Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount exposes self-righteousness and makes a clear division between it and the true righteousness needed to enter the kingdom of heaven. Righteousness cannot be earned based on what you do and what you refrain from doing, for man absolutely cannot meet God’s standards on his own. He must become a humble follower of Jesus Christ who places his trust in God, and not on himself. This is the result of the new birth that Jesus’ talked about to Nicodemus . True righteousness comes from the heart and out of love for God and seeks to do whatever pleases Him.
The sermon also reveals that man can live a blessed life only when his character is changed by the working of the Holy Spirit and he lives according to God’s design. The life lived in obedience to God is the life that is pleasing to God.
To be merciful is to show forgiveness and compassion to those in need. Jesus frequently spoke of this trait. In the Lord’s Prayer, He says, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). In Matthew 9:13 Jesus instructs the Pharisees, “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
We are blessed if we are merciful because mercy is something God Himself displays. God’s mercy is the withholding of a just punishment; it is His compassion on the miserable. Deuteronomy 30:3 says, “The LORD your God will restore your fortunes. He will have mercy on you” . The psalmist writes, “Praise be to the LORD, for he has heard my cry for mercy” (Psalm 28:6). Jesus Himself often showed mercy, as we see in His healing of the man freed from demons: “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you” (Mark 5:19).
We too have received God’s mercy. Romans 11:30 notes, “You who were at one time disobedi-ent to God have now received mercy.” Paul shared that his ministry was given to him by God’s mercy (2 Corinthians 4:1). He also saw his salvation as an act of God’s mercy: “I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief” (1 Timothy 1:13). Our salvation is also called an act of God’s mercy: “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but be-cause of his mercy” (Titus 3:5). As Peter expressed it, “In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).
The sermon’s theme is found in Matt.5:17-20. Jesus did not come to end or to abolish the law. He came to fulfill it and establish true righteousness. The system of the scribes and Pharisees promoted a legalistic self-righteousness, but those who would enter the kingdom of heaven must have a righteousness that exceeds that. They tried to gain it by an outward bending to man made rules and regulations, but true righteousness is a matter of a changed inner life which cannot be lived out on human abilities alone. This is demonstrated by the character qualities Jesus describes that develop in those who are truly righteousness – Being poor in spirit, mourning, meekness, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, mercy, purity of heart, being a peacemaker and rejoicing in the midst of unjust persecution (Matt. 5:3-12). A person who is righteous is salt and light to the world. The unrighteous have contrasting characteristics of being proud, celebrating, assertive, hungering and thirsting after mammon, vengeful, cunning, agitating and persecuting.
True righteousness will also demonstrate itself is striving to live to a higher internal standard and not just an outward legal one. This includes refraining from verbal expressions of hatred – not just murder (5:21-26). Refraining from lust – not just adultery (5:27-30). Refraining from divorce itself, not just making sure the paper work was done properly (5:31-32). Being true to one’s word and keeping every vow, not just certain ones (5:33-37). Not seeking revenge at all instead of seeking it to the law’s limits (5:38-42). Loving your enemy as well as your neighbor (5:43-48). Doing all acts of righteousness such as giving alms (6:1-4), prayer (6:5-15) and fasting (6:16-18) to please God – not man. Laying up treasure in heaven, not on earth and having no worry be-cause you trust God for the future (6:19-34). Critical self-examination before criticizing another (7:1-6). Treating that which is holy properly (7:6). Seeking from God and treating others graciously (7:7-12). Entering by the narrow gate and being so discerning that you can recognize the false prophet even when they sound so good (7:13-23). And following the teachings of Christ (7:24-27).
Mercy is not a quality we expect to see much these days. Instead, our eyes, ears and emotions are assaulted daily, even hourly in the case of radio and TV news items, by violence, injustice, willful stubbornness, bigotry, scams, prejudice and intolerance. Acts of mercy are so rare that, when they do occur, they make headline news, replete with pictures, in newspapers and magazines and on television.
This is not to say that mercy is not admired. It indeed is, which accounts for it making headlines when the media hear of it happening. Though people admire the merciful and wish they were more like them, they rarely take the opportunity to express mercy when such a chance arises.
The Pharisees, harsh in their self-righteous judgments of others, showed little mercy. Jesus admonishing them in Matthew 23:23 says , "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the other undone." This difference makes apparent how far apart were the values of the Kingdom of God and that of man (especially the Pharisees)
We need to remind ourselves from time to time that the Beatitudes represent qualities of those who are truly Christ's disciples. They help identify those upon whom God's blessings rest to aid them in living joyfully.
