Luke 10:25-37
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
God knew when He tore and broke down the Tower of Babel and changed those who were building the Tower into different languages, things would change and a different type of community would start...He knew that it be easier for those speaking the same language would feel more comfortable with each other and have this feeling of fitting in and being a part of that group which were similar in language...The same language helped these different groups to connect to one another...With His Divine knowledge, He also knew that those different language groups and those similar in different respects would have more in common and be in community and groups together...And He knew there would be problems along the Way...
But God is LOVE...And LOVE wants peace, LOVE wants harmony, LOVE wants us to show mercy to others...So He put in the Law of Moses different verses about the sojourner, the one who is not an exact perfect fit for the community, but who is...Because we all fall short of the Glory of God, whether we speak the same language or whatever our differences might be...
God wants us to be kind to one another and love one another and to show mercy on everyone, not just those we agree with and feel comfortable with...And He gives us different verses of Scripture, in the Old Testament, about the sojourner and the foreigner and those alien to us...And here are a few of these verses: So we can rejoice in all the good that the LORD, our God, has given to us and to our house and families...We can rejoice with our neighbors, the believers and the non-believer, and the sojourner who is among us...When a foreigner resides with you in our land or community, we must not oppress him or her...We must treat the foreigner living among you as native-born and love him as yourself, for His people were once foreigners in the land of Egypt...I AM the LORD your God...We must not exploit or oppress a foreign resident, for you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt...So you also must love the foreigner, since you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt...Do not despise an Edomite, for he is your brother...Do not despise an Egyptian, because you lived as a foreigner in his land...The LORD protects foreigners; He sustains the fatherless and the widow, but the ways of the wicked He frustrates...But the stranger that dwells with you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I AM the LORD your God...
So God is telling us to love each other...He wants a world of peace and harmony and love...He wants the stranger and different ones to be the same as those born among us...
The repeated daily news seems to tell us that we are having times of trouble in loving thy neighbor and strangers and those who look different for us...The sojourner is not getting the treatment that God is telling us...It seems like their are factions and sects being set up as communities (whether real communities or digital communities or just those following a non-merciful leader or group) and not letting the love of others who are different in those communities...The stranger is getting left out of the community...The result weakens our country and history begins to be rewritten, and the saddest and most important thing of all we only want to believe in the Scripture that fits what we believe in and not what Scripture is telling us...These things divide our country and do not unite it...Jesus gave us the Two Greatest Commandments which are to love God and to love neighbor...And Jesus defines neighbor as everyone, whether I am Samaritan or a Canaanite or one in need of mercy...These are our neighbors -even these different groups are our neighbors...God wants mercy, not sacrifice...He wants us to show mercy...And He teaches us in His Son's Parable of the Good Samaritan, an outcasted group in Jesus' time that the one person who helped the injured Jewish person was the one who showed him mercy...
When we start getting opinions from many that do not support the love and mercy and forgiveness of Jesus' teachings, then we will have trouble...Beliefs based on emotions, offense toward others, and personal opinion that disagree with His Teachings are not what Jesus taught and keeps people from accepting the Good News of Jesus and His gospel...He teaches Divine Truth...If the non-merciful community is more important than Jesus' Teachers, the world is in much trouble...As St. Augustine tells us: “If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.”...
Let us follow Jesus Teaching of Love the LORD our God with all of our heart and with all of our soul and with all of our strength and with all of our mind; and to Love our neighbor as we would ourselves...In one of Jesus' last commands, He told His Disciples to Love One Another...We must do this to follow His Example and to follow the Truth, the Way, and the One who gives us Abundant Life...