Eternal Life and The Good Samaritan

Don: Two people asked Jesus the question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” The first was the Rich Young Ruler, whom we discussed last week. The second was a “lawyer”:

And a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?” 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 wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’ Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.” (Luke 10:25-37)

The thing sought by both questioners was an inheritance. The Greek word for the verb “to inherit” is kléronomeó (κληρονομέω) meaning “an apportioned lot acquired by inheritance.” It is a gift; it is not something that can be purchased. Since the questions were identical, the answers too can at least be assumed to correlate closely, to be equivalent in some way. The RYR was told to keep the commandments pertaining to relationships among Mankind and sell all his possessions and give it all to the poor. The lawyer was told to keep the laws to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) and  to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5).

Jesus did not just leave these commandments to speak for themselves but offered a radical and stunning explanation of them. To assert that the keeping of the commandments means giving up everything you own, or accepting that all wo/men including Samaritans are your neighbors—that God is the God of all humankind—would have shocked Jesus’ contemporaries and still shocks many today.

The lawyer and the RYR both seemed to feel confident of their standing before God. With one it was implied; with the other, it was explicitly stated that they had no qualms about their ability to keep the law. Jesus did not refute the RYR’s statement that he had kept it since his youth. The lawyer asked “Who is my neighbor?” in order to justify himself. It seems he was confident but wanted confirmation (as we all are and do) that his neighbor was his relative or his close acquaintance, to be loved as though they were himself. It can be hard enough sometimes to love our friend or our relative; never mind a stranger, a Samaritan, an Other.

The road traveled by the Good Samaritan descends from the mountains around Jerusalem for about 15 miles to Jericho, which is below sea level. In the story, it serves as a metaphor for the road of life, upon which one meets all manner of people: Rich, poor, educated, simple, friends, enemies, selfless, selfish, and so on. In truth, we probably each find ourselves represented by every one of these types at various points in our journey.

The story has four major players: A priest, a Levite, a person in need of help, and a Samaritan. All priests are Levites but not all Levites are priests. Levites were appointed to help the priests in the cleaning and maintenance of the temple, and during the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness they were responsible for setting up and packing up the tabernacle. The Levites were not scholars, as the priests were. In the story, both priest and Levite risked contamination from the blood of the robbery victim, which would have rendered them unclean and required ritual decontamination before they could resume their duties in the temple.

The Samaritan was a member of a Jewish group once captured by Syrians, with whom they interbred and were therefore despised as half-breeds and apostates by Jews. The Jews even had a prayer that asked God not to allow Samaritans to enter eternal life—a matter of great irony considering that this is the very issue under discussion by Jesus.

The person in need is the “neighbor” who is to be loved for the sake of eternal life.

It seems that on the one hand, scripture demands obedience to the commandments, including the commandment to love one’s neighbor, for eternal life; on the other, eternal life is a free gift of grace. Do Jesus’ responses to the RYR and the lawyer shed any light on this?

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[From this point the audio was too distorted to transcribe]