Neighbours and outsiders

 If the story of the Good Samaritan had to be retold to suit a pleasant hearing from the scribes and pharisees, the high priest would have been the one who would extend help. He must be in the temple court, not on the wayside; there is a plea for help; and the High Priest, not a despised Samaritan, extending aid. The very concept of ‘chosen people,’ had become a secure and comfortable fortress against the universality of God’s love. The freedom of the covenant, meant to liberate and expand, instead contracted into a rigid exclusivity.

“Whoever is in need is a neighbour” is not a new definition, it is about docility of heart, and an attitude. Of course, the Scribes and the Pharisees were wrong, for their heartlessness and hypocrisy. Our "likes and dislikes" become the foundational stones of new walls against a quality Christian living, often disguised as ‘wisdom or prudence’ or a ‘true Christian life.’ These convenient boundaries, defined by religion, customs, beliefs, socio-economic status, political affiliation, or even lifestyle choices, become formidable fortresses around our hearts. This is precisely where the ‘exploitative and manipulative systems’ take root. We reinterpret our comfortable ‘right and wrong,’ ‘we’ define the ‘we’ and ‘they’ and make Christian life conventional and conditional.  We create fertile ground for injustice and breed vipers and scorpions.

Like the definition of the neighbour in the light of the Gospel, it is significant to ask, “Who is an outsider” according to these structures we create, and how are they formulated? By Religion outsiders are those who don’t believe what we believe, and those who don’t share our theological framework. By customs and culture the outsiders are those who don’t live like us, speak like us, or share our values. They have come from some other place, they cannot join us and we cannot go with them.

By Beliefs and Ideologies, if we see, the outsiders are those who hold different political views. It can be politicised form of religion or moral values. They are to be seen as ‘enemies,’ and any kindness extended to them is a betrayal of our ‘truth.’ By economic status the outsiders are those who are poor, and being with them is below our status because we are of a higher rank.

How are these outsiders? Often, we chose to be in echo Chambers where we are surrounded ourselves with those who think like us, mostly with identity providers with noble faces of language, traditions, culture, value and so on. Selective Reading of certain portion of the scripture is perhaps the most deceptive one in labelling the outsiders and justifying their exclusion. The emphasis shifts from love justice, hospitality to closedness, from compassionate service to doctrinal purity. These are cultivated attributing Purity and elitism to our group, demonizing ‘the other’ and glorifying ‘us.’ under these closed chambers our hearts shrinks.

Living a covenant with God, living the gospel is to actively dismantle these fortresses, brick by brick, by seeing the image of God in every human being, regardless of the labels we or society has placed upon them. The very act of categorizing someone as an ‘outsider’ immediately lessens their humanity in our eyes, making it easier to justify their marginalization, their suffering, or even their humiliation and exploitation.

The story of the Good Samaritan asks us not just to know who our neighbour is, but to be a neighbour, particularly to those we are most conditioned to ignore, dismiss, or even despise. It is a call to a radical, unconditioned love that dares to transcend every boundary and shatter every convenient narrative we construct to protect ourselves from the beautiful freedom of genuine compassion.