Luke 10:25-42 - The Gift of Inheriting Eternal Life

You know, people are unique.

I don't know if you've realized that.

People are pretty unique.

You know, we as people are wonderfully and fearfully made.

And we're also fickle.

We're inconsistent at times.

Our emotions can be all over the place.

In one sense, we are genuinely, we're image bearers.

We point to the glorious one.

And in another sense, we are all over the place with our emotions and our desires.

Just can be, we can be everywhere.

And we have this kind of problem as image bearers.

We too like to create.

And we have this genuine desire to be like God and to make things in our own, although broken, image.

Even as believers, as followers of Jesus, not just as humans, but as regenerate, born-again followers of Jesus, we must understand that this desire is still at work in our own flesh.

We want to make things like God's revelation, his word to us.

We want to recreate things in our image.

And we're very efficient at this, actually.

It happens a lot.

We want to be our own lawgivers.

But then we suffer the consequences that come when we try to recreate the law.

This passage today teaches us to be on guard against this in our own flesh and to submit ourselves in everything to God.

So the first point is that as recipients, excuse me, of eternal life, we are freed from being lawmakers and we're free to be mercy givers.

Because we have eternal life, we're freed from being lawmakers and we're free to be mercy givers.

The second point is that because we are recipients of eternal life, we are freed from the anxieties and the distractions that come from being lawgivers.

If you've inherited eternal life, this is true of you, you're now free to show mercy because you see the mercy that you've been shown.

You're free to show this mercy because you see what's been given to you.

You're free to follow Jesus faithfully.

So remember that in the Gospel of Luke, when it begins, Luke tells why he's writing this gospel.

He's saying, I'm writing this so that you would know, O Theophilus.

Right?

The physician Luke, the historian, he's giving this detailed account.

So that why?

So that we might know what actually took place, what actually happened, what is true.

We might not just know it, but actually believe it.

As we come to these two very well-known passages this morning, the Good Samaritan and Mary and Martha, and the busyness of Martha, Jesus is seeking to teach us something that we might know what it means to follow him, and that we might know a little bit more about ourselves, our nature.

This story of the Good Samaritan, a little background.

If you didn't grow up in church or you're new or you've never heard this story, it's a very well-known story for a couple reasons.

One is that the Samaritans were hated by the Jews, right?

There is some distinct real racism going on here.

They just despised one another.

The Samaritans despised the Jews, the Jews, the Samaritans.

But in the lay of the land, the Samaritans definitely had the uh were the underdogs.

They were lower in the society.

They weren't valued, they weren't seen as worth the time or effort.

And so here in this story, what Jesus is getting after is not what's the social status between Jews and Samaritans and what's the right behavior among these two people, or even what's racial reconciliation look like.

What he's saying is, who's your neighbor?

The lawyer in this story, the context, is an expert in the law.

This isn't a lawyer like we have in our day where there's like the civil law and they're trying to like litigate how to sue someone or how do you transfer property.

But this is a lawyer, someone who's who's well educated in the law, in the old covenant law, the Davidic law.

And how to how to how do we apply that and walk that out?

So he's an expert in the law, right?

And he asks this interesting question.

A question that he actually knows the answer to.

Jesus is teaching, and he's this lawyer stands up.

What shall I do?

He says in verse 25, to inherit eternal life.

Jesus, being smart, says to the lawyer, You're the lawyer, what's the law say?

Like, what are you supposed to do?

And the lawyer gives the right answer.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, your neighbor as yourself.

And Jesus said to him, You have answered correctly.

Do this, and you will live.

It's interesting.

I mean, I think that we live in a day and age in our country, in our culture in the West, where we have so many resources to study the Bible with.

We can study the Bible in Hebrew and Greek and Latin and our native language, we have commentaries, we have more resources than anyone could have imagined in the early church.

But I do wonder how many people who just study the Old Testament can come up with that good of an answer.

Who can you just read through, and you know, you're reading the genealogies, you're reading all these stories and all these things, could summarize it that well.

Now, part of it we know is the training that the lawyers would have gone through.

But they had a grasp, they knew what the law was.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength, with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.

But that wasn't satisfactory for the lawyer.

It says in verse 29, but he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor?

I think it reveals the pride and the arrogance of this man.

He knew the right answers.

He knew what the law said about this is how you inherit eternal life.

But what was the problem for him?

It was the application of it, wasn't it?

He began to interpret that law himself, to then kind of make himself a lawmaker.

Because the question he's asking is, well, who's my neighbor?

Another way we we ask this question in our day and age is like, well, who's to say?

Right?

Who am I to say?

And we we create this new category in the law, and it's kind of this tiny loophole that we just drive everything in life through.

Well, who's to say?

