my neighbor? I’ll just avoid them.”
 
So, the legal expert asks the big question, and, as Jesus often does, he turns everything the expert thought he knew upside down and opened his eyes to a whole new way of seeing others. He tells the story of a man lying beaten and naked by the side of the road as his own people passed by, afraid to get involved. Afraid because when he became a victim, he also became one of “those people,” representing the fear of the unpleasant things in life, of bad things happening, and of being asked to become involved in someone else’s problem. Then a man who was a Samaritan, part of the group considered to be the enemy of the Israelites, the embodiment of “those people,” came across the suffering man and gave him help and comfort. He provided safety and care despite all their differences. Despite the cost. Despite the fear of someone from “the other side.”
 
And Jesus told the questioning expert, and us: “Go and do likewise.” Venture out of your comfort zones. Ignore the desire to give into your fear of the different, the fear of those on the “other side.” Approach everyone with loving kindness and mercy–the same way Jesus approaches us an infinite number of times a day. 
 
Jesus, thank you for telling stories that make us squirm, and show us how to be more like you. Help us to see everyone as our neighbor, and no one as “those people.” Forgive our tendency to create boundaries that hold us apart and help us instead create connections that heal us and bind us together in Your Name.
Amen. 
© 2024 Resurrection: A United Methodist Church. All Rights Reserved.
Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References

* Click here to see a 5-minute clip from the superb 2003 film The Gospel of John (using the text of John from The Good News Bible) which brings the story in John 4 alive.