Day 164: Luke 10:25–37

Just then an expert in the law stood up to test Him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (v. 25).

Scripture describes Jesus’ questioner as an expert in the law. His job was to interpret the law of Moses the way modern lawyers interpret the constitution. He considered himself such an expert that he intended to make Jesus look foolish. The problem is, you can’t find a subject on which Christ isn’t the ultimate expert. The expert in the law didn’t know that Christ knew the drill far better than he did.

So Jesus responded to him with a question that means little to us but was very familiar to the lawyer. He asked, “How do you read it?” This question was used constantly among scribes and lawyers. One would ask the other his interpretation on a certain matter. Before he would give his answer, he would say, “How do you read it?” This way, the one who asked the question ended up having to “go first.”

(Of course, you and I know what the scribe didn’t know. Christ not only wrote the law, He came to fulfill it. The resident expert in the law was way over his head when he threw a pop quiz at the author of the Book.)

Being forced to “go first,” the legal mind delivered the correct answer according to Old Testament law: “‘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’” (Luke 10:27). The conversation could have stopped when Jesus said, “Do this and you will live” (v. 28). Instead, the lawyer had to ask one more question: “And who is my neighbor?” (v. 29).

Do you hear a change in tone? The man wanted to justify himself—to show himself righteous—but why? Who said he wasn’t? Christ didn’t say a single condemning word to him. Jesus simply told him his answer was correct and to go live his answer.

But the man couldn’t let the matter go. In Christ’s presence, the lawyer felt condemned by his own words. He knew God intended for His people to help those in need. So the lawyer attempted to justify himself by splitting hairs with his definition of a neighbor. His immediate defense mechanism was to try to start an argument. Not an unfamiliar tactic, is it? We’ve all been experts at that one!

Jesus answered the man’s question with one of the most repeated stories in the New Testament, telling of a priest and a Levite on their way home to Jericho from Jerusalem who both ignored a man that had been beaten and robbed along the road. But the irony in their unwillingness to help would have been more obvious to the lawyer than to us. He would have quickly understood that they were on their way home from the most important life work they would ever do—performing their brief tenure of service in the temple. We would expect that at no time would they have been more humbled, grateful, or willing to meet someone’s needs. But that’s not what happened. In fact, both the priest and the Levite passed by on the other side.

The words of the law in Exodus 23 make the actions of the priest and Levite even more incriminating. Moses wrote, “If you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to take it back to him. If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help him with it” (vv. 4–5).

Don’t you praise God, though, for the third passerby in the scene? Our common name for this parable would have been an oxymoron to many Jews of that era. Most would have believed there was no such thing as a “good” Samaritan. They were considered little more than mongrels. Half-breed dogs. That’s precisely why Christ interjected the Samaritan into the play.

Scripture tells us the Samaritan saw the man and took pity on him. You would think that at least the priest and the Levite would have done the right thing because of their positions, even if they felt the wrong thing. In sharp contrast, the Samaritan came upon the scene with no obligation whatsoever, and everything within him was deeply moved with compassion. He didn’t just do what was right. He felt it.

Sometimes good at its best is when the law of the heart eclipses the law of the land. Stepping across a boundary to help is sometimes our first introduction to the commonality of humanity on the other side. Offering help in a time of need can be the first step to overcoming God-dishonoring prejudice.

Don’t forget the reason Jesus told the story. Whom did He say was our neighbor? I am reminded of an Old Testament verse that describes a neighbor at Passover. Because all of the lamb was required to be consumed at the Passover observance, Exodus 12 explains that a family was to share with their nearest neighbor if their household was too small for a whole lamb.

From Jesus’ parable we can see that our neighbor is the person with a need—the broken one. In terms of Exodus 12, our neighbor is one with whom we can share the Lamb. As people who have been passed over by the angel of death, we are called to share the Lamb.