On Who Your Neighbor Is And Inaction

One fine morning in December, with the glaring winter sun in full view, a man walked to work. The day before had been particularly hard, and he struggled to find any reason to show up today. But he decided to go anyway. He walked his usual route with the confidence that comes with routine, paying no mind to his surrounding. He was used to the silence that plagued the road because of how early in the day he walked. He would normally walk on the sidewalk, brushing off long branches from the trees. Today was no different. As he walked, the cool winter breeze made the branches sway back and forth. He thought about his life and how far from achieving his dreams he was when a loud jump interrupted his reverie.




He stopped to look around. He then suddenly realized  how quiet the road was; the only sound he could hear now was a gentle breeze. Thinking he must have heard wrongly earlier, he continued his lonely walk to work; half relieved he heard wrong, and half worried he was so stressed, he now imagined things. A few minutes later, a forceful blow landed on his face and sent him sprawling on the concrete floor. Just as he was about to recover from the first blow, he felt a sharp kick right in the middle of his back.

"Where is your phone?!"

"Do you have a bag?"

"Oh look, I just found his wallet."

"This shoes look nice."

He could hear them take his belongings and strip him naked. He could barely see now but he was able to make out about four different voices. He tasted his blood in his mouth, and when he attempted to wipe off some blood from his eyes hoping that would help him see clearer, he couldn't move his arms. He was whispering and calling out for help, but nothing came out of his mouth. Through the space between a parked car and the road beneath, he could faintly see cars passing by but no one saw him covered with tree branches on the pathway. Watching as groups of tires passed by, he quietly lost consciousness.

Moments later, a pastor was walking by when he saw a wounded and beaten man in front of him. Taken aback by the sight of a naked man in daylight bleeding all over, he looked around to see if anyone else was in the vicinity. When he saw no one, he walked around the victim and continued on his journey. The same way, another man belonging to the family of the local Christian and community leader passed by. He quickly crossed to the other side of the road.

Hours had now gone by and the victim lay there in his own blood, unconscious and bleeding internally. Then a traveling tourist visiting from outside the country was on the same route and saw the victim. He was awash in pity and felt empathy. He quickly opened up his bag and brought out his first aid kit to clean up the victim. He ordered Uber on his phone and took him to the hospital, where he paid his bills and instructed them to charge every subsequent bill to his credit card before leaving.

If this story sounds familiar, it's because it is the story of the Good Samaritan that Jesus told [in Luke 10: 26-37)  to the oversabi expert of religious law who asked Him who our neighbor is. So I'll put the question to you: if you had to guess from the above story, who was a neighbor to the victim of the robbers? Yeah you guessed right: the tourist.

Aforementioned oversabi had asked what we need to do to inherit eternal life just to trap Jesus. Yeah foolery has existed for millenniums now.

Love the Lord your God with all your mind, all your body, and all your soul. The next is similar, love your neighbor as yourself.

Well, who is our neighbor? See traveling tourist above.

I'm a little bit reticent about talking about love at this moment, with everything going on. Because people have used "love wins" "love still" to cover up a multitude of sins and monstrosity. Yes, Jesus called us to love, but even in that love, we are called to protest and speak up against injustice.


I don't know why people equate love with inaction. The very definition of love rests on action. When speaking of love in the place of hate, it should be a love that PROTESTS hate not one that enables it. So please, stay resisting. Resist AND take care of you.

Love,

I

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