PASSING BY ON THE OTHER SIDE…

“An expert in Torah stood up to try and trap him by asking, ‘Rabbi, what should I do to obtain eternal life?’ But Yeshua said to him, ‘What is written in the Torah? How do you read it?’ He answered, ‘You are to love Adonai your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your understanding; and your neighbor as yourself.’ ^‘That’s the right answer,’ Yeshua said. ‘Do this, and you will have life.’” [Luke 10:25-28, CJB]

Today, we commend this kind of others-focused behavior as something extraordinary. We deem the person who gives of him/herself wholeheartedly to the service of God and others as a special breed, someone with a special calling or “anointing” to give and love. Jesus, (or His Hebrew Name, Yeshua) indicates that ALL of us are called to love the agape way. Every one of us is to love our neighbor—or fellow human beings the same way we love ourselves. That means my neighbor's needs and desires are just as important as my own, and further that I have as much responsibility in seeing them fulfilled as I have in seeing my own come to fruition; so much for the “bootstrap mentality”. It just went out the window with these three verses.

God has impressed this message upon mankind since He first gave man laws. Six out of the Ten Commandments relate to our relationships with one another; four relate to our relationship with God. In fact, the account of this same passage in Matthew 22:35-40, says that this is a summation of “the Law and the Prophets”.  The result didn’t change—the requirement didn’t change; only the method of carrying out the commandments changed with grace. Instead of man attempting to do these things based solely on the knowledge that he should (and human ability, which often fell far short), and yet not having the power to always keep what he knew was right, now Jesus ushers in grace. With grace comes the power of the Holy Ghost to bring love to pass in us, simply because we desire it. Psalm 37:4 says that if we “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart.” If we desire God and the godly, righteous, holy things—His Kingdom more than all else, He will give it to us. That’s the bottom line. That’s the Kingdom of God—“righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Romans 14:17). The Word of God works! As we desire His Kingdom, He knows the “things” that we have need of and gives them to us—not everything that we want, but "all these things": “What are we going to have to eat?” “What are we going to have to drink?” “What are we going to have to wear?” [Matthew 6:32] He promised to supply our needs as we seek His Kingdom. But, how exactly do we seek His Kingdom???

Luke 10 provides the account of a parable that known as The Good Samaritan. When I was growing up, I thought of the Samaritan as especially loving—out of the ordinary. That really isn’t the picture that Jesus is painting for us, though. He uses this parable to explain what it means love your neighbor as you love yourself. He also shows us what it is not to have godly love. Where do we fit in? How comfortable are we in “passing by on the other side”? I know that we don’t necessarily feel disdain for those we neglect—though some do, but helping is an inconvenience, time-consuming, or it’s too costly. Sometimes, we wonder if we will be repaid if we are ever in the same place. 

It’s no mistake that Jesus uses the characters He chose to paint this portrait. “A certain man” is how Jesus describes the victim—He intentionally gives no description of His identity, so as not to influence their answers one way or the other. That road from Jerusalem to Jericho was well-known to His hearers as one of treachery—filled with bandits searching for those they might take advantage of, not caring whether they left their victims dead or alive. At Jericho, there was a community of priests, and according to the Talmud there were almost as many priests in Jericho as there were at Jerusalem, at any given time. So, although that road was dangerous, it was also frequented by priests and Levites who traveled between Jerusalem and Jericho. While they just happened to be on that Jericho road at the same time as that certain man who had been viciously attacked, beaten and stripped by bandits, both the priest and the Levite saw him—and passed by on the other side. Now, as religious leaders, both knew according to Mosaic Law, it was their duty to stop and assist the man, but still they hurried by, avoiding all contact with him ignoring his desperate condition or maybe turning a blind eye—as we often do. We know there is hunger in the world, but we avoid the subject, we know about homelessness, but fail to meet the need as we have ability to, and so on. However, for this man’s sake, God sent a Samaritan. Samaritans were among the most hated people who existed in Jesus’ day. It had to be particularly indicting to hear that a Samaritan had a purer, kinder and more loving heart than even the rulers of Jerusalem. That’s the thing—God doesn’t care about status—He cares about hearts. The Samaritan did what they would not do—they would not touch this man, perhaps being more concerned that he might be unclean according to the stringent legal codes, making them unclean by coming in contact with him. The Samaritan traveler poured both oil and wine, along with his compassion into the wounds of this man he did not know. He came down to where he was and dressed his wounds and lifted him onto his own donkey and took him to an inn—paying the innkeeper to care for him in his absence, until he could return to see to his care himself. Apparently, the Samaritan had other things to do, too. He was inconvenienced, but love doesn’t mind being inconvenienced for someone who has a need.  This is what it means to be a neighbor. This is how we show agape love—that we have godly love in our hearts to not only God, but others. Oil and wine—wine to cleanse and oil to soothe.

The world around us needs much oil and wine; will we continue, as the Body of Christ, to pass by on the other side.