Who is my neighbor? That question is put to Jesus by a lawyer, or teacher of the law, in Luke 10:29. Jesus’ answer is remembered as perhaps the most famous of Jesus’ parables, the parable of the “good Samaritan”. The parable is given in Luke 10:25-37, specifically verses 30-36.
Twice this week, I have noticed this parable being aptly applied to the current abortion debates. Matthew P. Ristuccia, a pastor in Princeton, NJ, wrote a guest column in World Magazine (Jan. 21, 2006 edition), with the title “Who is my neighbor?” and the subtitle “Consider the unborn, the near-dead, and the easily forgotten” (read the whole article here). He states, “Today we might ask, ‘Is that shape on the ultrasound my neighbor?’ I would say that the shape on the ultrasound is our most defenseless, vulnerable, and innocent neighbor. Then comes a follow-up question: ‘Shall I do for my unborn neighbor what I would have wanted done for me?‘” The answer to this second question makes this parable’s application to the abortion issue especially poignant and meaningful to us all.
But before I read Pastor Ristuccia’s column this week, I heard my pastor John Piper preach a message from this same passage entitled, “Love Your Unborn Neighbor”. Pastor Piper labored to communicate “one crucial thing” from this passage; namely that “Jesus tells a story that changes the question from What kind of person is my neighbor? to What kind of person am I? He changes the question from What status of people are worthy of my love? to How can I become the kind of person whose compassion disregards status?”
Let me allow Piper to develop his own point here by quoting a few paragraphs from his sermon (the full copy of which is available here).
“Let’s make sure we see this and then apply it. A lawyer asks in verse 25 about how to inherit eternal life. He is not sincere. It says he is testing Jesus. Jesus puts the question back to him in verse 26 to reveal the duplicity. What does the Law say? He answers in verse 27 that we should love God will all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus exposes him by saying in effect: So you already know the answer. He sees that he has been exposed and needs to cover up his hypocrisy and so verse 29 says, “Desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “˜And who is my neighbor?'” In other words, it’s not so easy, Jesus. Life is complicated””like, which kind of people do we have to love? Who qualifies for being a neighbor in the command, “Love your neighbor” ? Every race? Every age. The unborn?
Now how will Jesus answer? He does not like this question. Carving humanity up into groups some of whom are worthy of our love and others are not. Jesus does not answer the question, “Who is my neighbor?” He tells a parable that changes the question.
Between Jerusalem and Jericho a man falls among robbers and verse 30 says they “stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.” The first two people to pass by are a priest and a Levite””the most religious folks””and they both pass by on the other side (vv. 31, 32). Then came a Samaritan, not even a Jew, and the key phrase about this man is at the end of verse 33: “he had compassion.”
You see how the focus has shifted. The question about what kind of man is dying is not even in the story any more. The whole focus is now on the kind of people who are walking by. The first two felt no compassion. The Samaritan was a different kind of person. So when you get to the end, what’s the question Jesus asks? Was it, “So was the wounded man a neighbor?” No. That is not the question. Jesus asked the lawyer (v. 36), “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” The lawyer said in verse 37, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
No answer to his question: Who is my neighbor? Instead: Go become a new kind of person. Go get a compassionate heart. This is exactly what Jesus died for….”[Read the entire sermon here]
The point of this parable strongly weighs in on our own personal involvement in the abortion issue. Are we such a loving kind of person, that we would seek to be involved in preventing the brutal murder of countless unborn neighbors? Are we so loving that if there is even a chance that the “shape on the ultrasound” (to borrow Ristuccia’s phrase) is human and thus is being mercilessly killed, that we would lovingly stand up against the practice of abortion?
Piper brings this point home in this way, “When all of the arguments are said and done about the status of pre-born human life and whether the unborn qualify for our compassion along with mommy and daddy and grandma and granddadd–when we are done trying to establish, ‘Is this my neighbor?’–the decisive issue of love remains: What kind of person am I? Does compassion rise in my heart for both mommy and daddy and grandma and graddaddy and this unborn baby? Or do I just get another coke and change the channel?”
In this issue as in many others, let us determine to plead for God’s grace that we might become loving, merciful, even compassionate people–the kind of people who will risk their reputation and their money in helping the poor and oppressed, and standing up for the life of the unborn.
∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7
