I figure if people who can help don’t, if they turn their backs on people who need help, then why’s it even worth being alive.”
–Jeffrey J. Mariotte (McKittrick Ransom)
“But You Yourself have seen trouble and grief, observing it in order to take the matter into Your hands. The helpless entrusts himself to You; You are a helper of the fatherless.”
–Psalm 10:14 (HCSB)
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“And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’
He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?’
So he answered and said, ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.’
And He said to him, ‘You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.’
But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?'”
–Luke 10:25-29 (NKJV)
The second greatest commandment according to Jesus: Love your neighbor as yourself. There are two issues in this wonderful parable: love and neighbor. What is love? Who is your neighbor?
Love is a greatly misused and misunderstood term. It floats around and is often expressed…hmm, but is it really? Gary Inrig writes, “The problem with a word like ‘love’ is that it is so easily cheapened. It is the word of the seducer and the word of the huckster, but also the word of the sacrificial parent and the marriage partner.” Martin Luther stated, “A Christian is someone who lives outside himself. He lives in Christ by faith and in his neighbor by love.”
Before trying to answer these two questions it is imperative that we get a background. There have been hundreds of sermons preached, many lessons taught about the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Too often they are used without looking at the questions brought forth by the lawyer. Attention must be given to his questions before going on to the parable. Ponder them again for they are pertinent questions: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” or as Barclay translates it, “possessor of eternal life” and, Who is my neighbor?”
First of all, notice the questioner is a lawyer, an expert in the law; that means the Jewish law therefore automatically invokes the idea of theology. He asks a legitimate, yet wrongly worded question. It is an important question, one that has been asked by millions through the ages, but he does not understand that “you can’t do something to inherit a gift. Inheritance is based on relationship, not achievement.” (Inrig)
Jesus asked the lawyer what he said and he answered rightly quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. The verse from Deuteronomy is the essence of Old Testament faith–“a heart relationship to God, which shapes every facet of life.” (Inrig) This first portion does not seem to be a problem for the expert, except maybe for the fact that he most likely expected Jesus to tell him to keep the law. The man does not really know how to answer when Jesus said, “Do this…” The man wanted to justify himself. The New King James Study Bible states that possibly, “The lawyer was looking for minimal obedience while Jesus was looking for absolute obedience.”
Briefly, a background of the thinking of the day regarding a “neighbor.” The rabbis would argue the term using it as a synonym for “brother” or “people.” They taught that one’s neighbor was a fellow Israelite. There was one rabbinical saying that ruled “heretics, informers, and renegades should be pushed into the ditch and not pulled out.” The Essenes required that a member of the community should hate “all the sons of darkness,” meaning even fellow Jews who were not part of their group. (Inrig)
In this world of hurt and need, of terror and evil where is the limit of love to my neighbor? Do I give money to every beggar and panhandler on the street corners? Who isn’t my neighbor? Who don’t I have to love? Is there a limit? I leave you to ponder and sometime next week we will look at the parable.
——————————–
“And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’
He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?’
So he answered and said, ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.’
And He said to him, ‘You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.’
But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?'”
–Luke 10:25-29 (NKJV)
The second greatest commandment according to Jesus: Love your neighbor as yourself. There are two issues in this wonderful parable: love and neighbor. What is love? Who is your neighbor?
Love is a greatly misused and misunderstood term. It floats around and is often expressed…hmm, but is it really? Gary Inrig writes, “The problem with a word like ‘love’ is that it is so easily cheapened. It is the word of the seducer and the word of the huckster, but also the word of the sacrificial parent and the marriage partner.” Martin Luther stated, “A Christian is someone who lives outside himself. He lives in Christ by faith and in his neighbor by love.”
Before trying to answer these two questions it is imperative that we get a background. There have been hundreds of sermons preached, many lessons taught about the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Too often they are used without looking at the questions brought forth by the lawyer. Attention must be given to his questions before going on to the parable. Ponder them again for they are pertinent questions: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” or as Barclay translates it, “possessor of eternal life” and, Who is my neighbor?”
First of all, notice the questioner is a lawyer, an expert in the law; that means the Jewish law therefore automatically invokes the idea of theology. He asks a legitimate, yet wrongly worded question. It is an important question, one that has been asked by millions through the ages, but he does not understand that “you can’t do something to inherit a gift. Inheritance is based on relationship, not achievement.” (Inrig)
Jesus asked the lawyer what he said and he answered rightly quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. The verse from Deuteronomy is the essence of Old Testament faith–“a heart relationship to God, which shapes every facet of life.” (Inrig) This first portion does not seem to be a problem for the expert, except maybe for the fact that he most likely expected Jesus to tell him to keep the law. The man does not really know how to answer when Jesus said, “Do this…” The man wanted to justify himself. The New King James Study Bible states that possibly, “The lawyer was looking for minimal obedience while Jesus was looking for absolute obedience.”
Briefly, a background of the thinking of the day regarding a “neighbor.” The rabbis would argue the term using it as a synonym for “brother” or “people.” They taught that one’s neighbor was a fellow Israelite. There was one rabbinical saying that ruled “heretics, informers, and renegades should be pushed into the ditch and not pulled out.” The Essenes required that a member of the community should hate “all the sons of darkness,” meaning even fellow Jews who were not part of their group. (Inrig)
In this world of hurt and need, of terror and evil where is the limit of love to my neighbor? Do I give money to every beggar and panhandler on the street corners? Who isn’t my neighbor? Who don’t I have to love? Is there a limit? I leave you to ponder and sometime next week we will look at the parable.