A question Jesus asked

Which of these was a neighbour?

Q: Where did Jesus ask, Which of these was a neighbour?

Jesus asked this in Luke 10:36, after the parable of the good samaritan. A lawyer asks Jesus, Who is my neighbour? hoping to draw a line around his duty. Jesus tells of a beaten man ignored by respectable religious figures and rescued by a despised Sama

“Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?”Luke 10:36 · After the parable of the Good Samaritan

What Jesus was really asking

A lawyer asks Jesus, Who is my neighbour? hoping to draw a line around his duty. Jesus tells of a beaten man ignored by respectable religious figures and rescued by a despised Samaritan, then flips the question: Which now of these three was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? The lawyer wanted to define his neighbor; Jesus asks him to become one.

How the question still finds us

We still try to draw the circle small, to decide who counts as our responsibility. Jesus refuses the question and asks a better one. He does not tell us who our neighbor is; He shows us how to be a neighbor, especially to the person it would be easiest to walk past. Go, He says, and do thou likewise.

Sit with it

Who is the person you are most tempted to walk past, and what would it look like to be their neighbor?

Lord, stop me from drawing the circle small. Make me the kind of neighbor the Samaritan was, especially to the ones I would rather ignore. Amen.

He is still asking

Jesus is not only someone people debate. He is someone who asks, and waits for your answer. You can answer Him now.

Begin with Jesus · Ask someone to pray with you · Who is Jesus?

More questions Jesus askedWhy do you call me Lord and not do what I say?What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?Do you love me? All the questions