So today I heard that the United States government is getting ready to send down troop "reinforcements" to the border states of our country to help "secure" our border and keep "illegal immigrants" out.
It made me think about the story of the good Samaritan that Jesus told, where this Jewish man is jumped by a gang, stripped of his clothes, robbed, and beaten within an inch of his life. He's then left for dead on the side of the road. One by one these prominent people (priests, temple assistants) pass by the man and purposely avoid him, creating borders between the man's heavy burden and their own selfish concerns.
Eventually this Samaritan dude shows up (the type of person the Jewish people would have despised), comes by and has pity on the poor beaten man on the side of the road. He then tends to his wounds, puts him on his own donkey, and takes him to an inn nearby. He then pays the inn like an entire paycheck's worth of expenses to ensure the Jewish man is well-taken care of and can stay in this inn until he has fully recovered. The Samaritan man never asks for anything in return.
I wonder what it would look like if people in America, especially Christians in America, put the good Samaritan story into practice when our government tries to put up walls between us and the rest of the world, when we create borders to divide the "haves" and the "have nots".
So often people quote this story of the good Samaritan for the sake of encouraging the caring of those in need, for helping those who other people simply pass on by. While these are definitely important truths and good analogies, (as my wife pointed out in one of her recent sermons) it is not the main message in the story.
You see, we worship a God of a borderless kingdom. He doesn't see "us and them". He sees humanity, the diverse lot of us, and sees beauty and richness in us all. There is this potential "oneness" that our world is craving, but our borders keep that from ever being realized.
Maybe when our troops get down to the border this week to keep people out, we should be there in masses opening the borders of our hearts and lives and seeing the people on the other side of the wall as brothers and sisters in this world, children of a good God, the Son of Man who has nowhere to lay His head.
Since we have been so richly blessed in this country, and since our ancestors were brave enough to jump the wall and make opportunities where there were none (although sadly we also did some major injustices to our Native American brothers and sisters), maybe we can give those at the border a lift up over those fences.
After all, walls are meant to be climbed.
(To get the real facts about immigration, check out this Princeton University research document that reveals the myths and true facts about illegal immigration in America. http://cmd.princeton.edu/files/POM_june2007.pdf ...don't believe everything Fox News tells you!)
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