Testing Jesus
On many occasions throughout his ministry, people tried to test Jesus. On one occasion, a lawyer approached Jesus with a question, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25) As he often does, Jesus responds to this lawyer’s question with a question of his own “What is written in the Law?” But he doesn’t stop there, he adds, “How do you read it?” (10:26). These two questions point out something that would have been obvious in first-century Palestine – the lawyer should already know the answer to this question. This was a Jewish lawyer; he wasn’t an expert in governmental law as we would expect a lawyer in the modern world to be, rather he was an expert in Jewish Law – the Torah.
Jesus simply responds by asking him what the Law, or the Torah, says on the subject. Adding the second question, “How do you read it?”, almost as if to say “you’re an expert in the Torah, you should already know.” Of course, the man did know. He goes on to identify what Jesus elsewhere calls the first and second greatest commandments, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27, Mark 12:30)
Jesus tells the lawyer that he is right and if he just does that, then he will live. That could have been the end of the story; he could have walked away encouraged at the affirmation of Jesus and determined to live it out, but he didn’t. Although the man knew the right answer, he was left troubled because he knew that he didn’t live up to it. Luke goes on to tell us that, in an effort to justify himself, the man asks a follow up question, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29). Let’s review Jesus’ answer.
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’” – Luke 10:30-35
Most of us are at least somewhat familiar with this story. We know that first-century Jews and Samaritans were actually quite hostile toward one-another. We know that Jesus’ Jewish hearers would have expected a Priest to be the most holy person in the story, and a man from the tribe of Levi (a Levite) would have also been seen as Holy as the tribe of Moses who was chosen by God to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt, the tribe that was chosen to carry the tabernacle, and the tribe from which all of the priests came. But both the priest and the Levite, having seen the man, walked by on the other side of the road.
But a Samaritan…
Jesus goes on introducing the only passerby who did the right thing, “But a Samaritan…had compassion.” The Samaritans and Jews’ were enemies. The Jews hated the Samaritans and the Samaritans hated the Jews. There was nobody in this story less likely to be compassionate toward a helpless Jewish man than the Samaritan, but Jesus chose him as the hero; he chose him to demonstrate what being a neighbor looked like. He chose the Samaritan as the compassionate neighborly one, so that he could respond to the lawyer’s question with another question, “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor who fell among the robbers?” (Luke 10:25)
The story paints the Samaritan as the only one who was a neighbor to the helpless man, but more than that, it flipped the prompting question on its head. Seeking to justify himself, the lawyer had asked, “who is my neighbor?”, but now Jesus was telling him to go and be a neighbor to everyone in his path, even his worst enemies.
This story takes us back to a central theme in Jesus’ life and teaching – loving your enemies (Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:27). Jesus call to love our enemies is all inclusive. There are no exceptions. We are called to love people no matter who they are, what they think about us, or how they treat us. There is no doubt that this is one of Jesus’ most radical ideas. Many have failed to live out this commandment over the last 2000 years, but it is just as necessary today as it was then. We need to stop asking “who is my neighbor”, and start asking “How can I be a neighbor?” Being a disciple of Christ has always meant loving those who don’t deserve it, just like Christ did for us.
“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us…For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” – Romans 5:8
