During cross examination, an experienced attorney was taking great delight in forcing witnesses to admit that they did not remember every single detail of an automobile accident. While the lawyer knew that no witness has a perfect memory, he was skilled at exploiting minor inconsistencies in order to challenge the credibility of honest witnesses.
After a series of scathing questions, he was looking forward to badgering yet another witness. “Did you actually see the accident?” he asked. The witness responded with a polite, “Yes, sir.” “How far away were you when the accident happened?” “I was thirty-four feet, seven and three quarter inches away from the point of collision.”
“Thirty-four feet, seven and three quarter inches?” the lawyer asked, sarcastically, “Do you expect us to believe that your memory is so good, and your sense of distance is so precise, that months after the accident you can come into court and give that type of detail?”
The witness was undaunted. “Sir, I had a hunch that some obnoxious, know-it-all lawyer would ask me the distance, and would try to make it seem like I was lying if I could not give an exact answer. So I got a tape measure, and measured out the exact distance.”
Lawyers have a reputation for finding loopholes! They often twist words and exploit technicalities to gain legal advantage. This is one of the reasons why lawyers are the bane of so many people’s existence today. But this is not just a modern phenomenon; it even goes back to biblical times. In today’s Scripture reading, Luke tells us the story Jesus’ encounter with a savvy lawyer.
A Lawyer’s Question (25-28)
While Jesus was still journeying from Galilee to Jerusalem, he ran into a Jewish lawyer, or shall I say, the lawyer ran into him. This expert in the Law of Moses was no doubt seething with suspicion because Jesus had quickly gained notoriety as a brilliant Bible teacher. To the lawyer’s credit, he probably just wanted to protect his community from a potential false teacher. (Believe me, if Joel Osteen ever came to Franklin, I would have some hard questions for him.)
So, when he finally met Jesus face to face, he posed a question to test Jesus’ theology. He reached deep into his lawyer’s bag of tricks and disguised his question as a request for advice. “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” is certainly an important question, but he was being manipulative. He wasn’t really interested in eternal life; he wanted to engage Jesus in a debate.
Has this ever happened to you? Has someone ever asked you a question and you knew that they weren’t really interested in the answer. They ask things like, “What do you think about…?” or “What would you do if…?” But they were just testing your reaction. Have you ever felt cross examined in casual conversation?
Well, this lawyer had no idea who he was dealing with. Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. He was the smartest and wittiest man in the world. Jesus was about to turn the table and test the tester. Instead of diving into a senseless debate, Jesus answers his question by asking another question. (Elie Wiesel, the famous Jewish writer and novelist was once why Jews often answer questions by asking another question? To which Wiesel replied, “Why not?”) (Peterson 38)
Jesus asks him how he would answer his own question: “What is written in the law? How do you interpret it?” The lawyer quoted two passages from the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 6:5 says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and all of your strength and all of your mind.” Leviticus 19:18 says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The conflation of these two verses forms what is commonly called “The Great Commandment” because it summarizes the Ten Commandants in a single sentence. Jesus gave the lawyer an “A+” for his answer! Bravo! You passed the test! “Do this, and you will live!”
The lawyer’s question ought to make all of us stop and think for a moment. Even though the lawyer was just using this question to test Jesus, I don’t think there has ever been a more important question asked than this. How does one inherit eternal life? How can we know for sure that we will go to heaven after we die? I’m sure that every one of us has asked that question at some point in our lives. How would you answer that question?
Many people answer this question with the common clichés “Be a good person! Live a moral life! Obey the 10 Commandments! Try to do the right thing! Do random acts of kindness! Read the Bible! Go to church! And so on!” Don’t get me wrong, these are all good things and we should do them, but none of them saves our souls or earns us eternal life! Which one of us really loves God with everything we have? Which one of us really loves our neighbor as ourselves?
Jesus was giving a legal answer to a legal question. We can inherit eternal life if we live a perfect life! But that is the problem, none of us have lived perfect lives; we have all sinned and fall short of God’s glory. Jesus was laying down an impossible challenge designed to drive sinners to seek a Savior. The only way to receive eternal life is to admit that we are helpless and accept Jesus’ free gift of grace. (Ryken 539)
Looking for a Loophole (29)
Well, the lawyer never got that far with Jesus. He actually got tripped up on the second half of the Greatest Command. He was fine with the part about loving God, but when it came to loving his neighbor, he felt uneasy. So, like any lawyer worth his salt, he began looking for a loophole. He tried to justify himself by asking Jesus the copout question, “Who is my neighbor?” This question reminds me of Cain’s question to God after he murdered his brother Abel. He asked, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
When we think about the ethical demands of the kingdom of God, I suppose most of us are like this lawyer. We are OK with the loving God part, but we get hung up on the loving our neighbor part. We pray, “Lord, if there is any way to get around loving this particular neighbor, please let me know.” So, instead of just loving people who are hard to love, we like to play a little game of “Who is My Neighbor?”
