Down with "Othering"; Up with "Neighboring"

CONSECRATE Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.  Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you.  Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.  HEAR Luke 10:33–35 ESV “But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’” CONSIDER You've noticed this on the Gospelling journey, but it's worth amplifying here in chapter 10. Jesus is giving an absolute master class on How to Read the Bible Better. You know that's what all of this comes down to, right? How you read will determine how you lead. It's why Jesus's core invitation is to "Follow me." We must learn to read the Bible with Jesus, else we will read it wrong, lose the plot, and get off track—all the while thinking we are good God-fearing churchgoing Christians.  Now, behold the master Bible teacher: On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered, “‘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, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (10:25–27) Did you catch the little bomb of a question Jesus asked there? “How do you read it?” And then he proceeds to tell us how the church of his day (and ours) likely reads the Bible. I'll paraphrase. Man finds himself beaten up and left for dead on side of the road. (No health insurance.) Priest discovers him on his way to church. Walks to other side of road (to avoid becoming "unclean" which is "how he read it") and keeps going. Levite lay leader discovers him on his way to choir practice—probably late and does the same thing. Then the clear "sinner" (deplorable) comes along. And the master class on loving your neighbor is on. Jesus puts the instant replay in slow motion to surface a dozen pro-tips on what real compassion looks like. Be on the lookout to see the need. Stop everything and be ready to cancel all your appointments for the day.  Get off your horse. Apply first aid. Bandage the wounds and pour on the good stuff. Yep, the oil and wine. Apply second aid. Put the hurt person on your horse. You walk. Apply third aid. Get him to a place of care, a hospital, or hotel and stay with him. Apply fourth aid. Next day, cover all the costs. Apply fifth aid. Leave your credit card for incidental expenses. (In case he gets into the minibar, etc. LOL. JK.) Apply sixth aid. Circle back around, check back in, and close the loop the following week.  Before someone points out to me how impractical and unreasonable this would be for us to do every time we saw a person on the side of the road in desperate need . . . just watch the replay about seven more times. Just live with the text until it is thoroughly imprinted in your heart, mind, and memory. It will give Jesus "in you" the kind of raw material to work with going forward. Make sense?  The only thing I don't like about this story is the super famous title someone gave it four hundred years ago—the Good Samaritan. It implies the rest of them were bad and this one was somehow the rare exception. (It's another bitter fruit of bad Bible reading. Why not, "The Good Neighbor"?) And right here we get the secret sauce of the story. It's the uppercut, knockout punch after the devastating right hook. Jesus is taking on our penchant for "othering" others—especially those we perceive as our enemies.  PRAY Lord Jesus, thank you for becoming the Good Samaritan for the whole world. You are the one who most truly and deeply and profoundly represents who you made us to be and become and yet we "othered" you to the ultimate extreme. Soon you will show yourself to be the ultimate prodigal son. We are so backward because we don't know how to read. Forgive us. Teach us to read, Jesus. You are our text. You are our reading. And lead us from the devastation of "othering" into the love of "neighboring." It will be for your glory, for others' good, and for our gain. Praying in Jesus's name, amen.