The true meaning of ‘Neighbours’

For some enthusiasts, it marked the end of a thirty-year love affair.

Some months earlier, when the announcement was made that Channel 5 were no longer willing to finance the venture, many devotees wondered how they would live without their regular visits to Ramsey Street. They were cheered, however, by the news that Kylie Minogue and Jason Donavon would make a special return visit for the final episode.

The programme ‘Neighbours’ may have finished but the message itself is timeless; for everybody really does need ‘good neighbours’. Sir Alex Ferguson famously described Manchester City football club as ‘noisy neighbours’.

Worse still are ‘neighbours from hell’, folk who through many selfish and thoughtless activities make life a nightmare for those on the other side of the garden fence.

‘The phrase ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’ highlights the fact that we don’t wish to be in any way inferior to those who live next door.

As Mark Twain once observed, ‘Each man is afraid of his neighbour’s disapproval--- a thing which, to the general run of the race, is more dreaded than wounds and death’.

Jesus once redefined the word ‘neighbour’. For him, a neighbour was not just the person close by, but anyone who was in need.

A lawyer once asked Jesus how he might inherit eternal life. Jesus tossed the question back, forcing the lawyer to state how he understood the Jewish law. His answer came straight from the book of Leviticus: ‘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 ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ (Leviticus 19:18 and Luke 10:27).

The lawyer did not wish to appear foolish by himself providing an answer to his own question, and in true legal form he asked for a definition; ‘And who is my neighbour? (Luke 10;29). The question gave Jesus the opening to recount the story we know as ‘The Good Samaritan’.

The story drew a contrast between the Jewish priest and Levite, uncaring towards the helpless victim of a mugging, and the compassionate Samaritan outsider. In response to Jesus’ question, the lawyer had to admit - perhaps through gritted teeth - that the Samaritan was the one who had acted in a neighbourly fashion, by showing mercy to the traveller who had fallen into the hands of thieves.

By telling that story, which may have reflected a slice of real life, Jesus did two things.

As one expert wrote, ‘Jesus struck racial prejudice a stinging side-long blow. He also defined a “neighbour” -- one who helps when and where he is needed, and who helps whenever he has opportunity to help, irrespective of rank, race or religion’.

Neighbourhood is co-extensive with humanity. ‘Go and do likewise’.