There is a wonderful parable in the gospels that Jesus Christ uses to teach a young man who asked him the question, “Who is my neighbor?”
Now this young man asked this question because of the commandment that says that a person is supposed to love his neighbor as himself –
Matthew 22:39b
You shall love your neighbor as yourself. [ESV]
and he wanted Jesus to qualify just who a person should consider to be his neighbor. As you may expect, Jesus wasn’t exactly going to fall for this man’s personal reasons to justify himself. Instead he told him a story.
He said that a man going from Jerusalem to Jericho, was attacked by thieves, robbed of his belongings, beaten up and left for dead by the side of the road. While he was lying there, a priest came along and chose to pass by on the other side of the road. You know, a priest who was supposed to know Gods Word and to live accordingly chose rather to ignore this wounded man.
Well, next a Levite came along. Now the tribe of the Levites had been specially chosen as the priesthood to serve and stone for the sins of the people. However, he too chose to pass by the other side of the road – and to ignore the poor man.
Then a Samaritan came by and saw the man. Now the Samaritans were hated by the Israelites. However, this Samaritan had compassion on the man and attended to his wounds and took him to an inn and took care of him. On the morning he left money with the innkeeper for further care for the man and he also said that he would check in on the way back if additional money was required for his needs.
After telling the young man this story, Jesus asked him a question.
Luke 10:36
Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? [KJV]
The man replied,
Luke 10:37a
And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. [KJV]
Now the man who had showed mercy on him was not the man’s neighbor in the sense that he lived next to him, was he? No, he just happened to be someone who was passing by and saw a person in need. You would think that either the priest or the Levite who were supposed to know the Scriptures would have the good sense to help the man but they did not. It took someone who was a Samaritan to go out of his way to help the destitute man.
And now Jesus was ready to answer the man’s question- “Who is my neighbor?”
Luke 10:37b
Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise. [KJV]
In other words, your neighbor is anyone that is need of mercy. It has nothing to do with where you live when it comes to showing love and mercy to someone. It is supposed to be a believer’s nature just as it is God’s nature. Instead of putting some sort of limit on mercy as the young man might have wanted in order to justify himself, Jesus taught him that there were to be no such bounds. We are to show mercy to anyone, anywhere at any time. We ought to go and do likewise.
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