Jesus was asked this question by a lawyer who wanted to justify his own life when he heard Jesus say, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” It is commonly asserted of lawyers that they want good ideas and laws applied to other people but not themselves, and that they are well acquainted with searching for loopholes. The truth is we all have a little lawyer in us.
So to answer the lawyers question, Jesus told what we commonly refer to as the “story of the good Samaritan.” To summarize a man is traveling down the road and gets beat down by some robbers. It is a violent scene as they take all his possessions and leave him naked to die in disgrace. Two religious men of the same race and culture of the man who was left to die pass by without helping. They intentionally went to the other side of the road to avoid contact – to avoid the hassle of helping someone – to avoid the personal cost of involvement.
But a third man comes along – of a different culture and a different people – he is a Samaritan (half Jewish, half Gentile – hated by both). He helps the guy by cleaning up his wounds, giving him a ride on his mule, and taking him to a hotel to recover. He pays all the injured man’s expenses, and tells the hotel manager, “put any other expenses on my tab.”
Now these 2 men did not live next to each other, they were not of the same race or culture, they had no connection other than their common humanity and that one of them needed help and the other had the ability to help. So we see the answer to our question: our neighbor is anyone we have the ability to help. This presents us with tremendous opportunities and increased complexities as our world is more connected than ever. Though we have answered this question, we have created two more: which neighbor do I help, and how can I best help my neighbor? Check back for more posts on this and other subjects.
To read the biblical record of the good Samaritan see Luke 10:25-37
The painting is by He Qi – one of my favorite artists – you can visit his gallery.
Love 
February 15, 2007 at 4:37 pm
I thought you explained this really well, and I hadn’t thought of the two ending questions before. I look forward to the answers. By the way could you provide a link or artist name for the photo? It would be good for it to be cited.
February 15, 2007 at 5:47 pm
sorry the artist stuff didn’t link correctly the first time.
February 16, 2007 at 10:02 am
I think the neighbor to help is the one who we see in our path that has the most obvious need. I think that many people are concerned about helping those who live in other countries but forget about those who cross their path every day that are in some kind of need. The need doesn’t always have to be so obvious. A need can be stopping and talking to someone or eating lunch with them and asking about their lives.
March 23, 2007 at 9:50 am
Nice site! http://www.nccabogados.com/
March 30, 2007 at 10:27 am
Thanks for the kind words Abogado.
September 8, 2007 at 5:48 pm
I appreciate your link to the artist He Qi. He does have a way to blend and portray biblical truth in a Chinese way. Gracias!
With regard to the interpretation of this parable, I would like to join in and pitch in my two cents. How about going a second mile to say that loving our neighbor means nothing less than loving our enemy? This appears to be the punch line Jesus delivers to the lawyer, the knock-out punch right on his face in that the good Samaritan is good only because he loves his enemy, the suffering Jew who is robbed and beaten and left half dead by the roadside. And Jesus demands the lawyer to do to same in order to fulfill the 2nd greatest commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself:i.e. to love your enemy. How else could we be perfect as our heavenly Father is (Matthew 5)? If we love only those who love us, greet only those who greet us, then we are no different than the tax collectors and the pagans, thus stresses Jesus in his sermon of the Mount.
June 24, 2008 at 6:26 pm
[…] family, local church, neighbor, poor | If you haven’t yet, you may want to read “who is my neighbor” (below) before reading this post. The conclusion was that our neighbor is anyone we have the […]
June 24, 2008 at 6:29 pm
[…] what is best for your neighbor. Go back to the story Jesus tells of the “good Samaritan” (see “Who is my neighbor?” post). The Samaritan took care of the beaten man’s woundss and provided for his recovery. It is […]