mlk

HE TOLD THE STORY OF “A CERTAIN MAN” WHO WENT DOWN FROM JERUSALEM TO JERICHO AND FELL AMONG ROBBERS WHO STRIPPED HIM, BEAT HIM, AND, DEPARTING, LEFT HIM HALF DEAD. BY CHANCE A CERTAIN PRIEST APPEARED, BUT HE PASSED BY ON THE OTHER SIDE, AND LATER A LEVITE ALSO PASSED BY. FINALLY, A CERTAIN SAMARITAN, A HALF-BREED FROM A PEOPLE WITH WHOM THE JEWS HAD NO DEALINGS, APPEARED. WHEN HE SAW THE WOUNDED MAN, HE WAS MOVED WITH COMPASSION, ADMINISTERED FIRST AID, PLACED HIM ON HIS BEAST, “AND BROUGHT HIM TO AN INN, AND TOOK CARE OF HIM.” WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR? “I DO NOT KNOW HIS NAME,” SAYS JESUS IN ESSENCE. “HE IS ANYONE TOWARD WHOM YOU ARE NEIGHBORLY. HE IS ANYONE WHO LIES IN NEED AT LIFE’S ROADSIDE. HE IS NEITHER JEW NOR GENTILE; HE IS NEITHER RUSSIAN NOR AMERICAN; HE IS NEITHER NEGRO NOR WHITE. HE IS ‘A CERTAIN MAN’—ANY NEEDY MAN—ON ONE OF THE NUMEROUS JERICHO ROADS OF LIFE.” SO JESUS DEFINES A NEIGHBOR, NOT IN A THEOLOGICAL DEFINITION, BUT IN A LIFE SITUATION. "ON BEING A GOOD NEIGHBOR" - A GIFT OF LOVE: SERMONS FROM STRENGTH TO LOVE AND OTHER PREACHINGS