What must I do...?

"What must I do to inherit eternal life?'"
asks the lawyer of Jesus in Luke's gospel. 




The idea of an afterlife has always been one open to debate. Not everyone in Jesus' time believed in an afterlife. The Saducees, who were the ruling class of priests in Israel did not believe in an afterlife or resurrection to come for those who had died.

In the Greek-Hellenized world, contemporary with Christ, there was belief that the Soul or Psyche, symbolized by the butterfly's metamorphosis from the caterpillar to a winged beauty, represented our own human progression from physical being to a higher spiritual existence to come.

Of course, Christianity is not the only religious expression that purports a life of meaning after this one. There are variations on this theme throughout history as well as across our present day human beliefs, whether we are speaking of a heaven, a hell, or a series of incarnations we must endure to  reach our penultimate existence.

However, whether we speak of the ruling Priestly class of Saducees or the Law interpreting Pharisees (the lawyer in the Lukan passage could easily be a Pharisee) who believed in an afterlife resurrection, for the most part a faithful Jew was occupied with his present day life rather than the one to come.

In fact, even though a Pharisee believed in resurrection into an afterlife, he believed this life was key to his/her inclusion in the next. It was his conduct in this one that affected the next. This interpretation agrees with virtually all religious or philosophical expressions of a life after this one regardless of Jewish, Christian, Hindi, Wicca or other afterlife beliefs.

In the Lukan passages 10:25-37 for our study, we see how Jesus illustrates through the story of the Good Samaritan how this life calls us to live in an eternal manner. How the questions of life and neighbor are both eternal in their significance as they are continually posed to us generation after generation after generation.

Luke 10:25-37

10:25 Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

10:26 He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?"

10:27 He answered, "You shall 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 your neighbor as yourself."

10:28 And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live."

10:29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

10:30 Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.

10:31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

10:32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

10:33 But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.

10:34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

10:35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.'

10:36 Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?"

10:37 He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."


Walter Morton for Journey Across the Line