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    Who Is My Neighbor?: Lessons Learned From a Man Left for Dead
    Who Is My Neighbor?: Lessons Learned From a Man Left for Dead
    Who Is My Neighbor?: Lessons Learned From a Man Left for Dead
    Ebook219 pages3 hours

    Who Is My Neighbor?: Lessons Learned From a Man Left for Dead

    By Wayne Gordon and John Perkins

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    About this ebook

    An "expert in the law" once asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life--and his question initiated a very interesting conversation. The Law says to "love your neighbor as yourself," Jesus pointed out, so the next logical question is, "Who is my neighbor?" Rather than offering an exhaustive list of neighbors and non-neighbors, Jesus told a story . . . the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Out of that famous parable, Dr. Wayne Gordon draws more than forty characteristics of the man who was beaten, robbed, and left for dead on the road to Jericho--the character Jesus created to show Christians how to recognize their neighbors. Dr. Gordon brings that character vividly to life in Who Is My Neighbor?, and helps readers use Jesus' parable as a reference point for their interactions in their community and the world. And as readers catch Jesus' vision of neighborliness, they will also find practical suggestions for meeting needs and changing the lives of those around them . . . that is, their neighbors!
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBaker Publishing Group
    Release dateOct 20, 2010
    ISBN9781441223883
    Who Is My Neighbor?: Lessons Learned From a Man Left for Dead
    Author

    Wayne Gordon

    Wayne Gordon (D.Min., Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary) is founding pastor of Lawndale Community Church and chairman/president of the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA).

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      Book preview

      Who Is My Neighbor? - Wayne Gordon

      neighbor?"

      1

      My Neighbor Is Hurting

      One obvious characteristic of my neighbor is someone who is hurting. Clearly, in the account of the Good Samaritan, the man who was beaten up and left on the side of the road to die was hurting, both physically and emotionally.

      Perhaps you or someone you know has experience with being mugged. But even if you don’t, it’s something we can all imagine. You’re in the wrong place at the wrong time. You have something that somebody else wants. And the somebody who wants what you have is bigger and stronger than you are, or perhaps this person has some kind of weapon.

      Maybe there is more than one person. They hit you until you can’t defend yourself. They take your money, your cell phone, your credit cards, your shoes, and any clothes they think might fit them. They take your jewelry—your necklace and wedding ring. As a result, you are hurting, both physically from the beating and emotionally, because things that were dear to you have been lost forever.

      In referring to the man who was hurting, Jesus is saying, This is our neighbor; this is who I’m called to love. So it is for us. Our neighbors are people who are hurting. Perhaps they are hurting physically because of some accident. Perhaps they are hurting spiritually as they wrestle with some issue related to faith. Perhaps they are hurting emotionally—struggling to recover from some loss in their life.

      Among children, the most typical kind of pain is physical. We can all remember the pain of a skinned knee or a bump on the noggin. Of course, children can also be exposed to emotional pain from a variety of sources, such as being teased or experiencing some kind of loss, perhaps the death of a pet or grandparent.

      We try to shield our children from the pain they experience when they are ignored or belittled by their peers. Sticks and stones can break my bones, we tell them, but words will never hurt me. As we grow older, however, we know that this little ditty is simply not true. I’ve had my feelings hurt by other people’s words; I suspect you have, too. Many of us, I’m sure, would gladly choose the pain of a broken leg over the pain from a broken relationship, from feelings of failure and low self-esteem, or from other people’s words. Not to diminish the physical misery that many endure daily, but the emotional hurt that lies deep inside of us—the hurt that can’t be healed by a cast or splint or more Ibuprofen—can for some be the worst kind of hurt.

      Those among us who have experienced a particular kind of physical or emotional pain are more readily able to identify with others who are going through something similar. But even if we cannot understand fully what others are going through, we can understand what Jesus is saying to us, namely, Those persons who are hurting are your neighbors. I want you to walk alongside them, to be there with them, to help them through their hurt in whatever way you can, to make a difference in their lives.

      The young man who is struggling with depression is our neighbor. The single mom who just lost her job and doesn’t know what to do next is our neighbor. The baby whose dad is in prison is our neighbor. The grandfather who is feeling lonely and isolated is our neighbor. So is the person who is going through a divorce and being attacked in court by someone he or she once loved as deeply as anyone.

      We may not always know how to help. Sometimes we don’t know what to say. But just to be there for a hurting person and to say we care can make a big difference.

      Many churches have a time each week during worship for people to bring to God prayer concerns about those in the church or in their neighborhoods or places of work. This can be an opportunity to acknowledge and affirm that each person who is named—each man or woman or child who is hurting in some way—is our neighbor. In addition to praying for them, we have an opportunity—indeed a responsibility, if God is tweaking our hearts—to come to their aid in whatever ways we can.

      We can’t love our neighbors until we recognize them. So look around you. Be sensitive to those who are suffering—who are hurting—sometimes in silence. They will not be hard to find. And remember, that hurting person is your neighbor. Like the Good Samaritan, we have both the option to walk away and the opportunity to love.

      2

      My Neighbor Needs Help

      A second obvious characteristic of a neighbor is somebody who needs help. This is a logical follow-up to the first characteristic, for, clearly, a person who is hurting is a person who needs help.

      The parable of the Good Samaritan revolves around a person who needs help—who has been left naked and half dead and is unable to help himself. Each of those who traveled on that road had a choice as to whether or not to provide the help that was needed. In telling the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus is saying to us that your neighbor and my neighbor are those people who need our help. And we have the opportunity, virtually every day of our lives, to witness for Christ by helping others.

      On the surface, helping others seems like a very simple concept. It’s not. Of course, if all we mean by helping others is opening the door for someone whose hands are full, that’s one thing. But it’s another thing if helping means that we have to get involved in another person’s life, as the Good Samaritan did.

      These days, people don’t want to get involved. Perhaps they are afraid to get involved. After all, helping others can be a risky proposition. Besides, we have our own issues and problems, so we are hesitant to take on the problems of others.

      Some people approach the question of helping others as if help were a limited commodity that has to be preserved. They are hesitant to help in some instances because they want to save their time and energy for bigger, more important problems. In contrast, I view help as a quality. It’s an attitude that can be nurtured. The more we exercise our help muscles, the more they will grow. With this view in mind, the goal is not to conserve our help resources, but rather to grow them by cultivating an attitude of helpfulness.

      If you have been hesitant or afraid to help others, perhaps you should start small. From time to time in my sermons, I challenge the young people in our congregation to look for ways, however small, to help others: "If you are walking home from school and you see an elderly woman trying to carry a couple of big bags of groceries, barely getting down the street, and she’s got another two blocks to walk, young man—17 years old with muscles busting through your shirt—you go up to that woman and say, ‘Excuse me, ma’am, may I carry these bags for you?’

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