Neighbours in the New Testament
25th Sunday after Pentecost
Ephesians 4:1-6; Luke 10:25-37
The fact that people should help and show mercy to their neighbours is not a New Testament, but an ancient Old Testament commandment of God. In the book of Leviticus /19,18/ it is written: "You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself...." And in the book of Deuteronomy /6,5/ the instruction is:
"And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might."
Therefore, in the Old Testament, it was commanded that people show love for their God, and at the same time, the teachers of faith taught the Jews to love "their neighbour as themselves" - as the Jewish lawyer claimed, at the request of Jesus Christ.
Jews have long been taught to love, help, show mercy to their co-religionists, to the people of their nation or people - and that was not bad, because basically then the Jews lived as a single mass, it was a homogeneous population. But in this understanding of God's commandments about showing love and mercy, the morality of the Jews was also distorted: what obliged the Jews (to do) in relation to each other did not oblige them (to do) in relation to other nationalities.
Such morality revealed a twin calculus, different standards. Only a Jew was considered a neighbour... In relation to other people, other nationalities, one could practise deception, and be unjust and cruel. Similar moral values - love for people of one's people, hatred for infidels - were fostered within the contexts of Greek and Roman cultures and civilizations.
Christ, coming to earth, brought the New Testament, a new understanding of moral values and justice. Although he came bodily from the people of Israel, he never called himself the Son of Israel or the Jewish people, but only everywhere the "Son of Man". This emphasized and affirmed that all peoples, all mankind, are close to Him.
According to the definition of the apostle Paul, He came to earth "and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility" (Ephesians 2.14) that existed between different peoples, especially between Jews and other peoples.
And the apostle Paul further testifies, Christ "by abolishing in his flesh the Law of Commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end." ( Eph. 2:15-16)
That is why Christ taught that people should show mercy and justice, regardless of nationality, that people should show brotherly love among themselves, regardless of nationality and religious differences.
That is why the Lord specifically told the parable of the good Samaritan, in which a vivid example - in the relationship of the Samaritan to the injured Jew - shows who should be considered as one's neighbour. People of different nations, when they show love and mercy to each other, are neighbours among themselves.
With that story, Christ also revealed the verbal and hypocritical practice of brotherly love by the Jews. With that vivid life example, Christ showed that when people in their daily life do not fulfill what they verbally confess, declare with their mouths, then by their actions they deny the Commandments and instructions of God.
In the parable of the good Samaritan, Jesus showed the Jewish priest and the Levite as such persons. Therefore, whoever acts in a similar way even in our times, such a person is affirming that his/her faith, in the words of the apostle, is dead. (The Letter of James 2,26).
Faith in God is revealed in our attitude towards people. People who talk about their faith in God, about their love for God, but remain indifferent to the needs of their neighbours, to the people with whom they live or among whom they meet, are hypocrites, liars.
The Lord also warns us against hypocrisy, insincerity in confessing God. If one of us verbally declares his love for God and neighbour, then we, in the words of Jesus Christ, are declaring: "Go, and do likewise." (Luke 10:37
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.