How much different they are from what the carnal mind, driven by sight, strives to achieve happiness! The carnal mind desires to possess things, power and social standing because it thinks happiness resides in them. God reveals that the ultimate sense of human well-being comes from possessing and cultivating spiritual qualities that derive from a relationship with Him. These are the elusive characteristics that carnal mankind is looking for but cannot find.
We must not be misled into believing that, because Jesus says that the merciful will obtain mercy, this somehow proves salvation by works. Nothing anywhere in the Bible supports this conclusion.
We are also not told in the Sermon on the Mount, ‘Live like this and you will become a Christian’; rather we are told, ‘Because you are a Christian live like this.’ This is how Christians should live; this is how Christians are meant to live.
Proverbs 21:13 cites a practical example of this beatitude in action: "Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be heard." Jesus vividly captures the essence of this valuable principle in concluding the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant: "So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses" Matt. 18:35.
What Does It Mean?
English language dictionaries are of limited help in understanding this mercy's biblical usage. In English "mercy" is normally used to mean showing compassion, forbearance, pity, sympathy, forgiveness, kindness, tenderheartedness, liberality or refraining from harming or punishing of-fenders or enemies. However these synonyms give us some insight on this word; they all ex-press how a merciful person might act. However, none of them specifically pictures what biblical mercy is, because the scriptural concept is virtually untranslatable into a single English word.
The Greek word used in Matthew 5:7, eleemon, means essentially the same as its English counterpart, "merciful." However, in all likelihood Jesus spoke in Aramaic, and the idea behind His statement about mercy come from Old Testament—that is, Hebrew—usage and teaching. The word He would have used is the Hebrew and Aramaic chesed.
William Barclay in his Daily Study Bible commentary on Matthew remarks on this word:
"It does not mean only to sympathize with a person in the popular sense of the term; it does not mean simply to feel sorry for someone in trouble. It means the ability to get right inside the other person's skin until we can see things with his eyes, think things with his mind, and feel things with his feelings."
Clearly this is much more than an emotional wave of pity; clearly this demands a quite deliberate effort of the mind and of the will. It denotes a sympathy which is not given, as it were, from outside, but which comes from a deliberate identification with the other person, until we see things as he sees them, and feel things as he feels them. This is sympathy in the literal sense of the word. Sympathy is derived from two Greek words, syn which means together with, and paschein which means to experience or to suffer. Sympathy means experiencing things together with the other person, literally going through what he is going through.
Much easier said than done. Having a sense of another's feelings to this degree is very difficult to do because we are normally so self-concerned, so aware of our own feelings, that sensitivity for others to this depth often requires a great effort of the will. Normally, when we feel sorry for someone, it is an exclusively external act because we do not make the effort to get inside an-other's mind and heart until we can see and feel things as he does.
It is not easy to walk in another person's shoes.
The world, from which we have all come, is true to its nature; it is unmerciful. The world prefers to insulate itself against the pains and calamities of others. It finds revenge delicious and forgiveness tame and unsatisfying.
The mercy Jesus teaches is not humanly derived. It comes through the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Jesus also says in Matthew 6:14, "If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you." This occurs, not because we can merit mercy by being merciful or forgiving of others, but because we cannot receive the mercy and forgiveness of God unless we repent. We cannot claim to have repented of our sins if we are unmerciful towards the sins of others.
The truly merciful are too aware of their own sins, so they constrain themselves to deal humbly and kindly with those in need. Nothing moves us to forgive others like the amazing realization that God has forgiven our sins. Mercy in God's children begins by experiencing His forgiveness , and perhaps nothing proves more convincingly that we have been forgiven than our readiness to forgive.
Recognizing God's mercy is a key element in motivating our expressions of mercy. Too many people today, even in the church, possess a "welfare mentality." They go through life with little or no gratitude, thinking they deserve the handouts from governments or private citizens or the church. It is vital to understanding this because, as long as one is unthankful, his thoughts will center on himself. The merciful person is sensitive to others' needs and takes action to supply them. An ungrateful person, on the other hand, insulates himself from others' pains because he is too focused on his own perceived miseries.
God does not insulate Himself from the world's misery, as John 3:16 says: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
Barclay comments: "He came as a man; he came seeing things with man's eyes, feeling things with man's feelings, and thinking things with man's minds. God knows what life is like, because God came right inside life" (p. 104). Jesus Christ is not remote, detached and disinterested, nor insulated and isolated from our lives. He knows our frame; He knows that we are but dust. He can see in us a reflection of what He experienced as a man. He can thus extend mercy to us, completely understanding what we are going through.
