Who is my neighbor?

 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"  He said to him, "What is written in the law?  What is your reading of it?"  So he answered and said, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,' and 'your neighbor as yourself.'"  And He said to him, "You have answered rightly; do this and you will live."

But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"  Then Jesus answered and said, "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.  Now by chance a certain priest came down that road.  And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.  Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side.  But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was.  And when he saw him, he had compassion.  So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.  On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, 'Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.'  So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?"  And he said, "He who showed mercy on him."  Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

- Luke 10:25-37

Yesterday, after Jesus appointed the Seventy, and having sent them out on their first mission, we read that they returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name."  And He said to them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.  Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.  Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven."  In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes.  Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.  All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him."  Then He turned to His disciples and said privately, "Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see, for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it."

 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"  He said to him, "What is written in the law?  What is your reading of it?"  So he answered and said, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,' and 'your neighbor as yourself.'"  And He said to him, "You have answered rightly; do this and you will live."   My study bible tells us that "'What shall I do to inherit eternal life?' is a momentous question for every person.  The answer of Jesus is to love God above all else, and to love one's neighbor."  It's important that we understand these two great commandments as Jesus' answer to how we are to live our lives and be His disciples.  It's the same answer He gives to the question regarding which is the greatest commandment in the law in both Matthew's and Mark's Gospels.  These are two commandments in the Law, and one comes after the other, in Jesus' teaching.  First is the love of God, and from that comes love of neighbor.  They are inseparable.

But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"  Then Jesus answered and said, "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.  Now by chance a certain priest came down that road.  And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.  Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side."  The lawyer asks the question that follows Jesus' answer about the Law, the commandments that lead to eternal life:  "Who is my neighbor?"  The parable of the Good Samaritan is Jesus' response.  This parable appears only in Luke.  My study bible says that it "illustrates Jesus' teaching of who our neighbor is:  anyone in immediate need, even a supposed enemy.  Symbolically, the Good Samaritan is Christ Himself, the wounded man is humanity set upon by demons, and the inn is the Church.  Love for neighbor proves our love for God."  A Levite was an official helper in the temple.  So, both a priest and a Levite pass the injured man by.  We can only guess at the reasons, and there have been many theses regarding this:  prohibitions regarding the issue of blood, the fear of uncleanness in the fact that the wounded man may have appeared to be dead, the notorious danger of this particular pass.  Jesus doesn't give us the reason, only that these are strict followers of the law, officials in the temple, who fail to help the injured man.

"But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was.  And when he saw him, he had compassion."  My study bible says, "The Samaritan, a presumed enemy of Jews, is highlighted as the good neighbor because of his loving actions toward the wounded Jew ignored by fellow Jews."  To "have compassion," in the Greek,  is expressed via a word that denotes a depth of inner feeling -- it's to be moved in our "inner parts" such as the heart.  It implies feeling, not just a mental note.  It reminds us of the love of God quoted in the law above, "with all one's heart and soul and strength and mind." 

"So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.  On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, 'Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.'"  We note the thoroughness of the care; the Samaritan indeed treats the injured man as he would desire for himself. 

"So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?"  And he said, "He who showed mercy on him."  Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."  From this story, we come to understand mercy as healing.  The word for mercy in the Greek (eleos) is the same in sound as the one for olive oil, as in the balm which the Samaritan poured on the wounds of the injured man.  It was the basis for all healing balm in the ancient world.  To "go and do likewise," we observe, is a command from Christ.  As such we infer that it is a command for all of us, each of us, as His follower.

It's interesting to observe how Jesus phrases the command to "Go and do likewise."  He uses the word ποιέω/poieo in the Greek for "do."   This word ποιέω/poieo is the root of the word for poem or poetry.  It denotes a kind of work, a creative act.  So in doing likewise, in practicing mercy, we are to be capable -- we infer -- of thinking outside of the box, thinking creatively, making something good where perhaps there wasn't anything before, out of a situation in which others aren't necessarily doing or modeling the same.  The distinctive sound of eleos, mingling mercy and healing or even an anointing oil, gives us an understanding of the Gospel context for so much of what we understand from our faith:  God's mercy anoints the world with the Spirit, anoints Jesus as Messiah ("Anointed One") as the Samaritan "anoints" the wounds of the injured man waylaid by robbers and left for dead.  We see in this word eleos the Way of Jesus, who will so often question the ways in which the law is applied.  And it leads us -- this word eleos -- right back to Jesus' question for the temple leadership:  "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy?"  We are to be creative in our thinking about healing and its inextricable link to the practice of mercy, which is truly the practice of God-likeness.  In God's mercy He has come to save and to heal, and we all know what this means for the repentance of which we are capable, the restoration to right-relatedness to God.  Let us think about these great commandments and note the fullness of our commitment to God, to our love:  with all our heart and soul and strength and mind.  This faith isn't merely an assent to a set of values or understanding.  If we note carefully, the "mind" is the last thing mentioned here!  It is a focus on love, love with all that we have and all that we are, with a depth that continues to grow just as we don't know the true depths of the self, but learn through a lifetime of journey toward a deeper faith.  Let us remember that God-likeness is in this love and in the creative practice of mercy, in the depth of commitment to heal wherever and however we can.  There we find our neighbor.