Two Important Questions Luke 10:25-37 Most of Jesus’ teaching on the way to Jerusalem was to prepare His disciples for the work they would do after He ascended into heaven. Discipleship involves a way of life, not merely doing incidental things to benefit others. This incident, which is included in all the Synoptic Gospels, is given a different emphasis in the Gospel of Luke. The hostile rejection of Jesus and His disciples by a village in Samaria demonstrated the enmity between the Jews and the Samaritans.
Samaritans were those from the northern ten tribes of Israel who were the first to be conquered by the enemies of the children of Israel. The practice of the Assyrian conquerors was to take some of the Jews and scatter them throughout the whole empire so they would lose their unique identity. They also would move people from other conquered lands into Israel to mix with the Jews until their offspring would lose their tribal ties. Jews from Judea looked down on those Samaritans as half-breeds who had rejected Judaism and its legal standards and had their place and practices of worship.
This passage of scripture probably deals most precisely with the subject of racism. The purpose of the Holy Spirit in Luke’s account was to emphasize the necessity of those who preach the Gospel and teach believers not to allow cultural, social, ethnic, or racial differences to limit our outreach with the Gospel. The problem of spiritual need in every human being crosses all man-made barriers, and we are here to proclaim divine truth to “make disciples of all nations.” That goes beyond the common idea of a “good Samaritan” helping needy people overcome a present problem. Some people do good deeds every now and then, but the objective should not be that we can feel good about ourselves for doing something good.
The lawyer who stood up to “test Jesus” was from outside the group of disciples. He didn’t seem hostile toward the Lord Jesus Christ, but as an expert in the law, he would likely consider himself more professional than normal scribes. He likely had a more polished attitude. The Lord accepted his two questions as reasonable and deserving of a good answer to clarify what eternal life is and our attitude toward people. Perhaps there was even a bit of rapport in this conversation, even though the lawyer tried to trap Jesus into saying something he could challenge. His question was one that most people ask sometime in their lives, and to a law-keeping Jew, they would normally expect an answer like, “Keep the law of God.”
Skillfully, the Lord took control of the incident and returned to what the law says: “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” In other words, “What does God say? Do you understand what the law means?” The lawyer's offensive challenge to Jesus turned into a defensive challenge to the lawyer.
Engaging in a dialogue about spiritual truth should not be allowed to become an argument because no one wins, and the distance between the opinions and the people involved becomes greater. Look for a way to get to the basic issues that require careful thought and serious consideration of the whole matter. The Holy Spirit instructs us at such times as to what to say and how to say it in a way that is suitable. There are some things we cannot plan ahead for as we would prepare a Sunday School lesson or a message to preach in a Gospel meeting. We need to have the word of God in our hearts so that when a person asks a reasonable question, even though they may want to trip us up, we are ready to respond appropriately.
The lawyer’s first question raised the most important issue in humanity. “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” That is a reasonable and important question that deserves a reasonable and clear response that cannot be mistaken. The Lord Jesus immediately asked the lawyer to go back to what God said and say what he already knew out loud. This is a different emphasis of the account of a similar incident in Matthew 22 and Mark 12. To inherit something is to receive it from someone else and then to have it for yourself as the owner. This man either knew he didn’t have eternal life or thought it could be earned due to doing something rather than receiving it as an inheritance. He didn’t grasp what he professed to know as a lawyer.
Jesus’ very simple response was to ask the lawyer what he knew about the law of God and its requirements. That would have been easy for him to answer like the Lord Jesus did in the other two Gospels. The point the Lord was about to make unmistakably was that the man already knew what God required but did not want to do it. He knew the words of the law as an ethical principle but didn’t have a relationship with God that underlies all ethical and godly behavior. The lawyer combined the two parts of the law into one precise statement, similar to what the Lord did in the two other passages that deal with the same issue. Love for God involves knowing Him as a Person and in a personal way.