The writer of Hebrews also comments : "For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted. (Hebrews 2:16-18)
Hebrews 4:15 echoes the same thought: "For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympa-thize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin."
Psalm 103:1-14 gives strong evidence that God's mercy from the Old Testament view.:
"Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your dis-eases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the ea-gle's.
The LORD executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel. The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust."
God is our model of mercy, and we are to reflect His mercy in our actions toward fellow man. Because our powers are so limited compared to His, we cannot reflect it in many ways, but from beginning to end, the Bible's writers show God extending mercy in an almost endless variety of ways.
Jesus' best known teaching on mercy is the Parable of the Good Samaritan - Luke 10:25-37.
Notice how He brings out both the feeling and the acts that are encompassed within mercy:
Of all Jesus' parables, none has worked its way deeper into our way of thinking as this parable. The phrase "Good Samaritan" is used to describe any person who goes out of his way to help another. It's a theme that newspaper reporters love to feature because it captures readers' at-tention and fires the imagination.
But the Parable of the Good Samaritan says more than "It's good to help people in need." The parable is also about excuses. About self-justification. About letting oneself off the hook.
Sometime during the Judean part of Jesus' ministry -- we're not told exactly when and where -- Jesus encounters a lawyer, a man skilled in interpreting the Jewish Torah (i.e., the first five books of the Old Testament, also called the Pentateuch). It's fascinating to see that Luke places this incident directly following Jesus' statement , "You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to children...." (10:21) The "children" are Jesus' disciples, his followers, who have just learned about spiritual power in the name of Jesus. Now we meet the "wise and learned," represented by a legal expert, schooled in all the intricacies and interpretations of the Torah, a very sophisticated scholar. The children and the wise are placed in sharp contrast.
"On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. '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,' Jesus replied. 'Do this and you will live.' " (10:25-28)
The lawyer's question is an important one: "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Later, the Rich Young Ruler asks Jesus the same question (18:18). In essence, he is asking Jesus to capsulize what is important for a Jew to do in order to be saved. And what is more important than salvation?
But Luke tells us that the lawyer has an underlying motive, "to test Jesus." In this case, the law-yer isn't trying to tempt Jesus in the sense of lead Jesus into sin. Rather, the skilled teacher of the law is testing this unofficial, Gallilean lay teacher to see how well he will answer difficult theological questions. The lawyer's motive could be simple intellectual curiosity about Jesus' insight into the Scriptures. But he has doubtless already heard Jesus speak, or heard reports of Jesus' message. So his motive, more likely, is to see if he can expose Jesus' simple mindedness in contrast to his own sophistication. Perhaps intellectual pride or jealousy of Jesus' immense following prompt this testing.
Jesus does not answer the question instead he appeals to the expert's self-perception of being an authority, and turns the question back to him. " 'What is written in the Law?' Jesus replies 'How do you read it?' " (10:26) Jesus is saying, "You're an expert on the Torah. What does your reading tell you is the answer to your question?"
The legal expert's answer shows much insight. In fact, he agrees exactly with Jesus' own assessment of the Torah's essential message: "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," quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, respectively.
Jesus compliments him on his answer: "You have answered correctly," and so in the balance of this relationship between expert and novice, Jesus now assumes the role of expert on the Law, commenting on the rightness or wrongness of the other's interpretation. The lawyer who has sought to test Jesus is now himself being tested and evaluated.
But when you think about it, Jesus' compliment is remarkable. So often Jesus has to deal with Pharisees whose understanding of the Law is all out of proportion. They emphasize the minor details and neglect the big picture; they "strain out gnats" but "swallow camels" (Matthew 23:23-24). But this man sees the big picture. He understands, or so it would seem, "justice, mercy, and faithfulness" that the Pharisees neglect (Matthew 23:23).
The lawyer recites what Jesus has termed the Great Commandment, to love God and love one's neighbor. "Do this and you will live," is Jesus' reply to the lawyer's question, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?"
"But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?' " (10:29)
The power of the truth that the lawyer has spoken is too much for him. By his own words he has correctly stated the heart of the Law: "Love your neighbor as yourself," and is feeling convicted by it. After all, he might say, the context of the verse he had quoted limits the definition of "neighbor": "Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord." (Leviticus 19:18)
So, in typical lawyer fashion, he seeks to defend his position by closely defining words. What is your definition of "neighbor," he asks Jesus. At this point we see an exchange between a pair of rabbis, teachers. One has stated the essence of the law, and the other has acknowledged truth of his answer. Now the first asks the second to clarify the answer.
