And who is my neighbor?

This week we are looking at an encounter that a lawyer had with Jesus that is recorded for us in an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of Luke. Yesterday, we looked on as a lawyer attempt to trap Jesus with a question that was designed to jeopardize Jesus credibility and status with the people.

We looked on as Jesus turned the tables on this lawyer by making him answer his own question. We looked on as that the lawyer responded to having the tables turned on him by Jesus by quoting from a section of a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of our Bibles called the book of Deuteronomy. The lawyer quoted Deuteronomy 6:5, which was part of the Hebrew Schema, which was the Jewish people’s confession of faith.

And in the lawyers answer, we see the lawyer reveal the reality that we were all created for relationships. We were created for relationships, vertically with God and horizontally with others in a community of love and acceptance. And because we were created in His image, we show our love for God by how we love others. That is why the message and teachings of Jesus and the Bible make it clear that we show our love for God when we love our neighbor. Conversely, we show a lack of intimacy with God when we are indifferent or hostile toward our neighbor.

We looked on as Jesus basically said to the lawyer “You answered your own question correctly. Now make sure that you are living your life in obedience to your answer. To be right with God so that you can obtain a ticket to Heaven make sure that you are living your life in obedience to the Lord’s command to love the Lord with your total being and to love your neighbor as yourself, because you will show your love for the Lord by how you love your neighbor.”

Now today, I want us to imagine ourselves in this event from history as this lawyer. Place yourself in his shoes. You have just tried to trap Jesus with a question in a way that would jeopardize Jesus status and credibility among the people. However, Jesus just turned the tables on you in a way that forced you to answer your own question and that made Jesus look even better in the eyes of the people.

You are this lawyer. What would you be thinking at this point? How would you be feeling? How would you respond? We see the lawyer’s response in verse 29:

But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

Luke tells us that the lawyer responded to having the tables turned on him by Jesus by asking Jesus a second question. "And who is my neighbor?" However, Luke reveals the true motives behind the lawyers question with the phrase wishing to justify himself. Now this phrase literally means to wish to vindicate himself.

You see, the lawyer recognized that Jesus had turned the tables on him. The lawyer recognized that his plan to trap Jesus had backfired. And the lawyer desperately desired to vindicate himself. So the lawyer doubled down in his attempts to trap Jesus. 

The lawyer is basically saying “well Jesus if the Law says that I am supposed to love my neighbor as myself, who is my neighbor? And who is not my neighbor? Who do I have to love as I love myself? And who can I not love as I love myself?”

Once again the lawyer thought that he had trapped Jesus. The lawyer thought that he had trapped Jesus again because there was great disagreement when it came to the answer to this question. And the lawyer believed that however Jesus answered this question, Jesus would end up offending someone.

You see, in the Jewish culture of the first century, Jewish rabbis often taught that the Jewish people were to love their neighbor and hate their enemies. We see this in another account of Jesus life in the Bible called the book of Matthew in Matthew 5:43. In other words, Jewish people who were right with God were under obligation to love other people who were insiders that were right with God, but Jewish people did not have to love people who were outsiders who were not right with God.

So there was great debate when it came to who was an insider and who was an outsider. There was a great debate when it came to who was right with God and who was not right with God. There was great debate over who needed to be shown love and who did not need to be shown love.  And now Jesus was being forced by this lawyer to enter into this debate.

Friday, we will see how Jesus entered into this debate...