When presented with the question, who is my neighbor?, Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan. It's a story we have undoubtedly heard many times and may feel like, yeah, yeah, be nice to neighbors, be kind to people, etc... But there is so much more here that the Lord wants to instill in us.
He said, " A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and he fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went off leaving him half dead. And by chance a certain priest was going down the road and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them, and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, 'Take care of him and whatever you spend, when I return, I will repay you.' Which one of these proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers' hands?"
So there where three different kinds of people described here. Two who were evil and beat up a man and stole from him. One who was a member of the clergy, but was obviously too heavenly minded to be any earthly good. A Levite, someone who let his difference of race and religion cause him to also pass by. And then a Samaritan, who was on an important journey of his own, yet had COMPASSION, That compassion caused something different to occur in his manner toward the beaten man. He lost his own time, money and comfort to care for him as though he were someone from his own family. He set up the man for healing and success when so much had been taken from him.
Having true compassion is never easy, but it's something the Lord is challenging us to develop in ourselves daily. We have a saying at VCC, "people need you when they need you." It's hardly ever a convenient time to reach out and meet the needs of others, but when we do we are walking in the mercy of Jesus. We are the only Jesus people will ever see this side of heaven. If we truly understand that, it will change our outlook on life and how we treat everyone around us. So, are we going to be people who BEAT UP, PASS BY or SET UP? If we make ourselves available the Lord will give us ample opportunities to show Him who we are.
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