Luke 10:25-42

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
26 "What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"
27 He answered, " '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, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
28 "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
30 In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.
31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'
36 "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"
37 The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."
Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"
41 "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Points of Interest:
• ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’—this question follows nicely on Jesus’ comment to the seventy-two about paying attention to your own soul. This man, unlike the other teachers of the law we’ve seen, is not arguing with Jesus over the minutia of interpretation. He’s asking an open-ended, fundamental question.

• ‘What is written in the Law?’—even though Jesus outranks Moses (as we learned from the vision on the mountain), he doesn’t repudiate him. Moses’ laws are God’s guidelines to direct his people toward life. The very Law in which this man is an expert holds the answer to his question. So, Jesus wants to know what the man has found. The man picks out two commandments that seem to summarize what the Law is all about: love God (Deuteronomy 6:5), and love people (Leviticus 19:18). That these two commandments would be the most significant ones is not entirely obvious; the one from Leviticus particularly is sort of tucked away amongst many seemingly random, detailed instructions. So, the man shows some insight. He wouldn’t be the only law expert of the day to give this answer, though.

• ‘Do this and you will live’—this is probably a bit unexpected. I think the law expert was inviting Jesus into a debate. The teachers of the law had debates on topics like this one all the time. On this particular topic, different experts might argue back and forth about the relative importance of the ethical law and the sacrificial law: is it more important to love your neighbor, or to offer the proper sacrifices? When the expert chooses the ethical angle, he might expect Jesus to then give the best argument for sacrifices, rather like the rules in a high school debate tournament. The law expert thinks of Jesus as a debate partner, but Jesus thinks of himself as a doctor; he’s giving the lawyer a prescription for eternal life.

• ‘But he wanted to justify himself’—the simplicity of, ‘do this and you will live,’ embarrasses the man. He needs to show Jesus that the question is a lot more complicated than Jesus indicates.

• ‘who is my neighbor?’—now the man starts to sound like the other teachers of the law. What exactly is a neighbor? How many doors down does the definition of neighbor extend?

• ‘he passed by on the other side’—this is not as callous as it sounds. To touch a dead man would make them ritually unclean, which would make them temporarily unable to do their jobs. Of course, the chance of saving someone’s life is worth such a temporary disruption. As Jesus said regarding the Sabbath, ‘Is it better to do good or to do harm?’ (Luke 6:9).

• ‘But a Samaritan’—Jesus compares the most spiritual Jews—the priests and Levites—to a heretical Samaritan. The priest and Levite might know the Law better than the Samaritan. But that’s not the point. Doing it is what leads to life.

• ‘he took pity on him’—the Samaritan sympathizes with the man, rather than thinking about the hassle helping him will cause.

• ‘and took care of him’—this Samaritan is an illustration of doing good to those who hate you. He’s a Samaritan who goes out of his way to help a Jew.

• ‘Which of these three do you think was a neighbor?’—the lawyer’s question is, basically, ‘Who am I required to love?’ Jesus turns it around: If loving your neighbor is the way to life, then go out and find some neighbors to love, even if it means making a stranger or an enemy into a neighbor.

• ‘Martha was distracted’—it’s possible to take hospitality too far. Martha gets so embroiled in her duties as a hostess that she spends no time with Jesus and she gets angry at her sister—that’s pretty far away from loving God with your whole heart and loving your neighbor as yourself. Jesus accepts people’s hospitality because it’s a great way to spend time together. It doesn’t work if Martha is so intent on throwing the perfect party that she’s busy and worried.

Taking it home:
• For you and your family: Make sure that you go out of your way to love someone else today (or tomorrow if you don’t read this until late in the day). At the end of the day, share your stories with your family, your roommates, or a friend. Jesus says that loving the people around us is a way to experience eternal life. Do you feel like your life is more abundant, more real, or just plain better in some way because you loved a neighbor? Whether or not that’s true, talk to Jesus about your experience.

• For your friends: Pray for your friends too, that God would give them better, more rewarding lives as they go out of their way to love other people. Jesus says that if we do these things, we will, in fact, live.

• For our city: Ask God to save our city from busyness and worry. Pray that the people of our city would have richer, fuller relationships with one another and with God. Pray that God would give us the power to remove distractions that get in the way of good relationships.