ETERNAL TREASURE - FIRST FRUITS OF ETERNAL LIFE

 Jesus gave the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37) in answer to the questions, (1) “Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” and (2) “Who is my neighbor?” The two go together. Love for the neighbor is the first fruits of eternal life. The parable is about two groups of people—Jews and Samaritans. Each had a book of the law and a mountain designated as the place to worship. Each claimed to have the only book of the law and the only mountain designated as the place to worship. Each said to the other, “You don’t have the right book, and you don’t worship on the right mountain. You are not God’s people; we are.” The feud had gone on for centuries (John 4:19-21).

Since Jesus gave the parable, the groups have multiplied over the centuries. It is now Christians and Jews, Protestants and Catholics, Muslims and Christians, Hindus and Christians, Buddhists and Christians, Liberals and Conservatives, Denominations and Nondenominational, Christians and Secular Humanist, Christians and Socialist, Atheists and Theists, etc. The world is reeling with suffering as a result of the arguments and controversies about the books and the places of worship.

A book and a place to worship can become idols replacing God, the works of the flesh replacing the fruit of the Spirit. A book can become a substitute for love of neighbor and eternal life, a fortress separating us from them, the saved from the lost.

Love for the neighbor and eternal life is not confined to a fortress separated from other fortresses calling them names—lost, infidel, doomed, etc. Rather, love for the neighbor goes into the other fortresses and preaches the gospel to the poor, heals the brokenhearted, and preaches deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind; and it sets at liberty them that are bruised (Luke 4:18).

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, a Jew was attacked, robbed, and left for dead. A Samaritan, one who was despised and considered beyond the reach of God’s grace by the Jew who was left half dead, ministered to the injured Jew. In other circumstances, the one who was ministered to would have spit in the face of the one who ministered to him.

The Samaritan stepped out of the old prejudices, the old boundaries, the name-calling, and the anger, and ministered to the one who despised him. Love replaced hate; life replaced death; joy replaced anger; blessing replaced name-calling. The fruit of the Spirit replaced the works of the flesh.

Jonah was the opposite of the Good Samaritan. He didn’t want to preach good news to the people of Nineveh; they were his enemies. He wanted them punished not forgiven (Jonah 4:1-3). We each are confronted with similar situations as the Samaritan and Jonah.

Will we react like Jonah or the Good Samaritan? We can react like Jonah and desire their punishment and suffer the consequences (Jonah 1:17). Or, we can react like the Good Samaritan—leave the old fortresses, prejudices, and cross over into  fortresses, and prejudices of others, and minister to the person in need and live (Luke 10:28).

Excerpted from Faith Sings God's Song by Robert P. Holland

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