The way that we love

Ever since Jesus answered the question, "Who is my neighbor?" (Luke 10:25- 37) with a story, Christians have been challenged to reexamine the ways we treat each other, as well as how we treat others who live in our communities.

I don't have to remind you that in Jesus' time there was no such thing as a "good Samaritan." The very idea that Jesus would elevate a Samaritan to hero status (over a priest and a Levite, no less) was a scandalous notion for those who heard Christ's parable for the first time.

And in the centuries since that story was told, few of us find it challenging to do the right thing to people who are like us. The challenge for most of us is to respect those who are unlike us. Yet Jesus' mandate is unequivocal: "Love your enemies and pray for them who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven" (Matt. 5:44, 45, NRSV). The passage concludes with this clear imperative: "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (verse 48).

Evidently perfection, as Christ defined it, has something to do with how well we love others-even those we think undeserving of our love.

Not long ago in a sermon I quoted Tony Campolo, in which he had to admit that often when people think of evangelical Christians they use words like, "bigot," "homophobe," "male chauvinist," and "reactionary." While the words typically used to describe Jesus are, "caring," "understanding," "forgiving," "kind," "empathetic."

After the service, as I greeted the worshipers, a woman asked me, "What do we say to them, then? What do we do?"

"What do we say to whom?" I asked.

"To homosexuals," she replied. "What do we say to them?" I answered with a couple questions of my own: "What would Jesus say? What would Jesus do?"

The disciples one day, noticing a blind man, asked Jesus what they thought was a profound and enlightened question: "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9:2, NIV).

Isn't that typical? In a world where there's so much evil, in our futile attempts to make sense of it all, one of our first impulses is to try to lay blame, to make someone responsible for the situation.

Jesus' response was both a rebuke and a challenge to that type of blame-gaming. He said simply, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned ... this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life" (John 9:3, NIV).

Let's be honest: we have little or no control over much of what goes on in society. The lack of morals and values, the senseless violence, the mindless entertainment, the outrageous hedonism and materialism, all indicate a society in decline.

Yet nothing can prevent us from dis playing God's love to the people with whom our lives intersect. Jesus' mandate to His disciples in the upper room was never more necessary than it is now: "I give you new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:34, 35, NRSV). We aren't called to change one another, we're called simply to love one another.

The Samaritan was a neighbor to the traveler on the Jericho Road because he helped someone who most certainly would not have helped him if the situation had been reversed. He was a neighbor because he took risks that not even the priest and Levite were willing to take. He was a neighbor because he helped a fellow human being without regard to age, ethnicity, religious preference, sexual orientation, or lifestyle.

"Christ is waiting with longing desire for a manifestation of Himself in His church," wrote a provocative Christian writer. "When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come and claim them as His own" (Christ's Object Lessons, p. 69).

Christ's character is reflected in our understanding of the Bible's teachings. But it is primarily revealed in the way we demonstrate His unconditional love to our neighbors, however we define the word.