Good works, faith, prayer,
good neighboring—how does it all work?
As Christians, we all are called to seek God for understanding, insight
and direction on these important aspects of our everyday lives as
Christians. Perhaps there is one simple
thing to glean from Jesus’s explanation of loving our neighbors in the Good
Samaritan story (Luke 10:25-37).
The passage begins with
God’s call to love Him and our neighbors fully, with all our hearts, souls,
strength, and minds. And the question
arises, “Who is my neighbor?” This
question comes from an “expert in the law . . . (who wanted) to justify
himself.” My take on that wording is
that the man didn’t want to love any more than he had to. So Jesus, as He often does, tells a story,
one that has become quite familiar to us, that illustrates the answer to this
question.
On the road to Samaria,
a man was robbed, beaten and left unclothed and half dead on the side of the
road. Two men, a priest and a Levite
who one would expect to stop, saw the man but passed by going on with their
plans that day. The third man, a
Samaritan, representing impure Jews and less likely to help, saw the man and
“took pity” on him. Neglecting his own
plans for the day, he stopped and tended to his wounds. He put the stricken man over his donkey and
took him to an inn. Then he gave the
innkeeper money for a room, asking him to look after the injured
Samaritan. In a few days he would return
to check on the poor man and to give the innkeeper any more money needed for
his time there.
Jesus drove home his
powerful point by asking, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to
this man . . . "(10:36)? The law expert
said, “the one who showed mercy.” Jesus
then exhorted them to “go and do the same" (37). The story clearly shows God wants His heart
of compassion to be ours, too, so we can impartially love others and through
this, love God (1 John 4:7-12).
What strikes me about
these travelers is that each was just going about their daily business. They weren’t “signing on” for good
works: teaching Sunday school, helping
at a food pantry, going on a work camp, attending Bible study, etc.
Each man looked upon the injured man, but only one interrupted whatever
he was on his way to do and gave of himself and his resources to show mercy and
compassion, the love of God, to this man.
How many people in need do we even notice and if so, go farther and give
them aid personally.
Many opportunities come
our way each day, both typical “church works” and ones that seem to “come looking
for us” as we go about our days’ activities.
May we, too, demonstrate the love of Christ and give of ourselves just
as the Samaritan did.
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