Although Israel as a chosen nation had all this information in their custody,their arrogance and negligence to pay attention to that which the Lord had intented to teach them found them asking kinder garden like questions by the time the Messiah came. Such was the question, “Who is my neighbor?”-Luke 10:25-37
When God called Israel,He did so not because Israel was holy than all other nations, but in spite of it. God’s original purpose was to equip and use Israel as an instrument to tell others of His goodness. Unfortunately, Israel terribly failed to learn, and instead chose to isolate herself from those that she considered un-clean.
Failing to see all as God’s children and possible candidates of the heavenly kingdom,Israel took a narrow view of the chosen nation and isolated everyone else. God have mercy!
When the man from Galilee arrived,He found the chosen people not only confused, but deeply lacking in understanding and practical Christianity, so to speak. This ignorance came out in the question put forth by one of them, “And who is my neighbor?”
To answer this question,Jesus gave a story of a man so desperately in need of help. Pay attention to the people who passed by and show this man laying their covered with blood and crying for help-a priest,a levite,a Samaritan! Among the three,the priest and levite were expected to act immediately in that they were leaders of the people well versed with God’s word.
However, as it turned out,it was the Samaritan who proved to be a good neighbor. It’s interesting that even at this point,the one who had asked the question was unwilling to give credit to the Samaritan. He simply referred to him as “He that showed mercy to him.” Then Jesus answered “Go and do likewise.”
Are we better off today than the chosen people were during Christ’s ministry on earth! Are we clear in our minds as to who our neighbor is? What about other issues that count?
Just a thought!
C.Absalom N. Birai,pastor
Maranatha SDA church
P.O BOX 1296
Maple Grove, MN 55311
612-386-4608
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Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2008 04:39:33 -0700 (PDT)
From: Absalom Birai
Subject: Re: How about the neighbor question!