A certain expert in the Law of Moses asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” He was asking Jesus for an interpretation of the Law of Moses, which commanded the Israelites to love their neighbors.
In response, Jesus told the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Ultimately he concludes,
(Luke 10:36-37) “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.”
Do as the Samaritan did, Jesus says. That is, serve people who are not Jews–anyone who needs help, even though they are of a different religion or ethnicity.
Jesus doesn’t share with us the logic of how he arrived at this conclusion, but he does tell us what conclusion to reach. But by now the thought process should be obvious.
How could this be an interpretation of the Law of Moses? The Samaritan acted out of love. We can do no less.
As Christians, the burden is even greater. The gospel teaches us that God, out of an undeserved love, has given us gifts far greater than we deserve. We are therefore obligated to do the same for others.
And we reach the same conclusion by understanding the nature of God. God gives with undeserved, unconditional love. His command to love our neighbor must be interpreted in light of who God is and how he therefore surely wants us to act.
Even so, our baptism teaches us that we’ve shed our old lives, hung them on the cross, to walk in a new life alongside Jesus. To walk with Jesus is to walk as Jesus walks–by living a life filled with overwhelming compassion for a sick and hurting world.
The Lord’s Supper is symbolic of our taking into our bodies the blood and body of Christ, representative of his sacrifice. When we do this, we pledge to live as Jesus lived– self-sacrificially–that is, like the Good Samaritan.
