25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.
“Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” He replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘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,
‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 In reply Jesus said . . .
This Sunday, we are continuing our series on “Biblical Nuggets,” looking at words or phrases from the Bible that are a part of our everyday language.
Some of these have been surprising like “Am I my brother’s keeper?” from Genesis 4 where Cain responds to God about the whereabouts of his brother or from the mouth of Job, we hear the phrase “By the skin of my teeth” in Job 19.
This week we hear the story of the Good Samaritan and the first question that the expert in the law asks of Jesus was “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” I think that is a question that we all ask sometimes, “What must we do to inherit eternal life?”
Doing something to inherit eternal life is wired into us. We think that we have to “do” something to earn God’s favor and to be allowed into His kingdom. That is especially true for us here in the United States. The amazing thing is that we don’t have to “do” anything, we only have to accept the gift of what Jesus did on the cross. Our response to this gift is what the story of the Good Samaritan is about.
So, I hope that you can worship with us this weekend, whether in person or online, and find out more about the Samaritan who was good.