Luke 10:25–37 · Series: Who Is My Neighbour?
“Who is my neighbour?” The expert in the law asked Jesus this question, and Jesus turned it around. The real question is not “Who is my neighbour?” but “How can I become a neighbour?”
Our guest preacher, Dr Maxon Mani, is a former principal of the Christian Leaders’ Training College (CLTC) and completed his doctoral studies at the University of Otago. He is now developing a programme in theology and public issues. In this message from Luke 10:25–37, he shows that the lawyer was shaped by his society to see some people as neighbours and others as outsiders, and asks whether we in Papua New Guinea do the same through region, tribe, class, education and even denomination. The Good Samaritan saw past every boundary. He saw a suffering human being and reached out as one human to another.
Dr Mani draws out seven things this question does:
- It challenges exclusivity
- It affirms human dignity
- It critiques religious and institutional indifference
- It gives political meaning to compassion: why was the road unsafe?
- It promotes reconciliation across differences
- It reshapes leadership in the church and in society
- It calls the church to public discipleship
“The neighbour is the person whose vulnerability summons me to responsible love.”
The question moves us from identity to responsibility, and from belief to public action.
Reflect this week
- What groups has your upbringing taught you to see as “outsiders”?
- Whose suffering do you need to be willing to see, and what responsibility will you accept?
- Where can you, or your church, be a bridge between people who are divided?
Key scriptures: Luke 10:25–37 · Deuteronomy 6:5 · Leviticus 19:18