My circle of people is FULL of teachers and those who work in schools. For this reason, I LOVE summer. My people get a much needed break, which is good news for me, because I get to spend more time with them!! With this type of time on our hands, we often have ALL of the vacations planned! This summer is no different. My little fam of three (5 if you count our pups who will be joining us for the adventure) will be traveling for an entire month, so we can spend time with our family and friends. Today, as I was meditating on a passage in Luke, I was reminded that while we’ll be away from our neighbors that live next door to us, we are called to be neighbors to everyone we encounter, including the people we see while on vacation.
In Luke 10:25-37, Jesus answers the question, “Who is my neighbor?” through a parable. An expert in the law wanted to know who this “neighbor” is that Jesus referenced when he said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all of your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-38) To answer, Jesus tells a story of a man getting beaten and robbed while on the road, left to die. Two people pass this man and do not stop the help him. A third person, a “Samaritan on his journey”, “had compassion” when he saw the man, and stopped to help him. He bandaged him up using his own resources, and brought him to an inn, where he “took care of him”. When the Samaritan had to continue on with his journey, he gave the innkeeper money so he could take care of the man while he was away. He told the innkeeper he would be back to take care of additional finances the innkeeper might have to expend. This Samaritan, “the one who showed mercy”, is the true neighbor of the man who was robbed. (Paraphrased from Matthew 10:30-35 CSB)
So how can we take this passage and apply it to our summer travels?
1. Our “neighbors” aren’t just the people in our neighborhood – The Samaritan was on a “journey”. When he saw the man on the side of the road, it’s likely that he wasn’t near his home, and it seems that he did not know the man. This did not stop him from having compassion and helping him. Our neighbors aren’t just the people we live near or know personally. Our neighbors are everyone we come into contact with, from the people we know well to the people we’ve never met. As we travel this summer, let’s ask God to open our eyes to the strangers we encounter on the road, and consider them our neighbors as we treat them with compassion.
2. Being a neighbor requires us to sacrifice our own resources – We see that the Samaritan uses his own resources to help the man in need; He uses his physical resources including oil and wine to aid with the man’s wounds and his own animal to get him to an inn. He uses his resource of time to take the man to an inn and stay over night with him. Lastly, he uses his financial resources to continue to provide for the man while he can’t be physically present. Sometimes we won’t be able to give a certain resource (like when the Samaritan had to leave the inn), but usually we have some sort of resource to give. We need to use our wisdom from God to determine what resources we have to give, and what resources would best help our neighbors. We also need wisdom to discern if we can’t give certain resources, or simply don’t want to. When I’m on vacation, I’m usually pretty selfish of my time. I want to spend the most time I can with the people I love, doing the things I love. But being a neighbor means letting go of my selfishness in this area and putting others’ needs before mine, which might mean spending some of my time in a way I don’t necessarily want to. What resource is hardest for you to give up when it comes to being a neighbor to others while traveling or on vacation; Physical resources, financial resources, or the resource of time?
3. Being a neighbor means being INVESTED in someone’s well being – I love this entire parable, but one of the things I love the most (and also one of things that convicts me the most) is that the Samaritan didn’t just help the man and move on with his day thinking, “Okay I did my good deed as a neighbor, now back to my life”. He said he would COME BACK to the inn and reimburse the innkeeper if he needed to spend additional money to take care of the man. The Samaritan was invested enough in the man to follow up on his healing. As a neighbor, we’re called to do more than just the bare minimum. This makes me think of Jesus’ teaching recounted in Matthew 5:41-42, “And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to the one who asks you, and don’t turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” Go the extra mile for your neighbor and be truly invested in their well being. This doesn’t always mean you’ll come back physically, but maybe you’ll return mentally for your neighbors as your continually pray for their circumstances, or maybe you’ll reach out to them online. But hey, maybe you WILL return to them physically just as the Samaritan did. You never know what God has planned for you and your neighbors, and nothing is off the table when you partner with God.
4. Don’t forget that your family and close friends are your neighbors, too – While we look for opportunities to be neighbors to the strangers we meet this summer during our travels and vacations, we cannot forget to treat our family and friends as neighbors, too. Many times, it can be harder to treat the ones we are closest to with neighborly compassion, however we HAVE to!! This biblical truth to have compassion on our loved ones is found elsewhere in the bible, too. 1 Timothy 5:8 asks us to provide for and take care of our own family, Exodus 20:12 and Colossians 3:20 asks children to honor and obey their father and mother, Proverbs 31:12 asks wives to reward their husbands with good, Ephesians 5:25 asks husbands to love their wives, Proverbs 31:26-27 asks mothers to watch over their household, and the list goes on! These are all ways in which God shows us the importance of loving our neighbors, which includes our family. I like to believe that if the Samaritan went above and beyond for the stranger on the road, he would also do this for his family and close friends. Let’s aim to do the same during our summer travels.
I pray that you will read Luke 10:25-37 for yourself, meditate over the words, and allow the Holy Spirit to show you how you can be a neighbor this summer to your loved ones and strangers alike. Let’s have a great summer full of neighborly love, compassion, connection, joy, and adventure!!
– Jenn
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