Sometimes we get our neighbors twisted with our click. We see earlier in the chapter Jesus had sent out his disciples two by two to go before him and he told them not to bring anything with them but to go and when they enter into a house say “Peace be in this house: If they received them then they would receive peace. If the town would not recieve them then have nothing to do with them.

Jesus asked this lawyer a question and at the surface the lawyer gave a correct answer…love the lord with everything (unlike the Pharisees who talked about love but gave only lip service) and love you neighbor as yourself-If you don’t want people to look down on you stop looking down on others, if you don’t want people to gossip about you, stop gossiping about others, etc. Just because God saw me in a state of despair and cleaned me up and raised me up into what I am today, how dare I look down on anyone else.

The lawyer then felt the need to justify himself and asked Jesus-who is my neighbor? So Jesus gave him an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.

^” 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.  A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.  So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.  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. The next day he took out two denarii^[e] 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.’” (Lk 10:30-35)

The Path between Jericho and Jerusalem was about eighteen miles long and along it was an alleyway with boulders and palm trees where theives would lie in wait. It was a very dangerous yet heavily traveled road where thieves had easy access to rob people. This poor Samaritan was beaten and left to die alongside the road.  People passed him by on the road. A priest and a Levite both past by this dying Samaritan. The priest and the Levite were upstanding members of the community. Yet neither helped this travelers cause. The Samaritan was heading along the road from Jerusalem to Jericho-can we assume that the priest and the levite were heading in the same direction? The priest had probably been leaving the temple where he had been praying. Yet instead of helping this man, he crossed the street. The priest was obviously a religious man and not a man with a relationship with Jesus. Someone with a relationship with the Lord would want to cross the road and give his neighbor help. The Levite was an officer of the church probably heading to his house after performing his official duties. Jesus showed us how we definatly are not to ever treat others. Don’t cross the other side if you can meet someones need and help them. All to often people want to play church on Sundays but when the need is there, instead of meeting it, they cross the road like the Levite. We can’t cross to the other side and play church…we must love unconditionally as Jesus taught us. The Samaritans were half-bloods, outcast of society almost parallel in status to Lepers. Yet it was the Samaritan that reached out to this mand\, He saw a person in need, and he met that need. He cleaned him up, bandaged him up, placed him on his own animal,and brought him to the inn where he paid the innkeeper two days wages and asked him to look out for the man, and promised that if there was any more costs, he would pay for it next time he came through. In so doing he showed the love of Jesus and taught us what truly being a neighbor is all about.

JESUS LOVES YOU!