The Jews typically interpreted "neighbor," meaning "one who is near," in terms of members of the same people and religious community, that is, fellow Jews (as in Matthew 5:43-48). The Pharisees tended to exclude "ordinary people" from their definition.
The lawyer agrees that the essence of the Torah is to love one's neighbor as oneself, but then seeks to limit the application of this to fellow Jews only. Love your own race and faith community, he believes, and you have fulfilled the law.
Luke tells us that his first motive is to "test" Jesus; his second motive is to "justify himself," to defend his own limited interpretation of the Torah. Here is a scholar struggling with integrity be-tween his beliefs and actions.
In reply Jesus said: 'A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho....' (10:30)
If someone were to ask you the definition of neighbor, you might respond with a carefully-worded definition, the kind of phrase you find in Webster's Dictionary. But Jesus answers with a parable. Parables are stories told to make a point. They aren't actual history, but they capture true-to-life details in such a way that hearers' identify with the elements of the story and can grasp of the spiritual lesson of the story. There was no actual Good Samaritan that Jesus is referring to. But he is calling upon his hearers' awareness of the dangers of traveling alone on the Jericho-Jerusalem road, and from there presenting a hypothetical situation designed to make a point.
"A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead." (10:30)
Jerusalem is located along the ridge of coastal mountains running north and south in Palestine. Jericho, on the other hand is located in the plain of the Jordan River in a geological rift zone hundreds of feet below sea level. The 17 mile road that connects these two cities descends some 3,300 feet through desert and rocky country that could easily hide brigands or bandits. The Roman Law and order under which they were ruled did not eliminated highway robbery.
The robbers on the Jericho Road were pretty desperate. Even if a man had little of value, they would attack him for the value of his clothing alone. But they didn't just threaten him and take his clothing. They stripped him of his clothing and then beat him, probably with wood staffs. They beat him in order to incapacitate him from following them, or perhaps to intimidate him from trying to identify them. Apparently they didn't seek to kill him, however. Jesus says that they left him literally "half-dead". Jesus isn't telling of an actual man, of course, but adding some details in order to paint a picture. His listeners are now eager to see what happens to the unfortunate man.
"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." (10:31-32)
Jesus places in his story two well-known figures in society, priests and Levites. The priest would be returning to Jericho from service in the temple at Jerusalem -- Jericho was known as a principal residence for priests. In New Testament times, Levites were inferior to the priests but still a privileged group in society, responsible for the liturgy in the Temple and for policing the Temple. While both priests and Levites were from the tribe of Levi (descendants of Jacob's son Levi), the priests were also descendants of Aaron, the first High Priest.
In Jesus' story, both the priest and Levite see the wounded man and pass on the other side of the road. They see the man's need but choose not to help.
"Typical!" the hearers are thinking. There were probably various anti-clerical stories circulating among the populace, and you can almost see Jesus' hearers nodding and smiling at the caricature.
Some believe that the priest and Levite might have had some justification for their actions. After all, as temple officials they were especially concerned about ceremonial cleanness. The Law stated that the high priest "must not enter a place where there is a dead body. He must not make himself unclean, even for his father or mother" (Leviticus 21:11). Even a regular priest "will also be unclean if he touches something defiled by a corpse" (Leviticus 22:4; Ezekiel 24:25).
What if the man lying beaten by the side of the road were dead? The man may not have been stirring. One can't be too careful, you know.
On the other hand, the law is pretty clear about helping those who are in need, both man and beast, friend and foe -- even if he is your enemy!
"If you come across your enemy's ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to take it back to him. If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help him with it." (Exodus 23:4-5)
"Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice, or the Lord will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from him." (Proverbs 24:17-18)
"If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you." (Proverbs 25:21-22)
And, of course, the very verse the lawyer had quoted makes the priest's and the Levite's obliga-tions clear: "Love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord" (Leviticus 19:18).
Placing religious purity over helping a person who was perhaps still alive is gross hard-heartedness and selfishness. And walking on the other side of the road displays a deliberate "I don't want to know" attitude. The less they saw about the man's condition, the less they would feel obligated to help him. After all, he might be dead then there would be nothing they could be obligated to do. Our modern-day equivalent of this attitude is, "I don't want to get involved."
A priest, a Levite ... and the hearers would be expecting a Jewish layman to be the third character. Three people or situations are often found in stories of that period and our own (Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 19:11-27; 14:18-20; 20:10-12). But, Jesus introduces a Samaritan into the story.
