When you ask Jesus a question, you have to be prepared to get an answer you didn't expect. 

Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan to answer someone who asked, “Who is my neighbour?” Jesus had just told him to “Love your neighbour as yourself” and the man wanted a bit more clarification on whom, exactly, he should consider to be his neighbour.

The man was told that his neighbour is anyone who needs his help – and that really wasn’t what he was expecting to hear. Especially since the person in the story who needed help, was someone he would have considered his enemy.

So what does this mean for us today? Recently some noted Christians have pointed out that if Jesus was telling the story of the Good Samaritan today, he might have told it about the Good Muslim.

You might have heard various voices in the media speaking out as the refugee crisis unfolds, saying that we don’t have any obligation to help those who aren’t from our country. That we should help our own first of all. That we must close ranks, and look to our own interests.

But this isn’t what Jesus taught. He taught us to look after others before we look after ourselves – to sacrifice ourselves in order to care for them.

It’s uncomfortable. Jesus knew what he said would be hard for his listeners to hear, but he didn’t leave any room for ambiguous interpretations of his words. He told us that in order to inherit eternal life, we have to love the people we find hard to love. 

We have to love them in ways that will be difficult for us, in ways that will involve us giving up our comforts, and making financial and other sacrifices.

At CSW we work for religious freedom for all. That means that everyone is entitled to choose and change their religion – to hold any belief, or none at all. To worship freely, in public and in private. This doesn’t just apply to Christians, and it doesn’t just apply to people who look like us, and those we find it easy to want to help.

So the inescapable conclusion is that the refugees whose misery fills our screens, regardless of their religion or ethnicity, are our neighbours – ie, the people we need to love in the way that we love ourselves.

Jennifer Watkins
Copywriter/Editor at CSW