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The Trouble with Jesus
by Constance Hastings
Who Is My Neighbor?
December 17, 2019
The Wrong Question
When is the question not the real question, or when is the answer not the full answer?
Take the parable Jesus told of “The Good Samaritan.” Who is my neighbor? was the question posed to Jesus by a lawyer of religion. (Luke 10:25-37) The law said, “Love God…and love your neighbor. So Good Lord, define your terms. Rather than a legalistic textbook answer, Jesus tells a story.
Most people have heard it or if not the full story, at least the term, Good Samaritan. It’s so common it’s actually a dictionary entry, and Alexa is equally familiar with it. Based in the story is a man who was robbed and beaten by bandits and a stranger known as a Samaritan. The stranger gives him first aid and takes him to an inn for care. The Samaritan leaves the innkeeper with extra money to care for the man and a promise of more if necessary when he makes a return trip.
Who is my neighbor? The official definition is a person who gratuitously gives help or sympathy to those in distress. The Samaritan fits the description. He didn’t have to stop and help this guy; there was no reward in doing so. After all, the poor guy was robbed. He likely didn’t have anything left to repay the help the Samaritan gave. When the Samaritan found him, he was half dead. He couldn’t even work it off. So what the Samaritan did for this poor soul was out of his pocket and nothing going back in. But he did help the guy out and saved his life. Good for him! We should all be like this, and if so, the world would be a gentler, kinder place.
Good grief, no.
Well, if you like those kind of stories that make you feel good with what’s just on the surface, remember, some people get the same benefit from watching porn. (NOT a suggestion, try Hallmark movies instead.) The passage deserves a closer look, and you’d think a good lawyer would know that.
The unlikely hero in this story is a Samaritan. Jesus’ audience was Jewish. Jews hated Samaritans. Jews hated Samaritans for all the ethnic, racial, religious reasons the human race can dig up to separate people. It was prejudice to the core. For these law-biding Jews to listen to a story whereby one of their own was indebted to “those kind of people” was sickening. Jesus doesn’t feel it.
Who is my neighbor?
Yes, that was the question, but at the end of the story, Jesus doesn’t leave it there. He had this problem of not knowing when to just let things be, end on a high note, gain some much needed respect from the religious elite who plainly did not like him. Oh no, instead he takes that question and reverses it. “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” That means, the one in need is not my neighbor, but the one who gave the help. If the Law says, Love your Neighbor, and my Neighbor is the guy I hate, then what am I going to do?
It wasn’t the first time Jesus had said this. The “Love your Neighbor” thing is preached across spiritual realms. No, Jesus pushed into places that were uncomfortable in the least and threatening to the power brokers of the day. In his big Sermon on the Mount, he’d said it more directly, “You have heard that the Law of Moses says, ‘love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you.” (Matthew 5:43-44)
The lawyer in the scene answered correctly Jesus’ reversed question, “the one who showed him mercy.” But Jesus didn’t let him walk away without a challenge. “Go and do likewise.” Be a neighbor to those in need, and be a neighbor to those who don’t like you and would just as soon see you gone.
“Who is my neighbor?” was a good question, but it was the wrong question. It wasn’t the real question because what the lawyer wanted was an affirmation of what people do anyway just because it’s something to make yourself feel good. That’s a type of domestication.
Jesus didn’t tell stories or preach to let people be good people. His stories instead ask questions of his audience, then and now, that get under the skin, itch and fester until the story sits in the soul.
If you have the urge to be a Good Samaritan sometime, rethink the story. With the full answer then, “Go and do likewise.”
John’s proclamation though was not feel-good, you’re trying your best, and everything is going to be ok. Parroting the old scriptures with high energy may make for an emotional ride, but it doesn’t last. People need what they can hold close and carry away with them.
Jesus, we’ve said this before and still you just don’t get it. Here we are at the time of the year when we should be all bright and merry, and you come on with this end-of-the-world rant. Can’t you just join the party and make happy? We’ve had enough of bad news for too long.
Truth is the spotlight on humanity. Find it, wrestle with it, run from it but know truth tells much, sometimes too much. Just-the-facts, video footage, eyewitness testimony, subpoenaed emails and documents only color the canvas. Anything can be made to say anything; it’s all in the spin. But truth reveals the greater story, and the direction life gives.
Jesus, what makes you think this Doomsday portrait you give here is helping? Why even talk about it? We’ve been through a hell of a lot, and this end-of-the-world talk isn’t doing us any good. Besides, who’d ever get behind you if this is where you’re going. We’re just not going to listen to this kind of thing.
Yeah, well what galaxy do you come from? If talk of apocalyptic endings bother you, why do you watch so much of it from streaming movies to video games to best sellers? Listen guy, there’s money to be made from this genre, and the makers of these stories play right into the basic fears of futurists to preppers to predictive prophets with megaphones shouting, “The End is Near.” Why is this ok for everyone else, but Jesus can’t say anything beyond Love Your Neighbor and Bless the Children? Get over that, and listen up.
Brief musing here: November 5:2024 Today, tonight, this week we will wait. Apply whatever importance you prefer to this date. Take your side expressed by your vote. Hope for the best. Yet in the marking of your ballot, also bow your head. Pray the hardest prayer ever spoken. “Your will be done.” Accept what will be. Then move into your space, your world, and see what God will do. Shalom.
The Trouble with Jesus is he doesn’t want to fight as much as he wants to lead in Love.
What do you want me to do for you?
One’s answer reveals the beggar in one’s soul.
Jesus, if you don’t mind, we’d like to talk with you about what you just said and ask a favor.
Sure guys, what’s on your minds.?
About your plans, when it all comes about, if the two of us could be seated next to you, one of your right and the other on your left?
(long pause…)
You have no idea what you’re asking....
True Story: A husband told his wife he was going the next day to possibly buy a Corvette. (Disclaimer: this did not happen in my house…) She read to him these words of Jesus:
“Go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.”
“Now, how do you think you’ll get to heaven if you buy a Corvette?” she challenged him.
After a short pause, he smiled, and said, “Fast!”
The Trouble with Jesus: He doesn’t speak from a legalistic mindset. He speaks with the loving mind of God.
