Stories are powerful. They’re full of visuals, action, and characters we care about. We feel the characters’ pain, we cringe at their embarrassing moments, and cry with their grief.
Have you ever thought about why you feel so deeply for fictional characters? They’re not real, right? Yet, we cheer them and invest hours in reading or watching their stories unfold.
Stories can also teach us things. They’re one of the best ways we can experience new worlds or people who are different from us. Stories transport us to Ancient Greece. They allow us to walk beside a family torn apart during the Holocaust. They help us feel and learn from the stories of others.
A Man of Stories
Jesus also loved stories. In fact, he was a man of stories. As a rabbi, or teacher, he’d often use parables to guide his listeners to the truth. Parables, like any good story, have main characters and conflict.
Parables function as teaching stories. They engage an audience by making them reflect on their lives via the characters’ words and actions. Parables can contain metaphors and symbolic imagery, like the parable of the seeds in Matthew 13. Other parables are all action. The characters and their choices take center stage.
One of Christ’s most famous character-driven parables is the story about the Good Samaritan. I'll use this parable to frame a larger conversation about why caring for displaced people, like immigrants and refugees, is part of our calling as Christians. This parable will help us feel, see, and help our immigrant brothers and sisters.
In fact, take a moment to read or listen to the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37.
The Danger of Distance
As we read and reflect on Christ’s parable, there’s a danger we all face: Losing sight of very real people due to distance. The Samaritan and the man he helped lived thousands of years ago. Our immigrant brothers and sisters came from hundreds or thousands of miles away. Distance in time, geography, or racial backgrounds brings a sense of distance.
There’s a danger we all face: Losing sight of very real people due to distance.
Distance in any relationship dulls compassion and lessens communication with the other person. When there’s distance, something often fills the chasm between:
- Internal stories about the other person
- Insulation from their needs
- Silence
- Or worse, stereotypes or misrepresentations about them
The only way to cure this is closeness. Drawing near to them. Listening to them. Praying for them. Serving them.
We’re called to shrink that distance between ourselves and our immigrant neighbors. In a world that prides itself in treating others like outcasts, outsiders, and dangerous “aliens," Christians have a higher calling.
Think of yourself as a distance destroyer. Rather than pushing people away, love pulls them in. You get to be a part of that kind of love.
The Distance Destroyer
Jesus is the ultimate distance destroyer. He is the Son of God who “became flesh” and lived in this world to reconcile all people back to God (John 1:14). He dismantled the power of sin and death, making a way for all people to know and draw near to God.1
Jesus cured the distance between us and God through the act of reconciliation. This also creates one Church, regardless of one’s nationality. Before Jesus, all the Gentiles (all non-Jewish people) were separated from the promises of God. Listen to Paul’s words to a church filled with Gentile (i.e. non-Jewish) believers:
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
(Ephesians 2:12-18, emphasis mine)
Jesus made one body from a diverse set of parts. And now your story is part of this drama of reconciliation.
People are Living Stories
You’ve likely heard stories about immigrants rather than stories from them. Many of the stories about immigrants are dangerous and biased because they’re rooted in distance rather than community. We’ll address some of these false stories (or mis-stories) later.
Jesus made one body from a diverse set of parts. And now your story is part of this drama of reconciliation.
In some upcoming posts you’ll encounter stories and research from immigrants and Majority World scholars. I want you to grow your knowledge about immigrants from diverse voices so you’re empowered to shrink that distance. We'll also explore what the Bible teaches about immigrants and our responsibilities toward them.
Remember, people are living stories. Their stories are firsthand, sacred testimonies to their realities and God’s work in their lives. The story of the Good Samaritan will frame a Christian ethic of caring for the immigrant and challenge you to draw near to their stories. We’ll also apply the steps the Good Samaritan took to be a good neighbor.
Up Next
In the next post, we'll reflect on the lawyer's response to Jesus about loving God and loving one's neighbor.
- The immediate effect of Christ’s death was the Temple curtain being torn miraculously from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51). This curtain separated the Most Holy Place, where Gods presence dwelt above the Ark of the Covenant, from the rest of the Temple. ↩
