Jesus often teaches using parables: short, intricate, simple-yet-complex stories using everyday situations and characters to get at powerful ideas at the core of Jesus’ message. In this week’s gospel, Jesus tells a story in conversation with a lawyer who asks, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus asks what the law says (rules for faithful living as part of the Jewish community) and this expert quotes a summary of the 10 commandments and all the law that have come from them – “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.” Jesus agrees, telling the man, “You have given the right answer; do this and you will live.” The lawyer then asks, “Who is my neighbor?”
Jesus tells a story about a man who was robbed on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. It was a dangerous and winding road where robbers could easily hide and ambush travelers. The man was attacked left half-dead. Two respected religious leaders came by, one after the other, and did nothing, passing by on the other side of the road. Then a Samaritan man saw the injured man and was gripped with compassion. He was an outsider, part of an ethnic and religious minority despised by the Jewish community. The Samaritan stopped, tended the man’s wounds, loaded him onto his animal and took him to an inn. There, the Samaritan man continued to care for the injured man and when he left the next morning, he left instructions with the innkeeper for continued care of the man, money to cover costs, and a promise to return and pay more if needed. Then Jesus asked the lawyer, “which one was neighbor to the man?” When the lawyer replied, “The one who showed him mercy,” Jesus tells him, “Go and do likewise.”
Jesus invites the lawyer and us to define neighbor in the widest possible terms. Jesus invites us to see the needs of our neighbors with compassion and to respond. The lawyer was asking about his own future – how he could gain eternal life. Jesus didn’t answer that question, but instead, lay out principles for a full and abundant life here and now. Eternal life is beyond our control, but we can live now in ways that transform the misery and sorrow that surrounds us, helping our neighbors and ourselves to truly live.
Over and over, Jesus doesn’t actually answer the questions he is asked. Instead, he reframes and redirects his hearers (us included) to the heart of the matter. Here, Jesus defines neighbor as broadly as possible. Turns out, the unexpected outsider is the source of loving merciful action. That is an abundant life, indeed.
Peace,
weekly prayer | Jesus talks about a merciful neighbor in Luke 10