Luke 10:25-28 (NRSV)
Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” He answered, “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 said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”
The most famous parable begins with a question from a lawyer. (So lawyers have been asking questions for a long time, huh?).
And it's an interesting one. What must be done to inherit eternal life?
Buried in that is another question: just what IS eternal life?
Ask 100 people and you might just get 100 answers.
But what does Jesus say it is?
There is really only one place in Scripture where Jesus defines eternal life. In John 17:3, in prayer, Jesus says: "And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."
Know God. Know Jesus.
That's it.
Knowing God causes life to happen.
How does that change our very perception of everything?
That's what Jesus is telling this lawyer. Change your perception and life happens.
Not just future life. But life now.
Know God now and live.
Love God now and live.
Love Neighbor now and live.
Yet with all this talk of life and love, the lawyer will want to narrow things even further. Looking perhaps for a way out? Or looking to take something simple and turn it into something complex?
Is it perhaps too simple this life Jesus offers? Have we been trying to complicate it? Simple, but not easy.
Lord, what does it mean to live? Show me! Amen
Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” He answered, “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 said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”
The most famous parable begins with a question from a lawyer. (So lawyers have been asking questions for a long time, huh?).
And it's an interesting one. What must be done to inherit eternal life?
Buried in that is another question: just what IS eternal life?
Ask 100 people and you might just get 100 answers.
But what does Jesus say it is?
There is really only one place in Scripture where Jesus defines eternal life. In John 17:3, in prayer, Jesus says: "And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."
Know God. Know Jesus.
That's it.
Knowing God causes life to happen.
How does that change our very perception of everything?
That's what Jesus is telling this lawyer. Change your perception and life happens.
Not just future life. But life now.
Know God now and live.
Love God now and live.
Love Neighbor now and live.
Yet with all this talk of life and love, the lawyer will want to narrow things even further. Looking perhaps for a way out? Or looking to take something simple and turn it into something complex?
Is it perhaps too simple this life Jesus offers? Have we been trying to complicate it? Simple, but not easy.
Lord, what does it mean to live? Show me! Amen
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