The Samaritans were particularly hated in Jesus' day. They lived in an area south of Galilee and north of Judea, part of the old Northern Kingdom of Israel. In 721 BC Israel was conquered by Assyria, and Sargon II conducted a mass deportation of the entire region, carrying off some 27,270 captives and resettling the area with colonists from other parts of the Assyrian empire (2 Kings 17:24).[11] Their descendants were looked upon as half-breeds and heretics by the Jews of Jerusalem. Though Samaritans believed in the Torah, they worshiped at Mt. Gerizim rather than Jerusalem (John 4:20-22). At times, relations between the Jews and Samaritans had been civil, but in Jesus' day feelings were definitely hostile, as John observed: "Jews do not associate with Samaritans" (John 4:9b).
For Jesus to introduce the Samaritan as the caring person, after a priest and a Levite had neglected mercy, must have been intended as an especially biting commentary on what passed for "mercy" among the pillars of Judaism.
"But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him." (10:33)
The Samaritan traveler doesn't move over to the other side of the road, but when he sees the wounded man he takes pity on him.
"He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine." (10:34a)
The Samaritan binds up the wounds of the injured man, perhaps with his own headcovering or by tearing strips from his garment. The Samaritan also pours on oil and wine as healing agents. Olive oil was widely employed to keep exposed parts of the skin supple, to relieve chafing, to soften wounds, and to heal bruises and lacerations. We can see something of the treatment of wounds in a passage from Isaiah that speaks in literal terms about spiritual sickness:
"From the sole of your foot to the top of your head
there is no soundness --
only wounds and welts
and open sores,
not cleansed or bandaged
or soothed with oil." (Isaiah 1:6)
Wine, perhaps, was poured on for cleansing. Though they had no knowledge of the germ theory, we know that wine, which ferments naturally to about 7% to 15% alcohol, would have had some disinfectant properties.
"Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins 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.' " (10:34b-35)
The Samaritan's love of his neighbor proved costly. He used his own supplies to cleanse and soothe the man's wounds, his own clothing to bandage him, his own animal to carry him while the Samaritan himself walked, his own money to pay for his care, and his own reputation and credit to vouch for any further expenses the man's care would require.
Love can be costly. But if we have the means to help, we are to extend ourselves. The Apostle John taught, "If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth" (1 John 3:17-18).
There wasn't an emergency room where the Samaritan could take the man. Instead, he took him to a inn and cared for the man himself that night. Edersheim sees the inn as a khan or hostelry, found by the side of roads, providing free lodgment to the traveler. They also provided food for both man beast, for which they would charge.
It seems likely that the Samaritan was a merchant who frequently traveled this way and had stayed at this inn before. He trusts the innkeeper enough to advance him money to care for the wounded man. And he promises the innkeeper -- who also seems to trust the Samaritan -- to reimburse him for any additional costs when he returns from his trip. The Samaritan's mercy is a generous mercy. A mercy that doesn't just keep the letter of the law, but its spirit as well. "What-ever he needs," is the limit of his mercy.
" 'Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?'
Now Jesus punches home his point. He asks the lawyer which of the three proved to be a neighbor to the wounded man, and the lawyer is forced to reply, "The one who had mercy on him." (10:36-37a)
The lawyer began by asking for a definition of "neighbor" in order to justify limiting his love to his fellow Jews only. Jesus doesn't define "neighbor" in so many words, but his story makes it clear that our neighbor is whoever has a need. It doesn't matter who they are. Jesus' command to love our neighbor as ourselves knows no self-satisfying limits.
"Jesus told him, 'Go and do likewise.' " (10:37b)
Jesus isn't content just to define what "neighbor" means. He commands us to do as the Samaritan does, to show mercy to our fellow man who is in need.
Are Christians to be "do-gooders"? Yes, I suppose. But our motivation for doing good must be love for others, an interest in meeting their basic needs, a heart of mercy that is moved by com-passion.
I must ask myself, what we -- as disciples of Jesus -- are supposed to learn from this story. And for me the answer is to examine my own heart. What motivates me? How much have selfishness and a dogged adherence to my own agenda leached away the mercy that Jesus holds dear and wants to flourish in my heart through his Holy Spirit? Am I merciful. Do I put myself first, or do I put the needs of others first? I think of these few words from the poem by CT Studd.
"Only one life, 'twill soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last."
For me, Jesus' command, "Go and do likewise," means that I must value acts of mercy over personal productivity. What does it mean for you?
One summary of godly mercy is found in Micah 6:8:
"He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God."
Mercy is required of us (Isaiah 58:6-7; Hosea 6:6). Jesus commands his disciples very
specifically: "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful" (Luke 6:36).
