Who is My Neighbour? by Michael Podhaczky

Most likely, you have heard at least one sermon on the subject of loving our neighbour. We usually hear this spoken about from Luke 10:25-37, where a Judean religious interpreter and teacher of the Mosaic law (Torah) asked Jesus a question. This question was about how this teacher could receive eternal life. Jesus then went to two passages from the Torah from Deuteronomy 6:5, and Leviticus 19:18 which says,

“And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut 6:5 NASB).

“You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself; I am the LORD” (Lev 19:18 NASB).

The teacher was satisfied with Jesus’ answer, but we are told that,

“But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’” (Lk 10:29 NASB).

So, Jesus responded to him in a way that would challenge him to the core. Notice the Jesus used Leviticus to interpret the precise application of the passage from Deuteronomy. It has been said that,

“There is a shocking aspect that may escape a non-Jewish reader – every Jew belongs to one of three groups; Priests descended from Aaron; Levites descended from Levi; and Israelites descended from the other children of Jacob. Therefore, after the Priest and Levite, a first-century Jew would have expected mention of the third group—an Israelite.”[1]

Jesus spoke directly to the teacher. However, He would have also been talking to all those present and all of Israel.

We have probably all said, or thought something like, why don’t they get it? How thick can someone be? Well, “Who is our neighbour?” it can be easy to think of someone we like, or even someone in another place or overseas. What about the person that does not like us? Or even the neighbour next door, across the road or at work. Yes, that’s right, the pain in the but! Or else the person living or working in our proximity that will know that we are a Christ-follower.

It is always easy to say and do things to others that we may never see again, or now and then. But what about the ones that, well, we think “You have got to be joking, not them!” What about merely loving and reaching out to the people next door to us where God put us. If we are unable to love our neighbours in our street, what gives us the right to try to say and do things to the ones at a distance?

Pause in His presence for a moment and think this over…

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[1] “Who Is My Neighbor?” https://lp.israelbiblicalstudies.com/lp_iibs_jbnt_good_samaritan_20_ret-en.html?cid=80264&adGroupId=-1&utm_source=Email_Marketing&utm_medium=RET_JBNT_Good_Samaritan_20&utm_campaign=JBN_EN_EML_RET_JBNT_Good_Samaritan_20_ST_2020-07-01_80264&commChannel=1&stid=7067185&hash=302e25c11413722c2102d4b2c2afbbfa (23^rd August 2020).