Scripture Sunday: How Can I Show Mercy To My Neighbor?

Mark 12:28-34

​28 One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well he asked him, "Which commandment is the first of all?" 
29 Jesus answered, "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'
31 The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
32 Then the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that 'he is one, and besides him there is no other'; 33 and 'to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength' and 'to love one's neighbor as oneself' --this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."
34 When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." After that no one dared to ask him any question.


Hebrews 9:11-14

1 1 But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation), 12 he entered once for all into the holy place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!

The story of the greatest commandment unfolds differently in Mark than in the more familiar account in Luke. In Luke (10:25-37), an expert in the law asks, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus responds with the parable of the Good Samaritan, turning the question around by asking, “Who was a neighbor?” The scribe correctly answers, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus redefines “neighbor” as not just someone from our own community, but anyone to whom we extend mercy. It’s uncertain whether the accounts in Mark and Luke are separate incidents or different versions of the same story, but both passages guide us in understanding the heart of the greatest commandments and how they work together. Loving God and loving our neighbor means showing mercy to everyone (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)—a service that God values more than any burnt offering or sacrifice.

This perspective invites us to broaden our understanding of “neighbor.” When I step outside, my neighbors include not only the people in my building but also the maples, oaks, pine trees, squirrels, robins, and sparrows—each of us sharing the same space, all sustained by the breath of God. Jesus’ words in both Mark and Luke suggest that our focus shouldn’t be on “Who is my neighbor?” or “How much does God expect me to sacrifice?” but rather, “How can I be transformed by my love for God to show mercy to all around me?” Loving our neighbor extends to caring for creation, which, in turn, benefits our human neighbors by providing food, water, green spaces, safety, and shelter.

This weekend, we celebrated All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. Traditionally, All Saints’ Day honors saints or martyrs who have passed away and don’t have their own feast days, while All Souls’ Day commemorates all who have died. We can honor our neighbors by celebrating those saints who fought for climate action, assisted farmers, developed solar technology for villages, or established community gardens in their churches. While it’s debated whether animals or plants have souls, these days remind us to honor all lives that have been lost to extinction—usually due to our lack of mercy. Many species, such as the Yangtze River Dolphin, the Northern White Rhinoceros, and the Spix Macaw, have disappeared solely due to humans: overfishing, poaching, habitat loss, and illegal trade. Since 1900, nearly three species of seed-bearing plants have vanished per year—a rate 500 times faster than natural extinction. Remembering these losses isn’t only an act of grief and honor; it’s an opportunity for repentance and healing.

How do we move forward with the weight of this collective guilt, sadness, and pain for our mistreatment of our neighbor? One way is by remembering our High Priest, who “through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purifying our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!” Worship that pleases God, as we see, is grounded in love for our neighbor. In Jeremiah 12, it says, “Many shepherds will ruin my vineyard and trample down my field; they will turn my pleasant field into a desolate wasteland. It will be made a wasteland, parched and desolate before me; the whole land will be laid waste because there is no one who cares.” Similarly, in Genesis 4:10, Abel’s blood cries out from the ground, and Numbers 35:33-34 warns, “Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it. Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell, for I, the Lord, dwell among the Israelites.”
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These words could apply today, as the Holy Spirit dwells among us, yet the land is polluted by our sin. Through Jesus’ blood and His role as our High Priest, atonement is made not only for our sins but also to cleanse the land, embodying God’s mercy to all creation, every neighbor.



Caroline Hiler is a Seminary Intern at Creation Justice Ministries

https://climatechangeresources.org/learn-more/science/extinction/plants/

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