Won't You Be My Neighbour?

This is the kind of story we need right now.

It’s been told so many times and has become so familiar that a key character in it has become the name we commonly call people who help out strangers. It’s so familiar that some people aren’t even aware that it’s a bible story told by Jesus. It’s so familiar it doesn’t even feel like it’s a parable anymore.

It’s the story told by Jesus, back in the day, to some Jews in the Gospel of Luke about a man on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho. He’s attacked by robbers and left for dead. A priest comes by, sees him lying there, and crosses the road to avoid him. Then a worker from the temple comes by but, again, crosses the road to pass by. Then a Samaritan, considered an enemy hated by Jews, comes by. They stop to help the man, bandaging his wounds and taking him to an inn where they pay for him to stay and be cared for.

It’s been told in other ways, in different contexts, but essentially: man needs help, two different people who should have wanted to help him ignore him, and then someone, a stranger, who we don’t think will help stops and helps him. That’s a bit simplistic, but you get the point, right?

This is the kind of story we need right now.

Jesus tells the story in response to a question: who is my neighbour? Well, two people whose roles might lead you to believe they’d make the best neighbours, who should not only want to help, they’re supposed to help, don’t. I guess you can talk about it, preach it and judge people for it, but you don’t have to do it. Maybe your idea of a good neighbour is to not get involved. Maybe you think not everyone’s your neighbour.

But now, someone you might not even want in your neighbourhood comes by and stops. You might be thinking they’re going to beat him up some more or take anything that’s left, like his shoes. And then they do the unexpected and help, bandaging his wounds and helping him up, finding him proper care.

Who was a good neighbour to the man in need? Jesus asks. The answer is the one who showed compassion and kindness. And Jesus says “Go and do likewise.”

Absolutely, Jesus. But, just to be clear, you mean show compassion and kindness to everyone, right? Even the priest and the levite, who we’re probably at least disappointed in, if not angry with.

Each of the characters in the story gets a label and we make assumptions about each of them. But we don’t know them, as individuals or as members of a community. And now that we’ve made those assumptions, perhaps we’ve labelled their whole community with them, too.

For as often as we’ve heard the story, perhaps right now is a good time to remember that, along with compassion and grace, loving our neighbour means getting to know them. It means being open to understanding them and hearing their story. And not just the neighbours we don’t know yet, but especially the ones we think we do and the ones we thought we did and now seem to be treating us differently. Is that really who they are?

This is the kind of story we need right now.