Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

When I grew up, I spent a lot of time watching Mr. Rogers. I’m not sure why, but there was something about the songs, sweaters, and shoes that just kept me coming back for more. Mr. Rogers loved to ask that simple question day after day for his riveted little television audience: “Won’t you be my neighbor?”

In the Bible, we find the theme of being a neighbor all over the place, even if it is a bit more serious than Mr. Rogers. When Jesus is asked what the most important commandment in all of the Hebrew Bible is, He answers by saying that the greatest commandment calls us to love God with all of who we are and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Mark 12:28-34). Jesus’ summary statement ties together two commands: love of God and love of neighbor. Like a coin with two sides that is still essentially one item, these two guidelines are really just two sides of the same law of love.

The commandment to love God is fairly easy to grasp. Jesus draws from the celebrated shema found in Deuteronomy 6. The shema is an identity marker for the Jewish people, in which they are called to worship and adhere to God alone. This call is a reminder that the Jewish faith is a monotheistic faith, that there is but one God, and this one God stands at the center of the people’s faith but also every aspect of their lives.

The second half of Jesus’ words comes from the often neglected book of Leviticus. In the midst of instructions about rituals, guidelines about ceremonies and festivals, and list upon list of what to eat and not eat or what to do with various kinds of molds, we find these powerful words: “Love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:18). Leading up to this statement, various relational situations are mentioned such as stealing, lying, partiality in justice for the poor or the wealthy, slandering others, seeking revenge because of a grudge, or making life difficult for the blind or deaf. God speaks into the midst of real-life situations, calling His people to work out the ideal of loving our neighbor in every social arena. Such love is our response to who God is. At bottom, how we love others matters to God. It is, in a sense, the interrelated flip-side of how we love God.

In Luke’s Gospel, we find a probing dialogue about the greatest commandment, or what one must do to “inherit eternal life.” After Jesus responds to questions about the greatest commandment, a law expert asks this question: “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29). Luke the narrator helps us understand that Jesus’ interrogator here “wanted to justify himself.” To answer this question, Jesus tells one of His most memorable stories about a Jewish man who is beaten and left to die on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho. A priest and a Levite, both of whom were apparent experts on life with God, ignore the man with various excuses. But a Samaritan—one of the sworn enemies of Jews because of history, geography and religion—comes along and provides life-sustaining help to the injured Jewish man. Jesus concludes his story with a piercing question back to the Jewish law expert at the end of the story, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” (10:36). The answer is obvious: the Samaritan who was merciful to the man in need was the real neighbor. Loving God must lead to loving our neighbor. So, Jesus says, “Go and do likewise” (10:37).

Clearly, it is important to understand Jesus’ view of a neighbor. A neighbor for Jesus is the one who loves those around in practical ways regardless of divisions. The Samaritan, the obvious outcast and enemy of His hearers, becomes the unexpected hero of the story because his love for neighbor was real.

But understanding Jesus’ view of the neighbor is not the same as actually being a neighbor to others. The priest and the Levite in Jesus’ story understood Jewish teaching and could probably quote Leviticus 19:18 at the drop of a hat. Yet they lived within the safety of their religious guidelines (e.g., ritual cleanliness), and so did nothing. The Samaritan, however, who had every reason not to practically love this other person, actually does become a neighbor. From a Jewish perspective Samaritans held questionable theology, but here in Jesus’ story the difference between the priest, Levite, and Samaritan’s actions reveal what they really believe and understand…and what they don’t.

If we return to Leviticus 19, we will find lists of case studies on what it means to love our neighbor as ourselves. God wants us to understand that how we love others matters, and that it is directly related to our faith in God. Later in the Gospel accounts, Jesus affirms this same thing by forming a two-sided coin for the law of love by telling us that love for God is inextricably tied to love for others. Near the end of the New Testament, the Apostle James also speaks to this in his letter: “If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing right” (James 2:8). The Apostle John echoes this same truth when he writes: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7-8).

So, how are we doing at being a good neighbor? Our world is like a boiling pot overflowing with strife in various forms: social media scourging, family infighting, workplace tensions, raging politics, and global unrest. In a world like this, how are we as Jesus followers doing at representing God in every social arena with true love for Him and our neighbor?