In early times, a curious lawyer asked a wise teacher a question. “Who is my neighbor?” he asked. The teacher answered with a story.
A man was walking from one city to another. Thieves attacked him, took everything, and left him dying on the side of the road.
A temple priest came walking down the road. When he saw the hurt man, he crossed to the other side and kept walking. Then, another holy man came down the road, but he also crossed to the other side and kept walking.
Finally, a third man came down the road. This man was the lowest and most hated in that society. When he saw the hurt man, he felt sorry for him. He crossed the road, put herbs on his cuts, and took pieces of his very own clothes to wrap them.
Then, he put the hurt man on his donkey and walked to the city. He found a small hotel and stayed with the hurt man through the night. In the morning, he gave money to the hotel owner. He said, “Take care of this man for me. If this money is not enough, I will pay more when I come back.”
The wise teacher finished the story and turned to the lawyer. “Which of the three men was a neighbor to the hurt man?” he asked.
The lawyer replied, “The one who was kind to him.”
The teacher said, “You go and do the same.”
We have all felt alone like the hurt man in the story. People, even those close to us, have treated us badly. It feels like they have left us on the side of the road like the man who was robbed.
We have all felt alone. We have trusted people to help us, but they didn’t. Sometimes, it has felt like no one cares about us. When we needed a good neighbor, no one was there.
If we are honest, we know there are times when we have ignored others’ needs as well. We have all been like the priest and the other holy man. We have all been bad neighbors. We think we are too important, too busy, or too pure to help others. Or maybe we feel too hurt ourselves to help someone else.
All of us want to believe we are like the kind man in the story. But our hearts are more like those of the temple priest and the holy man – hard and unloving. We know this is true deep inside. We can see the effects all around us. The world is broken with too many hurts and not enough good neighbours.
It wasn’t always like this. The Bible says that when God created the world, it was good and perfect. We had good relationship with each other and with God. The first man and woman walked and talked with God like you do with your neighbours.
But then, that first man and woman, our parents, disobeyed God. They broke God’s law. They took what wasn’t theirs and broke our relationship with God and one another. Can you imagine? We used to be neighbours with God! But now, we barely think about God in the morning when we start breathing his air and enjoying his sun.
Our broken relationship with our Creator has broken our relationship with everyone and everything else. Work is hard, loving our families is hard, and everything we do in this world feels hard.
Here’s the surprising thing. We were the ones who broke relationship with God. But, like the kind man, he chose to cross the street towards us. The Bible says that God came to earth and became flesh like you and me to become our neighbour again. In fact, he is the wise teacher who told the story. His name is Jesus. He didn’t tell these stories only as an example. He told stories like these to show how much we needed him to save us.
Jesus said there are two most important things in life. One is to love our neighbour. But even more importantly, to love God with our whole being. We haven’t always loved our neighbour. And, we certainly haven’t always loved God. In fact, we have displeased God by breaking his law. We have ignored him, behaved selfishly, and even worshipped other things besides God. This separation from God our creator means separation from life itself. This is why we die. If something doesn’t change, we will be separated from God forever.
This is why Jesus came to save us. Man wasn’t strong enough to save ourselves so God fully became a man, Jesus, to heal the relationship between men and God. How? Jesus lived a perfect life. He never broke God’s law. He always loved his neighbour and he always honoured God with his whole being. Where our first parents, Adam and Eve, failed, Jesus was successful.
Jesus did the opposite of what we do. Like the temple priest and the holy man, we give up others’ lives to make our lives better. Jesus, the Greatest Neighbour, gave up his life to make our lives better, to give us relationship with God again. He did this by allowing angry men to kill him instead of by attacking them. He was dead for three days. But because of his perfect life and his loving death, God raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus is alive today!
Because Jesus is alive today, he has an invitation for you. Remember, the payment for breaking God’s law is death. You have broken God’s law and deserve separation from God. But Jesus is willing to pay for this with his death. You can have right relationship with God forever. When someone asks God to forgive them and trusts what Jesus did, God forgives them. He also gives them a new heart.Your deepest desires are changed to love God. Instead of looking at your life, God will look at Jesus’ perfect life. You can be forgiven of your selfishness, the way you have ignored God, and the way you have put yourself before your neighbour. When your life on earth ends, instead of being separated from God forever, you’ll be in Jesus’ presence right away.
Trust in Jesus. He’s the greatest most loving neighbour. He didn’t just cross the road for his neighbour. He gave up his life for anyone who wants right relationship with God. The Bible says when you turn from breaking God’s law to trusting in Jesus’ perfect life, you will be saved. Before you go to sleep tonight, pray and talk to God.