Who Is My Neighbour?

‘When You said, “Seek My face,” My heart said to You, “Your face, LORD, I will seek.”’ –Psalm 27:8, NKJV 

I was about to start a new Salvation Army appointment, different from any other role I had ever had. Previous appointments had been with people who already knew the Lord, such as cadets in training or Salvationists in a corps. 

But this appointment was with people coming fresh from prison — referred to us for community service, or needing help with budgeting, parenting or basic life skills. What could I do or say that might make a difference to people in these situations? 

As I prayed, God led me to Psalm 27:8. ‘Your face, Lord, I will seek.’ It was as if God was telling me to look, see and understand with his eyes and his compassion. So that is what I tried to do—look deeply into the faces of those who came for help. In the process, I discovered that God wears some strange disguises at times! 

The unnamed Good Samaritan in Luke’s Gospel was my inspiration. On the road to Jericho, a traveller was beaten up and left for dead. A priest and then a Levite came by but, seeing the man, they hurried on their way. The Samaritan, by contrast, ‘saw … took pity … went … bandaged … poured … put … took care … gave … reimbursed.’ With the eyes of compassion, this man saw the wounded fellow and did what he could to help. 

This story comes in Scripture in response to someone who should have known better, testing Jesus with the question, ‘Who is my neighbour?’ (Luke 10:29). 

This same question comes to us at this time of Self-Denial. Who is my neighbour? It is the one I am urged to see, called to look out for, care for and offer compassion and hope to. Maybe it is the one right in front of me, even the different, awkward, hard-to-love one, the one I may have called stranger until now. It is also the one in another country, the one I’ve never met or spoken to, but who God is calling me to sacrificially love because his Spirit knows no geographical bounds. 

So we pray, Lord, please give us eyes to see others as you see them. 

We may wonder
whom can I love and serve?
Where is the face of God
to whom I can pray?
The answer is simple.
That naked one.
That lonely one.
That unwanted one
is my brother and my sister.
If we have no peace,
it is because
we have forgotten
that we belong to each other.
Mother Teresa

Are you walking in the peace that Mother Teresa spoke of and revealing the hope that your neighbours near and far can have too? Our skin colour, complexion and facial features may all differ, but cut us and we will bleed, hit us and we will hurt. We may have surface differences, but we also hold many things in common. When we learn to see another as our neighbour, our brother or sister, then we may be looking into the very face of God. Paul wrote to the believers at Rome, ‘May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit’ (Romans 15:13). This verse is a promise for our Self-Denial offering and a reminder of the hope to which we have been called. 

Our giving plus god’s love will turn strangers into brothers and sisters.