It's an interpretive issue.

And clearly, among the scholars of the law that day and age, they knew they were committing to love their neighbor, but who's their neighbor?

I.e., that's up for you to interpret yourself.

Jesus, seeing obviously right through this, gets right at the matter.

And he tells this story about a man who's on a journey.

And he's this road that's a very dangerous road historically.

Lots of thieves and robbers.

One church father called the bloody road because of how much people would be robbed and beat up and killed.

He was going to Jericho.

He was stripped, beaten, left half dead.

A priest comes by, he sees him on the other side of the road and keeps going.

A Levite comes by, passes on the other side.

But a Samaritan comes.

One who is despised, looked down on, not a Levite, the priesthood, not a priest, not even in the tribe of Israel.

This is a Samaritan.

And what's he do?

Well he shows mercy, right?

We know the story.

He takes the man, he puts him on his animal, he takes him to an end.

He he pays for everything that he needs.

And then Jesus says to him, Which do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?

And the lawyer responds, the one who showed him mercy.

The lawyer knew what it meant to show mercy.

He knew the right answer, but it wasn't in his heart.

Jesus pulls out this story that is about as radical as you can imagine.

To prove the point.

That this love your neighbor element to keeping the law isn't just up for interpretation.

You can't just be a lawmaker and say, well, I subscribe to this, but it's under my interpretation of it.

And how easy it is to do that as Christians.

We look to God's word, we see what we like and we value, and then we start to apply it the way that we want to.

And then we justify why we don't, when we do certain things and don't do other things.

This is not new for the lawyer.

This was his means to justify himself.

Jesus addresses the very element that he was using to try to justify himself.

He was hoping that he would stand before God one day and say, No, I've kept the law.

I did everything I was supposed to do.

I know the traditions and I know these things, and I've done them faithfully.

I'm righteous.

He was trying to justify himself by asking this question: Who's my neighbor?

How am I supposed to know?

This is what kind of an abstract, crazy thing that God's asking us to do.

Love our neighbors.

And then Jesus shares an example.

And then he says, Who do you think loved his neighbor?

The one who showed him mercy.

And the reason that the lawyer missed all of this, he becomes a student of the law, a master of the law, but he misses it because he's not looking to the law, saying, How does this tell me about who God is?

How does this reveal to me the character, the nature of God, but rather he looks to the law to measure himself in his own righteousness?

And what he finds is he's doing pretty good.

Which is kind of easy to pass your own test when you write the test.

Right?

When you can say, this is the standard, and it's the standard I made, because I made it and I pass.

That's kind of easy, isn't it?

But when you look at God's standard and you say, what's his standard?

You know you fall short.

This is why we are not created to be lawmakers.

We're created to be worshipers.

God's made the law.

It's revealed to us his character, his nature, and we worship him for that.

And we worship him because he sent Jesus Christ to us because he can't keep the law.

We can't do it.

The lawyer thinks he can do it.

Jesus tells him a story, revealing his own error, and that he needs a savior.

But we do this all the time.

We become our own lawmakers.

I think a great example of this is in marriage.

We make these vows in marriage.

And we know, in a sense, nobody can keep those perfectly.

Right?

Nobody can keep their vows perfectly.

Why?

Because nobody's perfect.

And nobody's marrying a perfect person.

But we make these vows, and then we have kind of ways around them.

It's like, well, I haven't slept with someone else, so I've kept my vow.

I didn't commit adultery.

Probably not according to Jesus' standards.

If you've looked at a woman lustfully, you've committed adultery with her in your heart.

That's his standard.

We think, well, I've provided for them meals and a place to live and a car, and I'm doing my bit to provide, be a good provider.

Is that was that the vow you were making when you were in love and you're at the altar and you're exchanging your vows?

Is that it?

Like, hey, you're not gonna go hungry as long as we're together?

Right?

No, we know that.

But what we do, we justify ourselves.

And in that moment, what are we doing?

We're becoming little lawmakers.

Trying to reshape things so that we're really not guilty.

We're more innocent.

See, the lawyer has the correct interpretation of the law.

But he's way, way off in his application.

He misses the heart completely.

What does it mean to love God?

To love your neighbor.

He does not see.

This person does not see how merciful God is.

All he's looking in this story is, I gotta be well-behaved.

I've kept the law because I'm a well-behaved person.

Jesus graciously, but directly reveals to him that it's not good behavior, so to speak, that's gonna get you into heaven.

It's not how you inherit eternal life.

You inherit eternal life because you put your hope and your faith in Jesus Christ.

Amen?

He's the one who purchases your eternal life for you and then gives it to you as a gift.

So now, as recipients of eternal life, we're freed.

