Love is Life

Then an expert in the law stood up to test him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the law?” he asked him. “How do you read it?”

He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself.”

“You’ve answered correctly,” he told him. “Do this and you will live.”

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

Jesus took up the question and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion. He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’

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

“The one who showed mercy to him,” he said.

Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.” Luke 10:25-37 (CSB)

This story is particularly relevant to the road that Jesus was walking on toward Jerusalem which was notorious for bandits and scoundrels. People would travel in groups for safety on it. As a true teacher, he uses the example at hand to answer the question about eternal life. For him, and in scripture, eternal life in scripture does not just mean life forever, although it certainly includes that. Rather, it means knowing God in his fullness, 

“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3

Dallas Willard famously quipped, “I have come to believe that as many people can get into heaven as can stand it.” Really, the living forever part is a relatively simple problem for God to fix. Rearrange some atoms, fix some broken lungs and worn out knees and voila! It’s the heart that longs to be there with him and like him that is the complexity. We can live forever, but still hate, despise, envy, etc. The demons do that. For a particularly poignant view of this reality, see C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce, which is simply one of the best books I have ever read. 

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus is highlighting the problem with the complexity of the human condition. Which one is love? is what he is asking his audience. Remember, the original question of the asker was what did he need to do to have eternal life? Jesus spouts back with a story about love. We have to be like that. Like love.

Why? Because, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” 1 John 4:8 

And therefore, even if they “go to heaven” to be with God, the whole condition will be so utterly miserable, that they’ll think they are in hell (again, see The Great Divorce) and choose elsewhere, like Willard suggests.

Which is why Jesus highlighted the law: This is what eternal life (knowing God and being with him forever) requires. To love him fully, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. 

All well and good. The hitch? We’re terrible at it. Miserable. Awful. Love doesn’t come naturally, since love is of God, and being like God has been hard for us since the garden. The whole “made in his likeness” has had a deep pall cast over it after the serpent convinced us we no longer needed him to be like him. 

If you don’t think you need love, to love, you’ve got issues. It’s rather like telling water you don’t need it to satisfy thirst. 

Jesus isn’t shaming us, he’s inviting us to be something more. Yes with our effort, but also with his own Spirit, which is the very point of his mission. If we could already do this easily, he wouldn’t be going to Jerusalem. But he’s going to give us eternal life. That is, not only life with God, but a whole new heart that can handle the experience. One rooted in his own, 

“The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love him with all your heart and all your soul so that you will live.” Deuteronomy 30:6