The Good Neighbor

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Lately, I see and hear a lot of people who are willing to KILL others for their cause, their rights, their beliefs, their stuff, even...
But not so many people are willing to DIE for their cause, rights, beliefs, or that same stuff.
Jesus said: 
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. (John 15:13)
And lest we get too hyped up about who we should consider a friend worth dying for—remember the lesson of the neighbor:
Jesus told a man, a lawyer: Love God with *everything* in you... and love your neighbor as yourself.
The lawyer asked Jesus a question many of us are still asking 2,000 years later:
"Who IS my neighbor?" (Of course a lawyer asked that one, lol!) Meaning, who do I *have* to love, Lord?
Forget how many friends we are willing to die for... how many neighbors do I have to love?!
Jesus basically answered with a simple, astounding answer: ANYONE IN NEED OF HELP.
See someone hungry? Feed him. See someone beaten? Bind up his wounds. Naked? Clothe him. Be the helper (thank you, Mister Rogers!)
Who's my neighbor? Whoever I see in need.
But then, Jesus took it a step further with the lawyer; He gave him a lesson on what it meant to love someone as yourself.
Notice how the only description of the victim is "a certain man". No other identifying info except that he went from Jerusalem to Jericho.
Jesus then tells what happened to this man—he fell in with thieves who beat him, stripped his clothes off, and left him half dead—but again, NO identifying description of the victim.
Isn't that interesting?!
We assume he was a Jew, but other than that, no qualifying info on whether he was rich, poor, smart, stupid, deserved what he got by hanging out with thieves or was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
We do know who the 2 bad neighbors were: a priest & a Levite. 2/3rds of a bad joke.
The two highest-ranking religious authorities in all of Israel. The ones that were supposed to know, teach, and do better. The ones that walked to the other side of the street to AVOID GETTING INVOLVED. Let that sink in.
And we know who the good neighbor was: a Samaritan. In Jesus' day, being a Samaritan was right up there with being a leper. The Jews went out of their way to avoid both groups, literally. BUT NOT JESUS!
That makes me so happy right now!!! Jesus didn't socially distance to protect Himself around sick people! He didn't wear a face mask and avoid the contagious! He barely washed His hands enough to please most people!
And He didn't pray from a distance... In fact, He made a point to let us know He TOUCHED the leper! I noticed tonight, in the same chapter, just a few verses later, He made another point of mentioning He TOUCHED Peter's mother-in-law, who had a fever (contagious much?!). (Matthew 8)
Did He have to touch the leper to heal him?
Well, it just so happens, right in the middle of these two stories is the story of another amazing encounter. The Centurion soldier tells Jesus: "Send the word only and my servant will live." And he did. So, physical touch was not necessary.
In my opinion, He touched them out of His great love and COMPASSION. That leper hadn't been touched since the day he got his diagnosis.... till Jesus came his way.
Jesus put His own life and the life of His disciples at risk every time He came in contact with contagious people, every time He spoke out against hypocritical religious leaders, every time He faced down demon-possessed men.
Why?
He loved not His life unto death. And He taught His disciples to do the same.
Turn the other cheek. Lay down your life for your friends. Touch the contagious. Deliver the possessed. Be the good neighbor.
Back to that neighbor. The Samaritan was a hated man. Long story short, they were a mixed-race people who didn't worship right.
But that day, he was the only one who saw a man in need and did something about it... out of *compassion*. Just like Jesus.
It cost him precious time (he was on a journey that he had to delay by a day now); it cost him effort (he walked while the man rode his donkey; he bound up his wounds himself); and it cost him money.
In fact, he gave the innkeeper some money, then told him: I'll be back later to settle up any more money that you incur for taking care of him.
He literally made a stranger's burden his own. He took his well-being upon his own shoulders. Tonight, that blows my mind. I have fallen WAY short of the mark of a good neighbor, I'm afraid.
But I am determined more than ever to do better. Be better. Get involved. Speak up for the silent, help the helpless, heal the sick, and share the gospel. All of it!
John testified in Revelations of seeing our God come and the devil, the accuser, fall. He gave this testimony of the brethren:
"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; AND THEY LOVED NOT THEIR LIVES UNTO THE DEATH." (Revelations 12:10 &11)
Want to be like Jesus? Then quit holding onto this life with two fists, more concerned about how something will affect yourself rather than how your lack of involvement will affect someone else.
Love not your life. Love not comfort over compassion. Love not stuff over involvement. Love not health over healing... HEALING FOR OTHERS. Love not self more than our friends of another race, or anyone we see in need. Love not this life over the next life... the eternal life!
This world is bound by such ugly selfishness that demands its own way, its own rights, and its own life. Its motto might as well be "To thine own self be true." 
So when we love others more than we love ourselves, the world will see Jesus in us.... and that's when we'll see the revival we long for in this world. And that world will then know we're HIS disciples... By our love of God and others.
We must decrease. He must increase.

*IF, in pursuit of being more like Jesus, I am accused of having no common sense... I'm okay with that.

Be blessed, 

Amy

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