Love Your Neighbour

The Parable of the Good Samaritan.

If you've spent any time around church or reading a Bible, you probably know this story pretty well. It's one we talk about pretty regularly as Christians.

Luke 10:25-37 records this parable and the rest of the exchange that goes with it. Before you go with this post, please read it again. Click on the link, or look it up.

Read it slowly . . . every word.

When I read it recently, I was challenged by some of the questions that came to mind:
What made the priest and Levite cross to the other side of the road as they passed the man who had been beaten and robbed? Why were they so careful to avoid him? Where was the compassion for those in need we expect religious leaders to have?

I think Jesus is being intentional in using the specific people He does in this story. The priest and Levite were religious leaders. We don't know exactly why these men were travelling this road. Since they were going from Jerusalem to Jericho we could guess they were returning home after service in the temple.

As religious leaders in the temple, they would have been well aware of the religious requirements and what would make them unclean and unfit to serve in the temple, even if only temporarily. Rather than help their follow Jew in need and risk becoming unclean, they chose to avoid him completely.

In reality, they missed the point of what God was trying to show His people through the law. Religiously, they were clean before God. But their hearts weren't in the right place, and God is pretty clear that matters more to Him.

We easily get caught up in the exact same things. We may be doing everything right religiously, but if our hearts aren't moved with compassion by the same things that move God's hear, we've missed the point completely.

In this parable, Jesus used the Samaritan as the example we should follow. The Samaritan was moved to compassion and action by what he saw. He was willing to pay a personal price to love someone society told him he shouldn't love.

As I reflect on some of the issues currently a major focus of discussion in our society, I'm left with a few questions:
How are we doing, as Christians, at actually loving our neighbour in the way Jesus describes in this parable?
What would it look like if we all actually allowed our hearts to be broken by what breaks God's heart and them moved to action because of it? What kind of impact would that actually make in our society?

I'm not saying it's easy. I know it's hard. I know it's dangerous to pray a prayer asking God to break our hearts for what breaks His.

About eight or nine years ago, I realized my heart was no longer moved by the brokenness and pain I saw everyday. I walked past a couple of interactions and activities that shouted about the pain and brokenness of those involved. I had been working at my job for a few years and things like that had become commonplace.

As I sat in my office later that day, I told God I didn't want my heart to become hard to what I'd seen. I told Him I wanted to see each person I walked past through His eyes. They I prayed the "dangerous" part. I told God to do whatever He needed to do to soften my heart again.

The answer to that prayer came a few days later. Without sharing details that could identify this person, I found myself in the position of returning money to someone I'd grown up with knowing he was likely going to go spend it on drugs as soon as he left. But, it was his money and there was nothing I could do to stop him. As I handed him the money I looked at him and reminded him of God's love. To date, that's one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.

A couple months later, another person I'd known growing up crossed my path at work and they weren't doing well. I knew the potential they had and I was watching them seemingly self-destruct for a couple weeks.

I with I could say these stories had happy endings, but the truth is, I don't know what has happened with either of them in the years since. I don't know if I'll ever know.

But, those two interactions definitely answered my prayer for God to soften my heart. And I realized that a soft heart is one that loves at great personal cost. When we see the pain and brokenness of others, if our heart breaks for what breaks God's heart, we will care and we will take action.