Luke 10:25-37
March 20th Devotional
On this day in 1928, Fred McFeely Rogers was born in Latrobe Pennsylvania. The Rogers family was very well known in the community. His father, James, was the president of a wealthy business in town and his mother was dedicated to helping the community, especially during World War II. Rogers's childhood was difficult. He was a quiet, reserved, and somewhat overweight little boy. He recalled many times when he was bullied. He dreaded going to school because of the taunting. He was very lonely as a child. His best friends were typically his stuffed animals. Rogers broke out of his introverted personality in high school. After high school, he would go on to graduate with a bachelor's in music and then a bachelor's in Theology. He became an ordained Presbyterian pastor in the 1960s. His desire to enter ministry stemmed from a burden to reach and teach boys and girls. Rogers found his greatest success in reaching the masses of children with television, though he originally hated television. He wanted to change how tv reached children. Through the 1950s Mr. Rodgers would work on multiple different children’s television sets, typically designing and creating puppets (many of these puppets would later be used in his television show). Rogers was offered a lead position with the Canadian Broadcast Corporation. This would be the first time he would physically stand before the television camera. In 1968 PBS brought the program over to their network. It would famously be named Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. Who can forget the famous whimsical opening jingle, Rogers changing into a sweater jacket, tossing off dress shoes for canvas shoes, and welcoming us to be his neighbor? The show aired from 1968 until 2001 (33 years), encompassing 895 episodes. Incredibly the set rarely changed, even the land of Make-Believe stayed relatively the same. Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood was unique because it didn’t just focus on education but instead focused on how a child felt and their social development. Rogers tackled tough issues like death, rivalry, depression, bullying, racism, and he even addressed JFK’s assassination in a way a child could understand.
Mr. Rodgers invited each of us to be his neighbor every week but he didn’t just invite us, he showed us how to be a good neighbor. Jesus spoke about how we can be neighborly too. In Luke 10 Jesus is asked by a religious leader on how to inherit eternal life and Jesus asked him what the greatest commandment was and the man replied, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your hearts, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27).” The man then asks the key question, who is my neighbor? Jesus proceeds with the story of the Good Samaritan. A Jewish man was robbed, beaten, and left for dead along the road. His countrymen ignored his suffering, but a hated Samaritan came by the scene, dismounted his ride, and proceeded to care for the man. He cleaned him, bandaged him, poured expensive wine oil on the stranger, and brought him to an inn. He told the innkeeper to take care of the man and that he would take care of the bill. The greatest thing that the Samaritan did was to show compassion, compassion in action. Our neighbors in the world are not just people we like or who are similar to us, or people we agree with, but everyone. How have you loved your neighbor this week? How have you shown compassion in action this week? Mr. Rogers said, “won’t you be my neighbor?” Who have you invited to be your neighbor?
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