Monday, May 28, 2018
602 - Neighborly Advice
Spirituality Column #602
May 29, 2018
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
Neighborly Advice
By Bob Walters
“And who is my neighbor?” – Luke 10:29, the Parable of the Good Samaritan
For the most part my faith in Christ is expressed in these weekly writings, not in preaching or teaching.
Yes – and perhaps you can relate – there are my far-too-meager attempts at life witness, good works, helping those in need, encouraging the downcast, lifting up the fellowship, and challenging worldly evils. I know my efforts are meager because I know so many people who are expert at and blessed by some or several of these qualities.
In general it is dangerous to compare ourselves positively or negatively to any other person, because that is the seed Satan uses with which to grow jealousy, envy, judgment, arrogance, fear, and hatred. When these comparisons instead inspire mercy, compassion, kindness, humility, boldness, and love, well, you’re in the ring with Jesus.
If you read the Gospels, you’ll see that Jesus was really good at all this stuff. If you are truly going to follow anybody, start with Him, and then stay with Him. Your heart will stay on course and you won’t make the same hard-hearted mistake the law expert made in the parable of the Good Samaritan when he asked Jesus the question in Luke 10:29, noted above, “And who is my neighbor?”
Last month brought the rare opportunity for me to pinch hit as a teacher in the long-running Mustard Seed Bible study at our East 91st Street Christian Church. It is a Thursday morning gathering of seasoned citizens / senior saints that began meeting in the 1990s taught by long-time E91 pastor Russ Blowers and then, since Russ’s passing in 2007, by now-retired E91 seniors' minister John Samples. I’ve been attending since 2002. Did I say “rare” opportunity? This was actually a first.
John is teaching a chronology of Jesus’ ministry and needed a substitute the week the topic landed on “The Parable of the Good Samaritan.” This event would have happened during autumn prior to the spring Jesus was crucified, and appears in Luke 10 just after the “sending out of the 72.” In the parable Jesus answers an inquiry by a Jewish law expert as to how he, the lawyer, could inherit eternal life.
The great thing about teaching a Bible lesson actually is the study and learning one gains in the preparation. The teacher learns more than he or she can possibly share with the class. But in this common parable (Luke 10:25-37), the thing I learned in studying and was adamant about sharing was that the legal expert, this Jewish lawyer of religious laws, posed this particular question arrogantly backwards.
By asking “Who is my neighbor?” he was asking, “Who is worthy of my love?”
The brilliance of Jesus’s answer is that rather than simply say, “Everyone,” Jesus in barely 200 words (as translated into English) revealed the lawyer’s arrogance and hardness of heart, destroyed the Jewish assumption of ethnic superiority (the hated Samaritan was the hero), and asked, finally, “Who proved to be a neighbor?”
The lesson? Be the neighbor who helps others. That’s great advice.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) thanks mentor Dr. George Bebawi for pointing out that making an enemy think (Jesus vs. the Lawyer) is a far better tactic of rebellion than simple confrontation.
“And who is my neighbor?” – Luke 10:29, the Parable of the Good Samaritan
For the most part my faith in Christ is expressed in these weekly writings, not in preaching or teaching.
Yes – and perhaps you can relate – there are my far-too-meager attempts at life witness, good works, helping those in need, encouraging the downcast, lifting up the fellowship, and challenging worldly evils. I know my efforts are meager because I know so many people who are expert at and blessed by some or several of these qualities.
In general it is dangerous to compare ourselves positively or negatively to any other person, because that is the seed Satan uses with which to grow jealousy, envy, judgment, arrogance, fear, and hatred. When these comparisons instead inspire mercy, compassion, kindness, humility, boldness, and love, well, you’re in the ring with Jesus.
If you read the Gospels, you’ll see that Jesus was really good at all this stuff. If you are truly going to follow anybody, start with Him, and then stay with Him. Your heart will stay on course and you won’t make the same hard-hearted mistake the law expert made in the parable of the Good Samaritan when he asked Jesus the question in Luke 10:29, noted above, “And who is my neighbor?”
Last month brought the rare opportunity for me to pinch hit as a teacher in the long-running Mustard Seed Bible study at our East 91st Street Christian Church. It is a Thursday morning gathering of seasoned citizens / senior saints that began meeting in the 1990s taught by long-time E91 pastor Russ Blowers and then, since Russ’s passing in 2007, by now-retired E91 seniors' minister John Samples. I’ve been attending since 2002. Did I say “rare” opportunity? This was actually a first.
John is teaching a chronology of Jesus’ ministry and needed a substitute the week the topic landed on “The Parable of the Good Samaritan.” This event would have happened during autumn prior to the spring Jesus was crucified, and appears in Luke 10 just after the “sending out of the 72.” In the parable Jesus answers an inquiry by a Jewish law expert as to how he, the lawyer, could inherit eternal life.
The great thing about teaching a Bible lesson actually is the study and learning one gains in the preparation. The teacher learns more than he or she can possibly share with the class. But in this common parable (Luke 10:25-37), the thing I learned in studying and was adamant about sharing was that the legal expert, this Jewish lawyer of religious laws, posed this particular question arrogantly backwards.
By asking “Who is my neighbor?” he was asking, “Who is worthy of my love?”
The brilliance of Jesus’s answer is that rather than simply say, “Everyone,” Jesus in barely 200 words (as translated into English) revealed the lawyer’s arrogance and hardness of heart, destroyed the Jewish assumption of ethnic superiority (the hated Samaritan was the hero), and asked, finally, “Who proved to be a neighbor?”
The lesson? Be the neighbor who helps others. That’s great advice.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) thanks mentor Dr. George Bebawi for pointing out that making an enemy think (Jesus vs. the Lawyer) is a far better tactic of rebellion than simple confrontation.
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