So far, we have been discussing the nature of love, the foundational necessity of love, and the characteristics of love. But in this last episode(for now) on love I want to get down to the reality of love. Love is not something you think about and discuss, love is something you do for others. So I want to begin with a very famous story.

But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus,

How would Jesus tell this parable today?

If Jesus were telling this story today I think the characters would vary depending on the audience he was teaching. There are 4 main characters in this story, the victim, the priest, the Levite, and or course the Samaritan. The fun part is imagining who these characters might be in the modern world. Some might think of the priest as the modern clergy or maybe the big denominations. Some might think since the priesthood was corrupt and political that the priest might be better played by a politician. Some might think the Levite might be a better candidate for the clergy or the self-righteous religious person. But what about non-religious self-righteousness? Would Jesus really give them a pass if he were here? I doubt it.

As I read this it seems to me that Jesus was saying it does not matter who you are, the true neighbor would help the one in need. He does not say why these people just walked by instead of helping, it doesn’t matter why(though I am sure they had their reasons). The point is, they did walk by instead of help. The fact that he made a Samaritan the loving neighbor in this story just made it sting a little, Samaritan’s were more or less despised in that culture. If he were telling this tale today in many American churches he might have made the hero a Muslim or an Atheist or even a blue-haired political activist. The point he was making was, love is as love does. The true neighbor is the one that actually helped the man.

It is also worth noting that although the motives of those in the parable are not explained the motives of the one asking the question are. The questioner was, “desiring to justify himself”. I don’t know about you, but many times in my life I have spent more time and effort explaining to myself why I should not help than if I would have just helped in the first place. And every time I tried to justify myself I somehow never felt justified, instead I felt a sick nagging guilt.

You go and do likewise

So the moral of this story is not subtle, nor is its application. Neighborly is as neighborly does - plain and simple. So Jesus told his hypocritical critics to go and be neighbors rather than wonder who their neighbor really is. And this advice continues to hold down to the current day regardless of our culture and circumstances.

John is even more blunt

John in his first epistle picks up this idea and expands it in several ways. Consider this verse:

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.  (1 John 4:20 ESV)

In this verse, and 1st John is loaded with verses like this, John makes it clear that there is no such thing as a “love of God” that does not translate into a love of people. The language in this passage is insultingly strong, he calls those that don’t love their brother(or neighbor) liars if they claim to love God.

I think the real force of the story of the good Samaritan should never be diverted toward “those self-righteous people”, the point is clearly intended to help us never become those self-righteous people that say they love God but do not love people.

I am convinced that if the “Good Samaritan” of this story were a real person he would have gotten home a bit later and had a bit less money in his pocket, but he also would have had a genuine peace in his heart knowing he did the right thing. This has been my experience whenever I have ignored my inner selfishness and focused on serving others instead. It is usually not hard to know what is right, but it often comes at a personal cost. Doing what is right generally means we have to set aside our selfish interests and do something about the needs of others.

The good news is this, we can do this. It is the very thing that the new life Jesus has given us wants to do, but we need to silence that selfish, self-justifying voice in our heads that wants to figure out who our neighbor really is.

This week let’s not waste our time and energy trying to figure out who our neighbor is and simply help those that Jesus puts in our path.

Have a great week!