Mr. Rogers is one of the longest running programs in TV history. It ran nearly 900 episodes, from 1968 to 2001. And before filming each of these episodes, Fred Rogers would pray: “Dear God, let some word that is heard be yours.” And his most iconic words of all time heard far and wide might be: “Won’t you be my neighbor?”
The dictionary defines neighbor as: “A person near or next door to the person speaking.” And how we, God’s people, define neighbor is crucial. Jesus points to loving our neighbor as one of the two greatest commandments next to loving God. And twice in Luke we see him elevate the definition. Tonight we’ll look at Luke 10, how Jesus elevates the definition we often operate from, and mirrors Mr. Rogers’ question: “Won’t you be a neighbor?”