Who is my neighbour? Luke 10:29 (NKJV)
The Lawyer and his Neighbour – Part 3
When we meet the Lawyer in Luke 10, we can assume that he had a good reputation in the community as an educated and helpful man. He was relied on to help interpret the law and as someone who could read and write. When he spoke up in the crowd that day and asked Jesus his questions, initially there would not have been an air of scandal.
At the same time, a lot of these men – lawyers, Priests, Rabbi’s, Sadducees and Pharisees – were trying to figure out who Jesus was and what agenda he had for travelling and teaching. We can’t always look at the people who asked questions and challenged Jesus as bad. These guys were trying to figure it out. Yes, some of them mistook Jesus for a rebel and a usurper… and he was ultimately killed for it. But many more listened to what he said, how he answered questions; they let his parables sink down deep and stir within their souls. Besides, arguing and questioning was a part of their religious tradition and history. It was not frowned upon.
However, we can assume by how he asked his questions that the lawyer was trying to test Jesus, trap him into taking sides and into revealing his agenda.
“Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Eternal life was not something the Jews talked about much. The Torah (the Jewish books of law comprising of the first 5 books of the Bible) barely mentions it. In fact, the Torah is more concerned with how you live in the here and now. Redemption wasn’t used as a hook to get you into heaven, but as a way to live a meaningful and impacting life here and now. So at the start, the question seems a little strange.
Besides that, the verb ‘do’ implies that this man was looking for a single action, a practical plan, a checkbox list of the things he could DO to inherit eternal life. Amy-Jill Levine says, “the question presumes eternal life is a commodity to be inherited or purchased on the basis of a particular action rather than a gift given freely.” (Short Stories by Jesus).
(A works based salvation is something I think we’ve all dabbled in one way or another…)
Picking up that this lawyer had an agenda, Jesus didn’t answer his question. Rather, he asked the Lawyer a question in return, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”
The divine does not lead us by demand and command… he reveals and guides, he encourages us to cultivate our understanding, to think and seek wisdom. We’re not robots, and he doesn’t expect us to behave like them.
The Lawyer replied the same way any Jew would. He recited Deuteronomy 6 & Leviticus 19, “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 neighbour as yourself.”
These were not new concepts. Way back in Leviticus and Deuteronomy and then later in Ezekiel the Jews were directed to love others and be kind to their neighbours. And neighbours didn’t just mean the Jew next door… it included foreigners and aliens who were living among them. It included people outside of their own traditions and values. They believed that love of God and love of neighbour was not only the highest teaching of the Torah but must also be manifested in action.
Clearly, the Lawyer knew this, and Jesus knew that he knew… the lawyer was looking for a different answer. He was seeking to justify his own internal value system. (How often do we approach God with this agenda? I know I do…).
“Who is my neighbour?” he then asked Jesus. And to ask who is my neighbour, is to ask “who is NOT my neighbour.”
He was asking:
Have the boundaries changed?
Are we still the elect?
Are there still some outside the realm of acceptance?
Can I still be better and ranked higher than another?
Can I keep my prejudices in your new world?
Do I have to BE someone, rather than DO something?
Go to Part 4 – A Priest, a Levite and a Man Left for Dead
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