Who is My Neighbor in Sport?

Jesus’ words are always impactful, wise, relevant, and timely. Often they are also very challenging if we contemplate them and deal with their implications. Among such challenging speech comes in the context of a lawyer’s snarky question in Luke 10:25-29.

And a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” ²⁶ And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?” ²⁷ And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” ²⁸ And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” ²⁹ But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

While the lawyer asked his question, “And who is my neighbor?” to justify himself, I would like us to ponder just that question. In the world of sport, who is my neighbor and what does it mean to love him or her?

The first people who come to mind are surely the coaches and competitors we seek to serve and to love. It’s also pretty easy to see one step beyond them to the support staff of athletic trainers, equipment managers, administrators, directors of operations, etc. If we look further still, we suddenly see the sporting officials, conference or league administrators, media, and even sports fans.

Remember Jesus’ challenge? Love your neighbor as yourself. It’s not that tough to love those with whom we connect well and find pleasant, but with those who annoy us, reject our service, or outright oppose us, it’s much more difficult. Jesus’ words are the same, love them as yourself.

Hang on, it gets tougher. To illustrate His point, Jesus tells the story of the good Samaritan. In so doing He makes a man of the Jews’ most hated ethnic group, Samaritans, the hero of the story. Amazing. Humbling. Challenging. Think of the people in and around sport you find hardest to love, or to even tolerate. Jesus says to love them as you do yourself. Ouch. Suddenly it’s very personal.

Let’s follow Jesus’ way and not the way of the self-justifying lawyer. Let’s love the men and women of the sporting world as Jesus calls us to.