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Consider Your Options (And Your Neighbors)

CONNIE: How far away does someone have to live to not be your neighbor? In the parable we’re studying today, Jesus expands the boundaries for us. Join us as we seek answers in God’s word
Giving God’s trumpet a Certain Sound for 75 years, this is the Voice of Prophecy.

CONNIE: Hello, I’m Connie Jeffery,

LONNIE: and I’m Lonnie Melashenko.

CONNIE: We’re glad you’ve joined us today as we continue our study of some of Jesus’ greatest parables. And Lonnie, I suppose the parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the best-known stories Jesus told.

LONNIE: No doubt it is, Connie. I think almost everyone has heard someone called a “Good Samaritan,” and I’m glad there are lots of people out there who deserve that title.

CONNIE: I guess what it takes to be deserving of a title like that is the willingness to extend yourself to help someone in need—especially if it’s someone whom you might not be expected to care for or care about.

LONNIE: That’s the principle I think Jesus was teaching in this parable. And today a we’re going to take some time to visit with a lady who has a good Samaritan ministry of her own, but certainly wouldn’t have been in the position to help others is someone else hadn’t taken the time to help her when she was battered, bruised, and bleeding.

CONNIE: Ken Wade spoke with Cheri Peters of the True Step Ministry about her own experience of being helped when she had fallen beside the path, and about what she’s doing now to help others in need.

KEN: Cheri Peters, I just want to welcome you again to our program.

CHERI: Thanks, I love being on this show.

KEN: well, we love having you. You always have great stories, and we talked several weeks ago about the ministries that you have going. You’re reaching out and touching people and showing them God’s forgiveness, but today, let’s talk a little bit about Cheri herself, ok!

CHERI: Ok, I love this; I want to remember exactly where God brought me. It really makes it easier for me to reach out to other people.

KEN: you know, you and I had the priveldeg of workingh on a book together, where you told me some of the things that had ahaoppened to you. Coming up asa a child, it wasn’t a pretty pircture, right?

CHERI: Right.

KEN: Well, you know that parents were 14 and 16 year old addicts and they had 5 kids by the time they were 21, and I ended up homeless at the age of 13 and was so for 10 years. I was drug involved for those 10 years, and I wish I had a way to show people how I felt, but every fiber in my body was damaged. I felt like my thinking was twisted, everything about how I saw the world was messed up, it was so messed up.

KEN: now, on our program today, we’re talking about the Good Samaritan and the man who is left beside the road, bruised and beaten… almost dead, who do you identify with in that picture?

CHERI: The one laying down. You know, I was thinking back on my life, I was done; I was in a drug house trying to kill myself. I could care less if I ever had another breathe…

KEN: You just wanted to get the pain over with?

CHERI: Yes! Somebody shoot me! I was done.

KEN: But, nobody shot you fortunately and something different happened in your life, a lady named Donna came in and changed everything. Tell us a little bit about her, and what she did for you.

CHERI: She invited me into her house to recover, and until this day, I never can understand that. She was so gracious for letting me come in and tell stories that were so horrible, about rapes and beatings and seeing somebody and killed and all of those kinds of things, and she allowed me to say them, and I wanted to shock her and prove to her that she really wasn’t the Christian that she said she was, but her agenda was she knew that I need to speak it out loud. She knew that I needed to be loved regardless of what I said, and she spent so much time on her knees asking God for direction and to me when she was doing that, I realized, it was changing my life. I remember telling her about a molest that I had when I was about a 11 years old, and it was really traumatic…for a lot of people it’s traumatic, but I had been abused since I was three months old. So by a 11 it was nothing…you know, for whatever reason, this one was horrible and I was telling her about it, and I turned around and she was crying. I remember saying to her, what are you crying for, and she said, I am so sorry for what you have been through, and i remember just sobbing and it was the first time I had ever sobbed that kind of sadness for myself. I saw God in her, and it changed everything, because she cared.

KEN: But from her reaching out to…it has transformed your life to now, you have a ministry that reaches out to people…we’re strapped for time, but you were telling me that you had met someone who had come from a totally different prospective, right?

CHERI: I was trying to minister to this girl involved in witchcraft, and she was doing spells and the whole deal, and I love God and I know that he can do anything, and I felt like Donna, when she was praying for me, because I just prayed for this girl. She was talking about her family, and how damaged they were, and how they were all addicts, and how she didn’t want to be like them, and how she had found power in witchcraft. She said, I’m never going to have my kids around my family and I felt like saying, but you’re allowing them to be babysat by demons, and I told her that. I said, you know you’re just bringing all of these demons into your life and you’re going to leave you’re kids alone, and I saw a light go off in her head and she became more willing to hear about the gospel, and sometimes people just need a little help and understanding to guide them into the Holy spirits hands.

KEN: Amen! Thank you Cheri, it’s a wonderful thing that you are doing, to reach out and help those lost and needy souls.

“Amazing Grace”, Trio Celeste, from Praise Shall Be My Song CD, Track 2 (#) TIME: 1:51

CONNIE: Amen! That was Trio Celeste singing a familiar song about God’s amazing grace—and what it means for a totally undeserving person to experience that grace.

