Infinite Life

: Infinite Life

                  The assigned Gospel text for this week is one is one of the more popular parables from Jesus’ ministry. The parable of the “Good Samaritan”. The story starts with an expert in Jewish law testing Jesus by asking him “how to inherit eternal life”. Jesus flips the test and asks the expert what he thinks. He responds with what we’ve come to call the greatest commandment “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” When the expert presses Jesus by asking Jesus who is neighbor is Jesus responds with the story of a man who was beaten and left for dead on the side of the road. A priest and Levite (another kind of religious official) both pass him by but a Samaritan (a member from a non-Jewish culture that didn’t get along so well with the Jewish community) does stop to take care of him. The expert declares the Samaritan (well he can’t bring himself to say as much but instead says “the one who shows him mercy) which would have been a shock to Jesus listeners.

                  While discussing this text with colleagues this week I was struck by the fact that I don’t think the question the expert was asking of how to inherit eternal life was a question we ask today. At least in most Lutheran contexts. We (should have been) told our whole lives that we inherited eternal life in Jesus’ death and resurrection two thousand years ago. It’s not something we can earn or work for. Then a colleague reframed the question for me. They interpret the question to be less about eternal life as in life after death but instead as infinite or expansive life. The expert was asking how to live a full, complete and whole life. A life that is everything. Which is a question I do think we ask today. If you asked people what they think they need or need to do in order to live a full or infinite life most people would list things like have a house, a job, food, a car, a family and maybe a few other things. Jesus answer is much more simple though. To have a full and infinite life we must Love. Love ourselves, Love our God, and Love our neighbor. Which I think is makes the parable of the Good Samaritan a far more scandalous parable than if it’s just about living forever.

Peace,

Corey