We would love to hear from you! Send us a text message.
In this episode we dig into our theme for the new year, "Living Reconciled By Loving Our Neighbors Well" and cast new light on the timeless question, "Who is my neighbor?"
The parable of the Good Samaritan teaches us that unexpected kindness is not just a virtue, but a necessity for a world craving reconciliation. We discuss how loving beyond our circles—extending grace to those we disagree with and even to our adversaries—mirrors the boundless love Jesus modeled.
Join us in stepping boldly into 2024, with hearts open to the transformative power of loving our neighbors without exceptions or boundaries.
Special thanks to our sponsors:
Nissan, St. Dominic's Hospital, Atmos Energy, Regions Foundation, Brown Missionary Baptist Church, Christian Life Church, Ms. Doris Powell, Mr. Robert Ward, and Ms. Ann Winters
We would love to hear from you! Send us a text message.
In this episode we dig into our theme for the new year, "Living Reconciled By Loving Our Neighbors Well" and cast new light on the timeless question, "Who is my neighbor?"
The parable of the Good Samaritan teaches us that unexpected kindness is not just a virtue, but a necessity for a world craving reconciliation. We discuss how loving beyond our circles—extending grace to those we disagree with and even to our adversaries—mirrors the boundless love Jesus modeled.
Join us in stepping boldly into 2024, with hearts open to the transformative power of loving our neighbors without exceptions or boundaries.
Special thanks to our sponsors:
Nissan, St. Dominic's Hospital, Atmos Energy, Regions Foundation, Brown Missionary Baptist Church, Christian Life Church, Ms. Doris Powell, Mr. Robert Ward, and Ms. Ann Winters
This is Living Reconciled, a podcast dedicated to giving our communities practical evidence of the gospel message by helping Christians learn how to live in the reconciliation that Jesus has already secured for us by living with grace across racial lines. Hey, thanks so much for joining us on this episode of Living Reconciled episode 37., 37. And the first episode of the new year. I'm your host, brian Crawford, with my stupendous friends. Stupendous Good friends. Extremely impressive friends, extremely impressive. That's what. Stupendous means for those that don't know Nettie Winters, austin Hoyle, gentlemen, how are you doing?
Speaker 2:Good morning, I'm doing great man. Welcome to 2020. 2024.
Speaker 1:2024.
Speaker 3:You know, when you said the number 37 episode, that's how old I was when I met Nettie Winters, and so I just did something to my heart when you said that.
Speaker 1:It did something to your heart, did something to my heart. Yeah, heart Hearted your heart. I don't know yet.
Speaker 2:I'm still diagnosing what it did, but it did something to my heart. What kind of friends you say we are.
Speaker 1:Stupendous, extremely impressive, friends, extremely impressive friends?
Speaker 2:What is the odds? What is that Antenna? I'm extremely impressive.
Speaker 1:Extremely unimpressive. Extremely unimpressive. I haven't found that word yet, but I'll find it and I'll share it with you guys next week Boring, unremarkable.
Speaker 2:Unremarkable.
Speaker 1:Unremarkable friends, unremarkable friends, nettie Winters and Austin Hoyle. Special thanks to our sponsors today.
Speaker 2:Won't you say episode 37 again, get as hard as it is. Episode 37 is out of rhythm now because we're getting it. This is episode 37 and, believe it or not, this is a new year and yes we will actually get to some content here.
Speaker 1:Special thanks to our sponsors Nissan, st Dominic's Hospital, atmos Energy Regions Foundation, brown Missionary Baptist Christian Life Church, ms Doris Powell, mr Robert Ward, ms Ann Winters. Thank you guys so much, and thank you to all of you for being here today. Thank you so much for joining us today. I'm going to start with an update. I'm going to start with a story that I want to share with you. I'm going to start with a story that I want to share with you. I want to share it with you because of what you do, that we're able to do what we do, and today, we want to begin to unpack a theme that will run throughout this year Living reconciled, loving our neighbors.
Speaker 2:This is my neighbor. I want to love him. Man. If I can figure out who my neighbors are, they're going to be loved Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Why would a concept before we even get to the who, why would a concept like a command that Jesus gives us? By the way, the Bible gives us this command eight times. We at least hear eight times love your neighbor as yourself. We hear it in the Old Testament, we hear it in the New Testament, we hear it in the apostles, we hear it in the epistles or the letters of the apostles. Constantly we are hearing this command to love our neighbor as ourselves. Why would this command be important and instrumental in the year of our Lord, 2024?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, obviously Jesus was repeating himself. The command was repeating himself. Obviously, for me, somebody wasn't loving their neighbor. For me, in my lifetime, it highlights the essence of not loving your neighbor. We're divided over so much stuff and we're not kind, we're not gracious to each other. We've taken social media in my sense to mean something other than what it really is in terms of that.
Speaker 3:I think it's kind of. I think you know what's the antonym for stupendous, which is unimpressive, right? No, I'm actually going somewhere, I'm not just rehashing old spats, I'm actually going somewhere, but you know what's the antonym of loving our neighbor?
