Introduction

The world is filled with pain and injustice. Followers of Jesus are called to care for those who are hurt and to address the causes of injustice in the world.

Luke 10:25–37

According to this conversation between this legal expert and Jesus, what must a person do to inherit eternal life (v25)?

29 AND WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR? How is the lawyer’s follow-up question an attempt to justify himself? The question could indicate our preference to say who our neighbor is and isn’t. If we can do that, we can stay comfortable and not enter into the lives of those who hurt (Ivanoff).

31 A PRIEST…A LEVITE…PASSED BY ON THE OTHER SIDE. Why do you think these two religious professionals avoided the half-dead man? Can you talk about a time when you were stranded or hurting and no one responded? How did you feel?

33 BUT A SAMARITAN. Why would this character’s move be surprising for Jesus’ audience?

WHILE TRAVELING. How open are you to allowing someone’s hurt and needs to interrupt your business?

CAME NEAR HIM AND WHEN HE SAW HIM. What role might proximity play in cultivating empathy?

HE WAS MOVED WITH PITY. Share a time when you were hurting or stranded, and someone helped meet your needs. How did that feel?

If you had to guess, how many times do you encounter someone hurting on any given day? Ask God to give you a heart that is moved by compassion. Are you willing to get close to someone or to a people or community who is hurting? We have to allow our hearts to be broken for others (Ivanoff).

34-35. A heart of compassion is moved to action. To “act justly” as Micah 6:8 says is not merely about ideas. When the Good Samaritan took pity on the man, he acted. He bandaged his wounds, cleaned them, used his own donkey to take the man to find lodging, and even paid for it. He went the distance (Ivanoff).

35 GAVE THEM TO THE INNKEEPER. The Samaritan was good for two reasons. First, he refused to walk obliviously on the other side of the road when he encountered the injured man; he got close enough to assess the man’s needs. Second, he offered what aid he could by bandaging him and taking him to an inn, and he referred his hurting neighbor to the innkeeper – a professional who was equipped to meet the man’s needs in a way that the Samaritan could not. The Samaritan was good not because he was able to meet all of the hurting man’s needs but because he had mercy on the man and cared for him, and then referred him to someone else who could help him (Haugen, 224).

36 WHICH OF THESE THREE, DO YOU THINK, WAS A NEIGHBOR…? Whereas the lawyer questioning him is preoccupied with the status of others (“Who is my neighbor?”), Jesus was more concerned with the questioner’s own status (was he being a [good] neighbor?). In other words, the lawyer wanted to see who would qualify for God’s reward. Jesus wanted him to be concerned about how to treat others. Focus on being a good neighbor rather than on who should receive my good treatment.

According to Jesus’ parable, what does it mean to love one’s neighbor? How far does the circle of neighborliness extend? Are there limits? Who is our neighbor? The answer may be unexpected, uncomfortable, and surprising. Ask God to open your eyes so that God will help you to see those who hurt and the causes of hurt. Ask God to cause a shift in your feet and in your heart (Ivanoff).

37 GO AND DO LIKEWISE. Jesus enjoins us to be alert to the obligations placed upon us by the needs of whomever we happen on, and to pay no attention to the fact, if it be a fact, that the needy person belongs to a group that is disdained. Every society has derogatory terms for members of one and another out­group. Such terms prevent us from recognizing our obligations to aid those in need. Discard them all, says Jesus. Do not let them deafen your ear to the cry for help or harden your heart (Wolterstorff, 131).

Our Greatest Inhumanity

For our greatest inhumanity, our most degrading ugliness and injustice, is always accompanied by our failure to recognize the humanity of the stranger, our failure to see the other (no matter how different his or her flesh) as neighbor, partner, or companion. This is the injustice of the Pharisee who fails to recognize he is like the tax collector, the injustice of the rich man who will not see the beggar Lazarus at his gate as his neighbor, and the injustice of the priest and Levite who do not notice that the wounded man on the roadside is their neighbor. Whenever humans prepare to abuse, oppress, or slaughter other humans, we first transform the objects of our violence or injustice into strangers, aliens, or enemies—and the best way to do this is to convince ourselves that they are not “bone from my bones, [or] flesh from my flesh.” This is the lesson of Darfur, Rwanda, Serbia, Northern Ireland, Dachau, Selma, and 9/11. We become monsters when we fail to see the stranger as neighbor, companion, and partner (McCormick, 20-21).

How would your heart change if you were able to see the pain and suffering that your enemy bears?

Reflection

1. What else do you learn from the parable Good Samaritan about your ability to see pain?

2. With a group of people, identify what things in our society you believe are causing hurt in your community. Who is being hurt? What kind of action can your church take to address the cause with the love of Christ?

Works Cited

Haugen, Gary A. Good News About Injustice: A Witness of Courage in a Hurting World. 10th Year Anniversary ed. Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2009.

Ivanoff, Curtis. “Week Four: Shift Your Ability To See Pain.” Shift, Evangelical Covenant Church, http://shiftcurriculum.org/week-four/. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.

McCormick, Patrick T. God’s Beauty: A Call to Justice. Collegeville: (Michael Glazier - Liturgical Press, 2012), 20-21.

Wolterstorff, Nicholas. Justice in Love. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2011.