Jesus Tells Lawyer the Key to Eternal Life

OLD NEWS IS NEW TO ME

I realize that the title to this post reads like a tabloid headline, but this story is old news. REALLY old. Thousands of years old, in fact.  But it’s new to me, and maybe to You,

Today (2/9/25 – Super Bowl Sunday) is the first time I realized that one of the central characters in the parable of the Good Samaritan is a lawyer.

Even though I grew up in Church and enjoyed religion as a required class for many years, the textually obvious lawyer’s involvement in this well known story never resonated with me.  And I didn’t have an epiphany today either.

The lawyer’s involvement was pointed out by our Pastor. Without this direction, I likely would have never recognized it. And since my blog has become one way I document my life’s journey and realization that the law permeates every single day of it, I’m taking the editorial liberty of publishing this quasi-religious post.

As for the lawyer and Jesus, here’s how it went down:

“EXPERT IN THE LAWS” EXAMINES JESUS 

To be clear, Chapter 10 of the Book of Luke,  states that  “an expert in the law” stood up “to test Jesus” about how to achieve Eternal Life. This sounds a lot like what the law calls a Witness Examination.

According to the Scripture, the exchange started like this:

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the Law?” he [Jesus] replied. “How do you read it?”

He [the Lawyer] 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.’”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

Notice how – as every skilled cross-examiner does — the lawyer asked Jesus a question he already knew the answer to?

When pushed by Jesus, the lawyer answered his own question by quoting the Old Testament: Deuteronomy 6:5 (Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength) and the Book of Leviticus at Chapter 19 verse 18 (Love your neighbor as yourself). Notably, Leviticus was the basis for much of the Jewish law in Jesus’ time.

Note: Under Texas Rule of Evidence 610, “Evidence of a witness’s religious beliefs or opinions is not admissible to attack or support the witness’s credibility.”   Obviously, neither this Rule nor Texas existed back then.

LAWYER ASKS “THE WITNESS” — JESUS — AN OPEN-ENDED QUESTION, HOPING TO TRIP HIM UP

Unsatisfied with Jesus’ answer, the lawyer presses on. Next, he answers an open-ended question:

29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

This was just the opening Jesus needed to tell the story of how the religious elite ignored the suffering man, while an unexpected (and undesirable) hero — the Samaritan — saves him:

30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.

31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.

32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.

34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.

35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

JESUS TURNS THE TABLES AND USES THE SOCRATIC METHOD

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

TAKE AWAY