And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Luke 10:25
One of those “wise and learned” people, whom Jesus has just praised his Father for hiding things from, speaks up now. The question, we’re told, is intended as a test—not necessarily to trip Jesus up, but perhaps to examine him on his teacher bona fides. It may have been a question used in rabbinical school to qualify students for the next level: academic in nature. “What must I (or you, or anyone) do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus refers to the law. He always refers to the law (“I did not come to do away with it” (Matt. 5:17), because the law sketches a reality much broader than even its scholars suspect. In the so called Sermon on the Mount, he broadens it by exposition. Here, he uses a story—a story that has saturated the common vernacular so that everyone knows what a “good Samaritan” is, even if they’ve lost sight of the particulars or the origin.
Everyone knows, and the “go and do likewise” would be implied even if it wasn’t stated. This is how we are supposed to act toward our fellow men, and a Unitarian could preach that message as heartily as a Fundamentalist. An Evangelical could go a little deeper: This is how we express our love to God. But deeper still: This is how God expressed his love for us.
Jesus, as rejected as any Samaritan, comes upon me lying by the roadside, beaten and robbed by the merciless bandit Sin. Though the legalists and the hedonists have passed me by, he stops. Coming down from his secure perch, he cleanses my wounds with oil and wine, covers me with his cloak of righteousness, carries me to a place of refuge, and entrusts his church with my care: “Provide her with companionship and encouragement and meaningful work until I come back. I’ll make it up to you, and then some.”
Who is my neighbor? Once we understand what our own Good Samaritan has done, we shouldn’t even have to ask the question.
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For the original post in this series, go here.
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