Luke 10:25-37
“Who are we responsible for?” is one of the repeating questions asked in the human experience. It is an abstract, but important, question that we have to wrestle with. Many people engage in such a quest whether they have religious interests or not. Most of us sense that power and possessions are really meaningless life goals. Surely there is something more.
In this passage a theist asks Jesus how one can inherit eternal life. This Jewish lawyer knows that God exists and that he is accountable to that God, so his question is particularly focused: “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” If God exists, then the goal of life must be related to his purpose for us. To ask this question of the Son of God is the right person. The Lawyer knew what the answer should be, and when Jesus affirms that he got the answer right, he asks the wrong question, “Who is my neighbor?”
Luke comments that the Lawyer asks this question because he needed to justify himself. So, he had the correct answer but then reveals his wrong heart. Something was lacking. He needed to limit who he needed to love; he needed an excuse to limit his love.
How often do we comb through our excuses to find a good limit for our obedience to God? And in seeking how to limit our responsibly to love, we are in effect limiting our love for God.
Yes, eternal life is the gift of God to those that believe in Jesus Christ (John 3:16). Then as we come to the nature of living this gift from God, we are confronted with the expectation of conformity to the nature and will of God. This Lawyer wanted to escape his responsibility, how often is that our question too?
Pastor Greg
