"On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
"What is written in the Law?" (Jesus) replied. "How do you read it?"
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.'"
"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?""
-Luke 10:25-29
Most Christians know the parable that follows. Every Sunday school class says that Jesus then used the story of the Good Samaritan to explain that you neighbor is anyone in need, even your enemy. After all, it was the supposedly godly men who crossed the road to avoid the injured man but the Samaritan, a man who should have been glad to finish killing the injured Jew according to stereotypes, he was the one who tended to the Jew and paid for future tending for his injured enemy. The Samaritan was busy. He was on his way somewhere making an expensive trip when he saw an injured man. He didn't stop to see if the man was friend or foe. He didn't stop to check that the robbers were gone and it was safe to approach. Jesus says he took pity on the injured man and immediately poured wine and oil on the wounds. Then the man put injured stranger on his donkey and lead the donkey to the next inn. That was his donkey. He had brought it to make the journey easier on the man. Instead he walked so the injured man could be more comfortable and avoid injury. Then the Good Samaritan spent the rest of the day and all night at the inn caring for the man she should have seen as an enemy. He lost hours of his expensive trip taking care of a stranger and left a small fortune for the landlord to continue to treat the stranger. Children are taught that Jesus used the parable to show everyone how we should treat everyone we meet. Just being outwardly godly means nothing if you don't act loving to everyone.
A New Interpretation
My pastor today talked about another way to look at the parable, one that is often overlooked. Did you read the first verse I copied up above? The section started with an expert trying to trip up Jesus. He asked how to inherit heaven. Many people assume that Jesus was only answering the second question. My pastor suggested that Jesus was answering both questions. Look again at the answer to the first question. Love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind as well as love your neighbor as yourself. I don't know about you but I think it is hard to literally love God with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind. I have other things on my mind most days and I use a lot of my strength and mind to get through my days. I'm a very literal person so I don't believe God was speaking in metaphors. Nuns and monks can spend all day and night completely focused on God but most of the rest of us have bills to pay, activities we committed to, and deadlines that take our focus away from God for hours on end. How many times have you broken the Ten Commandments, even just in your head, today? Jesus used the Good Samaritan story to show us not just who our neighbor is but also how we get into heaven. Jesus is the man who finds sinners on the road, covered in the filth of our sin, and binds our wounds and shows us the way to heaven. The injured Jew had no way of deserving or repaying the Samaritan but he did it anyway. We can not earn our way to heaven, we are not capable of the perfect love Jesus and his disciples describe so much in the New Testament. We are not perfect. Jesus is. God brings our unworthy souls to eternal life because Jesus washed the filth of our sins off with His blood.
The sermon today was certainly something to think about and I wanted to share with you this new view of God's grace.
I love how music affects us and songwriters are so much better at saying what I wish I could say so here is a lovely song about God's unchanging love from Youtube.
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