It is possible, and quite common, to know what is right and yet know we are not doing what we know is right. Knowing what the Bible says is one thing. Believe it and practice it in obedience to God is quite another. We can know God and know what He wants us to do with our lives, but if we don’t do it, we will still not get the blessing of the Lord that makes us rich and adds no sorrow to it.
The lawyer who had wanted to test Jesus was being tested himself, and he knew he was not doing well on the test. Even though he knew the right answers, he didn’t want to feel guilty because he knew his love for God was lacking. He loved himself more than his neighbors or wouldn’t have asked the second question. To love God perfectly is very hard, and the people around me know if I love my neighbors as I love myself. Loving God is more than behavior or a code of conduct by which we live. It is a spiritual relationship that affects everything I do.
Loving one’s neighbor is more than an ethical practice. The principle behind the practice seemed to be what the lawyer couldn’t understand. Perhaps he didn’t want to know the answer if his second question was just an off-the-cuff comment. Jesus clearly understood the man's actions and why he was asking the question. The Lord saw right through him and stated, “You have answered right. Do this, and you will live.” Divine perception exposes everything about us.
To defend himself, the lawyer tried to cover his embarrassment with the second question, “And who is my neighbor?” By giving His answer in the form of a parable, Jesus explained in a different way what He had taught His disciples in chapter six. To the lawyer, the topic of who my neighbor was was simply a matter to be discussed. The Lord Jesus, in the story He told, made it into a life principle to be practiced.
For our learning, we can identify the man going down to Jericho as a type of every person who has sinned and is being led farther down the road of sin by the enemy of souls who leaves people half-dead. The devil seeks to exploit every person in whatever way possible to keep them from going up to God. The priest who passed by on the other side saw the wounded man as a problem to avoid. Religion has produced a whole lot of people who look at Christianity merely as a philosophy with some good points in it that we should practice to be “good people.” Be nice, kind, tolerant, and loving to everybody, but don’t get involved with anything that might jeopardize your position and prosperity. The Levite looked at the wounded man as an object of curiosity but not as someone he would allow to interfere with his life and interests. He would be concerned about ritual purity and what others thought about him. He didn’t want any interruptions of the status quo.
The Samaritan who stopped tended to the man’s wounds, gave him some medicine, and used his donkey as an ambulance to get the wounded man to a place of safety, and helped is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is also an example of what God wants us to be. He was willing to leave heaven and come where we were “in our want and shame, and He saved us, blessed be His name.” Even though we were enemies of God by nature and practice, God gave His only begotten Son to save us from our sins; He loved us unto death, “even the death of the cross.” He will keep us and care for us to the very end of life. Then, He will take us to heaven to be with Him forever.
Many people who hear the Gospel and know what is required, “repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ,” have their own opinions. They want their own way, reject what is true, and reject the Lord Jesus Christ. The lost and helpless in this dark, ungodly world that rejected the Lord Jesus can still come to Him and be saved. Far more than just going out of your way to do good for someone is to bring them to the place of safety in Christ. For us to think that helping someone out of a jam is what being a good Samaritan means is not understanding what the Lord was teaching. We have to cross all barriers that separate people, whether they are racial, religious, or cultural, and move into the place of their real need as a representative of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We can learn about and practice these principles when we love our neighbor. Lack of love is never right. We may seek ways to justify our lack of action or association with lost souls, but there are none. Also, our neighbor is anyone who needs us, not just those on either side of us. We should be neighborly to them regardless of race, creed, nationality, or social standing. Loving our neighbor also means taking action to meet known needs wherever we live or wherever we know needs are.
The lawyer knew the right answer. We wonder where he went then and what he did in response to the instructions of the Lord Jesus. “Go and do likewise” is not complicated or hard to understand. What people do with the truth will determine their destiny. When believers act on God's words, the Spirit guides them into all truth. He will reveal Christ to them and will teach them what to expect in the future. The fundamental issue of all the Lord taught in this parable is, “Am I willing to do what I know is right? Am I willing to meet the needs of others at my cost? Do I really love the Lord my God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength, and with all my mind, and my neighbor as myself?” If I haven’t, then I must start doing so right now!