Imagine you’re at one of your semi-regular stops. Maybe the grocery store. Or maybe for you it’s a coffee shop or bar. If you’re my wife it’s Sonic. If you’re me it’s Taqueria Mexico. Now, imagine someone you’ve met, but don’t know that well, coming up to you and asking
I’ve head about Jesus. I know he was supposedly sent by God to save the world. How can I get to heaven and have eternal life?
What would you say? How can this person have eternal life? Odds are that your answer is some variation of the following:
- Believe in Jesus
- Trust Jesus
- Ask Jesus to be your personal Lord and Savior
- Pray for forgiveness
- Repent and be baptized
How did I do? Did I guess your answer? I bet I did. My answer is in there too. But here’s the thing…that’s not how Jesus answered when this very thing happened to him.
Jesus was with a group of people, and among them were some who knew a lot about Yahweh, the God of Israel, the God of the Bible. One man in particular was an expert in the Bible (or “Law”) as it was then, the five books of Moses, the historical books like Judges, Ezra, Nehemiah, the poetical and wisdom books like Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and all the prophets, from the “big” ones like Isaiah to the “little” ones like Amos. This man really knew it all very well. It’s likely he even had a lot of it memorized.
Well, this guy is listening to Jesus talking and teaching and something about it is eating at him. He wasn’t really listening to Jesus to understand him, but rather listening to judge what Jesus was saying. He was like a lot of people in the church. He finally had enough and suddenly he stands up (something which would definitely have caused everyone to stop and listen to him). He’s going to test Jesus, to throw him a question or two in order to expose him as a fake. He couldn’t believe Jesus was a real rabbi/teacher, after all, no one ever heard of Jesus and then out of nowhere he’s teaching and healing people and the whole region is talking about him. Jesus wasn’t one of the lawyers, he didn’t run in their circles, how could he possibly be qualified to teach about Yahweh?
Everyone turns and waites for him to speak. Jesus waits too.
Teacher, what can I do to have eternal life?
Jesus, recognizing this is an important question, not just for the lawyer, but everyone listening and everyone who would one day read about it, asks the lawyer to go further.
You’re a Bible expert, what do you think it says? What do you think is the answer?
The lawyer must have laughed to himself. Is this the best retort Jesus had? In his most pious delivery the lawyer relies,
You shall 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 your neighbor as yourself.
Jesus closes the challenge by getting the lawyer to answer his own question.
Yup. You’re right. To have the eternal life you’re after just do what you said.
But the lawyer’s thirst to look great in the eyes of the people could not be slaked. He couldn’t let it go,
And who is my neighbor?
This is where we come to it. Jesus could have said, “everyone you meet”. But he didn’t. Instead, he tells a story. The story of the “good Samaritan”. The story illustrates that the lawyer’s neighbor is, in fact, all he comes in contact with. I won’t go into the details, but the story really slaps the lawyer in the face and exposes his racism, prejudice, pride, and narcissism.
Here’s the point: The story of the good Samaritan is part of the answer to “how can I inhereit eternal life?”. The answer is to love God first and love your neighbor as yourself, and loving your neighbor looks like that parable.
Jesus’ answer is very different from ours.
Jesus is not saying you can earn your way to eternal life. But he is showing that following the great commandment, including extending mercy to our neighbors, is in the mix. He doesn’t simply tell us to believe the right things. He tells us to be the right sort of people. That’s the kind of change that the gospel brings. The gospel calls us to be free, to let go of our racism, prejudice, pride, and narsicism and embrace our neighbor.
I’ve been thinking about the people in my life who are those that have been robbed, beaten, and left in the ditch. George, the guy who sells the Houston Chronicle under the bridge at 59/Hillcroft on my morning commute. The guys that are passed out in the shadows next to him. They come to us for money and we shun them. They’re drunks. They’re drug addicts. They’re young and strong enough to get a job. They could go to Star of Hope or Open Door for help. They’re choosing to be out here. Paul said if you won’t work then you don’t deserve to eat.
I tell myself all those things.
But if the most grungy, diseased one of them came to me and asked, “how can I have eternal life”, I would stop the day. I would chunk my schedule, be late to work, spend my money, and follow up with him.
I’ve been asking myself these questions
Why am I this way? What’s wrong with my heart and thinking that because they don’t come to me on my terms I won’t help them. Why would I rather justify my callousness than risk sharing in the sufferings of my Lord? Perhaps I really am ashamed of the gospel. Perhaps I really am ashamed of Christ.
So, I’m praying for mercy. Not to receive mercy, but to be merciful. I’m praying for a change in my character, to be a man marked by mercy.
