What Is Written?
Luke 10:23-28 (NIVUK)
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘What is written in the Law?’ he replied. ‘How do you read it?’ He answered, ‘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 neighbour as yourself.' You have answered correctly,’ Jesus replied. ‘Do this and you will live.’
Google is my friend. It’s so helpful in answering my random questions on any given day. Apparently the most googled question last year was: How do I delete Instagram? (I feel the pain behind that!) This is followed by the deeply life-changing question: ‘Can you freeze courgettes?’ I’m not entirely sure why this is important to quite so many people…
Even had technology allowed, I’m not convinced the ‘expert’ in our passage would have found a good answer to his question. He wasn’t exactly a Lawyer – ‘The Law’ refers to the first few books of our Bible – but rather a religious expert, knowing Moses’ commands inside out. He doesn’t so much want to know the answer as to check out whether Jesus does. He is trying to test Jesus, possibly get him to implicate himself as a blasphemer.
Jesus doesn’t answer, but instead asks what the expert has read: ‘What is written in the Law?’
The expert is, naturally, able to rattle off the answer from Deuteronomy 6:4-5, the command of the Lord. Unfortunately, even with his learning, he fails to notice words a few verses later saying, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test…’ (Deuteronomy 6:16).
Jesus kindly affirms his answer: yes, that’s correct – love the Lord and love your neighbour. But he follows up with a killer six-word phrase: ‘Do this and you will live’.
Simple, yes? But not easy. The expert knows the truths written in Scripture but is he putting them into practice?
We believe the Bible holds God’s truth; it’s important that we get it ‘inside’ us in whatever way we can. But just reading it is not enough – our question today is how can I live out that truth every day? Loving God and Loving our neighbour is a good place to start.
Prayer — Father thank you for your Word, for giving us stories and poetry and history and commands that reveal your truth to us. Help me hear this truth today and put it into practice.