The Greater Good

Kingdom Building

July 13, 2019

Scripture Reading: Luke 10:25-37

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ 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 given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’ –Luke 10:25-28

While I am no expert on the Hebrew Bible, my impression is that eternal life is not its primary focus. One source I looked at states Most Jewish ideas about the afterlife developed in post-biblical times*. The Hebrew bible plays with the idea of what happens after death, talks about the resurrection of the dead, leaves us guessing what happened to Moses, and describes Elijah being taken away into the heavens. In the NRSV translation the words eternal life occurs outside the New Testament only once at 4 Maccabees 15:3. There are 44 references in the New Testament. Is this the test the lawyer is presenting to Jesus?  Is he challenging Jesus to justify his teachings regarding eternal life? I also wonder about his use of the word inherit. If something is given by divine decision can it be earned by doing anything? Is an inheritance from God given by grace? Finally, the lawyers answer to Jesus when asked ‘What is written in the law? essentiallyquotes Jesus’ answer to the question which are the greatest of the laws as recorded in Matthew 22:36-40. It would be a whale of a coincidence if the lawyer independently drew together Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:9-18 as Jesus did in describing the greatest laws.

The conundrum here is that the lawyer seems to be concerned about self-preservation while Jesus is concerned about how we are relating one to the other. All four gospels quote Jesus as saying something to the effect that Those who try to gain their own life will lose it; but those who lose their life for my sake will gain it**.

We live in a culture, world, where decisions are made most days based on what is in it for me? We follow a Savior who prescribes a way of being that demands we consider what is good for all.  

Prayer: Lord, help us short out the parts of our thinking that limits us to self-service and short in the part of our thinking that opens wide the whole world to the wonders of your love. Amen.

*https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/life-after-death/
**See Matthew 10:39, Matthew 16:25, Mark 8:35, Luke 9:24, John 12:25

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.