A lawyer, one who interprets Old Testament law (a scribe), arrogantly stands up and asks Jesus, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (10:25). Although this is a very deep question, the scribe meant for his inquiry to “test” Jesus’ knowledge of the law and hopefully expose His lack of authority; however, instead of answering the man’s question, Jesus responded with His own question saying, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” (10:26) Since this lawyer was a supposed expert in the law, Jesus figured he could answer his own question so the lawyer took this opportunity to express his own thoughts regarding the way to eternal life saying, “‘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’” (10:27). Jesus informed the interpreter of the Old Testament law that he had answered correctly (10:28). Some reading this may consider Jesus’ answer alarming. How can anyone perfectly love God and others in all things? If these are the requirements of inheriting eternal life, no one will be able to enter into it. This is exactly the point Jesus is seeking to get across to the scribe. No one can perfectly keep the law because all of us have broken it at one time or another. Even James writes, “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10). The slightest infraction of the law is considered breaking the whole thing. The major problem with the religious people of Jesus’ day was that they were unwilling to admit their sinfulness before God and their need for forgiveness from the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ (Genesis 3:15). Rather than admitting their sin, they sought to justify themselves through external expressions of good deeds thinking God would have favor on them. Although God desires His followers to express themselves through good works, these deeds can never justify them in the sight of God. Being declared free from sin required the death of the sinner; however, Jesus came to earth in order to take the punishment on behalf of the sinner and those who repent of sin and believe in Jesus can be released from the power and penalty of sin (John 3:16, 36; 2 Corinthians 5:21).
The lawyer, wanting to defend his own righteousness, asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor? (10:29). Jesus could have answered the man’s question directly, but decided to tell a parable instead. The parable He told is known as the parable of the good Samaritan where a man was traveling the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, but was beat up and left for dead by some thieves along the way (10:30). Jesus tells of three people who passed by the man who had been robbed. The first two were religious men, but they passed by the half dead man without stopping to help (10:31-32). The third person to pass by was a Samaritan (whose nationality was despised by the Jews), but he stopped to help the man who had been left for dead (10:33-35). This would have been scandalous for Jesus to insinuate that a Samaritan was more compassionate than a Jew. Jesus probably had two applications of this story in mind. First, everyone is our neighbor and worthy of being shown love. Secondly, Jesus is much like the Samaritan man (rejected by others) who showed compassion to the hurting when others ignored those who needed help.
The question Jesus asked the lawyer is a question we must also answer ourselves, “So which of these three [men] do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” (10:36). The answer was obvious and the scribe responded properly by saying, “He who showed mercy on him” (10:37a). Jesus then said, “Go and do likewise” (10:37b). All those who claim to follow Jesus have a great responsibility to show compassion to all who are around us, especially those who are in need. Who needs you to be a good Samaritan today?
Dear God, may I be a neighbor to all those who are in need.
