One Day (There Will Be Healing)Sample

ONE BIG NEIGHBORHOOD  

Do you watch the news? I’m not sure if I would recommend it. I mean, it’s great to be informed, but it seems like each day the headlines point out more and more division between people, especially in this election year. The truth is, we don’t need an election to divide us. Humans have been looking for ways to divide ourselves from each other ever since our earliest history. Our sinful, prideful nature loves to look at someone else and find any and every reason to place them beneath ourselves. Whether it’s race, religion, nationality, intellect, politics, wealth, you name it—where there is difference, we create division. But it doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, Jesus commands the opposite.  

In Luke 10, Jesus tells the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Many of us are probably familiar with this story. A man asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life and Jesus says, “Love the Lord your God. . .and love your neighbor as yourself.” The man then asks, “Well then, who is my neighbor?” Jesus replies by telling him a story of a man who was attacked by robbers while he was traveling. The robbers took his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead. Soon, a priest walks by, sees the half- dead man, and just passes by on the other side of the road. Next, a Levite passes by and does the same thing—just leaves the man for dead. Finally, a Samaritan man comes by, sees the man, and immediately goes to him and cares for his wounds using expensive oils and wines. Then, he puts the man on his own donkey, takes him to an inn, and gives the innkeeper two days’ wages to take care of him. If that wasn’t enough, the Samaritan told him to take care of the wounded man’s needs, and he would reimburse him for any extra cost. 

After telling the story, Jesus asks his listener which man was a neighbor to the beaten man, to which he replies, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus then says, “Go and do likewise.” A lot can be pulled out from this parable, but what I want to focus on is the significance of the types of men Jesus chose to use. It starts with a “man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho,” which most likely meant he was a Jew. A priest and Levite, both also Jews, see the man beaten and in need, but do nothing. It’s important to note that the man in the story that chooses to help is a Samaritan. At this time in history, Samaritans and Jews did not get along. At all. Their people groups had deep religious, ethnic, and social divides. Still, the Samaritan goes out of his way at a great personal cost to help the Jewish man. With this story, Jesus most certainly expands his listeners’ idea of who they should consider to be their neighbor.   

I believe Jesus is doing the same thing for us today. He is saying, “I don’t care what race they are, who they’re voting for, what their religion is, or how much money they have—if they’re a person, they’re your neighbor—love them!” Even if they feel like an enemy, Jesus tells us to love them too (see Matthew 5:44)! Jesus calls us to love those who don’t think like us, act like us, or look like us. My prayer for you today is that you would see everyone you encounter as your neighbor, as people to be cared for and loved. Let’s see this whole world as one big neighborhood. 

“One Day there’ll be no more anger left in our eyes. One day the color of our skin won’t cause a divide.”

-lyrics from “One Day” by Cochren & Co.