LONNIE”: Now Trio Celeste isn’t a group that you’ll see on MTV, but frankly we like to use some of the lesser-known artists for the music on our broadcast. So, if you’d like to know how to get their CDs, just visit our web page at VOP.com, and click on the link to music on the broadcast to learn about the group and how to contact them.

CONNIIE: And while you’re there at VOP.com, be sure to check out our free online Bible guides. At the top right hand corner of the page you’ll find links to the Discoverer Bible Guides and the Focus on Prophecy Guides. These courses are designed for busy people, to make Bible study easy and interesting.

LONNIE: So, do pays a visit this week if you can at VOP.com.

CONNIE: Right now though, it’s time for our Bible message, “Consider Your Options.” Share with this, won’t you Lonnie?

Consider Your Options

How close do your neighbors live to you? Are you out on the farm, where the nearest neighbor is a mile down the road? Or do you perhaps live in an apartment or in one of those houses that are built so close together that you can almost wash your neighbors’ windows for them without leaving your house?

How far away does a person have to live before they’re no longer your neighbor? That seemed to be the question that was on one man’s mind when he came to Jesus. “Who is my neighbor?” he asked.

Would you consider someone who lived 9,000 miles away your neighbor?

Ryan Hreljac did. And because he did, he’s become a celebrity all around the world—but more importantly, he has helped make life better for thousands of people.

The story began in January of 1998 when Ryan heard about the plight of children in Africa who didn’t have clean water to drink.

Why should that be any concern of his? He’d never met any of them, and surely if he just went home and played another video game, he could forget about what his teacher had told his class.

But that’s not what Ryan did.

All he could think about when he got home was those children who couldn’t just run to the kitchen sink and draw a nice clean glass of water to drink. But what could a six-year-old boy do to help children living thousands of miles away? That’s right, Ryan was only six years old!

He wasn’t sure, but he thought there must be something he could do. He’d heard that $70 was all that was needed to drill a well in Africa. Well, then, he’d have to find $70 and get it to the children in Africa somehow. “Mom, we need to send $70 to Africa so the children can have clean drinking water,” Ryan told his mother.

At first his mother and father just put him off, but Ryan persisted, and soon they realized he was dead serious about wanting to help the children in Africa. So they gave him extra chores to do around the house. While his brothers played outside, Ryan vacuumed the house, washed the windows, and did anything he could find to earn money. It took him several months, but finally, by the sweat of his brow, he had raised $75. He gave that to a charity that was working to provide wells for African children. But the story doesn’t end there.

Ryan soon learned that if the organization had $25,000, they could buy a portable drill that would provide wells in many villages. So Ryan, who was by now all of seven years old, went to work enlisting others in his campaign. He hand wrote letters to people and organizations, and when they responded, he sent thank you notes.

To date, according to the web site ryanswell.ca, Ryan has raised over $1 million that has gone to help provide clean drinking water for children in Africa.

Pretty good for a thirteen-year-old, wouldn’t you say?

I think I know how Ryan would answer the question, “Who is my neighbor?” When his mother asked him what he wished for, he replied “ I wish for everyone in Africa to have clean water.”

It seems he’s adopted the whole continent as his neighbors! Even though they live thousands of miles from his home in Ontario, Canada.

Boy… When I read a story like that, it literally moves me to tears. Because you see, I was in Africa last year, and I got to witness firsthand just how wonderful it is when someone cares enough to lend a hand. And to think that such a young boy would make it his mission to do whatever he could to improve the lives of people he had never met.

In the parable we’re looking at today in Luke 10, the question arises: Who is my neighbor? It is a lawyer who asks the question. Now, this is not an attorney talking. This lawyer is a man who has specialized in studying the law—particularly the oral law that the scribes and Pharisees in Jesus’ day focused their attention on.

But there are different ways of studying the law—even the law of God. Some people study it to find out what God would have them do. This man seems to have been studying it looking for a loophole—or perhaps a secret passageway—to get him into heaven!

He came to Jesus and asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

In response Jesus asked him, “ What is written in the law?”

Interestingly, the man didn’t quote the Ten Commandments, but paraphrased two Old Testament texts and answered: “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself’ ” (Luke 10:27, NRSV).

Jesus agreed that this is what the law required. And that’s when the lawyer started looking for loopholes. “Who is my neighbor?” he asked.

I get the feeling this was not the first time the lawyer had asked this question. It sounds like the kind of thing people might have sat around discussing on a Sabbath afternoon. Each one expressing his opinion, never coming to a final conclusion, and leaving satisfied that the discussion at least explored some interesting ideas—no matter that a practical, applicable answer hadn’t been found.

We still do that today, don’t we? When we hear of a need—we appoint a committee to discuss what to do about it, and leave it at that. I’m glad Ryan Hreljac wasn’t old enough to know about committees when he heard about the thirsty children in Africa, aren’t you? I know there are thousands of people on that continent who are thankful that he took action instead of referring the matter to a committee or sitting around rationalizing that people so far away shouldn’t be any concern of his since they certainly weren’t his neighbors!

