Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

 

 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?"  Then Jesus answered and said, "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.  Now by chance a certain priest came down that road.  And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.  Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side.  But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was.  And when he saw him, he had compassion.  So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.  On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.'  So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?"  So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.  On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.'  So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?"  And he said, "He who showed mercy on him."  Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

 

- Luke 10:25-37 

 

Yesterday we read that the seventy apostles returned from their first mission with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name."  And He said to them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.  Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions , and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.  Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven."  In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes.  Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.  All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him."  Then He turned to His disciples and said privately, "Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see; for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it."   

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."   Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18.

But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"  Then Jesus answered and said, "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead."   My study bible explains the parable by telling us that Jerusalem is the place of peace, symbolic of communion with God.  But Jericho, on the other hand, was a place renowned as one of sin (see 19:1-10).  To fall among thieves, it says, speaks to to the natural consequence of journeying away from God and toward a life of sin (see John 10:10). 

"Now by chance a certain priest came down that road.  And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.  Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side."  My study bible tells us that titles and positions are meaningless in the sight of God when the works of faith do not accompany them.  It quotes St. Cyril of Alexandria here:  "The dignity of the priesthood means nothing unless he also excels in deeds."  That both the priest and the Levite fail to help the man also indicates the failure of the Old Testament Law to heal the consequences of sin.  

"But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was.  And when he saw him, he had compassion."  My study bible explains that the Samaritan, who is a despised foreigner, is an image of Christ (John 8:48).  For Christ "came down from heaven," as it says in the Creed, to save even those who are in rebellion against Him.  

"On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.'  So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?"  So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.  On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.'"  My study bible tells us that the bandages, oil, and wine (all commonly used at the time for healing) are sacramental images.   They image, first of all, the garment of baptism, delivering us from the wounds of sin.  Second, the oil of chrismation which gives us new life in the Holy Spirit.  Moreover, in the wine is imaged the communion of the divine Blood, which leads to eternal life.  His own animal gives us an image of Christ bearing our sins in His own body, while the inn symbolizes the Church in which Christ's care is received.  Finally, Christ pays the price for that care (1 Corinthians 6:20, 7:23).  

"So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?"  And he said, "He who showed mercy on him."  Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."  Christ teaches us that being a neighbor is an active pursuit of living our faith in daily life.  Indeed, He gives us all the command to do so by saying, "Go and do likewise."

 

For many of us, it's hard not to reconcile the notion of the Good Samaritan with our modern notions against racism and other types of prejudice.  This is indeed important, as Christ would shatter many such restrictions in the way of thinking.  This is expressed possibly most clearly in St. Paul's Letter to the Galatians 3:28, when he writes, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus."  Within the Body of Christ, we are one.  But there is a deeper meaning to the parable of the Good Samaritan than a message about divisions between ethnic groups or other sorts of sources of group identity.  For that broader and deeper message, we need to turn to Jesus' parable about the Judgment, in which He separates the sheep and the goats, found in Matthew 25:31-46.  In that parable about the final judgment, Jesus separates the righteous from the others based upon their works of mercy produced by their faith.  The righteous ask Him, "Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?"  And Jesus says, "Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me."  In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus is also teaching along these same lines, advocating what it is to be a neighbor, and dissolving lines of ethnic or other divisions that meddle with identity within and among those who would be righteous.  He is emphatically teaching that it is righteous behavior -- those who show care and mercy as products of faith -- that deems a person a true neighbor.  He issues a command for each of us to "go and do likewise."  Note that this puts the emphasis on initiative by us, we who follow Christ's teachings.  We do not wait for another to define "neighbor" for us.  Neither do we take our cues from anywhere else but from our own faith.  In effect, it takes this perspective to cement in the teaching of Christ that to truly be righteous, one must both "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."  In Christ's understanding and teaching, faith and works are not separated into two distinct categories.  Rather, one must be a product of the other, and they go hand in hand.  To be a true neighbor requires real faith and love of God, and it also asks for the hands to express the heart that loves God in the world.  Let us note that the Samaritan did not search for a cause to prosecute, a party to support, or any other way to follow a social grouping based on an abstract preposition.  This is life as lived and experienced; he came upon the hurt man and responded as faith in God would call him to respond.  It is, in a sense, allowing God to present him with a dilemma and making a choice to do what is necessary to do with what is right in front of him.  It interferes with his plans, his interests, and what he had in mind.  But this is how life works.  God calls on us out of the blue, through things placed right in front of us to respond to, to make choices over.  I imagine the Samaritan had to ask himself what was more important -- and the heart responds with a course of action based on the choice made out of the love for God.  If we each look into our own lives, we will find God placing such options and choices before our eyes and hands all the time, in which circumstances compel us to make choices as to where our true identity and loyalties really lie.  For the Samaritan, helping this hurt man was at once more important than the needs of business, spending his time and effort and even laying out money to help with his care.  For each of us, choices will come out of the blue and force us to think about priorities and choose where our real identity and loyalty must be, for this is the way God works in our lives.  So where are you called today, and what choices do you have to make?  We should remember that our own identities really depend upon the answers we make -- the place we decide our true loyalty resides.