Do Love

You probably remember that it was a lawyer who inspired Jesus to tell the story of the Good Samaritan. He seemed like a smart person with a well-trained mind. He seemed concerned with the law, if not justice and with drawing the line between right and wrong. And, since he is following Jesus around, he must also be a person who is hungry for God and who wishes to know what the life of faith might require of him.

“What must I do to inherit eternal life,” he asks Jesus. Who does not wonder that? Who does not want that? Life with no end. Life with no death. For some people, eternal life means hitting the jackpot at the end, but to hear Jesus talk about it, eternal life also means hitting the jackpot now, enjoying a depth and breadth and sweetness in life that is available right this minute and not only after we have breathed our last breath.

But what must we do to experience it? That is the question put to Jesus by the lawyer. “Teacher,” he says, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” In good fashion, Jesus does not answer him. The lawyer wants someone else to hand him the key. He wants the answer to come from outside himself, but Jesus wants him to discover the answer for himself and so he answers the question with another question, “What is written in the law?” The lawyer answers him beautifully.

“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.” It sounds like a profound answer, and Jesus tells the lawyer, “Do this and you shall live.”

But then the lawyer thinks about all the people he passes to and from his way to work, people sitting on steps or sleeping in doorways or on the sidewalk. He thinks about the letters he gets at the office, letters asking him to send money for abused children, prisoners of conscience, handicapped veterans, and the victims of deadly diseases. He thinks about clients who cannot pay their bills. He thinks about all of this, and his heart feels there is no way in the world that he can do it all. Do this, and live? It seems that if you do this, you will die of physical, emotional, and economic exhaustion.

So, desiring to justify himself, the lawyer asks Jesus to define his terms, “And who is my neighbor?” he asks, hoping Jesus might limit his liability enough so that he has a prayer of being able to meet it. He wants to discuss the issue, explore it with Jesus until it all becomes so complicated that he can go home and pay his bills with a clear conscience.

But Jesus just doesn’t want to cooperate. The lawyer wants to talk about how complicated love can be, how impossible it is to be open to everyone all the time, so can’t Jesus make the directions a little easier to follow, like defining who is my neighbor exactly? Jesus tells him this story you already know, but it doesn’t matter what we think, understand, know, feel or say about love; it is what we DO about love that brings us life.

After telling the story Jesus asks another question. “Which of these three—the two religious types or the outcast—took care of the man. Who proved neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” There is only one correct answer and the lawyer, again, gives the right one. “The one who showed him mercy.” “Go, and do likewise,” Jesus replies.

Throughout this story, it seems to me, Jesus is actually asking the question “Whose neighbor are you?” The answer is ANYONE’S NEIGHBOR. What Jesus is calling the lawyer and us to is not a leap of understanding or emotion or knowledge. It’s a leap of action…of showing mercy, of being a neighbor, of DOING love.

So love God. Love your neighbor. Be a neighbor and don’t complicate things by arguing about the specifics. You know what it is to DO love because at some time or another you have been on the receiving end of it. But remember that knowing the correct answers doesn’t change a thing. If you want the world to look different, the next time you go outside Do some love. Do a little or do a lot, but do some. Do it and find out that when you do, you will begin to live and live abundantly just as Jesus said.