For Our Neighbors: Religious Failure



"And who is my neighbor?"  That's the question an expert in the law asked Jesus in response to Jesus telling him that the way to inherit eternal life was to love God with all he was and to love his neighbor as himself. (Luke 10:25ff).  He was a lawyer looking for a loophole!  

Jesus responded to this question by telling one of his greatest parables.  A man did something stupid.  He traveled down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, and got ambushed by robbers.  They stripped and beat him, leaving him by the road half dead.  

It was a road, so people passed by.  The first to pass by was a priest.  He was at the apex of the Jewish religious hierarchy.  He knew all God's laws and was supposed to be an example of following it.  Yet he passed by on the other side.  Went out of his way to avoid the man!

Why?  Maybe he thought he was dead, and touching him would leave him ceremonially unclean, making him unable to do his priestly work in the temple.  Maybe be was too busy to stop.  He had holy things to do!  For whatever reasons, his religious faith excluded the beaten man from his list of neighbors. 

The next person to come by was a Levite. He was a notch below the priest in the hierarchy.  He too passed by on the other side!  Religious failure again!

We find this behavior shocking.  Yet we evangelicals are often guilty of the same thing.  We fail to be a neighbor because of legalism and because we  redefine or twist the scriptures to suit us.  

Legalism causes religious failure.  That person isn't my neighbor because he's a liberal.  This person isn't my neighbor because she's an undocumented worker.  Yet another person isn't my neighbor because he's gay.

We also twist the scriptures to suit us.  We think our only mission to minister to spiritual needs.  Yet Jesus said God will judge us on what we do for the poor (Matthew 25:46ff).  We don't choose between preaching the gospel and helping the poor.  Jesus didn't give us a choice!  He commanded us to do both.

Have a healthy faith that leads you to see everyone as your neighbor!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

God's Dynamite: The Battle Within

Image
"It was on fire when I lay down on it."  Robert Fulghum wrote about reading this statement in a small town newspaper.   Smoke was billowing from a second story window.  The Fire Department arrived, broke down the front door, ran up a set of stairs, and pulled a man off a burning bed.  Later, when they asked him how he got in that predicament, he said, "It was on fire when I lay down on it." Why on earth did he do that?  We don't know, but his story reveals a human truth.  We often do self-destructive things.  We testify, "People told me not to do it, but I did it anyway."  "I knew it was wrong, but I did it." The apostle Paul wrote about our human propensity to sin and self-destructive behavior in Romans 7:14-25.  Verse 15 sums up his point, "I do not understand what I do.  For what I want to do I do not do and what I hate I do."   He describes an intense inner battle.  On one side is the "flesh," his
Read more

God's Dynamite: More than Conquerors

Image
One person goes through a terrible experience and emerges from it stronger, more mature, and more loving.  Another goes through a similar experience and emerges from it weaker, less mature, and bitter.   What's the difference? I think it has to do with what's in the person's heart.  It has to do with his or her faith and perspective of life.   In Romans 8:35-39, the apostle Paul asked, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?''  Is there any person or place or experience that can remove us from Christ's loving presence?  Trouble? Hardship? Danger?  Sword? Paul could answer this question because he experienced all the above and more.  He said, "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."  We conquer all these things through Christ's love for us. To be sure, we can have times when Christ's love seems far away from us. In the depths of suffering in times like these, we can won
Read more

God's Dynamite: Resurrection Transformation

Image
Easter is about more than you going to heaven.  That's part of it, but not near all!  It's about your death and resurrection. In Romans 6, Paul was answering opponents.  Those opponents said that if salvation is by God's grace through faith, then you have no motivation for righteous living and good works.  Why not sin more to get more grace? Paul answered by using the image of baptism.  He said when the pastor plunged you under water, he symbolized your death in Christ.  Through faith you died on the cross with Jesus.  Your old self was a slave to sin and rebellion against God.   Paul said when the pastor raised you up from the water, he symbolized your resurrection in Christ.  Not just in the future but in the present.  In faith, you identify with Jesus' death and his resurrection.  You're raised to a new life, free from slavery to sin. So Easter is about more than personal salvation.  It's about transformation: dying to an old life and ris
Read more