Brother and sister, you're freed from being a lawmaker.

From saying, well, how am I doing compared to those Christians?

Or how are we doing compared to those people?

You're freed from that.

So don't choose to keep doing that.

Don't keep indulging in being a lawmaker.

You're freed from those things.

You're freed from getting the understanding right, but getting the application wrong.

Jesus Christ has paid for all those things.

Now you joyfully and you humbly walk in obedience.

The lawyer didn't get humility.

He didn't understand his need.

Jesus is revealing to him what it means to show mercy.

And then he commands him, you go and do likewise.

Go and do likewise.

And what's the danger of that?

Is that he just starts going and trying to do a bunch of works.

Right?

He just finds the most needy person around and he does them a good deed, hoping to just earn his way into heaven.

What Jesus didn't tell us in the story of the Good Samaritan is that the Samaritan, the Good Samaritan, was keeping a record so that he could pull out his receipts and show the other Jews how righteous he was.

And hey, look what I did, and look at my good behavior.

You should respect me, you should let me in your club.

Saw what he was doing.

It was out of the goodness of his own heart.

Freely, without any kind of reward or acknowledgement, the good Samaritan shows mercy.

We likewise should be a people who show free, generous mercy.

What I love about this is out of our church's statement of faith in Article 9, it talks about the purpose of grace.

It has this sentence.

It says, election completely rules out boasting and promotes humility, love, prayer, praise.

Trust in God and the active imitation of his free mercy.

There is no longer this thing where it's like, now listen, I'm gonna give this to you, mercy, grace, love, and you're gonna kind of pay it back over time to other people.

You didn't earn any of it, like a paycheck, and then now you get to decide when to kind of dispense it because you've earned God's mercy and grace.

It's been freely given to you.

His righteousness imputed to you, given to your account, forgiveness, grace, mercy freely.

So what do you do?

You freely give to others.

You imitate what has been done for you to others.

So you have no right.

You have no right, Christian, to say to someone or to think in your heart, ah, they don't deserve mercy.

They don't deserve my forgiveness, they don't deserve my grace.

You have no right.

Because you deserve none of it.

And yet God has lavished it on you.

He's poured it out on you.

Do you see how this changes you from a lawmaker, a list kind of keeper, and behave the right way and judge others based on my own law?

It changes you from that to a worshiper, someone who joyfully worships God, who loves others freely.

Jesus Christ came and showed mercy and grace to everyone.

And they crucified him for that.

But he wasn't living for the here and now.

He wasn't running a popularity contest.

How many people can I get to like me?

He was living for the kingdom of heaven, for the kingdom of God.

He was living so that we might see his example and follow after him.

Jesus is teaching to love your neighbor.

It really starts with loving God.

You love God and what he has done and who he is, and you start to love his creation.

Don't think that you can have true, genuine, sacrificial love for others.

You don't love God.

The creator.

Of them.

If we love God, we're going to submit to his law and not try to make the law in our image.

Because what happens when we become the standard giver, the lawmaker, is these anxieties and the distractions of life begin to creep in and they rob us of our joy and they rob us of our growth.

This is the second point this morning.

Because we've received eternal life, we are freed from these anxieties and these distractions that come from being lawgivers.

We see this story of Mary and Martha.

Mary's there.

She's sitting at the feet, learning and understanding and growing what Jesus is teaching her and his presence.

And Martha's just busy.

She's serving people, she's doing a lot of all kinds of things.

And Martha has, she goes to Jesus and she has this issue, and she's like, Jesus, don't you see what I'm doing?

Like, I'm actually out here working.

I'm serving people, I'm being sacrificial, I'm busy doing all this.

Jesus.

He's so tender with Martha.

Right?

But he does tell her the truth.

Verse 41, but the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha.

You are anxious and troubled about many things.

But one thing is necessary.

Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.

Mary has chosen the good portion to take in the Word of God, to be taught, to be formed, to be shaped by the presence and the power of Christ.

And it won't be taken away from her.

Everything else will pass.

But the time and the effort and the energy that Mary spends seeking to grow in her understanding of who Jesus is and what he calls his people to.

That will not be taken away from her.

Oftentimes we come to a text like this with Mary and Martha.

We can do a lot of different things, but one thing we do is we just we beat up ourselves because we're just too busy serving others.

We're too busy going and going.

And that's true.

How easy it is.

You wake up in the morning and you just feel the demands of the day.

You feel the tasks that need done, the chores, the all the things that are calling at you.

And you know that Jesus loves you.

You know he's forgiven you.

So Jesus, we'll talk later.

And you go on about your day.

You just neglect to commune with God.

You don't open the word, you don't pray like you should.

Not because you just are like, well, I don't need those things.

