The Fulfillment of Belief, Love, and Action in Jesus
Luke 10:23 ¶ Then turning to the disciples he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!
Luke 10:24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”
Luke 10:25 ¶ And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
Luke 10:26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”
Luke 10:27 And 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.”
Luke 10:28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
This little progression proves itself. Jesus has been establishing, since John the Baptist, that He was sent from God and that He is bringing about a new kingdom. He’s not creating a new religion. He’s not throwing away all that Moses and the prophets taught. Jesus is the fulfillment of all of Jewish history and thought.
Then Jesus says that many prophets and kings have been waiting for Him. They have been waiting for Him since Moses wrote down the old story that said “you will nip at his heel but he will crush your skull.” (Genesis 3:15!) Kings, and prophets looked for Him because they were educated. Worried moms and beaten down men waited for Him because they were desperate for salvation.
And then along comes a ‘lawyer’ who wants to test Jesus. He was some sort of expert in the Torah. He may have been a scribe. It was his job to write out copies of the Torah for others. He had huge passages (maybe the whole thing!) memorized. There he was, coming to test Jesus. There is a lot of good in that book, what part with this Rabbi say is the way to have eternal life?
The answer the expert gave after Jesus put the question back to him probably came off his lips like we say “God is good — all the time.” It was something they repeated daily. They wrote it on little pieces of material and stuck it in a box and wore the box on their heads. They wore it on a bracelet thing and hung it on their doorways and on their gateposts.
For Jesus, the story ended there. That was enough. That one little bit of truth, in the context of Jesus the Christ, was enough.
Luke 10:27 And 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.”
Luke 10:28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
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