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Pride Month: What does it mean to love our neighbor?

Pride Month: What does it mean to love our neighbor?

Last updated on: June 26, 2023 at 9:02 pm by Rob Dalrymple

Pride Month: What does it mean to love our neighbor? 2023-06-26T21:02:58-08:00 Rob Dalrymple

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Of course, we “Christians” should actively resist Pride Month.

Really?

I recently noticed that some of our neighbors were putting out Pride flags in order to celebrate or affirm Pride Month.

Well, apparently, they have received some abuse and violence towards them for doing so.

Years ago I had some members of my church come to me for some counsel. A close relative (niece or something like that), whom we will call “Susie” for the sake of this post, was about to get married and wanted them to come to the wedding. And they didn’t know what to do. Susie, you see, was marrying her girlfriend.

I suggested that indeed they should go. After all, it is not homosexuality that they were affirming—Susie already knows their beliefs about that—it is Susie that they would be affirming.

I then asked them, what would happen if someday Susie was having difficulty in her marriage. If they didn’t go to the wedding, would Susie come to them for help?

What Susie would need at a time like that is for older persons whom they respect to offer her support. But if they don’t support Susie at her wedding, then why would she expect support from them later?

The Good Samaritan Luke 10:25-37[1]

As Jesus begins one of His most famous parables, he states, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho” (Luke 10:25-37).

I have been fortunate to visit the land many times and on several occasions, we stopped and surveyed the area that encompasses the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.

The 17-18 mile journey winds its way down from Jerusalem (about 3,000 ft in elevation) to Jericho (-1,750 ft in elevation)—the lowest spot on earth.

Of course, once you cross over the hills east of Jerusalem you enter the desert. Not only then does this road wind its way steeply downhill for the better part of 18 miles, but it does so along the edge of wadis (a wadi is a dry river valley or ravine that can become a torrent of water when rain falls in the higher elevations).

The point in saying all of this is that it was not uncommon for bandits to hide out along the cliffs and in caves.

As Jesus continues the story, the man is beaten, stripped, and left for dead (Luke 10:30).

Note: we know nothing about the identity of the man who was beaten—aside from the fact that he was male.

Jesus continues by noting that two men pass by and do not care for the fallen person: including a religious leader and a member of the priestly line in Judaism.

It is possible, that a first-century person listening to Jesus may have rationalized why the two religious men would have left the poor fellow on the road: “Maybe the beaten man is only play-acting and as soon as I stoop down to help, all his companions will come out from hiding and I’ll be robbed.”

Such thinking was quite reasonable.

In other words, at this point in the story, not only is no one troubled by the fact that the two religious men did offer any help, they may even have considered their not stopping to help as a wise move!

Jesus continues (remember: parables had a shock value: a surprise ending. One that would leave the listener thinking, “Did He just say that?”—for many of us, we lose the shock value because we have become so familiar with the parables) by noting that a Samaritan stops to help (Luke 10:33-35)—and by the way, the Samaritan goes well beyond the normal care one might expect to give to a wounded stranger.

Context is critical here: Samaritans were neighbors to the north of Jerusalem. They were rivals to the Jewish people. And, although Samaritans were actually distant relatives of the Jewish people, the animosity between them and the Jews had grown over the last 500 years to the point that Jews hated Samaritans.

Jesus then concludes by asking, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:36-37).

The Parable in contemporary terms

Perhaps it might help to put this parable into a contemporary setting,

Mark Allan Powell gives us an example: “Clarence Jordan is remembered today as one of the founders of the model for Habitat for Humanity. In the sixties, he was a popular preacher and storyteller in Americus, Georgia.

“He liked to re-fashion Bible stories for modern times and tell them over the radio with a warm Southern drawl. Several of these were printed in books and issued on tapes and records as “cotton patch versions” of the scriptures.

“Jordan’s version of the Good Samaritan may have been his best-known piece. In his telling of the tale, a man is beaten up by a gang of ruffians who hijack his car and leave him for dead. A revival preacher and then a gospel singer drive by but don’t stop. Then, a black man stops to help the poor fellow. Jordan told this story so as to force his audience to identify with this third party.

“His rhetorical skill was such that he drew his white audience members in, and before they realized what was happening, he had them empathizing idealistically with a black man. This might not seem radical today—but it was enough to earn Jordan death threats at the time.”[2]

Conclusion

But Rob, are you telling us that we have to condone the LGBTQ+ agendas? Nope, I didn’t say anything about this: either explicitly or implicitly. I am saying that we are called to love them.

Maybe we should ask, “If you were lying on a roadside beaten and half-dead, and someone came alongside to help, would you first ask them what their sexual preference was?” . . .

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[1] There is actually a fascinating background to this story that I do not have the space to go into here. Most notably is the fact that the Lawyer who asked Jesus “Who is my neighbor” (Luke 10:29) was “testing” (Luke 10:25) Jesus. But how was this a “test”??

[2] Powell, Mark. What Do They Hear?: Bridging the Gap Between Pulpit and Pew (31-32).

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About Rob Dalrymple

Rob Dalrymple is married to his wife Toni and is the father of four fabulous children, and two grandchildren. He has been teaching and pastoring for over 33 years at colleges, seminaries, and the local church. He has a PhD in biblical interpretation. He is the author of four books (including Follow the Lamb: A Guide to Reading, Understanding, and Applying the Book of Revelation & Understanding the New Testament and the End Times: Why it Matters) as well as numerous articles and other publications. He is currently completing a commentary on the book of Revelation titled, “Revelation: a Love Story” (Cascade Books, pending 2024). You can read more about the author here.

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