The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!” Luke 10:27-28
Do you remember the sting of standing in line in your gym class in middle school, just waiting to be chosen for your kickball team? I certainly remember, and you could not pay me enough money to go back to those days. It does not take long before the sting of rejection from those days comes rushing back to me. Maybe you can relate. If you are like me and feeling the sting of those middle school days in gym class, I have good news for you. The kingdom of God shows no partiality.
In Luke 10, a religious leader asked Jesus, “What should I do to inherit an eternal life?” (verse 25). Jesus asked him what Scripture teaches. The man answered, “’You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (verse 27). Jesus confirmed that the man answered correctly. The conversation could have ended there, but the man asked Jesus one more question, “And who is my neighbor?” (verse 29). Why did the man ask Jesus who his neighbor is? He wanted an excuse not to love some people.
Jesus knew this man’s heart, so He told him a story. In this story, a man was beaten, attacked, and left half-dead on the side of the road. There were three kinds of people who passed by this man: a priest, another religious leader (a temple assistant), and a Samaritan. Out of the three, only one man showed kindness and helped this man. Who was it? The Samaritan. Samaritans during Jesus’ day were outcasts of society. Because of this, this Samaritan is the last person that anyone listening to Jesus’ story would have expected to show kindness. This Samaritan was a better neighbor than all of the religious leaders who passed by the dying man. After telling the story, the man who asked Jesus who his neighbor was admitted that the Samaritan was the one who was a neighbor to the dying man in the story. Then, Jesus said, “Now, go and do the same” (verse 37).
It is easy to judge the man who was trying to get out of showing kindness to everyone by asking, “Who is my neighbor?” The truth is, we have all done this too. Every time we make excuses for not showing kindness, we are essentially asking the question, “Who is my neighbor?” The answer Jesus offers to this question is the exact same: everybody. There is no exception. We are to show neighborly kindness to each person we interact with. This includes showing kindness to the person who always knows how to make us mad. It includes being kind to the person who constantly wants to fight. There are no exceptions. Everyone is our neighbor.
This idea of showing kindness to everyone is easy to talk about but quite difficult to live out. It is easy to be kind to people who are like us. It is easy to be kind to people who appreciate our kindness. However, people who are difficult are not so easy to love. This is where Jesus’ teaching comes in: everyone is our neighbor, including those people who make it difficult to care about. We have to allow our kindness to be non-exclusive, free to those like an unlike us, and difficult to love. God wants us to be kind to everyone.
Who in your life is particularly difficult to show kindness to? Decide to be kind to them this week. Reach out to them this week and give them an encouraging word or send them a gift card to get coffee. Maybe you feel like the next step for you is simply praying for them. Whatever you decide, choose today to be outrageously kind.
Read Luke 10:25-37 (NLT)
One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?”
The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!”
The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.
“By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.
“Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’
“Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked.
The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.”
Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”
©2024 Sagebrush Church
