{"id":21079,"date":"2020-12-06T20:31:15","date_gmt":"2020-12-06T19:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cantonuovo.org\/luca-10-chi-e-il-tuo-prossimo\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T19:58:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T17:58:36","slug":"luca-10-chi-e-il-tuo-prossimo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cantonuovo.org\/en\/luca-10-chi-e-il-tuo-prossimo\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke 10 \u2013 Who is your neighbour?"},"content":{"rendered":"
The parable of the Good Samaritan is a great lesson on redemption, love, the Church and the return of the Messiah. Yeshua became our neighbour; he restored us to life, healed us and ensured we were cared for during our convalescence.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

The religious legalists, also on their way from Jerusalem, the place of peace, to Jericho, the place of the curse, turned away; they did not approach the dying man. They had no means to help him because they had no life. They pored over the Scriptures, thinking thereby to possess life, yet they would not allow the Messiah, their neighbour, to draw near to them so that they might have eternal life. They knew only how to accuse, but could not acquit. Thus they condemned, for they could not justify. Not even themselves.<\/p>\n

Jesus told the lawyer in Luke 10 that to have eternal life, all he had to do was what he knew: to love God with all his heart and his neighbour as himself. But that lawyer, to justify himself, asked Jesus, \u2018And who is my neighbour?\u2019 Clearly, he did not love others and was failing in one of the two commandments he himself had just recited.<\/p>\n

Religious legalists are always ready to reel off verses from memory and show off their biblical knowledge. They have a refined technique: they use Scripture to test others. But if they are asked to practise what they preach, they then use the Scriptures themselves to find some loophole in their pages to escape the reproaches of their conscience, which accuses them of being hypocrites.<\/p>\n

If we too were to present ourselves before the Lord today, reciting his word, Jesus would still say to us: \u2018You have spoken well; do what you say you know, and you will live! But if any of us were a hypocrite, we would still dare to retort today, challenging the \u2018Judge of all\u2019 and the \u2018Mediator of the Covenant\u2019. To justify themselves, they would ask him to hold them to account for what he himself said they should do. As if the problem were God\u2019s and not ours.<\/p>\n

Let us put the Word into practice and not merely listen to it, deluding ourselves!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Religious hypocrites, with all their knowledge, may well do good, but their motivation is distorted. They do so to curry favour with a God made in their own image and likeness, to obtain a reduction in punishment or a pardon.<\/p>\n

What did Jesus answer to the lawyer\u2019s question? The neighbour is not the dying man in need of help, but the one who approaches him to save him. He made himself a neighbour to the needy, restoring him at his own \u2018expense and care\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

. Sincere compassion and mercy are the human virtues that open the way to the divine attribute of love. This love works at its own expense, providing practical and gratuitous care for the needs of others. Jesus said to the doctor: go, and do the same!<\/p>\n

We must not seek someone to love in order to feel right with God, but find the One who loved us first because we needed to be saved. Only then will we too have the love necessary to become neighbours to the dying, those brought low by sin and the flesh, beaten down by religious precepts that accuse them with no way out. That love will be the mirror of our trusting faithfulness to Jesus, who first drew near to us, loving us unto death: what counts is the faithful trust that works through love!<\/p>\n

Yeshua is our nearest neighbour, who came to save us when we were weighed down by sin and beaten by religious precepts that accused us with no way out. He was despised and rejected by his own people, as if he were a Samaritan. Yet, like the Good Samaritan of the Gospel, he stopped by each of us and bandaged our wounds, healing our hearts. He restored our lives and the Holy Spirit, entrusting us to the care of a trustworthy innkeeper, who looked after us. He paid for everything himself. He gave the deposit and will settle the bill on his return, rewarding those who looked after us in the meantime.<\/p>\n

Those who love others by becoming their neighbour do so because they have put their faith into action. And those who love others love God because they are obeying Yeshua\u2019s commandment. And this is not obedience extorted through religious blackmail. No! It is spontaneous, trusting, filial, natural. It is a sincere and total entrustment because our new nature and life would not allow us to do otherwise.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples \u2026 I give you a new commandment: that you love one another \u2026 Just as I have loved you, so you must love one another \u2026 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another \u2026 This is my commandment: that you love one another, just as I have loved you \u2026 This I command you: that you love one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let us do this. And we shall live!<\/p>\n\n

Luke 10:25\u201337<\/strong><\/h5>\n