Who is My Neighbor?—Pastor Daniel Tan of SIB KL

On Sept 7, Pastor Daniel Tan of SIB KL preached about love, hope, and dignity. Based on Luke 10, he asked one pertinent question for us to ponder, “Who is my neighbor?”

“One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?”

The man answered, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

“Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!”

The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.

“By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.

“Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’

“Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked. The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.” Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.””

(Luke 10:25-37 NLT)

A law expert came to Jesus to ask how he can inherit eternal life. Although he answered Jesus correctly for what the Law of Moses says, which is to love God and others, the law expert followed by asking Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Pr Daniel shared that the law expert probably thought that he already loved God with all his heart, all his soul, all his strength, and his entire mind. Thus, skipping that part of the answer, he wanted to clarify who is considered to be his neighbor.

Jesus Christ answered him with an interesting twist. Although He could have used three general personas in His parable without mentioning of status and race, He intentionally used the Priest, the temple assistant (or Levite), and the Samaritan in his parable, personas the Israelites were familiar with.

During those days, the Priests are considered holy among the Israelites because they sacrificed before God in the temple, likened to the pastors and bishops today.

As for the Levites, they were the chosen people of God who carried the Ark of the Covenant and worshiped God in the Temple day and night. Pr Daniel likened them to Christians today. (1 Pet 2:9)

Samaritans, on the other hand, were ‘despised.’ Although they were of Jewish lineage, the Samaritans had mixed marriages with other pagan races and also worshiped pagan gods alongside the God of Israel. The Jews considered them as “half-breeds”.

Why the Priest and the Levite would pass the man by? Pr Daniel shared there could be many legitimate reasons—reasons we could identify today. The reasons could include concern of one’s safety, busyness, or simply the trouble of handling a bleeding man. They had no obligations to help the man, because they did not know him and their good deed may not be returned.

The Priest and Levite saw all the reasons to pass the man by. But the Samaritan, on the other hand, saw the man with eyes of compassion. (Luke 10:33) The Samaritan exemplified Jesus’ compassion that was shown to all kinds of people, including healing the blind, feeding the 5000 people, healing the paralytic, healing the sick, cleansing ten lepers, and many more.

Pr Daniel shared that compassion is not only a feeling but a deep emotion that propels us to do something. Known as ‘splagchnion’ (and also me’ah, me’im, rechem, rachamim) in Hebrew, the literal meaning of these words are intestines, then the abdomen, and the womb. Figuratively, these words connote a stirring and deep-seated emotion of various kinds that ‘move in your insides’ that cause you into action.

Jesus is showing us that love is not only merely an emotion, but an act of compassion. That is why in the parable of describing the Samaritan; He used seven action verbs explaining what compassion means. The Samaritan went over to the man, soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine, bandaged his wounds, placed the man on his donkey, brought him to an inn, took care of him for the night, and gave money to the innkeeper.

Can you see how troublesome and time-consuming it is to help this man? The Samaritan could have stop at bandaging the man but he did not. Pr Daniel shared that compassion always goes the extra mile and brings hope to the hopeless. And when love turns into action, it produces hope and dignity. Taken into our context today, would we think twice in placing a bleeding man in need of help on our leathered-seat BMW?

In encouraging the church to show compassion, He shared about several community programs SIB KL is engaging.

One of the programs is a coaching program through a basketball game for the children in the community. Held twice a month, they started with four children, which have grown to 29 children today. While playing basketball, the children would be taught good values in life. Pr Daniel shared how a youth who was about to drop out from school decided to stay in school. Another 18-year-old boy also found a new motivation in life after he was coached to become the ‘big brother’ of the children; he later found his life direction and decided to continue his studies in Taiwan.

Another initiative SIB KL is doing is the Golden Club that was started last year. Bringing hope to the senior citizens, the church spent time with them through activities such as singing karaoke and playing board games.

With a heart for school children as well, SIB KL is also working with Generasi Gemilang in holding character-building programs for the students in SMK Tropicana. After one year of labor, Pr Daniel was encouraged to see the improvements among the students in terms of their behavior and academic results. In fact, their improvements were so apparent that the school won the Bai’ah award—an award given to schools that have shown overall point-achievements beyond 300 positions. From a reputation of notoriety, the school is now seeing an increased number of parents enrolling their children into the school!

Their heart for the school children also extended to the poor children in the nearby community as well. Some of the children he met personally could not even utter the alphabets. He shared about a heart-warming story of how a form-one boy named Vicky could not speak English. But after receiving tuition from their program for two years, he is now coaching primary school students, with an ambition to become a school teacher.

Pr Daniel shared that many people who need our help are unable to pay back our deeds. That is why he believed that Jesus has His reason of ending the story half-way, at where the Samaritan left the injured man. The intention of helping them is to show them the compassion of Christ, not to garner any reward.

Hence, like the law expert, we may ask the same question, “Who is my neighbor?” Perhaps, the answer lies in what kind of neighbor are you? Are you a Pharisee, a Levite, or a Samaritan? Do the people around you see you as their neighbor?

Jesus’ last words to the law expert was, “Yes, now go and do the same.” (Luke 10:37)