Here’s some Bible trivia for you: What is the first question that a human asks God in the Bible? I’ll give you some time to think about it…
Okay, time’s up. The first question that a human asks God in the Bible comes from Genesis 4:9. It’s when Cain asks, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Good question.
There is no answer immediately given because God quickly realizes that Cain has killed his brother Abel and punishes him for it.
To find the answer you have to keep reading through the rest of the Bible and on into the New Testament in order to truly learn how God wants us to treat and care for others. We read in the Gospels, in Paul’s letters, and in the other epistles the repeated command for us to “love your neighbor as yourself.” So if we are our own keeper, and we are supposed to love our neighbors as ourselves, then the answer to that first question is, “Yes, we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keeper.”
Now, is it easier to not care about any of our brothers or sisters, and only care about ourselves? Yes. Then we would only do what helped us, only support things that make our lives better, and not even bother listening to the struggles that other people endure. That would be a lot easier. And yet, we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keeper.
Now, would it be easier to only care about the people we like instead of all our neighbors? Yes. Then we could still think of ourselves as nice and compassionate people, but not have to bother with those who look different, think different, or live differently than we do. But Jesus said that if we only love those who love us back, what good is it? Everyone does that (Luke 6:32-36). Instead, we are supposed to love our neighbors and be our brother’s keeper no matter who it is.
Now that we’ve figured out that the answer to that ancient question is in fact yes, how can we apply it to our world today?
As we all see on the news, the two big struggles of our day are the coronavirus and racial mistreatment. So let us keep the answer to that question at the forefront of our minds when we think and hear about those issues.
When things are bad, people are hurting, and people are angry, it is tempting and easy to simply not care about them. But “am I my brother’s keeper?” Yes, yes we are. So what can we do to help them? What can we do to protect others from getting the coronavirus? Then let us do all those things, even though they are an inconvenience. And what can we do to make sure that our brothers and sisters of color are never mistreated or singled out? Then let us do those things, even if we had not thought about it before.
However we decide to live going forward, we can no longer echo Cain’s question, because we have read the rest of the story. Now we know that it’s not a matter of if we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keeper, but a matter of how we will show it.