I can drive past the
homeless, and those people who stand holding signs begging ME for MY money.
After all, as I stated before, I am an American and I have rights. The
Constitution says I do; or at least I think it does because I (like so many
Americans) have never really sat down and read it word for word to understand
what it really says.
Or do I really have
the right to not like everybody? Who
says that I can simply ignore those who are not like me?
Even the Statue of
Liberty has words that contradict an attitude of “they are not my problem!” On
the statue is a plaque that goes something like; “Give me your tired,
your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of
your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me…”
As long as they are not immigrants,
right?
What if we have got
it wrong and we ARE supposed to care for each other? I’m not saying that all of
us will know how to do everything or are even supposed to do everything. BUT,
we are ALL called to care.
A verse in the Bible
that has been cutting me to the core as of late are the words that the lawyer who
stood up and tested Jesus, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal
life?” In the passage, Jesus said to him, “What is written in
the law? What is your reading of it?”So he answered and
said, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your
mind,’ and ‘your
neighbor as yourself.’” And Jesus said to
him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will
live.” (Luke 10:25-28).
The verse that cuts
me to the core when I ponder it was what the lawyer said next; “But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29 NKJV).
I like how Eugene Peterson puts it; “Looking for a loophole, he asked, “And just how would you define
‘neighbor’?” (Luke 10:29 MSG)
Jesus responded to
his ridiculous answer by telling the infamous story of the Good Samaritan (Luke
10:30-35).
At the end of the
story, Jesus drives home His point by asking; “So which of these three do you
think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” And
the lawyer answered Jesus and said, “He who showed mercy on him.”
Then Jesus said to
him, “Go and do likewise.”
Still think that we
have a right as Americans not to care? As Christians, we definitely do not have
that right.
"Scripture
taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Used by permission. All rights reserved."
No comments:
Post a Comment