To Encourage You

Luke 10:25-37 “And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the Law? How do you read it?’ And he answered, ‘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.’ And he said to him, ‘You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.’ But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’ Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denariiand gave them to the innkeeper, saying, “Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.” Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?’ He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘You go, and do likewise.’”

Do you want to know how to acquire eternal life?  Is this something you think about?  If you don’t, you surely should.  The gift of eternal life is the whole reason Jesus came to earth and gave his life on the cross.  While He walked this earth, He spoke of eternal life all the time.  He came at the issue from many, many angles.  One such case was in the story of the good Samaritan, which most people are very familiar with.  Many people think that the point of this story is to teach people how to care for other people.  However, that is not the main point of the story.  The story was given in response to this question from a lawyer: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life.” 

In giving this parable, Jesus points to the fact that many people that are religious, people like the priest and the Levite in the story, people who, like Jesus, were Jews, would not inherit eternal life. And why not? Because they did not fulfill the greatest commandment: “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.”  Then Jesus shows us the kind of person that fulfills this commandment.  In this parable the Samaritan, who was actually a religious heretic in that day, shows compassion to a man in need.  He goes to him, meets his every need, and then goes above and beyond that, agreeing to even go in debt, if need be, to pay for the man’s needs if they were greater than he knew at the time. There were no limits to the love he showed this man – absolutely none.  So, the story tells us that all we have to do is be like this Samaritan – all the time – to everyone, even our enemies, and we will inherit eternal life. 

So, who does this?  Who loves anyone like this?  Well, the answer is, we do love someone like this, but it isn’t our neighbor.  It is our self.  We will spare no expense to meet our own needs. We will seek the best health care. We will make sure we have enough food.  We will do all we can to provide housing and transportation and other basic needs for ourselves.  And we’ll go beyond this to make sure we can enjoy leisure activities through interesting hobbies, vacations, etc.  We will even incur debt, if need be, to make sure we make things even better for ourselves than they would be if we only relied on the money and resources that were available to us at the time.  

But do we do such things for anyone else?  Would we consider loving others, including our neighbors, all the time in every way possible as much as is within our power to do?  If our answer to this question is “yes,” both you and I know that we are lying.  Nobody loves everyone like this.  It is with this story that Jesus is teaching us that the answer to the question “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” is “You can’t do anything. You are incapable.  You can’t possibly love God and your neighbor like this.  And if you are relying on your good works to justify yourself before God, you will fail, and fail miserably!”

It is with this story that Jesus is showing us that nobody can justify themselves before God. We are all guilty of breaking His greatest command and we do it all the time.  We are hopeless, and we all are utterly helpless to inherit eternal life – except for the grace of God.  It is only the forgiveness that Jesus gives us that was made possible by Him giving His life on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin that anyone will ever inherit eternal life.  But we have to believe this in order to be saved. We must confess our sins and turn away from them to Christ alone to have His sacrificial and substitutionary payment for sin credited to our account. 

You see, the only one who truly loves like the “good Samaritan” is Christ himself.  He alone gave His all for His enemies. He alone gives and gives and gives some more to everyone, whether that person loves Him or not. He alone “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45) and He does this all the time, for each and every one of us, day after day and year after year.  It is in the recognition that God alone is righteous and that we are anything but righteous that the first steps toward eternal life can ever be taken by anyone. 

So, how do you see yourself?  Are you a good Samaritan? Do you see yourself as a good person, better than the next guy, and certainly someone who is good enough to someday be welcomed into heaven by the infinitely righteous and holy God?  If you do think that way, maybe you need to read the story of the good Samaritan again, and seek the forgiveness of the merciful God, who loved us enough that although we were sinners, sent His spotless, sinless, and unfathomably loving Son to die for us on the cross.