Like A Good Neighbor - Part One

“What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”
Luke 10:26 (NIV)

Yes, the State Farm insurance jingle is running around my head – you all know the one “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.” The other thought running through my mind is “here we go again.” But nonetheless here we are, an “expert” in the law stands up to test Jesus, again with a question. You would think these guys would figure out that it's not a good idea to ask Jesus a question without a pure motive, cause it ain’t gonna end well otherwise.

As we have seen, Jesus rarely answers a question directly. He does however, quite often respond with a question or two of His own. Sometimes Jesus responds with a story. Either way if their motives weren’t on the up and up, they were going to be walking away mad or embarrassed and quite possibly both. That’s the situation we find ourselves in this two-part mini-series within the series. This week Jesus answers a question with a question and next week, Jesus answers a follow up question with a story.

So, this guy identified as an expert in the law tries to test Jesus with a question. He asks Jesus, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life (Luke 10:25)? To which Jesus responds with this week’s questions. Basically, Jesus is like, “Hmm I don’t know, what does the law say? How do you read the law on that matter? The gentleman answers correctly, when he responds “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” (Luke 10:27). Jesus commends him, saying “You have answered correctly, do this and you will live” (Luke 10:28). You would think that this guy would quit while he was ahead, but no, the test continues. We’ll leave that for next week.

I don’t want you to misunderstand, Jesus doesn’t mind when we ask him questions, if they come from the place of a sincere heart and mind, looking for His answer – not the answer we want and that can be hard, because life can be hard to understand. We like it when all the pieces fit together the way we want them too. Sometimes we ask for direction and he tells us to wait. Sometimes we ask why and He tells us it’s to help us trust Him more. Sometimes we ask a question and He is silent, but then someone turns up or something happens and we have our answer. So ask away, not looking to test Him or to get Him to agree with what you think the answer should be. Ask because you want to know Him better, you want to look more like Him, you want to be a good neighbor. Those questions will get His answer in His timing and by His method and you will walk away lifted up, encouraged and ready (sort of) for whatever comes next.

Let me know your thoughts. Know someone who might be encouraged by this – please share. I will be praying for you. Until next week – ask questions that will make you a good neighbor.