Day 43 | Go, and You Do the Same

June 2nd, 2019

Luke 10: 25-37
Who Is My Neighbor?
25 Now a certain Torah lawyer stood up to entrap Yeshua, saying, “Teacher, what should I do to gain eternal life?”
26 Then Yeshua said to him, “What has been written in the Torah? How do you read it?”
27 And he replied, “You shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”
28 Yeshua said to him, “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.”
29 But wanting to vindicate himself, he said to Yeshua, “Then who is my neighbor?”
30 Yeshua replied, “A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. He was attacked by robbers, who stripped him and beat him. Then they left, abandoning him as half dead.
31 And by chance, a kohen was going down that road; but when he saw the man, he passed by on the opposite side.
32 Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the opposite side.
33 But a Samaritan who was traveling came upon him; and when he noticed the man, he felt compassion.
34 He went up to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine. Then setting him on his own animal, he brought him to a lodge for travelers and took care of him.
35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him. And whatever else you spend, upon my return I will repay you myself.’
36 Which of these three seems to you a neighbor to the one attacked by robbers?”
37 And he said, “The one who showed mercy to him.” Then Yeshua said to him, “Go, and you do the same.”

REFLECT

In Israel, even to this day, Samaritans are discriminated against by both Jews and Arabs. The Israeli’s are hostile towards them because they don’t see them as being Jews despite their Jewish origin. Arab hostility is based on their perception that the Samaritans are Jews! These feelings of animosity are not the result of modern geo-politics; they date back to the time of Rehoboam, the Son of Solomon (1 Kings 12)! In this parable, it would have been easy for the Samaritan to look at the evil that had fallen upon the Jewish man in the passage and say to himself “not my problem”. Instead, we see the man act more godly than those who considered themselves the religious elite of their day by showing mercy, compassion and generosity to one who might not have shown it to him if the situation had been reversed. This is how Yeshua wants us to act towards our neighbors and those who persecute us because this is how He would act towards us! It is in these moments we will experience an outpouring of His Spirit both to help us lay down our lives for our neighbors, and also to break our hearts of selfishness and self-centeredness. As we begin to undertake the service of others as a discipline, God will transform us into the likeness of Yeshua, making us more and more like Him every day.