And Who Is My Neighbor?
I grew up in southern California in a predominantly Latino community. White Flight happened a generation prior with my grandparents and aunt / uncle being most likely the first non-white homeowners on the block. There were two houses for sale ( one previously occupied by the owner and one their rental right next door ) who were owned by a recent decedent. The 'catch' was that in order to sell one of the houses to my aunt / uncle, the other also had to be purchased. My grandfather felt obligated to make the purchase, selling his rental property about a mile away. My grandmother advised my grandfather that they could own the rental property and purchase the new single family home without issue, but he decided against it. They owned a property that had a single family house at the front of the lot and two apartment units over garages at the rear. The income from the two units were paying the mortgage, so you could imagine what a leveraged position my grandfather had... but his desire to see his daughter and new husband established beckoned an unnecessary sacrifice.
When I moved to Texas as a teenager I was shocked by quite a few obvious differences. My dad had purchased a house in a predominantly white neighborhood which was your average two or three bedroom neighborhood. It wasn't a recent development so the houses were maybe twenty years old or so at that time. The house I was living in back in California was circa 1920. One thing which was quite shocking was the manner in which people would address me in Texas. They would say hello while I walked down the street of my neighborhood or when I'd walk through a grocery store. This wasn't the case back on my street in California. I could only assume this was due to me being a young man and gangs being prevalent on the street in that California neighborhood... or maybe overcrowding or who knows. I just don't remember having much exchange or being addressed on my block or out in the general public where I grew up and the places I frequented. Or maybe I just wasn't friendly, which is what started to happen to me while living in Texas. I remember the neighbor across the street, a retired gentleman whose wife I don't remember seeing much other than sitting in their car while he closed the garage, saying hello in a heavy and loud voice one day. And as anyone knows me, all it takes is one question and I pretty much tell a life story. So I told him who we were, what my dad did for a living and so forth. He must have been curious as to who these two new transplants were. The neighbor to the north was a dentist who lived alone with a dog named Gretchen. The neighbors to the south I don't remember ever catching a glimpse of and had no idea who they were.
Texas was also the place I heard and sensed racism for the very first time in my life. Maybe some things were said when I was a child when I was out and about with my mother and siblings, but certainly I never heard anything I understood. But now as a teenager in high school and learning about the world, it came at quite a shock and I didn't know exactly how to handle it. The middle school I had gone to in California was a public school and had a wide variety of ethnicity mix, no certain dominant type. It was in a few cities over from where I actually resided; I was using my aunt's address, the same aunt who was helped by my grandfather, for her family had moved 'up' to the best part of town in the second-best neighborhood of that town... while grandparents stayed in the same neighborhood that was becoming less than stellar to live as time went by and latchkey kids began to run the streets. She was generous enough to let me use her address as my home address to go to a school that wasn't gang infested or systematically broken like the school I would have been obligated to attend using my real home address. I don't think I could have made it as a gangster... at least not a street thug with my pants falling off and tattoos on my neck, maybe more like a white collar criminal type robbing people of the title to their homes with a smile on my face, who knows ;)
The class or social stratification was more prevalent in the dichotomy I experienced in Texas. Since there are more immigrants packed into southern California with pockets of ethnic areas and cities overlapping each other, one doesn't sense much of the imbalance as I did in Texas among a predominantly white population with very few Latinos and even fewer non-whites. I may be wrong and may be projecting my past experiences of over twenty years ago with my perceptions today, because even in the city I currently occupy, I still see and experience a stratification on a more intimate and local level... with tolerance and political correctness being expressed to quell an unfortunate issue from arising.
With all this said, who then is your neighbor and why are they your neighbor? The believer who reads the text can see how the Hebrew nation / tribe was called to be separate from among all other nations / tribes. There was a purpose to this: to reveal to the world 'who' the God and Creator of the universe is. Since that revelation came to pass in the reality of Yeshua the Messiah, the division of tribes and bloodlines was ceased and a new Way became of significant importance... but not everyone believes, sees or understands this. Many 'believers' still do not see past their prejudices, their codes and their upbringing to look past the manifested divisions which prevent them from identifying their distant relatives whom God has brought near.
For me, by the time I began attending college, I had friends from all walks of life and cultural backgrounds and ethnic groups... yet they were acquaintances and the friendships were conditional on the time spent in class and didn't go further than that. For me growing up, only 'family' or relatives were first priority and others outside our clan / tribe / immediate family were easy come and easy go. It wasn't until I realized the bigger picture of what Yeshua had done and established that I began to view all people as my brothers and sisters... that we have One in common and the old view of the world ( what the Hebrews were weened on ) had passed, yet still so many people in the world simply didn't perceive this. We see this in churches which are predominantly one type or ethnic group although there is a plethora of ethnic groups all about them. We see this at the workplace although once you step outside onto the street, you see variety in the gene pool. We see this in practically every group that men make up yet people sometimes see themselves as fair and as equal with their fellowman... that is, until they begin to look at themselves, their surroundings and the invisible walls of cultural acceptance they have established.
The lesson in the following passage is quite extraordinary, for it reveals the heart of the matter. It shows the humanity of all people and also explains how self righteousness doesn't cut it in the greater scheme of things... and this eliminates many who only judge by their immediate surroundings and justify their apathy when they cross paths with someone in need or in trouble... the types that are quicker to rescue an animal than say hello to a homeless person or fail to go out of their way for someone not of their tribe, ethnic makeup or near relative:
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Yeshua. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered, “‘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, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“You have answered correctly,” Yeshua replied. “Do this and you will live.”
