Jesus often answered questions with another question.  In Luke 10, an expert in the Jewish law approached Jesus and asked Him what he must to do inherit eternal life.

27He answered: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[c]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[d]” Luke 10:27

But the text says the man “wanted to justify himself”, so he asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”

This man was trying to get Jesus to define God’s terms in such a way that he could claim to be meeting them.  Jesus answer no doubt shocked, confounded and convicted the man.

Jesus proceeds to tell the well-known story of the “Good Samaritan” – the man who sacrificed his own time and money to aid another man who had been robbed, beaten up, and left for dead on the side of the road.  A priest and a Levite (the Jewish holy elite) had passed by the man without helping.  The Samaritans were a race hated by the Jews, and for the hero of the story to be a Samaritan made the point hit home even harder.

After telling this very compelling story, Jesus responds to the man’s question with this question:

36“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” Luke 10:36

Notice that Jesus turned the question around.  Instead of “who is my neighbor?”, the question became, “Whose neighbor are you?”

37The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

In this article, we have two good answers to consider – Jesus’ answer and the man’s answer to Jesus’ answer/question.

Jesus answered by defining terms in a way unexpected by the law expert.  This man was accustomed to reading the law in a way that served his own sense of personal justification.   Now, instead of centering the command “Love your neighbor as yourself” on the “neighbor”, Jesus put the emphasis back squarely on “you”.

Jesus teaches us here that we shouldn’t attempt to define the commands of God in a way that makes them easily attainable by us.  The expert was looking around at others as pawns in his game of self-righteousness.  If he could narrowly define a neighbor in a way that he considered attainable, he might claim his own life to be perfectly within the law.  However, if  “neighbor”  was defined by his own heart, that would be an entirely different matter.

The command to love our neighbor is not a call for us to define neighbor, but to define love.  It is not our place to judge the worthiness of others in receiving our love.  Our responsibility is to look inwardly at our own hearts and motives to judge whether our outward actions reflect a real change by God on the inside or mere outward observance of “the law”.

We might say, “But Jesus told the man to go and do likewise!  Isn’t that Jesus laying down a law to be followed in order to attain our salvation?  Jesus even told the man in verse 38 that if he kept the commandments he would live!”

Yes, but Jesus had something else in mind besides outward conformity to the written law.  The command was grounded in “love the Lord your God with all your heart”.  That’s not good a work you can do at a single point in time.  It’s a state of being.  Later, when Jesus said, “Go and do”, he had already made this point.  This story was designed to so turn upside down the man’s understanding of things, that it convicted him inwardly to repentance.  Repentance is fundamentally about a change of heart, not a mere change in action.  This is why Paul repeatedly teaches we are save by faith not works.

Like all Jesus’ stories, this one focuses on the reality that the Kingdom of God is about the heart.  The priests and Levites were responsible for sacrifices on behalf of the nation.  Perhaps these men were on their way to tend to that business (on the road between Jericho and Jerusalem) when they passed by the wounded man.

Does this describe our hearts?  Are we so quick to observe the most obvious outward trappings of our religion that we overlook the real opportunities to live out the gospel?  Are we likely to speed by a stranded motorist on the interstate because we’re late for church?  Think about it.

Jesus made this point powerfully in his earthly ministry.  In Matthew 19, He said this:

13But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’

The Good Samaritan story also brings to light the universal nature of the Kingdom.  In this story, the non-Jew was following God’s law in a way the Jews (even the Jewish priesthood) were not.  These Jews clearly rejected Jesus in His earthly ministry.  The story illustrates how the Kingdom of God is made up of all – Jew and Gentile – who truly have their hearts turned by the love of God.

Furthermore, in his death, burial and resurrection, Jesus was about to give the world the ultimate Good Samaritan story of love and selfless sacrifice and show what loving our neighbor was really about.  Believing in its saving power, the gospel is what really changes us and empowers us to love the way God wills.

36Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? 37The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.

Now that’s a good answer!