Love your neighbor: Luke 10:29

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

I don't think I will ever forget my stop at a rest area just north of Springfield in 1989. I was on my way home, I think from California, but maybe just from southern Illinois -- the exact time escapes me, it's been so long. Nonetheless, there were a lot of people in that rest area that day. I remember the weather was quite nice; the sun was bright. I was a very tired from driving, which is why I think I was coming from California on my last trip home, so I had stopped to walk.

As I started walking back toward my car, I saw an Illinois state trooper pull up. The trooper got out, along with a disheveled-looking man. The guy had long hair and a beard. He was at least 6 feet tall. He was wearing a brown trench coat and very dirty clothes. Yes, he was scary looking, and he stopped me to ask for a ride.

My mind started racing. "I am going just a few miles up the road," I blurted out, afraid.

I then walked to my car, got in and started driving.

I have to turn around, I thought to myself, even before leaving the on-ramp. Why didn't you help that guy, I asked myself. I kept driving ... one mile, 5 miles, 10. Turn around, Jerry, I kept telling myself. Go back and pick that guy up and take him to Lincoln ... another mile. Turn around, Jerry. Buy him a meal, buy him a night in a motel. You know the place in Lincoln. Turn around!

I am sorry. I didn't turn around. I didn't feed the guy. I didn't buy him a meal. Why didn't I turn around? I am still asking myself that question more than 20 years later.

Today, as I read Luke 10, I was reminded of this story, again, as if I will ever forget it.

"Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life," an expert of the law asked Jesus. Of course, that was a rhetorical question, because he answered his own question a verse later: "Love the your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself."

Yes, Jesus said. Do that and enjoy eternal life.

So, Mr. Smarty Pants retorted, "Who's my neighbor?"

I just told you. It was that guy the Illinois state trooper dropped off. Now, I know we aren't supposed to pick up hitchhikers. But seriously, that guy is your neighbor; you don't really think a state trooper, one of Illinois' finest police officers, would strand a dangerous man at a rest area, do you?

For me, I have never been able to read Luke 10 without thinking of that guy.

As Jesus put it, a man was going down from Jerusalem, or California, or maybe southern Illinois, to Jericho, or Peoria, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him, took his car and left him for dead somewhere near Lincoln. A priest happened along, saw him bloodied, and passed by on the other side. Then a Levite, one of our church elders, did the same. Then a Samaritan came to the scene. That's right, the Samaritan, one of those people who Jews considered half-breeds, quite literally did what the Holy Spirit was urging me to do.

Have mercy is the point of the parable.

I am sorry. I am so sorry I ignored the guy in need.

I don't know about you, but I don't ignore that urging any more. Turn around. Repent. God will provide for you. God will take care of you.

Just believe.