YOUTH MOVEMENT
ZEKE McPherson
IN
Luke 10 , Jesus faces serious questioning about how to inherit eternal life . Jesus allows the man to answer his own question : love God and love your neighbor as yourself . Defining neighbor-ness quickly becomes the matter of question . Is it family ? Is it friends ? Or is it beyond the important people in your life ? Maybe it is those geographically close or culturally similar .
This is the context for Jesus ' illuminating parable of the Good Samaritan . Many have heard the parable explained , but as a reminder , Samaritans and Jews were racial and cultural antagonists to each other in that time period . There was not much love between those groups . Thus , Jesus ' story would have been shocking and even revolting to some .
This is the full extent of how we are to love people on the earth . Not only do we need to love those we want to love , but we must love those that we are culturally , ethnically , politically , or even demographically predisposed to hate .
This is a beautiful truth of the Jesus Life , but something far simpler struck a chord with me as I studied this most recently .
I was humbled by how terrible I am at doing the actions of the Good Samaritan to those that I am predisposed to love . For my family . For my friends . In the individualistic world that we are tempted to live in , it is a constant temptation to pass by on the opposite side of the road from even loved ones who have been beaten up or broken down . I ' m busy . I ' m worried about what people will think or say . I ' m too concerned about missing out on the pressing thing that has my attention at this moment .
As a ministry , CMA understands this . We live out this truth by looking for needs in the motorcycling world like the Samaritan did on the road that day . We look for broken , messed-up people ( like us ), and we diligently work to lead them to the truth and hope that we found in Jesus . This article is not a chastisement of us .
Personally , it is a sobering reminder of how I live my life dayto-day when I ' m not in " ministry mode " and surrounded by lost bikers . So often , I miss the mark of loving my neighbor as Jesus defined it because of my own distractions .
Will you commit with me to pray about this in your life ? Are there people , close to you or not , that you have failed to stop and help because of busyness , distraction , or fear ? What can you do this week to STOP your mission of the moment and NOTICE and SERVE the needy around you ? CMA
25⎪June 2021⎪www . cmausa . org