{"id":203,"date":"2017-03-01T22:26:52","date_gmt":"2017-03-01T22:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/?p=203"},"modified":"2017-03-01T22:26:52","modified_gmt":"2017-03-01T22:26:52","slug":"the-surprising-reason-why-so-many-of-us-struggle-to-love-our-neighbors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2017\/03\/the-surprising-reason-why-so-many-of-us-struggle-to-love-our-neighbors.html","title":{"rendered":"The Surprising Reason Why So Many of Us Struggle to Love Our Neighbors"},"content":{"rendered":"
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unsplash.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The parable of the\u00a0Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37<\/a>) is one of the most remembered stories of Jesus for a reason, because it\u2019s such a brilliant story. Jesus starts with something everyone can identify. A man, most likely a Jew because he was coming from Jerusalem, was on a business trip and got mugged. It was a rough and tumble world and everyone had a fear of that.<\/p>\n

Well, here\u2019s where it gets interesting: two religious people walk by this man in his distress. Now, you would assume that these two would stop by, but they don\u2019t. Now, in their minds, they have good reasons. Perhaps it\u2019s because they have responsibilities and people waiting for them, and they can\u2019t be late.<\/p>\n

One big issue would have been ceremonial cleanness. If they stopped and took time to help him, it could have made them ceremonially unclean and could have impaired them from participating in all the religious rituals of the temple.<\/p>\n

But I think the most likely reason they passed by and didn\u2019t help was fear. Fear is the surprising reason why so many of us struggle to love our neighbors<\/strong>. And the person who I got this theory from, interestingly enough, was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in a speech he gave the day before he was assassinated in Memphis in 1968.<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019d been to Jerusalem and had traveled the road Jesus mentioned. There\u2019s a sharp elevation change, lots of curves, lots of places to be ambushed. It came to be known as the Bloody Pass. So Dr. King suggested, and I agree, that a main motivating factor could have been fear. Fear that there were other robbers waiting to ambush them if they stopped to help, or perhaps fear that this man was just playing dead, and he was a robber himself.<\/p>\n

How many times does fear stop us from loving our neighbor? Fear of what what we’ll be asked to sacrifice, fear that we’ll be obligated to help longer than is convenient for us, fear of going without if we give what we have to others. How often does fear keep you from loving your neighbor?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The parable of the\u00a0Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) is one of the most remembered stories of Jesus for a reason, because it\u2019s such a brilliant story. Jesus starts with something everyone can identify. A man, most likely a Jew because he was coming from Jerusalem, was on a business trip and got mugged. It was a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[109,111,65,110],"class_list":["post-203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-next-steps","tag-fear","tag-good-samaritan","tag-jesus","tag-neighbor"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Surprising Reason Why So Many of Us Struggle to Love Our Neighbors - Next Steps<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had an incredible theory about the Good Samaritan and why it's so difficult for us to love our neighbor.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Surprising Reason Why So Many of Us Struggle to Love Our Neighbors - Next Steps\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had an incredible theory about the Good Samaritan and why it's so difficult for us to love our neighbor.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2017\/03\/the-surprising-reason-why-so-many-of-us-struggle-to-love-our-neighbors.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next Steps\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"facebook.com\/drjoshdaffern\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-03-01T22:26:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/files\/2017\/03\/nina-strehl-140734-300x200.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Josh Daffern\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@joshdaffern\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Surprising Reason Why So Many of Us Struggle to Love Our Neighbors - 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Josh graduated from New Orleans Seminary with a Masters of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry. Josh has been involved in full-time ministry for over twenty years. He enjoys hiking, beach volleyball, reading, playing anything competitive, and rough-housing with his kids. Josh, his gorgeous wife Robin, his outrageously handsome boys Zeke, Shepherd and Lincoln and his princess Elle, live in northern Virginia. Josh also blogs on Patheos as New Wineskins: an Apologist for the Modern Church and you can find links to all his content on joshdaffern.com. 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