But returning to the parable of the Good Samaritan, the lawyer did ask a valid question, didn’t he? Who really should we consider to be our neighbor? Who is it our duty to love and show concern for? In an age when we are exposed constantly to appeals and news reports from every corner of the world, who really is our neighbor?

When the lawyer asked that question of Jesus, the Savior responded with this story: A Jewish man set out on a trip, going from Jerusalem to Jericho. Today you can choose either of two roads running between those two cities. There’s a wide, reasonably straight, modern road. But there’s also an old, curvy, narrow road that follows the ancient route down the winding river canyons. If you take the old road, you’ll get a feeling for the kind of situation this man found himself in. It would take the better part of a day to walk the length of the road, and if you found yourself in the deep canyon toward the end of the day, it could be really scary—especially if you were alone—because there were bandits and brigands in the area.

This poor man’s worst fears soon materialized. The bandits not only robbed him, they beat him up pretty bad, and even took his clothes. They didn’t figure he’d need them anymore; they reckoned he’d be vulture food before morning.

But just when all seems to be lost, help appears on the horizon—or does it? Yes! Surely that priest coming down the road will stop and help. After all, a priest is supposed to be God’s representative on earth. Surely he will have compassion.

But the priest just walks by on the other side.

Next down the trail is a Levite. He too is supposed to represent God's kindness and compassion in the world. But this man also moves into the passing lane and goes on his way, seemingly unconcerned with the plight of the man left by the robbers to die.

What Jesus doesn’t say in the story, but what His hearers knew, is that the priest and Levite had a good excuse for not stopping. Notice I said excuse, not reason. According to Biblical law, a priest or Levite was not to defile himself by touching a dead body. So, as they passed by on the other side, these men could justify themselves by saying, maybe the man’s already dead. Or maybe he’s going to die soon. I dare not defile myself!

They could use the law to justify bad behavior.

We can still do that today, can’t we? Hide behind the letter of the law to avoid doing the right thing. We can use the law to limit our options for helpfulness, if we choose to. But that may severely limit our neighbors’ opportunities for learning to know God as a loving Father/Neighbor.

It’s possible to substitute religiosity for genuine Christian behavior. Church attendance for attending to the needs of others. Most of us—truth be told—have played the role of the priest or Levite in this story at some time, either by our actions or inaction.

But now comes the surprise element in the parable. The next person to come down the trail is a Samaritan. And everyone knows that Jews and Samaritans don’t have anything to do with each other. In fact they are enemies.

But this is where the surprise takes effect. Because the Samaritan man does what the priest and Levite should have done—and even more. He not only stops to see if the man needs help, he provides help. He touches the man. He binds up his wounds with soothing oil and wine (two of the very elements that priests and Levites used in their ministry in the temple). And then he goes the extra mile. He picks the man up and puts him on his own donkey, transports him to the nearest inn, and gives the innkeeper money to nurse the man back to health.

After telling this story, Jesus looks the lawyer square in the face and asks him to answer his own question—but with a slight twist. The lawyer had asked, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus asked, “ ‘Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ ” (Luke 10:36, NRSV).

Which man was a neighbor? You know, it seems to me all three men were neighbors to the man in need—doesn’t it seem like that to you? I mean, all of them had the responsibility of being good neighbors to him.

But that’s not the answer the lawyer gave. Because there’s a dynamic behind this question that he sensed, and that influenced his answer.

“‘The one who showed him mercy’ ” he answered (Luke 10:37, NRSV).

Notice that he wouldn’t even say the word Samaritan. Nonetheless, he had to admit that the Samaritan was the one who had proved to be a neighbor. The answer to Jesus’ question is: “Even my enemy is by neighbor!”

The lawyer had asked the question, “Who is my neighbor?” as a way to narrow the field of people he was required to love. But as usual, Jesus managed to turn the tables and teach a lesson about the breadth of God’s love. And in the process He showed up the hypocrisy of those who wanted to abide only by the letter of the law.
Who then, is my neighbor?

I can’t and draw a circle around myself and say I only have to be concerned about people within this circle. Jesus extends His love to everyone—even to His enemies. And He calls me to do the same.

There’s a wonderful poem, so short that even I can memorize it, that goes like this:
He drew a circle that shut me out--
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!
("Outwitted" by Edwin Markham)
That’s what Jesus did. The lawyer wanted to abide by the law—as the priest and Levite in the story did. But the law Jesus applied was the law of God’s love.

It’s the law He applies to us as well, and asks us to apply in our daily lives. Who is my neighbor? Who should I love? The question, really, is who shouldn’t I love? Who shouldn’t I care about? And the answer is, No one.

Jesus asks us to love everyone, even our enemies, and He will empower us to do it. We may not be able to help every wounded neighbor we find by the road today, but let’s do what we can to make the world a better, more loving place.

This parable challenges me, and Ryan Hreljac’s story challenges me. To do more—to reach out farther, to help those in need. How about you?

“Let There Be Peace on Earth”, National Christian Choir, from Blessed Is the Nation CD.