Title: Do It Like This
Do likewise (Luke 10:25-37)
Sunday, March 18, 2012 Worship
“Which of these three do you think is a neighbor to the man who was struck by a robber?” He said, “The one who showed mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:36-37).
The Pharisees first asked Jesus the question, “Who is my neighbor?” In answer to the Pharisees' question about defining this neighborhood first, Jesus used the parable of the good Samaritan. And he asked the opposite question, ‘Who will be the neighbor to the man who was struck by a robber? Jesus answered that a neighbor is not a pre-determined existence, but rather a relationship that must be built by sharing mercy.
In other words, neighbors are not static entities that are first conceptually defined. Rather, it is a dynamic relationship that must be created by actively distributing love even for enemies. Therefore, the neighbor is an object infinitely open to me. It is easy for us to mistake people with the same thoughts, values, tastes, races, classes, and ideologies as neighbors. However, the Lord taught me that I must make infinitely my neighbors even if they have different ideas, different values, different cultures and tastes, and different races, classes, and ideas.
To emphasize this, a Samaritan, who could never be a good protagonist in the conventional wisdom of the Jews at the time, was deliberately introduced as the protagonist of love for neighbor. In short, it can be said to be the paradoxical emphasis of Jesus.
Now, our Korean society is changing into a multicultural society. A small but numerous multicultural communities are preparing to enter the mainstream of Korean society. The Jubilee Medical Mutual Aid Association, an NGO for foreign workers, has 14,000 registered members from 65 countries. Each of them is also creating their own unique religious and cultural life community. As time goes by, they will be established as Bangladeshi Koreans, Nepalese Koreans, and Vietnamese Koreans, respectively, and will grow like Korean Americans in the United States. Although they have their own identity as Bangladesh, Nepal, or Vietnam in terms of culture and ancestry, they will definitely become Korean citizens in terms of nationality.
Therefore, we Korean Christians must transcend differences and differences and become good neighbors only through the love of Christ. If we emphasize differences in culture, race, and values with these people and alienate them as the fringes of our society, our society will conceive another great internal conflict. When we Christians respond as good Samaritans who accept them as subjects of love for our neighbors and create a community of love together, Korean society will become more beautiful as an Agape community united with the love of the gospel through the church.
The same is true for North Korea. There are clearly different ideologies, systems, and values between them and us. Nevertheless, the Korean church must go beyond that and open the way for the two Koreas to become one by loving neighbors and practicing love for their enemies.
We must not turn away from their hunger and suffering, but give unconditional love and provide humanitarian aid and action to prove that we are their brothers and make them accept us as their good neighbors. This is the greatest theme of the Old and New Testaments, and it is the Christian's earthly commandment (Luke 10:27). Therefore, this is mandatory, not optional.
This principle is the same in the ministry of caring for North Korean refugees. While comforting and covering the pain and suffering of North Korean defectors, they must be thoroughly healed with the love of Christ. North Korean defectors have deep hatred and hatred for the North Korean authorities, who persecuted them, killed their families, and destroyed human rights. When their hatred and hatred are used politically by the far-right forces of South Korean society, their hatred will be justified and maximized. When North Korean defectors become the second Northwest Youth Corps and transform into a violent community that justifies white terrorism, conflicts and rifts between the two Koreas will deepen, and I am deeply concerned that hatred will spread instead of reconciliation. South Korean Christians should not use their wounds and hatred politically, but first try to heal and overcome them through the agape love of Jesus.
I want the Korean church to take the lead in this. Christian NGOs created by Christians should be an example of humanitarian practice. The agape love of the South Korean church must break through the hardship between the two Koreas and flow into North Korea, and it must melt away the inter-Korean military confrontation after the Cheonan incident.
Also, with this love, North Korean defectors should play a positive role in inter-Korean reconciliation and forming a peaceful community for the Korean people. This is the teaching of Jesus who commanded the Korean church to continue to ‘do likewise’ to our Korean church in the 21st century multicultural and ideological situation.