When I Needed A Neighbour

"Jesus said, “There was a certain rich man who was splendidly clothed in purple and fine linen and who lived each day in luxury. At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus who was covered with sores.  As Lazarus lay there longing for scraps from the rich man’s table, the dogs would come and lick his open sores.

Finally, the poor man died and was carried by the angels to sit beside Abraham at the heavenly banquet. The rich man also died and was buried, and he went to the place of the dead.

There, in torment, he saw Abraham in the far distance with Lazarus at his side.

The rich man shouted, ‘Father Abraham, have some pity! Send Lazarus over here to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. I am in anguish in these flames.’

But Abraham said to him, ‘Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being comforted, and you are in anguish."

Luke 16:19-25 (NLT)

God’s word instructs us to ‘love our neighbour’ and of course we try hard to do this, but often only if our ‘neighbour’ is like us! What if our neighbour is a beggar, someone who speaks another language, or a person struggling to make their way in life? Perhaps we will never really value our neighbour until we have seen ourselves as the poor man at the gate, rather than as the rich man living it up inside!

In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote, "Do not waste your time bothering whether you 'love' your neighbour. Act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less."

Today let’s turn from our own point of need, be neighbourly and reach out to those the Spirit lays on our heart. Show the love of Jesus and know you are his beloved too.

Prayer:

Father you invite us all to your table as we are. Help us to ‘see’ those the world rejects and to love as you would love.Amen.

Sheena Marx