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Yeshua, “And who is my neighbor?”
In reply Yeshua said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Yeshua told him, “Go and do likewise.”
- Luke 10:25-37
Bonus passage:
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
- Luke 6:31
When I moved to Texas as a teenager I was shocked by quite a few obvious differences. My dad had purchased a house in a predominantly white neighborhood which was your average two or three bedroom neighborhood. It wasn't a recent development so the houses were maybe twenty years old or so at that time. The house I was living in back in California was circa 1920. One thing which was quite shocking was the manner in which people would address me in Texas. They would say hello while I walked down the street of my neighborhood or when I'd walk through a grocery store. This wasn't the case back on my street in California. I could only assume this was due to me being a young man and gangs being prevalent on the street in that California neighborhood... or maybe overcrowding or who knows. I just don't remember having much exchange or being addressed on my block or out in the general public where I grew up and the places I frequented. Or maybe I just wasn't friendly, which is what started to happen to me while living in Texas. I remember the neighbor across the street, a retired gentleman whose wife I don't remember seeing much other than sitting in their car while he closed the garage, saying hello in a heavy and loud voice one day. And as anyone knows me, all it takes is one question and I pretty much tell a life story. So I told him who we were, what my dad did for a living and so forth. He must have been curious as to who these two new transplants were. The neighbor to the north was a dentist who lived alone with a dog named Gretchen. The neighbors to the south I don't remember ever catching a glimpse of and had no idea who they were.
Texas was also the place I heard and sensed racism for the very first time in my life. Maybe some things were said when I was a child when I was out and about with my mother and siblings, but certainly I never heard anything I understood. But now as a teenager in high school and learning about the world, it came at quite a shock and I didn't know exactly how to handle it. The middle school I had gone to in California was a public school and had a wide variety of ethnicity mix, no certain dominant type. It was in a few cities over from where I actually resided; I was using my aunt's address, the same aunt who was helped by my grandfather, for her family had moved 'up' to the best part of town in the second-best neighborhood of that town... while grandparents stayed in the same neighborhood that was becoming less than stellar to live as time went by and latchkey kids began to run the streets. She was generous enough to let me use her address as my home address to go to a school that wasn't gang infested or systematically broken like the school I would have been obligated to attend using my real home address. I don't think I could have made it as a gangster... at least not a street thug with my pants falling off and tattoos on my neck, maybe more like a white collar criminal type robbing people of the title to their homes with a smile on my face, who knows ;)
The class or social stratification was more prevalent in the dichotomy I experienced in Texas. Since there are more immigrants packed into southern California with pockets of ethnic areas and cities overlapping each other, one doesn't sense much of the imbalance as I did in Texas among a predominantly white population with very few Latinos and even fewer non-whites. I may be wrong and may be projecting my past experiences of over twenty years ago with my perceptions today, because even in the city I currently occupy, I still see and experience a stratification on a more intimate and local level... with tolerance and political correctness being expressed to quell an unfortunate issue from arising.
With all this said, who then is your neighbor and why are they your neighbor? The believer who reads the text can see how the Hebrew nation / tribe was called to be separate from among all other nations / tribes. There was a purpose to this: to reveal to the world 'who' the God and Creator of the universe is. Since that revelation came to pass in the reality of Yeshua the Messiah, the division of tribes and bloodlines was ceased and a new Way became of significant importance... but not everyone believes, sees or understands this. Many 'believers' still do not see past their prejudices, their codes and their upbringing to look past the manifested divisions which prevent them from identifying their distant relatives whom God has brought near.
For me, by the time I began attending college, I had friends from all walks of life and cultural backgrounds and ethnic groups... yet they were acquaintances and the friendships were conditional on the time spent in class and didn't go further than that. For me growing up, only 'family' or relatives were first priority and others outside our clan / tribe / immediate family were easy come and easy go. It wasn't until I realized the bigger picture of what Yeshua had done and established that I began to view all people as my brothers and sisters... that we have One in common and the old view of the world ( what the Hebrews were weened on ) had passed, yet still so many people in the world simply didn't perceive this. We see this in churches which are predominantly one type or ethnic group although there is a plethora of ethnic groups all about them. We see this at the workplace although once you step outside onto the street, you see variety in the gene pool. We see this in practically every group that men make up yet people sometimes see themselves as fair and as equal with their fellowman... that is, until they begin to look at themselves, their surroundings and the invisible walls of cultural acceptance they have established.
The lesson in the following passage is quite extraordinary, for it reveals the heart of the matter. It shows the humanity of all people and also explains how self righteousness doesn't cut it in the greater scheme of things... and this eliminates many who only judge by their immediate surroundings and justify their apathy when they cross paths with someone in need or in trouble... the types that are quicker to rescue an animal than say hello to a homeless person or fail to go out of their way for someone not of their tribe, ethnic makeup or near relative:
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Yeshua. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered, “‘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, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“You have answered correctly,” Yeshua replied. “Do this and you will live.”
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Yeshua, “And who is my neighbor?”
In reply Yeshua said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Yeshua told him, “Go and do likewise.”
- Luke 10:25-37
Bonus passage:
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
- Luke 6:31
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