Speaker 3:It's nihilism, it's a focus on self. Right, and I think, at least if I read my Bible correctly, and just about every turn, we're taught as a people who want to live Godly lives, to be a people who live outside of ourselves, in the sense that we're connecting ourselves to God and we're connecting ourselves to other persons, either through a believing community or through being a witness of that love that we have to God. So the opposite of that is a focus on self. It's almost nihilistic in that way, because you know, it's a command to look at nihilistic.
Speaker 3:So what it's, almost?
Speaker 1:No, neddy wasn't actually to correct the pronunciation. Neddy was saying what does that mean?
Speaker 3:That means no, thank you Brian. It means that a profound lack of meaning or purpose in one's life Almost a sense of nothing matters.
Speaker 3:Like when we're 100% consumed by self. It leads towards nihilism, because self cannot be a meaning or purpose for a person's life. So I really do think, because in every command that God gives us, I truly believe that it's not just an abstract command. I really believe that God is just trying to reason with us and say love your neighbor. I don't see it as they all shout love your neighbor, you know. It's more like love your neighbor if you know what's good for you, you know. So that's the way I look at this and approach this that yes, we follow God's commands because God commands us to do them, but God commands us to do them because they have a positive, practical effect in our lives and the lives of other people.
Speaker 1:God's commands always bring us back to the garden. Exactly, we're constantly finding ways to leave the garden and he's trying to bring us back to what's good. Taste and see that the Lord is good. My ways are good. Not just simply good for me, but my ways are good for you. Exactly.
Speaker 3:So I mean, you know, and it being the opposite of that kind of self-focus, you know, that lack of meaning, lack of purpose, because I think that when we love our neighbor, especially the other neighbor as ourselves, that we are finding the purpose that God has for our lives in a lot of ways, calling us back to a better way of living, and it has good practical effects for our lives. I mean that's, I think we need to listen to God for two reasons. First of all, god is telling us to do it.
Speaker 3:Second, of all it does bring about the greatest good for our lives. And I think God knows that, because I mean we see people who have that strong just focus on self or just their small affinity groups that we may have not moving beyond that. And I think we're going to talk about what neighborly means. It's not just the people who look like us or think like us or have the same ideology as us, you know, because we still can connect person to person but still not be loving our neighbor because we've constricted our understanding of neighborliness to just those that we like or those that think like us or look like us or talk like us. Even that can bring towards a lack of ultimate meaning and purpose in our lives.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm glad we are about to talk about that in terms of Luke, chapter 10. We'll talk about a number of different passages. Again, I mentioned eight passages reference loving neighbor, as ourselves. We're going to, we're going to see those passages throughout the year if the Lord wills, but we want to focus on Luke 10 today because it's really kind of giving us the who behind neighbor and we and we all agree that that's important. But I'm glad, austin, that we started with a little bit of a philosophical discussion around the Lord's commands. Right, yeah, because the Lord, obviously he is commanding, because he's the Lord and we should follow and obey because he's the Lord. And you know, we think about judgment that comes when we don't obey, or things that are, you know, all these types of things that people have in their mind when they think about commandments. Right, but oftentimes what we deemphasize in favor of emphasizing the judgment elements, we deemphasize the element of taste and see that the Lord is good and so obey because there's goodness in that obedience.
Speaker 1:Exactly so loving our neighbor as ourselves. We typically think, oh why I better do it? Or maybe something bad might happen because I didn't do what the says the Lord. But what we're arguing is don't even think first in those terms. Think first in this is a gift to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, loving my neighbor as myself is gift for me, you know, maybe, maybe we think about the, the punishment, because most of our Human experience is you better do it if you know what's good for you, especially when we're dealing with authorities, right.
Speaker 2:So some kind of punishment come with that. But you know you said that people are doing it because of that or think about that. I don't know that that to be a Faction. When you look at the statistics and you look at what reality is, we're not loving our neighbor. So the incentive or Descentive of punishment, a judgment or whatever else is really not working, because I'm saying, I'm saying we're not paying attention to either one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm not adequately enough, or or if we pay attention to one is to the Dutchman or the other, when it should be more in balance.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. I'm not saying, I'm not saying we're loving out of fear because we're not doing that, but I'm saying also, we're not loving because of the we don't even see the gift that's involved in loving nature.
Speaker 3:When we say we're not doing this, we and I understand what you're saying sure, let's, let's. I would, because when we say we're not doing something, I know what you're saying. I'm always thinking about the culture that I'm yeah culture, because I can think you know I do that sometimes. I can see my wife do that. I can see you do that, brian. Yeah, I see you do that do what now? But, but I, but I under loving people okay, as their neighbor or not doing it or not?
Speaker 3:not not doing because apparently you got that empty house sitting next to you with rats and cats right. Right, but no, um, so it's just like. So that's so that's that we so that, that, we so that we, and I guess I want to qualify a little just a little bit, because I want that, I want you to.
Speaker 2:X Is what I say. Part of the week.
Speaker 3:No, I am part of the week, okay, and I don't want to exclude people from the we. But I also want us to be able to Nuance it in such a way of saying but yes, of course this is happening in pockets of the kingdom, yeah, absolutely, but but in the overall kingdom and the overall culture of of our churches and of course I'm thinking even. Christ and Wesleyan church.