I'm fine.

I'm a Christian and God loves me and I'll see him in heaven.

It's not really the attitude of your heart.

But deep down there is this understanding of there's just a lot of good things I gotta do today.

And Jesus, like, he understands.

I know he loves me.

And we can subtly miss this communing with God.

Growing in our understanding of who he is, growing in his likeness.

It's interesting that these passages are right here in Luke's account.

Because again, the temptation could have been for the lawyer to just go and start doing.

Do, do, do, do, do, do this, this, this.

Works, works, works, serve.

Jesus is teaching us.

There's always gonna be good things to do.

There's always gonna be work that needs to be done.

But we must be commune with God if we're gonna love Him.

We cannot keep the law.

We can't love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength if we don't commune with Him.

If we don't spend time in the Word and in prayer and talking about this with other Christians.

I don't know about you, but for me, I have seasons of weariness.

Seasons that are dry, difficult.

And where do I need to go with that?

Like we sang this morning, we go to God with these things.

We come to Him, we looked in the scriptures, we commune with the Lord.

Martha's intent.

She wanted to serve, she wanted to be a blessing.

But she was holding Mary to her standard of what it meant.

This is how we should be living.

So, Jesus, tell Mary that this is how we should be living.

All the anxieties, as Jesus says, you are anxious and troubled about many things.

It's easy to take a passage like this and just say, yeah, see, Jesus is saying, just don't be anxious or troubled about many things.

But I think the truth is, the reality is, there does need to be a resting in who God is.

How many of us want to remove the source of our anxiety?

We want to remove the source of our troubles rather than go and commune with the Lord.

How many of us want to communing with God, fasting, praying intently for a long amount of time, praying through the scriptures, memorizing the scriptures?

Lord, can you just remove the anxiety, the source of the anxiety?

Can you just remove the source of my troubles?

Rather than come and sit at the feet of Jesus and grow and be shaped by him.

We'd rather at times those things just be removed rather than us growing in our pursuit of our pursuit of Christ.

See, church, there are many things that are competing for your attention and your resources.

Many good things.

It's always good things to do.

And so for us to prioritize and say, okay, I'm a follower of Jesus.

So at the end of my life, what I wanted to look like is this is someone who followed Jesus.

I'm going to be in the Word, I'm going to be in prayer.

I'm going to gather with the saints.

I'm going to do these things.

Because I want to look like Jesus.

I want to think like Jesus.

I want to be a follower of Jesus.

But be aware of the temptation to still want to do this according to your own standards.

Right?

I'll follow Jesus on my terms.

I'll follow Jesus in my own way.

And Jesus and I, we have an understanding.

He's good with it.

I see that kind of thinking everywhere.

But Jesus has told us what it means to follow him.

So it's to love God and to love our neighbors.

It starts in our hearts.

Not once an opportunity shows up.

If you think, I'll wait until an opportunity comes to love God or to love my neighbor, then I'll kind of foster this affection in my heart.

It doesn't work that way.

It just doesn't work that way.

You surrender your heart to the Lord, you're in his word, you're praying, he's shaping you, he's shaping your affections, he's growing them, and then the opportunity comes, and then you faithfully walk it out.

Not the other way around.

We think we can just kind of wait and be apathetic.

And when the time comes, then we'll be obedient.

Again, how kind it is for the Lord to place these passages together, reminding us to love God and to love our neighbors.

But we have to commune with God in order to love Him and to love our neighbors.

We must study the scriptures.

And no, this isn't like a thing where you just kind of reach this spot in your life where it's just a breeze to study the word and pray and to memorize scripture and to fast and all these things.

You know, I think one of the ways of seeing the world, when you're young, you think when I become an adult, like fill in the blank.

Like it's all going to make sense, and I'll be an adult, you know?

And then you just kind of realize after a while that there isn't like this threshold that you cross into life where everything just kind of clicks into place.

And now you are the person you always wished you would have been.

Right?

Like you didn't, like the wisdom just comes.

What you realize is most people actually just don't know what they're doing.

And they're just kind of like looking around, trying to figure it out and getting through life.

My point is, we can think, well, next year, I'm sure I'll want to read the scriptures more.

And next year I'll be more mature in this.

And like as if time is just kind of sweetly bring this change of behavior your way.

And then just once you hit some magical number, you just become holy and righteous.

And holiness is just easy.

It's not true.

It's never true.

So I just encourage you and encourage myself to just commune with the Lord.

Read the scriptures, make it a priority to spend time with God, make it a priority in your life.

To sit at his feet and to learn, to be shaped by him.

So that you can then love God and love others.

So you can be freed from being a lawmaker.

You can show mercy.

And you can be a worshiper of God.

Let's pray.