Neighborly Love (30-37)
Well, Jesus wasn’t really into playing these types of games, but he was into telling stories. So, instead of answering the lawyer’s question directly, he tells one of his most famous parables: The Parable of the Good Samaritan. It goes something like this: A man was walking along the dangerous road between Jerusalem and Jericho, where he was mugged by a gang of thugs. They took his money, stripped his clothes, beat him into a bloody pulp, and left him on the road half dead. Now by chance a little while later, the man heard footsteps approaching him. He was barely able to lift his head and look through one eye to see that it was a priest, a holy man of God. He thought to himself, “Praise God, certainly this priest will help me.” But for some unknown reason, the priest promptly passed by on the other side of the road and kept walking. A little while later, the man heard footsteps again. This time it was a Levite, a layman coming from the local church. The man opened his swollen eyes again and whispered, “Thank you Lord for sending this Levite to save me.” But the Levite crossed to the other side of the road and hurried by, and the man’s heart sunk again.
Before we finish the story, let us pause and reflect for a minute. Like everyone who reads this story, we are horrified by the callous posture of the priest and Levite. Of all people, they should have helped the Samaritan, right? Well, Jesus doesn’t tell us why the priest or Levite didn’t help the man, so let me defend them a bit. Maybe they didn’t help the man because they didn’t know him. It is awkward helping someone you don’t know. Maybe they didn’t help him because they were in a rush. It is hard to stop and help someone when you have a deadline to meet. Maybe they didn’t help him because they didn’t have enough money to care for him. You can’t fault them for that! Maybe they didn’t help him because they were afraid they would be attacked too. You can’t expect someone to act when it might put them in danger. Or maybe they didn’t help because they were paralyzed by confusion. They simply did not know what to do!
Well, I hope this line of defense has perturbed you a bit. I raise these ridiculous reasons with a sense of sarcasm, but I have heard people today use every one of these excuses for not helping someone in need. I hope none of us will ever do this!
Sometime later, the man heard footsteps again, but this time he didn’t even have the strength to lift his head or open his eyes. Had the man looked, he would have been utterly shocked. It was a filthy half-breed Samaritan. But the Samaritan put his racial and religious differences aside, and he treated the man’s wounds, set him on his donkey, took him to a nearby clinic, and even paid the medical bill.
After Jesus finished his story, he asked the lawyer, “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who was mugged.” The answer was obvious, but notice how the lawyer responded in verse 37. He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” He couldn’t even bring himself to use the word “Samaritan.” The racial and religious tensions were too deep. But Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
Wow! What a powerful story! The point is crystal clear: every human being is our neighbor. Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians are our neighbors. Buddhists, Jews, and Muslims are our neighbors! Homosexuals, transsexuals, and sex offenders are our neighbors! Republicans, Democrats, and Bernie Sanders are our neighbors! Illegal aliens and Donald Trump are our neighbors! Unborn babies, abandoned children, and people with disabilities are our neighbors! Even lawyers are our neighbors!
Allow me to conclude by telling you a story of my own. It is about the first black man I ever met. Most of you know that my mom died when I was four years old. That was 33 years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday. I remember seeing her body lying in the casket at the funeral home. Her eyes were closed and face was pale. I cried as I kissed her cheek and said goodbye. Even at such a tender age, I knew that she was gone and that I wouldn’t see her again. It was a sad day for all of us.
Later that afternoon, when the funeral was over, my sister and I went home with my dad and continued to process everything. A number of people had stopped by to drop off food and offer their condolences. A while later I heard another knock on the door and I went out to see who it was. There stood an old black man holding two brown paper bags. Living in a very white town, I had never seen a black person before. I just kept looking at his skin. I wondered if he was made out of chocolate, but I was too afraid to ask.
He spoke to my Dad for a few minutes and then my Dad said, “Kids, this is Mr. Whitfield and he has something for you.” He knelt down and gave my sister and me a big hug. He handed each of us a bag with our name written on it in black magic marker and he said, “Jason and Amy, I know that your mom has passed on and you must be really sad. I just wanted to get you something to try to make you feel a little bit better.” And when I looked into bag and saw that it was filled with candy bars, lollipops, baseball cards, and toys, I did feel a little bit better!
Years later, I learned that Mr. Whitfield was the patriarch of the only black family in our community. He had been the victims of racism many times. On one occasion, crosses were even burned on his front lawn. But do you know what, racism never stopped him from being a Good Samaritan to two little white kids who just lost their mother.
Jesus says, “You go, and do likewise!”