Speaker 2:Western sorry.
Speaker 3:Western church in general, absolutely overall. So that'd be America, the.
Speaker 2:United Kingdom, united Kingdom. How about we, just how about you? Stick to Mississippi, okay.
Speaker 3:Okay, so Mississippi, yeah, we're not. We're not doing that, but yet we still have small pockets of people who are doing it, and doing it well, and and have devoted their lives to doing that. So when we when we say we're not doing that, I also want us to point out the, you know, the, the, the, the parts where God truly is amen breaking into this world, at the on, on top of saying but yes, at the same time, we as a larger body are not doing it.
Speaker 2:I like it when the devil challenge God and Joe, he says have you considered my servant, joe, today? I just want us to be Thinking about if, in fact, we're gonna point to somebody in these pockets Mm-hmm, why didn't? Where are they Move on? That's, that's a episode or something. But who are they and where are?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, yeah and who's paying attention. Maybe we're gonna be, maybe we're gonna interview some people during the course of the year that we've identified. Are loving their neighbor well yeah, by the fact we met a few this morning.
Speaker 3:We did, and what they're talking about is we will go ministries absolutely. Jackson. Mississippi I even took a picture of their mission statement. They know which I love, by the way.
Speaker 2:Now, other than this, you know I don't want to get into that, but other than the sound on the wall set, you know we're engaging and I commit and we engage in our neighbors by loving them with Christ or loving something about Christ, other than the sign on or how we know they are doing that. But just, oh, they go. They go way beyond that. Shout out to David and Amy.
Speaker 1:Amy Lancaster, who will have on the, will have on the podcast later on this year. So so, shout out to them. Shout out to them absolutely. So let's take a quick break and we're gonna come back and we're gonna begin to unpack Luke, chapter 10.
Speaker 2:I want to get back to the why, man and we're gonna dig into the why.
Speaker 1:We're gonna dig into the who of loving neighbor after we return on this episode of living reconciled. Living reconciled is the work of mission Mississippi, but it is not our only work. From days of dialogue and prayer meetings to consultation for schools, businesses and churches, mission Mississippi is eager to help you, your team, your church and your community live reconciled Every month. Join us for our weekly prayer breakfasts on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 645 am, our bi-weekly statewide connection meetings on Fridays at 10 am and a focused time of prayer on the third Thursday of the month at 7 am. To get details on any of our upcoming events or to learn how you can invite us to your church, business or school, visit our website at mission Mississippi dot org and click on the events button or call us at 601-353-6477. Hey, thanks again for joining us on this episode of living reconciled, episode 37. I'm your host, brian Crawford, with my incredibly unremarkable friends Nettie winners Austin Hoyle appreciate the honesty.
Speaker 2:I really do Finally got there.
Speaker 3:I know, I know, I like, I feel like we made a breakthrough in our relationship.
Speaker 1:Stupendous friends, good, good, good friends. Now he's just kissing up great friends, great friends and neighbors. Nettie winners in Austin Hoyle neighbors neighbors, I'm your neighbor. Yes, neighbors.
Speaker 2:You're all the way Experts. Can I borrow?
Speaker 1:a cup of sugar. So we're gonna unpack this concept of this idea of Neighbor now because, as you can see, if we don't that, he's gonna take it in places that it probably should not go.
Speaker 2:Luke chapter. My daughter tells me I take it too far and stay too long.
Speaker 1:Your daughter knows you too well. She knows you too well.
Speaker 3:There is a don't change who you are for anyone.
Speaker 1:There is a passage in Luke, chapter 10, verse 25. I want to read a little bit of this passage. It says then an expert in the law stood up to test him, saying teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What is written in the law? He asked him. Jesus, how do you read it? And the expert answered him love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your strength and with All your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus responds you've answered correctly.
Speaker 1:Do this and you will live expert Right man, did you hear that, yeah, but wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus and who is my Neighbor? Let's stop right there. Yeah, see, before we get into the parable of Jesus, let's just stop right there. There's an expert of the law who comes and asks Jesus a question. Jesus gives him a response. Then the expert of law says hey, I got this. You know, love the Lord with everything I got. Love my neighbor Like I love me. Jesus says hey, man, you got it.
Speaker 1:You know you're on your way and then the expert, wanting to justify himself self, begins to nuance the discussion and say well, jesus, who exactly is? The one I'm supposed to love like me.
Speaker 2:So we passed a wide and we're to the who now.
Speaker 1:Well, we're probably gonna sprinkle some Y in here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was gonna say that it's about to be a mish-mash. It's gonna be some Y and who in here.
Speaker 1:So talk to me a little bit about this justifying of self that leads to a person asking the question well, who is my neighbor Austin? Tell me a little bit about what you think about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry I'm about to jump. I was so excited. It's just such a strong focus on self and wanting to make sure that he was taken into account and that this whole life of salvation was about him instead of about the connection between God and the body of Christ and other people being a witness to the work that the Holy Spirit and Jesus does in their lives. Like that whole focus on self. I mean, I almost already kind of brought a lot of it up on the last time.
