Who is my neighbor?

General Christian Theology
PeterG
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Re: Who is my neighbor?

Post by PeterG »

Robert wrote:What is Jesus trying to communicate in this story, not to us, but to those who were hearing it?
I appreciate the way you're focusing on this, Robert. It's an important part of applying the teaching of Jesus to our lives today, rather than the other way around.
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Wayne in Maine
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Re: Who is my neighbor?

Post by Wayne in Maine »

As I understand it, the Old Testament usually refers to one’s “neighbor” as one who is a part of your community- a fellow Jew. In Jesus’ parable we see a Jew robbed and beaten. The priest and the Levite, who were fellow Jews, did not obey the command to love your neighbor and passed him by, the Samaritan who had compassion, treated the Jew with mercy. That Samaritan was actually the man’s neighbor.

This is similar to the thought Jesus expressed in Matthew 12:49-50 and Mark 3:34-35 when “Pointing to his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.’”

In both cases it is the obedient one who has a particular relationship with another (the member of the community and Jesus Himself).

It’s worth noting whom Jesus is referring to in Matthew 25. When the sheep and the goats are separated He says to the righteous: ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ In the same way that everyone who is hungry or thirsty, a stranger or naked, sick or in prison is not Jesus’s brother, not everyone who even lives in proximity to us is our neighbor – but only those who are obedient.
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PeterG
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Re: Who is my neighbor?

Post by PeterG »

It's interesting that in Matt. 5 Jesus seems to acknowledge the distinction between neighbors and enemies, much like Wayne is saying.

[bible]Matthew 5,43[/bible]

But then he challenges the distinction—

[bible]Matthew 5,44-48[/bible]
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Bootstrap
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Re: Who is my neighbor?

Post by Bootstrap »

Wayne in Maine wrote:The priest and the Levite, who were fellow Jews, did not obey the command to love your neighbor and passed him by, the Samaritan who had compassion, treated the Jew with mercy. That Samaritan was actually the man’s neighbor.
But the man lying in the ditch had done nothing at all for the Samaritan except give him a chance to show love to, of all people, a Jew.
Wayne in Maine wrote:In both cases it is the obedient one who has a particular relationship with another (the member of the community and Jesus Himself).
Are you saying the point is that the Jew lying in a ditch by the side of the road is the obedient one who has a particular relationship with the Samaritan, a member of his community and with Jesus, and therefore deserves the Samaritan's mercy?

I am having some difficulty reading it that way.
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Is it biblical? Is it Christlike? Is it loving? Is it true? How can I find out?
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Wayne in Maine
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Re: Who is my neighbor?

Post by Wayne in Maine »

PeterG wrote:It's interesting that in Matt. 5 Jesus seems to acknowledge the distinction between neighbors and enemies, much like Wayne is saying.

[bible]Matthew 5,43[/bible]

But then he challenges the distinction—

[bible]Matthew 5,44-48[/bible]
And I am not disputing that. I suppose I'm trying to draw a distinction between the concept of a "universal brotherhood of man" and the Kingdom of God.

Without being beat up on by the political progressives in tis discussion group.
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Robert
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Re: Who is my neighbor?

Post by Robert »

Let's hold off on supporting text right now. I want to identify the people in the story.

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. We assume an Isrealite. I think this was the intent.
Robbers. Presumably Israelite, but could be anyone.
A Priest. Most likely a Rabbi character from the Maccabee Revolts.
A Levite. A descendant of Aaron.
A Samaritan. Viewed as half breeds by the people Israel at that time.
An Innkeeper. I would assume another Israelite. The story does not define it, but Jerusalem to Jericho was a small route and heavily populated with Isrealites.

The Priest and the Levite sound like bad people. Both were obeying Talmudic law. Both would become unclean if they stopped and helped. Both, being people of strong faith, were obeying the law. I find it interesting that Jesus mentions them both. Could there be a reason for this?

The Samaritan had no law that would make him unclean by helping the man. Luke 10:33 tells us he had compassion. We can easily assume he was motivated by compassion.

The Innkeeper, although an Isrealite, was caring for the man.

Luke 10:36-37 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" [37] He said, "The one who showed him mercy." And Jesus said to him, "You go, and do likewise."

These are the characters in the story. Does it appear to be a real story or a parable?
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Re: Who is my neighbor?

Post by silentreader »

Robert wrote:Let's hold off on supporting text right now. I want to identify the people in the story.

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. We assume an Isrealite. I think this was the intent.
Robbers. Presumably Israelite, but could be anyone.
A Priest. Most likely a Rabbi character from the Maccabee Revolts.
A Levite. A descendant of Aaron.
A Samaritan. Viewed as half breeds by the people Israel at that time.
An Innkeeper. I would assume another Israelite. The story does not define it, but Jerusalem to Jericho was a small route and heavily populated with Isrealites.

The Priest and the Levite sound like bad people. Both were obeying Talmudic law. Both would become unclean if they stopped and helped. Both, being people of strong faith, were obeying the law. I find it interesting that Jesus mentions them both. Could there be a reason for this?

The Samaritan had no law that would make him unclean by helping the man. Luke 10:33 tells us he had compassion. We can easily assume he was motivated by compassion.

The Innkeeper, although an Isrealite, was caring for the man.

Luke 10:36-37 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" [37] He said, "The one who showed him mercy." And Jesus said to him, "You go, and do likewise."

These are the characters in the story. Does it appear to be a real story or a parable?
May I intrude on your thinking here to say that I immediately thought of this passage:

What Does the Lord Require?

“With what shall I come before the Lord,
    and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
    with calves a year old?

Will the Lord be pleased with[a] thousands of rams,
    with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
    the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

He has told you, O man, what is good;
    and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
    and to walk humbly with your God?
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lesterb
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Re: Who is my neighbor?

Post by lesterb »

It was a parable, and could have been a real story. The scribe didn't contest that the story was at least true to life.

I think we need to be careful to not allow the details of the parable to drown out the main thought. Jesus challenged the scribe to obey the Law, and love his neighbor as himself. This was a bit hard on the scribe, and in true dialectical fashion, he rebutted with the question, "who is my neighbor".

The whole purpose of the story was to help the scribe to answer his own question.

I'm not sure why Jesus reversed the two men in the story. The scribe wanted to know who was HIS neighbor. Jesus turned it around and asked the scribe who was neighbor to him. Being a neighbor should be a two way street, I guess. But I'm not sure if there is something to learn there or not.

But here were two men who were natural enemies. There is even a chance that the Jew wouldn't have helped the Samaritan had their roles been reversed. But I'm sure that after all of this, he would have. So the Jew was a neighbor to the Samaritan and by the time it was said and done, the Samaritan was his neighbor too.

That's how it can work, and maybe that's what Wayne was saying. But finally, Jesus was saying that to really obey the Law of loving your neighbor as yourself, you need to lay aside all of your prejudices and simply see that man in need. He may hate you to start with, but by the time you show genuine love to him, he will probably love you too.

:?: :?:
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Robert
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Re: Who is my neighbor?

Post by Robert »

Again, let's hold off on supporting or connecting scripture for just a bit. Let's take the story as is, understand the purpose and then we can start connecting it to other things.
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Re: Who is my neighbor?

Post by lesterb »

Sorry, I guess I interrupted. Carry on... :-|
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