Today's readings are Leviticus 17.1-16 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Lev.+17.1-16 ) and Luke 10.23-42 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Luke+10.23-42 ).
In our reading from Luke today, we find a passage that is frequently misused. Do you want freedom from the Law? Do you want to know how easy it is to do what is pleasing to God? Jesus tells us right here what to do. In fact, it isn't even Jesus who says this. It is a teacher of the Law, interrogated by Jesus. Jesus affirms that the lawyer is right. Luke 10.27b-28 says "'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 [Jesus] said to him, 'You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live'" (ESV).
In our reading from Luke today, we find a passage that is frequently misused. Do you want freedom from the Law? Do you want to know how easy it is to do what is pleasing to God? Jesus tells us right here what to do. In fact, it isn't even Jesus who says this. It is a teacher of the Law, interrogated by Jesus. Jesus affirms that the lawyer is right. Luke 10.27b-28 says "'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 [Jesus] said to him, 'You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live'" (ESV).
That's all it takes. And so often we, unlike this lawyer, blithely go along our way, assuming that we are in fact doing what God has commanded us. Thanks be to God for this lawyer, who, understanding what Jesus has just affirmed, tries to figure out how he can avoid some of the demands. He doesn't even try to avoid the demand of loving the Lord with the entirety of his being. He knows that is impossible. But maybe, just maybe, he can find a restrictive definition of a neighbor which will exempt him from some of his obligation. Jesus goes on to define the neighbor quite loosely, as anyone with whom we are in contact.
Here we find the whole weight of the Law of God. If we can love and trust God and our neighbor, we will live. Yet we must realize that we cannot even begin to accomplish this command. We love God, indeed. But we reserve ourselves within that love, depending on our own strength and wisdom. We love our neighbor, some of the time, to some extent. Not like we love ourselves. We don't really care what our neighbor thinks about when he daydreams, do we? But we do care about the intimate details of our own lives. In the final analysis we fail miserably.
What is the answer? We have Jesus, who does love and trust God and who has shown his loving kindness to us, his neighbors. He has lived the life we must live and he has died in our place. Through his resurrection, he grants us salvation and new life to all who believe. It doesn't depend on our faithfulness. We've already proven ourselves faithless. It depends on Christ's perfect faithfulness, imputed to us.
Look to Jesus and live.
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