andi oakes

Sometimes...I read the words of Jesus and think to myself...WHAT?!!!

I mean...He's off the wall sometimes...just totally off – the – wall.

Take the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 for instance.  Jesus tells this parable in response to a question and answer session with an “Expert in the law”, and it's how Jesus answers his initial questions that just makes me shake my head in wonder.  

At first, this unnamed expert asks a very, very straightforward question: 

So...pretty straightforward don't you think?  Pause for a moment, and let that question be directed to you.  Someone has come up to you on the street and asks you exactly the same question.  I mean...how amazing would that be?! No mission, no evangelistic outreach...a guy just comes up and asks you outright “How can I get eternal life?”  How do you answer?

If you're like me, you're probably running through the logical steps that lead someone to pray the prayer of repentance and “accept Jesus into their hearts.”  How does the  “Roman road” go again? It's a one off moment.  The transaction is simple...you say sorry to God and invite Him in. Easy.

Not if you're Jesus.

Jesus...at no point...directed this man to “acknowledge he was a sinner”.  Well, he didn't need to did he? He was an expert in the law after all.  Jesus...at no point however...invited him to pray the “sinners prayer”.  Hmmmmm...tricky.  

So how can he know if he'll have eternal life?

Jesus simply asks the guy a question: “What does the law of Moses say?”

Aha! Surely this is where Jesus is going to show him, through his own understanding of the law, his desperate need of a personal saviour.

So the guy replies:

Go get him Jesus! Tell him what he's missing!

Pardon me? What did you say Jesus? Did you say “Right”?  Now hold on a moment! Where's the prayer of submission?  The supplication for forgiveness?  Right? Right? Is that all you have to say?!

It is at this stage that the expert asks for Jesus to clarify who his “Neighbour” is...and Jesus tells him the story of the Good Samaritan.  Basically Jesus told him to go do good to the person or people you despise the most.  

Hmmmm...I'm pretty sure that's not what I was told in evangelism training.  

I mean...if I had suggested leading someone to the Lord using Jesus' method, I would have quickly taken round the back and swiftly shown the error of my ways with a swift King James Authorized clip round the ear.  How can someone know eternal life without praying for it?  But...according to Jesus...apparently...they can.  So who's right? “Off the wall” Jesus or everyone else?

It seems to me, on reading this passage again, that Jesus is more interested in the NOW rather than the future.  We obsess about someone's “Eternal destination” - a future event; where Jesus appears to be more interested in eternal life in the actual here and now.  Jesus confronts us in the “here and now” by saying that first we must love God whole heartedly and that, hand in hand with that, is how we treat others, steering us away from a momentary prayer towards a radical change of lifestyle.

You see...it's easy to say you love God.  I've meet plenty of people who say they “Love” Jesus, and then go right ahead and treat people unkindly; and even use God to justify it all.  Unkindness is still unkindness, no matter what spiritual clothes we try to dress it up in.  But loving God is only 50% of the equation – treating others with care, kindness and love is the other half.  One cannot exist without the other.  

Loving God is not even the greater of the two - both are equal and intrinsic to each other.  It's not an either or situation...they are a package and exist in harmony with each other.  At another time, Jesus said that we would be known by the fruit we produce: not by how little someone drinks, go to nightclubs, what they watch on TV or how often they go to church - no...we will be known by how we treat other people.  (Check out the end of Matthew 25 if you're in any doubt about that)

In fact, let me push it a little further: 

Paul said in Acts 17 v 28 “For in God we live and move and have our being.”  That means we must exist “in” and not separate from God.  We are also told in Genesis that mankind was made in the image of God.  So...it seems reasonable to me therefore...that when we love another human being...we are actually, in some way...loving God.  

So you see...loving your neighbour as yourself completes the circle of love.  There is no difference, for we end up loving God all ways with what Jesus has said.  Love...that is eternal life.  Not simply a prayer.  A prayer means nothing if it is not empowered by love.  

Loving God = Loving Others = Loving God.

How elegant the kingdom of God is.