Speaker 3:You know I didn't even read very deeply in this passage, but I mean, but we just see how much that comports to that is that opposite of loving your neighbor, is that entire focus on self. So even if it asks what are our motivations, what is our practical effect of the behavior that we have, if our motivations for, you know, at least maybe having the outward signs of love, if our inward motivation is just about self, that can't be sustained for very long. So that affects the second one, the practical out, the practical outliving of the or what it is that we do and how it is that we live out. You know, if our motivation isn't rooted in that love of neighbor and love of God, then that practical outpouring of love. God may be able to use that for a short time, but you're gonna burn out.
Speaker 1:Yeah right, Self-justification is a deadly poison.
Speaker 3:It's a deadly poison and it can at times take on the image of holiness and of righteousness.
Speaker 3:But if you don't infuse a true good spirit of Christ through that living out somewhere in it, then it's gonna burn out eventually. I mean, I do believe that sometimes justification of the self can be a way for someone to start out in their faith, or it can lead to that simply because if they're trying to justify themselves, the guys at least trying to learn a little bit more. We don't know what happened to this person after this passage. Like we do not know. We do not know. It's possible that this may have been somebody that after a couple of years he was just like yeah.
Speaker 1:I remember.
Speaker 3:Jesus. I remember Jesus telling me what I need to do. He came across another apostle or another body of Christ.
Speaker 1:We don't know, Could have happened that day. Yeah, it could have happened that day. Jesus remember. He ends the story going through likewise, Exactly, and that's the end of the story.
Speaker 3:I mean, we just get somebody who wanted to have salvation for himself or justify himself, but we don't know what the event was, but we don't know where this Hear that idea.
Speaker 1:In the sense of, in seeking to justify himself, he asked a question who is my neighbor? I mean, he knows, like I know, that when you start talking about loving people like you love yourself, that is an incredibly heavy command, and so what he wants to do is he wants to kind of thin this command out a little bit and say, okay, well, let's talk about who my neighbor is, cause I don't want it to be too many people that you're calling me to love like. I love me.
Speaker 1:That's a heavy command, and so if I have to do this on my own in order to receive eternal life, then that means one or two things are gonna happen. I'm gonna thin this number out and reduce it to a handful of people that I need to love, like this, or I'm gonna burn myself out. Exactly, and I'm not gonna be able to do this Right.
Speaker 2:And so he's looking for answers.
Speaker 1:Good question. He's looking for answers who is my neighbor? Who is the one that I have to love, like this Right. And so the first thing we have to, even before we start talking about love of neighbor, we have to walk into this with the understanding that we have already been accepted in Christ.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:And that we are loving from a love, that we've received the love and we're loving from a love. And what that does is that removes the weight, so to speak, that self-justification has to present, whereas, like I'm loving to earn a love, exactly.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 1:So, no, no, no. We're not loving to earn a love, we're loving because we've been loved, because he first loved us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, but to his credit, he's at least going in the right direction. He's at least asking the right questions to move him beyond the point where he's at, absolutely Even if he's not quite there. I always liked, I always read this passage with hope, thinking that he was changed by the verse even if we don't see his transformation in the scripture itself, because I think that the profound message that Jesus gave him was so impactful. Amen.
Speaker 1:Amen.
Speaker 3:I can't imagine change not happening. I'm gonna read a little bit more of this passage.
Speaker 1:And then I want you guys to flesh it out a little bit more with me. Verse 30 it says in Luke, chapter 10,. Jesus took up the question and said a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hand hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up and fled, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him pass by on the other side, but a Samaritan on his journey came up to him and when he saw the man, he had compassion and he went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring an olive oil and wine, pouring on olive oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an end and took care of him. And the next day he took out to Denari, gave them to the innkeeper and said take care of him and when I come back I'll reimburse you for whatever extra you spent.
Speaker 1:Which of these three do you think proved to be the neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? The one who showed mercy to him, he said. Then Jesus told him go and do the same. So, going back to the top of this parable, there's a man on the road who gets overwhelmed and beaten up, left for dead by a group of robbers and he has opportunities to be helped Three occasions. Two of the occasions that help does not come, the last occasion that helped us Talk to me a little bit about this passage. Talk to me about just what you see and what you hear and how that relates back to our current moment in history and in culture.
Speaker 2:Well for me it always is interesting to me that the most likely person to be your neighbor really don't act like a neighbor and the person that's least likely to be a neighbor end up being a neighbor. The story about the good Samaritan way. You know, the Jews and the Gentiles and the mixed race of Samaritans had nothing to do with one another. So the fact that the priest and the other person somebody says preaching the deacon, but anyway.
Speaker 2:That's a very good connection, very good connection, yeah, so you know it did not surprise me that they would go to the other side because it was a Samaritan, yeah, you know. And then surprised me, in fact, that you know I'm really got to get to church. You got to get to the same thing.
Speaker 1:Hold on, hold, on, hold on the Samaritan is the one who comes Right.
