Faithfully Yours - Who are our neighbours?

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Published on Friday, November 14, 2014

By Neil Strohschein

Those who choose to study Canadian law quickly learn that Canada’s legal code is constantly evolving. As it evolves, it becomes more difficult to understand and interpret.

The same was true for the Jewish people who lived in Jesus’ day. Their legal code (the basic laws they had to obey) was the same as it had been in the days of Moses. But over time, the religious leaders had added regulations, interpretations and legal judgments to the basic laws. The result was a huge body of legal material which every Israelite was expected to know and obey. They even had a religious police force to enforce those laws.

So it should come as no surprise that the people of Jesus’ day were looking for shortcuts—ways to keep the law without having to pay so much attention to all the rules. One approach they took was to identify the “great commandments” in the law and keep them. But since they couldn’t agree on what those might be, they sent one of their leaders to Jesus; to ask him which was the greatest commandment in the law.

Jesus shocked them all when he said: “Love God with all your heart, soul strength and mind—and love your neighbor as yourself;” to which one of his hearers responded with: “Who is my neighbor?”

Instead of answering the question directly, Jesus told the story of a Jewish man who was mugged as he traveled the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. He was helped by a Samaritan man who was passing by. Everyone agreed that the Samaritan considered this Jewish man to be “his neighbor;” even though they had never met before and had absolutely nothing in common. So why did the Samaritan stop to help a Jewish man when two of his own people came upon him and heard his cries for help but did nothing?

In his record of this event, St. Luke tells us that the Samaritan “took pity on the man.” (Luke 10:33) The plight of this man touched the Samaritan deeply. He had to help. He could never lived with the guilt he would have felt if he had done nothing.

The actions of this Samaritan help us identify the people to whom Jesus referred when he said: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” A “neighbor,” as Jesus defines it is “anyone we encounter who has a need that we can help to meet.” That definition includes people like us who live on our streets or in our communities. It also includes people who live half a world away with whom we have nothing in common.

Canadians have never hesitated to answer the cries for help that come from people who live beyond our borders. We donate millions of dollars each year to emergency relief appeals and to projects that promote sustainable development and environmentally responsible use of resources. In recent weeks, we have sent mobile labs, staffed with qualified medical personnel to various locations in Africa to help contain, control and ultimately eradicate the Ebola virus. And when asked to do so, we have deployed members of our armed forces to help secure the rights and freedoms of those whose liberties are being threatened.

We have done well on the international stage. I am not convinced that we have done as well at home. The needy who live in Canada are also our neighbors. They deserve the same amount of compassion and care that our international neighbors receive. Canadians should not settle for anything less.