Jesus isn’t much for answering questions. All through the New Testament, Jesus ignores the question when he gives his answer. A friend once asked me if I thought this was rude. I admit that for a while I did. I felt guilty about this and chalked it up to his being God and that when you’re the boss you get to make the rules. But the longer I ask questions that don’t get answered, the more I see the problem isn’t Jesus’s answer. I think he’s trying to get us to ask better questions.
One of those answers was the parable of the good Samaritan. It wasn’t a random story Jesus told Peter at bedtime. Jesus was asked, “Who is my neighbor?” after affirming that the second greatest commandment was “love your neighbor as yourself.”
I would have answered it with something smarmy about historical context and authorial intent. I would have wanted my answer to sound good on NPR, the kind of answer that would make Terry Gross thank me very much for talking with her.
Jesus responds with this story about a half-dead guy, a couple of people who refused to help him and a guy who did help him.
I would want to sound smart.
Jesus wants to change us.
In this story Jesus casts the widest possible net for treating someone else as we’d like to be treated ourselves. And he uses the most unlikely character to do so. I think the question Jesus is answering, and the one he wants us to ask, is “Who can I be a neighbor to?”
We all overlook someone we should be a neighbor to: Coworkers, customers, baristas, employees, family, grocery baggers, bosses, politicians, other drivers. Sometimes we over-spiritualize this teaching and forget that we should be neighbors to our neighbors. Everybody misses somebody.
How about your Twitter followers? Your Facebook friends? Your LinkedIn connections?
In the virtual world of social networking, it’s easy to get caught up in self. It’s your profile with your pictures and your words and your farmville (ugh). But social networks are about being connected. It’s the relational aspect of these sites that make them unique and popular.
If social networks are about relationships, then Jesus is calling us to be neighbors in these circles as well.
What does it look like to be a good neighbor on social networks? I have a few ideas, and I’ll share them here through at least the end of the year. I’m hoping that you have some ideas too because I’m sure I don’t have it all figured out.
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