The Lacking
According to the "levtitical statutes" or the "Holiness Code" back in the Old Testament day, God put the responsibility of loving other nations, on God's people. Leviticus 19:33 "When a foreigner lives with you in your land, you must not oppress him. You must regard the foreigner who lives with you as the native born among you. You are to love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt".
When the expert in the law approached Jesus in the book of Luke and attempts to trip him up with a theological question "who is our neighbor", Jesus knew that this verse was studied and known by him... but that he was attempting to avoid loving certain others.... because he was ate up with prejudice. The parable of the Good Samaritan hit close to home because this lawyer, a Jew, despised Samaritans.
Even in the parable of the Good Samaritan, a priest, and a Levite, both passed one of their fellow Jews... who lay wounded on the ground and did not stop to help him. The priest may have felt that due to the excessive cleaning rituals he would have to endure; it was not convenient for him to help because a priest was not to touch the unclean. The Samaritan did not think twice about assisting a foreigner. Prejudice or bias did not enter the equation when it came to assisting someone in need. Nor should it, for any of us.
Many of us agree that we should "love others" and we do.... yet how do we treat those that are "spiritually sick" or that we may deem "unclean"... Do we avoid them because of their abuse of drugs, their alternative lifestyle, their lack of a home, their criminal past, their fornications....? Infractions that are committed by our peers or others that exist among us are not to be judged by us, but by God alone... It is not our job to condemn, but to love...
You will never win one person to Christ if you shun those unlike yourself... Jesus was always accused of hanging out with the "sinners"... but who else desperately needed him? Our social circles are entombed by little versions of ourselves... little "mini me's" that dress alike, shop at the same stores, go to the same church, watch the same TV shows, etc.... We rarely reach out... Foreigners or "those unlike ourselves" are everywhere.... yet we remain in our "medium class worlds" and fight earnestly to remain there...
we are a stubborn people, unforgiving, and have no time for those who have "fallen" and lay wounded in our way... we like the priest and Levite.. pass on the other side... and do not budge... do not surrunder... because we deem this as weakness and frailty....
Cops are a good picture of brotherly love... how hard is it to really love our brother? well not all cops are easy to love... but if any of us are injured or in need, we put all feelings and emotions aside, to assist in any way... even with our life.... however, what about the rest of the world.. who are not part of this tight knit circle...I have a profile picture of a thin blue line that represents loyalty to my fellow officer s who have made the ultimate sacrifice with their life for another...
what a true example of loving........ as the verse states "Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for a friend"... the world is full of monsters, gangsters, robbers, killers...crazed "fools" at a coffee shop... cowards... waiting to gun down all those around them because of their dissatisfaction with their own life... wives and children are left fatherless because of the ignorance and lack of a "moral code" within the chilling eyes of a stranger..... the same eyes we have seen over and over... the same eyes that have entered our courthouses, prisons, patrol cars, precincts... at what point did this volcano erupt...
this is the problem... living in a land full of foreigners and strangers...this is why we are afraid to love, afraid to help... It is hard to decipher between a legitimate need... and a scammer who will tell you what you want to hear... we must rely on our hearts... and heads... with clear vision... and a sound mind... to follow what in our hearts is right... and good... and just... We do not want to be victims to the jesters... but servants to those "truly sick"...
Let go of our bias, love the one at work who is different, love the stranger who cuts you off, and give the gift of mercy to the undeserved...
When the expert in the law approached Jesus in the book of Luke and attempts to trip him up with a theological question "who is our neighbor", Jesus knew that this verse was studied and known by him... but that he was attempting to avoid loving certain others.... because he was ate up with prejudice. The parable of the Good Samaritan hit close to home because this lawyer, a Jew, despised Samaritans.
Even in the parable of the Good Samaritan, a priest, and a Levite, both passed one of their fellow Jews... who lay wounded on the ground and did not stop to help him. The priest may have felt that due to the excessive cleaning rituals he would have to endure; it was not convenient for him to help because a priest was not to touch the unclean. The Samaritan did not think twice about assisting a foreigner. Prejudice or bias did not enter the equation when it came to assisting someone in need. Nor should it, for any of us.
Many of us agree that we should "love others" and we do.... yet how do we treat those that are "spiritually sick" or that we may deem "unclean"... Do we avoid them because of their abuse of drugs, their alternative lifestyle, their lack of a home, their criminal past, their fornications....? Infractions that are committed by our peers or others that exist among us are not to be judged by us, but by God alone... It is not our job to condemn, but to love...
You will never win one person to Christ if you shun those unlike yourself... Jesus was always accused of hanging out with the "sinners"... but who else desperately needed him? Our social circles are entombed by little versions of ourselves... little "mini me's" that dress alike, shop at the same stores, go to the same church, watch the same TV shows, etc.... We rarely reach out... Foreigners or "those unlike ourselves" are everywhere.... yet we remain in our "medium class worlds" and fight earnestly to remain there...
we are a stubborn people, unforgiving, and have no time for those who have "fallen" and lay wounded in our way... we like the priest and Levite.. pass on the other side... and do not budge... do not surrunder... because we deem this as weakness and frailty....
Cops are a good picture of brotherly love... how hard is it to really love our brother? well not all cops are easy to love... but if any of us are injured or in need, we put all feelings and emotions aside, to assist in any way... even with our life.... however, what about the rest of the world.. who are not part of this tight knit circle...I have a profile picture of a thin blue line that represents loyalty to my fellow officer s who have made the ultimate sacrifice with their life for another...
what a true example of loving........ as the verse states "Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for a friend"... the world is full of monsters, gangsters, robbers, killers...crazed "fools" at a coffee shop... cowards... waiting to gun down all those around them because of their dissatisfaction with their own life... wives and children are left fatherless because of the ignorance and lack of a "moral code" within the chilling eyes of a stranger..... the same eyes we have seen over and over... the same eyes that have entered our courthouses, prisons, patrol cars, precincts... at what point did this volcano erupt...
this is the problem... living in a land full of foreigners and strangers...this is why we are afraid to love, afraid to help... It is hard to decipher between a legitimate need... and a scammer who will tell you what you want to hear... we must rely on our hearts... and heads... with clear vision... and a sound mind... to follow what in our hearts is right... and good... and just... We do not want to be victims to the jesters... but servants to those "truly sick"...
Let go of our bias, love the one at work who is different, love the stranger who cuts you off, and give the gift of mercy to the undeserved...
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