As far as neighbors go, I am usually running back in the
pack if not losing the race. You know,
the neighbor race, don’t you? That
competition in which we all see which of us in the neighborhood can have the
cleanest lawn, the prettiest lawn, etc, etc, etc. I’ve never been a leader of the pack when it
comes to such things. I once had a neighbor lady who seemed to see lawn mowing as a competition. No matter when I mowed my lawn, which wasn't often, she would mow hers the very next day whether it had been mowed two or three days before or not. This started to get to me, so I decided to
have a little fun with her. The next
time this happened, I went to the inane trouble of mowing my lawn the very day
after she had mowed hers. Sure enough,
she mowed hers the next day. I was going
to keep this up for a while, but I realized I hated mowing more than I hated
the fun of messing with my neighbor.
Jesus taught that we were to love our neighbors, and when
pressed as to who our neighbors might be, he told the well known story of the
Good Samaritan. To recall the story, a
guy gets mugged on a stretch of road and left for dead. Religious leaders of differing types noticed
but passed by avoiding the whole situation.
Finally a foreigner, a guy from the next country over who, though not a
war like enemy, despised and hated just the same, came by and stopped to render
aid. He not only rendered aid, but
carried the injured man to an inn and paid for his care and recovery, and kept
tabs on the guy until he was fully recovered.
The point of the story is, the guy who was recognized as an
enemy was the only one who was the true neighbor.
He showed love. He crossed the
established border/boundaries and met the man where his need was.
I have to admit here that it is hard for me to be a good
neighbor, in the light that Jesus paints it.
I am an introvert. I don’t go
outside of my personal comfort zone to meet new and/or different people very
often; even if they live right next door.
There are a lot like me in urbia/suburbia. We try to satisfy the call to be a good
neighbor by mowing our lawn on time, not making too much noise at inappropriate
times, waiving when accidentally forced to make eye contact while carrying out
the trash. That’s being a good neighbor,
right?
Jesus tells us there’s more to being a good neighbor. He tells us it involves opening our eyes, and
seeing the need of those around us.
We’ve all done it. We see someone
stranded along the side of the road and we drive on. We may even pull to the farther lane to go
around them. Oh, we may whisper a prayer
for them or something. The religious men
who walked past the dying man may have also gone that far. What good did it do him? In this day and age, one does need to take
certain precautions, but do we use those precautions as excuses too many
times? And this, of course is just a
“for instance”. But yes, there is need
all around us and we need to open our eyes to see it.
Secondly, we need to cross borders and boundaries to be a
good neighbor. I’m not sure who coined
the phrase “good fences make good neighbors”, but I don’t think Jesus would
agree here. I live in a wooded lot on
the edge of a large metropolitan area.
The boundaries of my property are planted with spruce trees which have
grown to be a strong visual barrier on three sides of me with no one across
from me. We bought the property
particularly for the beauty and privacy it provided. I have, however, of late realized that this
separation may not set well with Jesus’ teachings. One great thing about the boundary is that
they can’t see my back yard which, in some ways, exposes my heritage and
tendency to have “stuff’, and/or “junk” around.
Without this covering, I would not be the aforementioned “good neighbor”
because my stuff could be seen as an eyesore by others. My safe boundary also keeps me from seeing
those around me. It keeps me from
entering into any type of relationship.
It keeps me from having a chance to see their need if it were to arise.
The Samaritan had a choice.
It was a bigger choice than the religious leaders in the story had. He had a choice, not just to get involved,
but to cross a very definite boundary to get so involved. Jesus told this story to Jews and used a
member of a true nemesis nation of Israel to make his point even stronger. In the story, the Samaritan would have felt
the same enmity toward the Jews as they felt toward him. He was faced with a very definite choice not
to just stop and render aid, he was faced with the choice to stop and render
aid to someone who probably hated him for what he was…someone whom he may well
have hated for what they were. A very
serious and definite boundary had to be crossed to bring aid to the injured and
dying man. What nationality or people
group comes to mind when thinking about this in our world in this modern day?
I like my trees. I
like my boundaries. I am not a good
neighbor.
Then, of course, if you have opened your eyes enough to see
a need, and if you have dropped your boundaries, whatever they may be, enough
to cross them, then you have to take the next step and that is to get
involved. One of the big drawbacks to
getting involved is, it can be messy.
The Samaritan was stopping to aid a man who had been beaten severely and
left for dead. I’m sure quite a bit of
blood was involved. The Samaritan
cleaned and bound his wounds. I doubt
that he was able to do this without getting any of the mess on him. If we are going to enter into neighbor
relations with others, we have to face the fact that there will be mess, and
the mess cannot be avoided. It will get
on us.
There is no way we can be a neighbor without putting
ourselves out. The Samaritan didn’t just
stop at the binding of wounds. If that’s
all he had done, the victim would have surely died anyway. The Samaritan put him on his own donkey to
take him to the next village. The man
gave up his ride. That meant he would
have to walk the rest of the way. Here
he was, a man with a perfectly good donkey, having to walk. Yes, he had to put himself out to help his
neighbor.
In the whole of the story, he put himself out for the
wounded man in many ways. He put himself
out as far as time goes. Whatever
schedule he was on was totally blown to bits by stopping to help this man. We, in modern day America are always in a
rush; pressed for time and schedule. We
have to be here. We’re late for
that. Out of the entire world, we are
the most schedule driven of all. We are
so schedule driven, we have to schedule our own rest or leisure time. Being a good neighbor means the schedule may
have to be ignored, or rearranged, or thrown out the window entirely.
The Samaritan also put himself out as far as resources
go. He took the injured man to an Inn,
and there attended to his needs until the next day. He then paid for further lodging and care and
promised to cover anything over the amount he left. This shows us another aspect of being a good
neighbor. The Samaritan didn’t just step
in, help, get him to aid and then drop him.
He went so far as to take responsibility for his new neighbor’s
needs. He actually took full
responsibility by promising to return and cover any further costs. Wow, this guy is really making me look bad,
now.
Finally, though the Samaritan had to move on, he stayed
involved. He promised to return.
As I write this, I am sitting on my nice shaded deck
enjoying my beautiful and comfortable hedged in yard, feeling uneasy to meet my
own geographical neighbors. They could
be hurting and I wouldn’t know it. There
could be need that I could meet but I choose to be blind, or turn away, or not
lift up my eyes to see. And when I do
help, I make sure it is in my time and fits my schedule and doesn’t put me out
too much at all.
I’m with the first century Jews. I don’t like Samaritans. They make me look bad.
I’m not a good neighbor at all.
…actually, though, those Spruce trees are starting to look a
bit scraggly. Maybe I’ll see about
trimming them up a bit and see what my neighbors are up to.
