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There’s a story that is told in the Bible, specifically in Luke 10, about a time Jesus was asked a question. He had been doing all the things Jesus did, and that invited scrutiny. Luke tells us about one time when an expert in the religious teachings of Moses gave Jesus a pop quiz. “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus and the expert went back and forth a bit, landing on two straightforward tenets: love God above all and love your neighbor as yourself.

That could have been the end of it – common ground. But, we are told, the expert “wanted to justify himself,” so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

We still ask that question, don’t we? And we ask it for the same reasons that religious expert asked it: to justify ourselves. If our faith or our moral code requires us to love those who we view as neighbor, folks with some claim upon us, then we really need to understand who is included…and who we can safely ignore.

My family has a claim to my attention and love – but what about the family across the street?

My coworkers or my friends or the kids in my child’s class deserve my respect and care – but what about the college kids making noise or the driver who angers us on the road?

I should let a family going through a hard time after a flood or a fire or a health crisis into my heart – but what about the LGBTQ teenager or the immigrant or the elderly person in the nursing home or the family on food stamps?

Sure, some people are my neighbor – but not everyone, right? I don’t have to love everyone, treat everyone like I treat my neighbors, right?

Then Jesus tells a story. You might know it, but to recap, a man is accosted on the road by a band of robbers. Beaten and left for dead, he is utterly helpless. A priest and a religious layman pass by, actively avoiding the man who is hurt. But another man stops – a Samaritan, someone who was despised and avoided by respectable folks like the expert in the Law. Surely, he’s not a neighbor to anyone the expert considers a neighbor! But, Jesus says, he is, because that’s exactly the person who checks on the man in the ditch, gives him medicine, binds his wounds, and carries him to an inn where he can receive further care, which he pays for out of his own pocket.

Jesus ends the story by asking the expert, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert begrudgingly admits it was the Samaritan. Jesus replied, “Go and do likewise.”

Who is our neighbor? Whoever needs our care and love. Go and do likewise.

Rev. Dr. J. Adam Tyler is the Senior Pastor for Farmville Baptist Church and he can be reached by email at pastor@farmvillebaptist.org.