Speaker 2:Remember the man on the road. The man on the road was More than the man on the road was. Still, you think it's more likely that he was still. He was a deal, so you know absolutely. Here is the preaching, the deacon getting the church to get things done, and they didn't want to get involved with it. It was a mess, you know, I just maybe they sent a prayer from him. I don't know what to do, but the least likely person in this scenario is this good Samaritan.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't know why he's a good Samaritan. I guess all Samaritans are not good, but anyway.
Speaker 3:I think we just later, I think it was an oxymoron For the Jewish people, for the listeners. Absolutely this would have been an oxymoron Good Samaritan.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, because Samaritan would have been synonymous with that Nothing good comes from Samaria. Basically, exactly, maybe because he stopped in hell.
Speaker 2:He became good.
Speaker 3:So, exactly, yeah, that's the point, yeah, the challenge.
Speaker 2:I have with that, as it relates to what we do in living out reconciliation in the body of Christ. We still attend in many instances to live it out as though Transformation never took place. Scientification is not taking place. We live it out as though history is dictate our future, our present, the whole thing based on what has happened, and I'm sure that had something to do with them going to the other side. History of getting involved, the history of taking responsibility.
Speaker 1:Well, you're on a dangerous road. Yeah, I'm talking about. You're on a dangerous road, yeah, yeah, yeah, jerusalem's a direct. Jericho is known as a dangerous.
Speaker 2:I'm getting out of here because they could be hiding in the bushes.
Speaker 1:I stopped at PM, they could take advantage.
Speaker 3:And that makes sense, Absolutely that makes sense.
Speaker 2:We don't want to crucify the first two guys, right. So you know they had good reasons for whatever they were doing. But at the same time Jesus is making known to us, really about this neighbor thing.
Speaker 3:I have to hear the expert.
Speaker 2:You know he really came up. Really, the question was what do I need to do to have eternal life?
Speaker 2:That's how they got into this stuff. And so Jesus said well, what are the laws there about that and cause? Then he spits out this law thing, evidently in that setting, and we can't see it, we can't feel it, we can't know a part of it. In that setting. I feel like that was something going on that's not being said out loud Because he says I said right. Instead of him leaving it at that, he still want to justify himself of being right, being right about what? Anyway, that's my initial thought, and I know we're gonna flesh this out more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we got some more to flesh out. But here's good news for you radio listeners is that this is a podcast and so you can continue this podcast by joining us on the Living Reconciled Podcast. Go to any podcast app Apple, google, spotify, amazon, anywhere that you might listen to podcasts. Search for Living Reconciled and download episode 37, and this conversation will continue For our radio listeners. We want to sign off saying God bless for our podcast listeners. We'll see you on the other side of the break.
Speaker 1:Living Reconciled is a work of Mission Mississippi, but it is not our only work. From days of dialogue and prayer meetings to consultation for schools, businesses and churches, mission Mississippi is eager to help you, your team, your church and your community live reconciled Every month. Join us for our weekly prayer breakfasts on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6.45 am, our bi-weekly statewide connection meetings on Fridays at 10 am and a focused time of prayer on the third Thursday of the month at 7 am. To get details on any of our upcoming events or to learn how you can invite us to your church, business or school, visit our website at missionmississipiorg and click on the events button or call us at 601-353-6477. Hey, thanks again for joining us on episode 37 of Living Reconciled Bonus Content Podcast Listeners, we appreciate you. Please like, share and subscribe to the Living Reconciled podcast.
Speaker 1:For those that are listening for the first time, we wanna welcome you to 2024, episode 37. We are unpacking Living Reconciled Loving Our Neighbors. And in this theme for 2024 of Living Reconciled Loving Our Neighbors, the first place that we wanted to start was Luke, chapter 10. Because in Luke chapter 10, we not only hear the command love your neighbors as yourself, but we also get a chance to see who is my neighbor. And that's where we left. On the other side of the break on this episode, nettie, talk a little bit more about that.
Speaker 2:You know to unfold that some more in my mind. I'm thinking the least likely person to come to my rescue. Let's just put it out there on the table the least likely person that will come to an African American or a black person to rescue is probably not gonna be a white person. That's what you're thinking in your mind, or vice versa. And because of the history of toxicity between them, my experience has been in many instances the person that I thought was my enemy, not only to come to my rescue or come to be my neighbor.
Speaker 2:I thought the person was my enemy and many times when I was in the corporate world that this person that was serving on the board of directors that I was working for the least person, that I would have never gone to. That person. I would never even thought I had a person in my mind. He showed up one day and says, in this midst of the conflict and confusion of Brown, what we were discussing. He says I sit at home minding my own business and something just told me to come to this meeting and he ended up rescuing me in my sin from the very people I thought had my back. Right, right.
Speaker 3:And that was like man here.
Speaker 2:This guy is that I would have never thought would he had any England and I don't know that he would have had even England. See, that's the other thing about this thing, that this Good Samaritan coming along here's this non Samaritan in a sense, and these other guys have passed him away. What incentive, what motivation caused him to stop and do likewise, do the nursing and bandaging and helping this guy? And I'm thinking in my mind is like sometimes I have empathy to other folks. That is experienced in some of the things I've experienced, and so I have the potential to lean toward them and empathize more with their situation than even sometime with my own.
