Good Samaritan

Teacher what shall I do?

In this passage we find a parable. What we know about parables is that they often do not answer our questions but make us participate in the answer. 25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Lk 10:25. Why do you suppose the lawyer wants to put Jesus to the test? First of all the lawyer would have been interested in the law and not grace. How would you explain to someone how to gain salvation through works and the law?

English Standard Version Chapter 10

26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”

Jesus , instead of just answering the lawyer asks him the questions about the law, what is written? But then takes it a step further, how do you read it? or basically what is your understanding(interpretation)? As a student of the Bible my professors were always asking us to give our understanding of scriptures. Why is it important that we understand the meaning of scriptures? Can we just believe and move on?

The lawyers answer to Jesus was a good answer and Jesus commends him for this answer, but is this the final word? 27 And he answered, “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.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Lk 10:27.

English Standard Version Chapter 10

28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

Somehow life and life’s answers are never as simple as a one sentence quote are they. This lawyer then tries to justify himself. What does this mean? It means that if you can do this, verse 27, you will live, but somehow you will fail. The failure here is somehow identified as who is my neighbor? In other words we tend to want to narrow down our responsibilities. The man asks, And who is my neighbor?” We love because he first loved us.

Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), 1 Jn 4:19–21.

How then do we love? Did Jesus simply ignore the sin? Mercy seems to be the answer.