Putting Jesus To The Test
Luke 10:23-37
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Luke 10:25 And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… The question the lawyer asks Jesus, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” would seem to us to be something that was addressed once and for all when Jesus died and rose. And it was, for all intents and purposes. Unfortunately, that questions is still asked in the church today – and it is asked all too frequently. Therefore, we seek this morning to address it again in order that God’s people may hear again the clear and unqualified answer.
In our text a lawyer stood up to cross-examine Jesus, to put Him to the test. And we are reminded right away that it was, of course, Satan who first tried to put Jesus to the test. That happened after our Lord’s baptism when the Spirit led Him out into the wilderness for forty days of fasting followed by testing. And now a lawyer stands up to do what Satan had done before – to test Him. He came to Jesus with the question, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
Now, there are two kinds of questions. There are those questions that arise from a pure heart and mind; these are the questions that seek after the truth. But then there are questions that do not seek the truth. Instead, these types of questions are designed to trap and ensnare the one to whom they are addressed, while at the same time seeking to free and excuse the questioner. The lawyer’s question was of this type. In fact, as the dialogue between Jesus and this lawyer unfolds, Luke makes it clear that the lawyer’s motive in asking these questions of Jesus was “to justify himself.” The lawyer was simply looking out for himself and seeking Jesus’ stamp of approval upon his faulty world view.
Notice how our Lord dealt with the lawyer’s questions. He did what He often does with questions that are put to Him – by asking another question! And in so doing, Jesus turns the question back on the person who asked it. In response to the lawyer’s question, Jesus threw him two more questions: “What is written in the law?” and “What is your reading of it?”
Now, this lawyer is no dummy; he knows his Bible. So he answered by quoting the Old Testament from Deuteronomy 6: “You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus, in effect, says “good answer, lawyer.” He says, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.” And there’s the rub, for it is not enough simply to know what the Law says. The Law requires not merely knowledge but obedience. The Law demands that we actually do what it says, and do it perfectly.
But who can do what the Law requires? Who can love God with all of one’s heart, soul, strength, and mind? The law never deals with us in fractions. It is not enough to say I love God with 90 or even 99.9% of my heart, soul, strength, and mind. The law is never satisfied with anything less than total perfection. The law always leaves us accused and judged and crushed and condemned. That is always the result of seeking to “do” something to inherit eternal life.
The lawyer in our text does what lawyers often do – he looks for loopholes, he looks for a way to impose a “statute of limitations” upon the commandments of God. Like the person who says, “How far can I go before it becomes adultery or murder or theft or lying,” the lawyer seeks to qualify the law; he looks for a way to make the law doable. He latches on to the word “neighbor.” The lawyer asked Jesus, in effect, “What do you mean by ‘neighbor’? “Who is my neighbor?”
Jesus then told the story of the Good Samaritan. An unnamed man, traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho, was overtaken by thugs who beat him, robbed him, and left him for dead. It’s the stuff you read about in the newspaper or watch on the evening news. There is nothing exceptional about the event. But then the story takes a bit of an unexpected turn. A priest and a Levite – religious professionals – came along, and instead of stopping to help, they passed by on the other side of the road.
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Jesus continued His story by telling of how a Samaritan came down that same road and saw the victim lying there alone. This Samaritan, Jesus said in verse 33, “had compassion” on the man. He did what the moment required. He poured oil and wine on the beaten man’s wounds. He wrapped him with bandages; he took him to the inn. And if that were not enough, in essence he left his own credit card number with the motel manager. This Samaritan took full responsibility for the wounded man. He wasted no time arguing with himself over whether or not he was obligated to stop or take care of this fellow. He simply did it.
It is then that Jesus turned to the lawyer with a final question: “So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” The answer was self-evident: “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said, “Go and do likewise.”
The lawyer came to Jesus with what we call a “law question:” “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” One of the easiest ways to identify the “law” is by asking the question, “Who’s doing the verbs?” If man is “doing the verbs” then you have law. So, the question the lawyer asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” is clearly a law question. And law questions can only receive law answers.
If you ask the wrong question of God, you will never get the answer you are looking for. Jesus leads the lawyer with His questions down the path of the law until every single route of escape is cut off. The lawyer must come to see that he cannot justify himself; he must come to see that he cannot whittle God’s law down to a size that he can handle. He must understand what St. Paul said in our Epistle Lesson for today from Galatians 3: “For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law.” The lawyer, like all of us, must come to see himself as helpless and as in need of a neighbor as the man who had fallen victim to the robbers on the Jericho road. The lawyer, like all of us, must come to see Jesus as the Good Samaritan who did what needed to be done for us, even to the point of dying in our place on the cross.
The Jews of the first century had a saying that went like this “He who eats the bread of a Samaritan is like one who eats the flesh of swine.” Jesus was not afraid to associate with Samaritans. He did not disown the title “friend of sinners.” He did not shun us in our sin and sinfulness; rather, he took that sin and the judgment it deserved into His own body and answered for it in His own death. By His atoning death on the cross, Jesus has given us the inheritance of eternal life. It is not something that can be won or earned by any human efforts – not even by being a good neighbor. It is an inheritance – that is, it is a gift – that we are given in the blood of Jesus Christ.
The life that we now live, we live by faith in Him. Yes, we can love our neighbor, but we can do so only because we have first been loved by the Son of God. This is exactly what St. John says in I John 4:9-11: “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
It is God-given faith, therefore, that receives the love that God has for us in His Son. There is nothing this lawyer could do – and there is nothing you can do – to inherit eternal life. It is a pure gift, and there is only one thing to do with a gift, and that is to receive it. So, faith receives all that our Lord gives us as He washes away our sin in Holy Baptism, as He frees us from guilt in Holy Absolution, and as He feeds us with His body and blood to strengthen us with forgiveness, life, and salvation in His Sacrament.
What must you do to inherit eternal life? Of course, that is the wrong question, for there is nothing you can do to gain eternal life. What must you do to hang on to the eternal life Christ gives you? Again, that is the wrong question, for there is nothing you can do to retain your eternal life. And one of the best ways to answer these two questions is to recall your confession of faith in the words of Luther’s meaning of the Third Article of the Creed: “I believe that I cannot, by my own reason or strength, believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him. But the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.”
That, dear friend, is the freedom you have in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You do not decide to save yourself; you do not decide for Christ and make yourself a Christian; it is not even yours to let Jesus be Lord of your life. All those things point not to Jesus but to man; all those things have man “doing the verbs.” There is no comfort in relying on or trusting in one’s own abilities or works.
God is the one who justifies. He is the One who declares you “not guilty” of your sins on the basis of Christ’s suffering and death. He is the one who gives you freely of His inheritance to eternal life. Christ is the Good Samaritan who comes into your life to bind up your wounds and has paid the price to take care of you both now and on into the life of the world to come.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