Speaker 2:So this thing of neighbor, we're back to the widener who Jesus first loved us and everything Jesus does. He wants encircleation. I don't want us to miss that. If he loves us, if he forgives us, he has compassion on us. He expects for us to love others, have compassion on them. Do the other thing. He said crazy stuff like love your enemy. Just let that kind of float there for a moment. Love your enemy. Most people are like man, no.
Speaker 1:Which, by the way, is loving your neighbor.
Speaker 2:This is literally Luke 10.
Speaker 1:Because technically, the man that is on the road that's battered and beat up and wounded Is the Samaritan enemy Is the Samaritan's enemy.
Speaker 3:Exactly, exactly, I mean, and rightly so. I mean, if you know the history, rightly, rightly so. Because, the Jewish persons were just like you have your own little area, you have your own little country, within our country, I mean, consider this man to be a dog man?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, we're still in a dog.
Speaker 3:We're still in a dog, just one of the animals, just maybe not even human. I mean talk about dehumanization within the Absolutely.
Speaker 1:You know I mean, but when you think about this passage, there is. I love the fact that Jesus tells this story from the vantage point of a wounded kinsman, because this gentleman is leaving Jerusalem on the way to Jericho. He's a wounded kinsman, he looks like you, and then he brings those that are responsible for facilitating worship amongst those kinsmen. Right, these are the people that are responsible for ushering us, in quote, unquote, into the presence of God. Right, the priest, the Levite, though, the keeper of the temple, so to speak, and he says okay, you're kinsmen, these are the people that you would expect to be. Right, there for you, because that's when he thinks who's my neighbor? Guess who he's thinking. He's thinking those guys are my neighbors. Yeah, yeah, that kinsmen, that kinsmen priest, say them what you think about the Samaritan. That kinsmen priest, exactly that kinsmen Levite, those are my neighbors. If anybody else, if there's anybody on the face of this earth, that's my neighbor. Those are my neighbors, exactly.
Speaker 1:And those are the people that Jesus uses in the story to walk by him.
Speaker 3:I mean, we can even see, I mean fast forwarding a little bit in the gospel story. We can even see, you know in this passage, why the people in that class the priests, the Levites, the Sadducees, the Pharisees were just like livid that Jesus was using this, I mean not just because he was saying something nice about the Samaritan it's because he's looking at him and saying you know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1:He's flipping the story. He's flipping it. He's saying y'all are the knowing. Later on, the hero is the villain, right, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Exactly. I mean, and if we understand the significant issue with the Samaritans and the Jewish persons, it was because the Samaritans, during the exile, you know, they mixed ethnic blood a lot of the times with Gentiles, but that was not the issue though. The issue was not the mixing of the blood, the issue was where the temple was located and the Samaritans were actually.
Speaker 1:That goes back to John chapter four, right With the Samaritan woman, hey you worship over here. We worship over here.
Speaker 3:But here's the thing it was enshrined into their practices for, you know, not just dozens of years but hundreds of years, absolutely During the exile. So they, so the Samaritans, were cut off from kind of the mainstream Jewish persons for a significant period of time, not entirely cut off, but enough to adopt different practices to the degree that it would cause this much acrimony.
Speaker 2:I love the way they emphasize this guy. Okay, they could have just said this guy asked the question, right? They said not only that, but he was an expert in the law. This is just some root of poop guy. Just like I'm lost and don't know which way to go. This guy is an expert in the law. He knows he's right, he's guided right and he just wanna let Jesus know. You are out of bounds, you don't know what you're talking about. Here's the deal.
Speaker 2:Here's another piece you said earlier, jesus took that in like eight in my life. Turn it back on.
Speaker 1:Oh, he flips the story in so many different ways. He flips the story, like I said, by taking what this group, this audience, would probably perceive as heroes and he turns them into the people that, no, these people don't care right. And it's not to say that every priest and every Levite doesn't care right, but it's basically saying that just because you have kinsmen and just because you have some sort of religious experience does not mean that you're going to love well, right, and so that's one group. And then he takes the group where it's like oh well, that guy, how can he ever be considered a guy that's gonna love well, which is a Samaritan who comes along the road? And he's the one that takes all the risk, he's the one that says, okay, yeah, I know we're on a dangerous road, but I'm gonna take the risk and I'm gonna go and see whether or not this man needs help and I'm going to extend myself and I'm gonna bandage him and I'm gonna care for him and I'm gonna love him well.
Speaker 2:And you take him out of the danger and I'm gonna remove him from the danger From the wilderness.
Speaker 3:Right, and I'm gonna pour.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna pour sacrificially into his life right and give up days of wages in order to ensure that he has what he needs and all of that and to care for him in that sense. And so he's the likely villain that they would see in the story and he becomes the hero, and the likely heroes that they would see. Those are the ones that Jesus turns and says, no, these are the guys that are apathetic and don't care, or not willing to take the risk, so to speak, to cross the road.
Speaker 3:Well, they represent the temple Exactly, so he's talking directly into the conflict between the Jews and the.
