My Brother's Keeper

I was recently reading an article by the executive director of the Birmingham Jewish Federation in which he wrote "all Jews are responsible for one another, we are taught."  Ummh, I thought how interesting.  My mind quickly took me to the age old question that Cain asked the LORD.  The LORD asked Cain where was his brother Abel.  Cain answered the LORD's question with a question -- "am I my brother's keeper?"

Am I my brother's keeper?  My response is probably not unlike your response.  Who is my brother?  How I answer the first question is dependent upon my response to the second question.  Ummh ... my third question -- so what does keeper mean?  The Hebrew word means to watch, guard, observe. The sense of the root of the word means to exercise great care over.  Ummh, more questions ... am I responsible for my brother ... how responsible ... to what degree am I really responsible for my brother?

Am I my brother's keeper?  Why can't the answer be simple and easy?  Why do I have to be concerned about those outside my house, my family, my circle?  Why do my brothers sometimes have to be so far away, so different from me, so coarse and crude and unkind and unkempt and unworthy and undeserving?  I must look to the Word, to Jesus' teachings, for my answers. Could my brother be a complete stranger like the one the Samaritan helped (see Luke 10:30-37)?  Am I expected to do all of that for a complete stranger?  Is Jesus serious when He says "whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me" (see Matthew 25:45)?  In verse 40, Jesus gives the reverse: "whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

What say you?  Are you your brother's keeper?