Love God and love your neighbor. It’s not complicated. Moses pointed this out thousands of years ago (Deuteronomy 30:10-14). Jesus did the same (Luke 10:25-37).
But Jesus went further. He took the effort to tell a story to make the point clear. He accepts that even the obvious may need spelling out, and does so without being critical or condescending. Jesus of course told the story for the people of that time and place. If he were to tell it for our time what characters might he choose? There are any number of possibilities. Here are a few suggestions.
The first is the guy who gets robbed. He or she is the least important in a sense, just a regular guy, no identifying characteristics. Let’s say an old lady who is mugged in the street.
Who are the first passersby? Fine upstanding members of the community for sure. Maybe a bishop and a mayor, or a politician and a judge. I’m sure you can think of many other pairs that you might point a finger at.
But most important – who is it who comes to the aid of the old lady lying in the street? Maybe a Mexican immigrant; or perhaps a refugee coming home from the mosque; maybe a drag queen; or someone who works in an abortion clinic. These are people who might choose to be neighbors to a little old lady in need, in the version of the story that Jesus tells for us. Whatever we might think of them, they are the ones Jesus could choose to model the behavior he wants us to emulate. Just as Jews loathed Samaritans, there are plenty of candidates for the despised in our society.
If those people can be neighbors to someone in need, can we do the same? Taking the story full circle, could we be neighbors to them if they got beat up in the street? It’s not complicated. We know the answer. We just have to do it. Fortunately Jesus will help us.