The Golden Egg

Luke 10

There was a religious type that wanted to show off to Jesus. He asked what he thought was a good question for debate, "Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?"  Jesus responded with another question, "What do you think?"  The religious man answered with what is known as the 'Shema' in Judaism (specifically the V'ahavta).  It begins with "Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one God," but the man quotes the verse just after it, "Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence." It makes sense that the man would quote this since this is the part of Deuteronomy that begins by saying basically 'these are the commandments for you so you will have good long lives.'  The man is giving a stock answer in Judaism - everyone would have said this.  So the man wants to keep pushing for more. I imagine he wants Jesus to lay a golden egg for him, so he asks another question - "who is my neighbor?"  And Jesus delivers; he shares the story of the Good Samaritan who saved a man attacked by robbers when all the other religious types completely ignored him.

 Jesus' final question is intriguing.  He asks this religious man, "which of the three (two who ignored the attacked man or the one Samaritan who helped) became a neighbor to the man?"  The answer, of course, is the man who helped him.  Why would the attacked man become neighbors with the men who ignored him?  He wouldn't! Jesus isn't quite defining who our neighbor is. Instead Jesus is commanding us to become neighbors.  Don't pick and choose people to love and associate with - just love everyone.

The next couple of verses reiterate this with a simple story of Mary and Martha.  Mary sits at the feet of Jesus listening to everything, while Martha is hard at work in the kitchen.  Jesus tells Martha that Mary has done the one essential thing - she is loving the person who has come to her.  I imagine Martha was trying to love her guests too by fulfilling her societal role, but Jesus points to a better way. Be present. Be with people. Reach out to others with love. Its the golden egg of faith.