Speaker 3:Americans. There's an element to this, I guess, on the practical end, or I guess on the application end. That has been more in my mind the past 20 minutes or so that hasn't really been addressed. Sometimes, when we're given a command from God, it comes at it, and I think this is a lot about what people feel anytime they feel like they have to. I guess it becomes almost performative in a way. A lot of people feel anxiety, anxiety about following through on the commands, because it seems that the command that Jesus is given is very just love your neighbor as yourself. Everyone's your neighbor, right, which is just like okay. So how do I order this? How do I know for sure?
Speaker 2:Everybody can be my neighbor. Man, I'm being the neighbor.
Speaker 3:You know so, and I think a lot of the times and this is where burnout can come, especially living out the life of Christ. And I want to be clear on this that there have been people who have been in situations that have just crossed my path and God has just said, for one reason or another, it looks like this person's burden, in this time and place, is not for you to take care of personally, even if you can pray for them, even if you can, but just because I was not in a situation where I could do that. And I assume the same thing for you, brian, I assume the same thing for you, nettie. That's just. We have our physical limitations and I've heard interpretations of this passage and passages like this that can be very guilt heavy, can cause guilt, when we're not, you know, living out this command to what we perceive to be its fullest conclusion. Sometimes, when it's really, sometimes in our minds, we take God's commands and we say, well, god's really asking us to do something more than what God is actually asking us to do.
Speaker 3:And I want to be very clear on this and I think there's a context clue within the parable itself that helps us to be able to rationalize this and be able to kind of pinpoint down where it is that you know who it is we're supposed to help. And you know, because each of these stories you have the priest, you have the Levite, you have the Samaritan, each of those persons, they're going about their regular day, right. They're going about a path they probably cross every day of their life. So there's that normalcy to it. And in the situation of the priest and the Levite, they're not willing to break through their normalcy to be able to help this person when he's right there. And you know, the priest and the Levite have a lot more money than the Samaritan, so they have the capacity they probably even have a greater capacity to take care. The Samaritan focuses on this one person and Jesus does not say something, like you know. Then this person went out and perused the roads for the rest of their lives to find people hurt and broken on the
Speaker 3:side of the road, Like he didn't intentionally go out justifying people who are hurt and broken. This was he was going through the normal processes of his life and something, an opportunity was presented itself and he obviously had God. It was placed on his heart, he knew he had the capacity to do it. Now what if, you know, this guy began to walk and he had, you know, two or three people that he approached or like this, on the road every single day? Would that Samaritan then have the capacity to do exactly what he did for the first one, that he was doing for all the subsequent persons? No, no, he wouldn't have the capacity to do that. So I'm looking at this passage and I'm thinking, you know, there's that tendency to kind of lay guilt upon people's hearts for not fully living into God's commands, when I think part of that guilt is really just people trying to, in their minds, conceptualizing God's commands as being more arduous, being bigger and greater than what God is actually calling us to do. Well, I think there is a capacity aspect to it.
Speaker 1:Well, this is the whole expert's dilemma, the experts of the law's dilemma. I mean, when you get to that part about justifying of self, that's the dilemma. That's why he asked the question well, who's my neighbor? Yeah, because this doesn't mean that every single person that I cross, I mean, it doesn't mean that I love everybody in the world as I love myself. What does this actually mean? And what Jesus gets to is those along the way that, basically, you don't want to risk for, but you have the capacity to risk for. You don't want to sacrifice for, but you have the capacity to sacrifice for. You don't want to extend mercy to, but you obviously can extend mercy to. They don't look like you, right? And so you may find an excuse in them not looking like you. Those are the very people that are your neighbor. Yes, right, the people that may not look like you but yet are in need, and you have the capacity to care for them. You have the capacity to extend mercy towards them. Yes, it may be risky, but nevertheless it's available to you, right? Those are your neighbors. Love them as you would love you.
Speaker 1:And, wrapping this up today, I want to draw out or bring us down to the latter part of this text because I think there's just so much weight in here that needs to be fleshed out just a little bit. But verse 36, it says which of these Luke chapter 10, again verse 36, which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? The one who showed mercy to him is how the expert of the law responded. Then Jesus told him go and do the same. Go and do the same. And so what I find so profound again, we're talking about all these flip flops that Jesus is doing in this story and bringing unexpected ends to all of these conclusions that this expert is drawing in his head.
Speaker 1:The expert begins this story by asking a simple question who is my neighbor? By the end of the story, jesus has turned the question and he's saying well, who thinks you're their neighbor? Yeah, and so it's not even necessarily about. Okay, let me try to figure out who do I love and who do I not love.
Speaker 1:Now Jesus is saying hey, as you think about the people that are in need around you, as you think about the people that need love and generosity and grace and kindness around you with those people look to you and say to themselves yeah, that's my neighbor. I know when I look at Austin I'll find grace. I know when I look at Netty I'll find mercy. I know when I turn to Brian I'll find kindness. I'll find generosity, I'll find help in my time of need. I know that when I look to these people that I can expect to be loved like they love their very selves.
Speaker 1:And so, literally, instead of us trying to find and picking, choose and say, oh, is my neighbor's over here, my neighbor's over here, oh, is my neighbor in Vicksburg, is my neighbor in Jackson? Rather, jesus is saying as you come in contact with the people that you come in contact with on a regular basis along the way, would they say that Austin is my neighbor? Or would they say, ah, man, not at Austin. He's so hardcore Republican man, he's so hardcore Democrat that he just there's no way he'll neighbor me.
