Luke 10:23-37
What Must I Do?
Trinity 13
September 10, 2017
Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID
“And behold, a lawyer stood up to put Jesus to the test, saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’” This question is at the heart of story of the Good Samaritan. This is so much a part of our culture that we have hospitals named after it, books, movies, morality. We even have a jingle, “Like a good neighbor.”
The lawyer was looking into some life insurance. What did he need to invest in for life? Even people today who don’t believe in heaven or hell ask this question, though in a different way. How can I make a mark in life through work, family. What legacy can I leave for the next generation? Will I be remembered? Fountain of youth? Download your memories into a computer?
Today, I’m not going to tell you to be a Good Samaritan. Instead, let’s look at what Jesus says in response to this question. Jesus does what He often does when asked a question, He responds with another question. “What is written in the Law?” Jesus says. The assumes that the Law is the way of life. This assumes that the Word of God is more than just information, more than just a story, but that the Word effects what is says. That the Word is creative, powerful, active.
One must read the Law as the book of God’s gracious election of His people despite their sins, and not as a “how to” book about earning merit before God. If one loses sight of the primacy of God’s , then the whole focus shifts from what God gives to the deeds people do.
And so the Lawyer answers, and he answers correctly quoting from Deuteronomy 6, “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.” There is no question about that, this is the Word of the Lord. He answers Jesus’ question correctly and Jesus affirms this. “Do this.” This is an eternal lecture and sermon preached and delivered to all people. This is the exact right answer. Love God, love your neighbor. Do this perfectly and without exception and you will earn eternal life. The problem is that no one who has ever lived has been able to do and continue to do this. It is an impossible standard, to be saved by the Law.
He tries to deflect attention away from himself by implying that the Law is the problem, that the Law is unclear. He thinks he knows better than what Christ can teach him. Looking for the way out, seeking to justify himself, he asks another question: Who is my neighbor? He seeks to limit God’s commands, to make the Law doable. Asking the question, “Who is my neighbor” implies there is someone who is not. The lawyer’s defensiveness comes from his knowledge that he has been put between a rock and a hard place. He knows that if he claims he does love God, he should then love his neighbor as well. To do otherwise is pure hypocrisy.
The dispute between the lawyer and Jesus is this: Jesus sees the Law as part of the God’s given means to eternal life, life which comes purely by grace through faith, which is active in love. The lawyer attempts, and fails, to justify himself by twisting the it into a legal system that would excuse him from showing love to others. The lawyer wants to justify his deeds of love and mercy; he wants to assert his own righteousness and his claim to deserve eternal life.
We never do this, do we? Never try to show how good of a Christian we are by following the Law, the rules. We never modify those rules when we come across something that seems too hard, too harsh, or too uncomfortable? We never try to twist God’s Word to make it a little more doable, a little nicer, a little more accommodating to the culture? Try to make eternal life something that we can get, something we can earn, something that we must “do.”
Jesus’ answer to such issues, and ultimately to the question of “what must I do to inherit eternal life” is the story of the Good Samaritan. He knows that the lawyer, as a good Pharisee, would view the priest and the Levite as the most lovable, and the Samaritan as the least. In the context of the story, it is the priest and the Levite who should be the most loving, the ones who out of anyone know and can do what they need to for eternal life. The Good Samaritan’s compassion is made clear in compassionate actions.
It’s all too easy to take what Jesus says and turn this into another moral story of how to be good enough for eternal life. I told you at the beginning I was not going to tell you to be like the Good Samaritan. If Jesus is simply telling this as an example, the effect of the parable is “try even harder.” How do I go to heaven? Well, what does the Law say? The lawyer answers correctly, love God and love your neighbor. He tries to be good, but he knows he’s not perfect. If the parable is just a moral of the story fairy tale, then the moral is just “try harder, love more.” But this does not give comfort, it does not forgive sins, it does not create faith, it is not the Gospel.
If you’re looking for who to love, that answer is everyone. But you’re not going to be saved that way. The Law is simply going to beat you up and leave you in a ditch to die. The only way you can be saved is not to go out and find neighbors to love, but to be found by the One who has mercy. That one is Jesus.
The point of this interaction is that you cannot earn your way into heaven. The Law’s demands do not bend and cannot be softened. They can only be met, but not by you, no matter how hard you try. They can only be met by God Himself, so God Himself comes down to earth to meet them and do this perfectly. Jesus loves God perfectly. He loves His neighbor perfectly. He justifies you, He drags you out of the ditch of your sin, cleans you up with the waters of Baptism, feeds and nourishes you with His body and blood, pays for your stay in life, and promises to return again.
You are the man left on the side of the road, and Jesus is the Good Samaritan. Jesus is the one who does mercy as neighbor. The lawyer says, “I will act to love my neighbor as myself, tell me who my neighbor is.” And Jesus responds, “You cannot act, for you dead. You need someone to love you, show mercy to you, heal you, pay for you, give you lodging, receive you. I am the one you despise because I associate with sinners, but in reality, I am the only One who fulfills the Law, who embodies the Torah, and who brings God’s mercy. I am your neighbor and will give you gifts of mercy, healing, and life. As I live in you, you will have life and will do mercy—not motivated by the Law, but enabled by My love.”
Like a good neighbor, Jesus is there. Jesus exposes us to what the kingdom of God is. It is a kingdom of mercy, of compassion, of forgiveness, of help for those who find themselves helpless when it comes to the law, unable to do it themselves and must rely upon this despised outsider. This is God’s primary characteristic. It is not that we keep the Law, though He certainly wants us to do this. The point of everything he is doing is not so that they would behave, but that they would be reconciled to Him. That they would receive Him in faith, and thus inherit eternal life.