There’s no doubt that calamities such as hurricanes remind Christians of their common humanity with those who don’t share their faith. The latter see them in a new light as they pitch in alongside everyone else to help where needed. Christians are not exempt from calamities and suffer along with everyone else — even die with them when storms sweep away everything in their path, as happens in the Philippines.
One man was so confident of his self-righteousness that he asked Jesus to publicly confirm his good standing with God. He tested Jesus with the question: “Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25) When Jesus responded by asking him what was laid down in the Law of Moses, the man (who was a lawyer) answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.” He knew the Law of Moses.
Jesus said, “You have answered correctly; do this and you shall live.” But good standing that has its basis in legalism is not quite that easily satisfied, so the lawyer questioned, “And who is my neighbour?” But instead of defining “neighbour” in legal terms, Jesus told him a story that would enable him to define the meaning of “neighbour” – and in the process define himself.
We know the story as The Parable of the Good Samaritan. Some think the Good Samaritan portrays Jesus and think of it as an allegory – a weird one that tags Jesus with a term at odds with his birth as a Jew in Bethlehem, his ancestral city. The lawyer’s question was an attempt to keep things within a legal and therefore manageable term of reference.
According to the parable, involvement with the hurt and needy can be dirty, dangerous, humbling and expensive. It is also neighbourly. The question we need to ask ourselves is not “Who is my neighbour?” but rather “Do others see me as their neighbor when they need me?” It is not our knowledge of God that counts, but whether they can count on us in times of trouble.
Christians show themselves to be good neighbours in the good deeds they do to those they know and love, but when they turn aside to help others – especially those with whom they have nothing in common – they show mercy in real terms, and it is mercy that defines them as real neighbours.
As believers in the Lord Jesus Christians enjoy the things they have in common with other believers, and don’t mind a bit of debate on things in which they differ. But there’s something about a tragedy or calamity that makes us more loving towards one another and more caring towards those who are not Christians. God knows that we are all human and that we all make mistakes. But sometimes it takes shared suffering for us to see things as clearly as Jesus does.