Speaker 3:There's no way. Brian doesn't even know what I am. He doesn't even know how to classify me. Yeah, I've known you for like two years. That is a true statement. Yeah, two years. He doesn't even know. He doesn't even know what political ideology I have. That's how.
Speaker 2:That's a true statement. You know what category to put you in and whether it be politically or otherwise.
Speaker 1:No, but seriously, I mean, that's the question right, because so many of us can we actually say Exactly? Can we say that that someone Nettie Winters, looks at Brian Crawford and says, yeah, I know I can receive generosity, I know I can receive grace from him. Or, with Nettie Winters, say, nah, I probably can't because that Brian man, he's so hardline liberal.
Speaker 3:He's so hardline.
Speaker 1:Republican.
Speaker 3:I know I'm not gonna get grace from him, yeah, and what I love about, and I'm just gonna let you have it. What I love about it is you're focusing on the being yes, which the doing derives from yes, and so many times I feel that when we approach passage, this passage and passage like this so much done on the doing yes, so your distinction says be a neighbor.
Speaker 3:Yes, and so you're acting neighborly, so that others will see that neighborliness in you Right, instead of just that performative doing, doing, doing, doing neighborliness, right, in my sense he's saying to the expert now I'm supposed to expert are you a good neighbor?
Speaker 2:Are you a neighbor? Absolutely, yeah, are you a neighbor? And the expert is like man that backfired yeah, yeah, you talk. I mean, remember the test was. The test started out with Jesus.
Speaker 1:And everybody hit, everybody hit.
Speaker 3:the test is on the neighbor, hey priest Levi, do people see you as the neighbor? Absolutely, oh man, I see why they killed him now. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they crucified it. You know, here's the takeaway for me is that, rather than me trying to figure out whether Brian is going to be a good neighbor or whether or not he's my neighbor, whatever, why don't I just try being a good neighbor and be through with it, just? Live from the inside of me, knowing what I need to do and not worry about it. If you my enemy, love you anyway. Not trying to make the qualifications.
Speaker 1:That's what he said. He said love your enemy, Not trying to make the qualifications and figure out who's who If you're my friend and you know.
Speaker 2:I don't know whether or not you ought to be conservative or whatever y'all was talking about. That doesn't matter. I am who I am and I'm gonna live out who I am, regardless of what setting I find myself in. There you go. That's the true aspects of living reckonsons.
Speaker 1:There you go, there you go. And why do we do it? Why do we do it? Because Jesus neighbored us Right. And don't miss the fact that Jesus neighbored us, that we were the man on the side of the road, right right, while I was yiddish in the center.
Speaker 1:Left, abandoned, left for dead, broken, poor, beating up. We were the man on the side of the road and Jesus. Interesting enough, what Jesus is doing is he's not only giving us this story about a Samaritan, but he's putting himself in this very, very, very controversial position right In the terms of he is the Samaritan in this story that finds us on the side of the road and that patches us up and that cleans us up and that brings us healing right and that loves us, even while yet we were his enemies, and he loves us well. And so why do we go and do the same? We go and do the same because we have received this neighbor We've received this neighbor.
Speaker 1:We've received this neighbor, and so, as Christians, we have no choice but to respond in this way, because we've received it Right. And again, what did you say, natty? That all of Jesus's works are reciprocal? Right, he does them with the intent that we're going to respond in kind to the world around us right and my vocabulary to get expanded on this podcast.
Speaker 3:I know I love big words so pindice.
Speaker 2:Incredibly impressive Wow.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:What's the word of next week? Well, tune in to find out.
Speaker 2:There you go Tune in to find out.
Speaker 1:Keep in mind, we're going to be talking about this as in, and we're going to sprinkle this in while we're interviewing great guests and talking about a whole bunch of different things in 2024, if the Lord says the same. But one threat that will probably run throughout 2024 is this challenge to love your neighbor. Well, we know that during this cultural moment, this age that we're in, it's easy to put people in boxes and to say, hey, these are the people that were supposed to treat kind and these are the people that we're supposed to treat unkind, and these are the people that we're supposed to have patience for, and these are the people that we can be impatient towards. But let let us remind you and I hope this, I hope this episode reminded you today that your neighbor is the one that you meet along the road, and that neighbor doesn't have to be your brain.
Speaker 1:It doesn't have to be your kin, it doesn't have to even be your your political preference but Jesus calls us to be the kind of neighbors that those individuals will look to and say, yeah, in that person I can find grace, mercy, kindness, love, sacrifice and forgiveness. It's been a great privilege and pleasure again to be with you and, on behalf of Netty Winters, austin Hoyle, we want to sign off saying God bless, god bless, welcome to 2020. Thanks for joining Living Reconciled. If you would like more information on how you can be a part of the ongoing work of helping Christians learn how to live in the reconciliation that Jesus has already secured, please visit us online at missionmississippiorg or call us at 601-353-6477. Thanks again for listening.