Op-Ed: Who Is My Neighbor?

by Timothy Heffelbower, Washington County Democrats Communications Committee Member

One of the most powerful sermons I ever heard was from a president at a bible college who came to our sleepy little Garden Valley Campus when I was an intern with a radical right leadership academy in Texas. I never forgot listening to this man build a beautiful argument about leadership throughout history and how it was permanently transformed about 2000 years ago. He contrasted the egotistical leadership of the ruling classes of many generations with the humility of Jesus in His leadership.

Once upon a time, we had divisional kings and sects ruled by their own local authorities. The highest achievable ideal that this ruling class had was to spread the control that they had of their own world into a control of the world at large. To some, it was nothing more than a pipe dream. But certainly it seemed like sooner or later, someone was bound to do it. And everyone knew that it was going to be accomplished through conquest, through standing armies, and through battle. There could only be unity through a bending of the will, and mankind by and large believed there was only one way to achieve a bending of the will – through domination.

To this end, the kingdoms of the world became more organized and centralized over time, and sought to dominate one another. Eventually, Alexander the Great broke through that glass ceiling and proved it was possible to own the known world. And of course, in his 32 years of life, no sooner did he gain the entire world but he lost his soul and died. And suddenly, with no successor in place, the entire known world was left in a vacuum of power hungry men competing among one another for dominance.

Of course, other kingdoms would eventually come to prominence. The Romans became the keepers of the modern world for nearly 1000 years, and some scholars say 1500 years if you count the eastern expansion to the Ottoman Empire. And fundamentally something shifted in the ideas of how to attain power during Roman rule.  While some of the structure was already in place before this prophet came to prominence, the masses were amazed as a humble carpenter came into town and declared that “he who wants to be the greatest must be the servant of all.” They were confused as he implored them to “take up their cross and follow Him.” This man gave tremendous dignity and worth to women as he passed by. Tax collectors were seen as the scum of their day as they were the ones conspiring with the people in power to defraud their own countrymen. But Jesus literally sat down and ate with them. He was seen with the prostitutes and cared about the marginalized and forgotten. In many ways, this man was the antithesis of a “king” but He was constantly proclaiming that a kingdom was indeed at hand.

And in one of the most outrageous sermons He ever preached, He took the disgusting and abominable mixed race from the wrong side of the tracks (the Samaritan) and made that person the real neighbor to the Jew who was left for dead on the side of the road, in spite of the fact that the well known megachurch pastor (the priest) and the devout Christian who attends every church function (the Levite) literally passed right by this man on the road. And they didn’t just pass by the man, either. Horrified at the sight of the man and realizing that his blood would make them unclean, they literally crossed the road to the other side to avoid their countryman. The Samaritan would have endured plenty of insults at the hands of this Jew, no doubt. He would have been ostracized and most likely left for dead if the tables had been turned. He took on a great cost to pay for this man’s recovery, and never had that cost made up.

I’ve been sitting with this sermon that Jesus taught, in response to a lawyer no less and his brilliant question, “who is my neighbor?” As I wrestle with this, I think of a lot of different angles. The Samaritan was not governed by the same laws as the Jew was, and didn’t even pretend to be. They knew something of the Jewish God, of course, as they were once “members of the fold” themselves. As they slowly but surely “fell away” from what they were supposed to be, the people of Judea finally turned their back on what had been their Israeli brothers and sisters, unable to accept who they had become; a no longer pure race. I wonder if they were too gay, too woke, too stoned, or too deconstructed to be considered worthy anymore. One thing that has always been clear in the human existence is that we all want to belong. Another thing that’s very clear is that it is intoxicating to be able to pronounce judgment on someone else with an “air of superiority” and to cast the stones with the rest of the in-crowd.

It was the Pharisees, the religious right of their own day, who used God to justify their pious behaviors and their need to be the brokers of power. They used their relationship with the teachings of Moses to claim theocracy in their streets, and to protect their own fragile egos. It was in fact this very system of power that crucified Jesus, who claimed to be the Son of the God that the Pharisees were claiming to worship and defend. And as I look at our political landscape today, it becomes clear to me who is the Pharisee and who is the Samaritan.

The counter struggle to me, the thing that sets up true and lasting power over the authoritarian tendencies of the pharisaical movement that currently occupies the seats of power in Washington DC, hinges on the answer to that question, “who is my neighbor?” Yes, our neighbor needs to be the widow, the orphan, and the stranger among us. But in dealing with them, do not forget about the Jew who was beaten up and left for dead on the side of the road. Don’t forget about them because there’s a very good chance that the megachurch pastor and the faithful church goer already crossed the road and walked right on past them. There are millions of disenfranchised voters who genuinely believed that what the Republicans were selling would cure their ailments. Whether it was through a very effective propaganda machine, the culture they were born and raised in, the people who introduced them into a significant brand of religion, or for various other reasons… these people are having their whole world turned upside down. And yes, it was as predictable as bandits hiding out on the road to Jericho back in Jesus’ day.  Yes, I want to scream at these people and chastise them for being so willfully ignorant that they refused to see this coming. Again, it feels so cathartic to be able to judge another human being with that air of superiority. But Jesus as a teacher shows us that true and lasting conquest was never about using armies to force people to bow, but giving people a reason to willingly surrender to something with a softened heart.

The Marshall Plan where the United States offered to pay the innkeeper with our own money so the wounded nations could recover after World War Two led to the longest lasting peace we have seen since the Industrial Age dawned. That was straight from the teachings of Jesus. And as we have been engaged in a Cold Civil War these past ten years specifically, there is a lot of emotional damage and psychological destruction that will need to be repaired. Some of the very tenets of our democracy will need to be rebuilt. The best and most lasting way to do this is from a position of soft power. The defeated understand they are condemned by virtue of their defeat. But to do as Jesus told us and learn the meaning of this statement, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,” can go a long way to rebuilding these broken and burned bridges.

Jesus became the man who revolutionized what leadership looked like to the entire world. Never again will you hear a politician, even a true blowhard, call themselves “So-and-so, the Great.” At a very basic level, every politician in the world now has to at least pretend that they serve the people. And the truly great ones actually will.  I believe this is a direct result of the carpenter from Nazareth. The man who implored us to “love our enemies, and do good to those who persecute you,” was the same one who, according to the Christian tradition, gave up His own life for us. And in one of the most radical sermons He ever preached, the story of the Good Samaritan, He finished by asking the lawyer a question of His own.

“Which of the three, between the Priest, the Levite, and the Samaritan, do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell among thieves?”

And the lawyer replied, “the one who showed mercy to him.”

Jesus told the lawyer, and the invitation rings just as strong for all of us today, “go and do likewise.”

If Democrats can find voices with messages of hope rather than despair, affordability rather than culture war then they can meet the vast majority of the electorate where they need help the most. If that happens, then anything is possible.

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