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Across the Pastor’s Desk by Josh Enderson

In Luke 10, we find the famous parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus is having a conversation with the crowd when an expert of the law stands up and begins asking about what he must do to inherit eternal life. After a brief conversation, Jesus and the lawyer come to the simple conclusion: love God and love your neighbor.

But then the man wants to take things further. He wants to justify himself: “And who is my neighbor?” he asks Jesus. Who does he have to love? How far does his love have to go? He wants a list of who he must love to be right with God.

Jesus then tells the famous parable about an outsider and enemy being the one who shows compassion on a man attacked on the side of the road. Two religious leaders pass him by, but a despised Samaritan stops to care for him.

One of the most interesting things about this story comes after Jesus tells the parable. After he has shocked everyone, he turns back to the lawyer and doesn’t ask him the question that started this tale. He says, “Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”

The lawyer replies, “The one who showed him mercy,” to which Jesus replies, “Go and do likewise.”

Notice that he doesn’t respond to the question of who the neighbor is, but instead teaches about how we treat our neighbors around us.

The two religious leaders looked at the man in need and “passed by on the other side” of the road. The Samaritan was “moved with compassion” for the man, got off his donkey and put the man on it.

He treated his wounds and took him to an inn for further care. He saw him, had compassion on him and showed him mercy.

So often, we want to put up barriers and write our lists of who our neighbors are. Which are the ones that we should really show love for and care for? Have they earned it, deserved it, shown enough gratitude to us for it? We want to know who our neighbor is so that we can draw the line.

Instead, this parable calls on us to think about how we show compassion and mercy to all our neighbors.

Do we show them our list and say they didn’t make it, or do we show them mercy? Do we remember that our neighbors are made in God’s image, just as we are? Do we remember that we are all called, when we are reminded of the compassion of God, to “go and do likewise?”

Josh Enderson is pastor at Hayward-Trondhjem Lutheran Churches.