Go and Do Thou Likewise

Jesus tells a story to a young expert in Jewish law when the expert asks who his neighbor is. It is a familiar story, the story of the Good Samaritan. At the end, Christ asks the lawyer, in light of the story, which one of the three people who passed by was acting like a neighbor. The lawyer answers correctly, "The one who showed the wounded man mercy." Christ doesn't leave the lesson at that point, however. He means for the young lawyer to make an application to his own life. "Go, and do thou likewise" (KJV), he tells the lawyer.

Of course both Christ and the author (Luke) mean for us to be the lawyer in the story. Neighbors show people mercy. Go and be a neighbor, wherever you are.

Who Is My Neighbor?

The story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10.37, this morning. This is the final verse where Christ asks the expert on the law of Moses, which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man. The lawyer correctly responds, the one who showed him mercy. The lawyer answers the question truthfully, even though he understands that it condemns him because he was probably one of the first two people in the parable, not the Samaritan. One hopes that this is a radical encounter for the unnamed lawyer that changed his life. What he needed was a new heart.

As the New Bible Commentary points out: It was not fresh knowledge that the lawyer needed, but a new heart—in plain English, conversion.

Who then is my neighbor? Anyone I encounter who needs mercy. Simple. Not always easy.

Augustine is good here as well: He shows mercy to us because of his own goodness, while we show mercy to one another because of God’s goodness. He has compassion on us so that we may enjoy him completely, while we have compassion on another that we may completely enjoy him.