Who is our neighbour?

It was a question posed in the midst of a discussion about gaining eternal life. When the scholar of the law asked Jesus what he must do, Jesus replied with the dual commandment to love God and love your neighbour.

May 02, 2014

By Father Lawrence Mick
It was a question posed in the midst of a discussion about gaining eternal life. When the scholar of the law asked Jesus what he must do, Jesus replied with the dual commandment to love God and love your neighbour.

A scholar of the law should have known that answer, but he was trying to test Jesus, so he asked the follow-up question we read in Luke 10:29, “And who is my neighbour?”

This is a crucial question, and it has little to do with who lives next door. In the Old Testament, the law commanded the Jews to love their neighbour. Leviticus 19:18 reads: “Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your own people. You shall love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord.”

As this text suggests, “neighbour” was generally understood to mean any member of the Jewish people. It was not limited to those who lived nearby, but it also did not extend beyond the nation to include the gentiles, no matter how close they might live.

So, when Jesus heard the scholar of the law ask, “Who is my neighbour?” he recognized it as an issue that was debated among the scholars: just who belongs to God’s people and is therefore to be an object of neighbourly love.

The parable of the good Samaritan that Jesus told in response addresses the issue clearly. The “neighbour” is the one who acts like a neighbour. It is not based on national or tribal identity.

The Samaritan, despised and rejected by most Jews, showed by his actions that he was a neighbour to the Jewish man who was beaten and robbed. In the process, he showed that his view of “neighbour” was not limited to his kind.

At the end of the parable (Luke 10:36) Jesus asked the scholar, “‘Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbour to the robbers‘ victim?’ He answered, ‘The one who treated him with mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’”

Jesus challenged the scholar to show mercy to everyone, not just to his fellow countrymen.

The parable was surely shocking to Jesus’ hearers that day. To treat Samaritans and other infidels with the same love with which Jews treated one another called for a broader view and a wider love than they had been taught. This parable fits well with Luke’s frequent emphasis on the universal nature of salvation. Jesus came to reconcile everyone to God and to one another. His mission extends beyond the boundaries of the Jewish nation or any boundaries that we establish.

This teaching challenges us today. How wide is our love? Whom do we include in our definition of “neighbour”? Can we exclude anyone from our care and concern if we claim to follow Jesus? He commands us to imitate the good Samaritan in his reaching across boundaries: “Go and do likewise.”

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