“Who is My Neighbour?”
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between the Jews and the Samaritans that to the Samaritan woman
it seemed a strange thing for Christ to ask her for a drink. “How is
it,” she said, “that Thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am
a woman of Samaria?” “For,” adds the evangelist, “the Jews have no
dealings with the Samaritans.”
John 4:9
. And when the Jews were so
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filled with murderous hatred against Christ that they rose up in the
temple to stone Him, they could find no better words by which to
express their hatred than, “Say we not well that Thou art a Samaritan,
and hast a devil?”
John 8:48
. Yet the priest and Levite neglected the
very work the Lord had enjoined on them, leaving a hated and despised
Samaritan to minister to one of their own countrymen.
The Samaritan had fulfilled the command, “Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself,” thus showing that he was more righteous than
those by whom he was denounced. Risking his own life, he had treated
the wounded man as his brother. This Samaritan represents Christ.
Our Saviour manifested for us a love that the love of man can never
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equal. When we were bruised and dying, He had pity upon us. He did
not pass us by on the other side, and leave us, helpless and hopeless,
to perish. He did not remain in His holy, happy home, where He
was beloved by all the heavenly host. He beheld our sore need, He
undertook our case, and identified His interests with those of humanity.
He died to save His enemies. He prayed for His murderers. Pointing to
His own example, He says to His followers, “These things I command
you, that ye love one another”; “as I have loved you, that ye also love
one another.”
John 15:17
;
13:34
.
The priest and the Levite had been for worship to the temple whose
service was appointed by God Himself. To participate in that service
was a great and exalted privilege, and the priest and Levite felt that
having been thus honored, it was beneath them to minister to an
unknown sufferer by the wayside. Thus they neglected the special
opportunity which God had offered them as His agents to bless a fellow
being.
Many today are making a similar mistake. They separate their
duties into two distinct classes. The one class is made up of great
things, to be regulated by the law of God; the other class is made up
of so-called little things, in which the command, “Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself,” is ignored. This sphere of work is left to caprice,