It didn’t have to be a long conversation. The man asked Jesus a question. Jesus said, “What do you think?” The man answered. Jesus said, “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.”

The man could have simply said, “Cool!” The man could have simply said, “Okay, I will.” The man could have said, “Thanks! That’s what I thought. I’ll do it!”  Instead, “he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, ‘Who is my neighbor?'”

And then Jesus told him the story that we know as “the good Samaritan.” It’s a great story, told often to poke fun at religious people.  If you’ve forgotten the highlights, a man travelling on a dangerous road is robbed and beaten and left for dead. A priest and a levite walked past and don’t help him. A third man, a member of a group despised by the people in Jesus’ audience, actually helps the traveler in an extravagant way. The latter helper is a real neighbor.

I was thinking about the questioner the other day. He asked the question because he was looking for limits to the statement, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But what if he had simple said, “I will!” And then he about the business of showing love to each person who crossed his path.

Because he was a teacher, the next time a student asked a question, he tried to understand how best to explain for this particular student. When he got home and his wife asked a question, he dignified the question and the questioner with his full attention. When he heard the hacking cough of the man next door, he took him soup (rather than avoiding contact for fear of being contaminated).

Perhaps the best way to understand the command is to experiment, not seek escape.