Some people go about their lives like the CEO of a huge multinational company, their every interaction with others carried out as it were some kind of business deal – one for which they seek to broker terms that are favourable only to themselves.
And so the offers of help that they sometimes make, always come with conditions that ensure that they will be the ones who benefit the most – be it the guarantee of some future financial reward, the forever indebtedness of the one being assisted, or the warm glow of self satisfaction that comes as others look favourably on at their, always very public, displays of apparent benevolence.
Even on their wedding day, their marriage vows are likely to be made in the context of a prenuptial agreement that has already been signed, one designed to protect their own interests should things ever turn sour – which they almost inevitably will, given such an obvious lack of commitment to the relationship, even from its very beginning.
There is nothing big or beautiful about such behaviour. On the contrary, imagining themselves to be smart, these people come across only as scheming and self serving.
Furthermore it is not how those, saying how it is in God that they trust, ought to behave. Because those who claim to follow Jesus should follow the example of him who having taught us that we should give without expecting anything in return, went on to show us what that looks like when, despite our having nothing to offer him in return, he did everything that was required for us to be saved – including dying for us on a cross.
But the proud resent being the recipients of such amazing grace, preferring instead to earn their way to heaven, albeit whilst manipulating the terms of that agreement so as to minimise the investment necessary to achieve such favourable returns.
Such was the attitude of the lawyer who one day asked Jesus what he needed to do in order to inherit eternal life. Which is an odd question for him to have posed, given how he, more than most. should have known that, rather than having to be earned, an inheritance is something that is bestowed on you by someone who has died.
But leaving that to one side, Jesus encouraged the man to answer his own question. Which he did, by rightly summarising how the law requires us to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind – and our neighbours as ourselves.
But it was then that the lawyer sought to negotiate more favourable terms for himself, by limiting what the command to love one’s neighbour actually meant. That’s why he asked Jesus to give his definition of what a ‘neighbour’ was, in the hope that those making up that particular group of people would be so reduced in number that loving them might become somewhat more manageable.
But if that was what the lawyer had hoped for, he was to be sorely disappointed. Because, in telling the parable of the Good Samaritan who came to the rescue of a man who had fallen among robbers, Jesus makes it plain that to love your neighbour means not only meeting your enemy’s every need, irrespective of what the cost to you might be, but to do so with genuine, heartfelt compassion. Which is not something that the lawyer had ever done.
And neither, need I point out, have any of us.
Which is why, if we are going to one day make it to heaven, we had better all hope that there is a way other than having to merit our own place there.
But the good news is that there is indeed another way.
Because whilst we might think that nobody has ever loved the way the Good Samaritan did, I know that there is in fact one who loved me like that.
The one who saw me lying spiritually dead – ravaged by sin and guilt.
The one who tended my wounds and led me to a place of shelter.
The one who paid the price for all my restoration.
There is then one who shows me mercy. And his name is Jesus. And what he did for me he did, despite my being a sinner and hostile to the one who I was created by.
Furthermore, he did it, not out of duty, but out of love.
In very many ways then the parable of the Good Samaritan is a parable about Jesus.
Because Jesus is the Good Samaritan.
So whilst continuing, of course, to try to live as virtuous a life as we possibly can, let’s not put our hope in our own good deeds to make us worthy of heaven. Because we will fail. Instead, let’s trust that Jesus’ death deals with God’s anger at our sin, and, what’s more, that his perfect life is one that God now graciously counts as having been lived by us.
Let’s accept, by faith, that offer of a lifetime. Because we do not inherit eternal life through our own efforts. Rather with receive it as a gift, one that is bestowed upon us by the one who died – both for us and in our place.
Some people go about their life like the CEO of a huge multinational company, and sone lay down their life for others. And I know with whom I would rather deal.
How, I wonder, about you?
To read ‘AN ADVENT CALENDAR COMPLETE’ – which includes 24 reflections on the Christmas Story, click here
To read ‘What becomes of the broken hearted – sorrowful yet always rejoicing on Palm Sunday’, click here
To read ‘Why do bad things happen to good people? Sorrowful yet always rejoicing on Good Friday’, click here
To read, ‘Good Friday – 2021’, click here
To read ‘Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things? Rejoicing, though temporarily sorrowful, on Easter Day’, click here.
To read ‘Easter Sunday – 2021’, click here
To read ‘The Resurrection – is it just rhubarb?’, click here
To read ‘Faith and Doubt’, click here
To read ‘Speaking in Tongues’, click here.
To read ‘Ascension Day’, click here
To read ‘Real Power’, click here
To read ‘Foolishness – Law and Gospel’, click here
To read ‘A CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN – 2024 – COMPLETE’ – which includes 24 more seasonal reflections – this time on why Jesus came to Earth on that first Christmas Day’, click here.
Some musings 