The lawyer in this story — a precise, focused, seeker of Jesus — asked two questions. 

• “What, should I do to inherit eternal life?” (Verse 25)
• “Who is my neighbor?” (Verse 29)

He asked a Do question. Jesus gave him a Do answer: Love God with your mind, will, emotions, and physical capacities. Love your neighbor as yourself. 

He asked a Who question. Jesus answered with a story: Whoever you can help, whenever you can help them. 

The lawyer was looking for the limits, the bare minimums. Jesus expressed the extravagant heart of God. 

Love, if it is real love, amplifies and accelerates, reaches and includes, breaks down barriers and refuses to be contained.

The lawyer wanted a baseline, a marker of performance indicating he had made it into God’s kingdom. 

Jesus wanted him to know baselines are starting lines, not finishing lines. The only finish line is when we arrive in the place of perfect peace and rest. 

When Jesus said, ”Yes, now go and do the same” (verse 37), the command is immediate and enduring. In other words, do it now, and do it always. 

What we do and why we do it are to be so wrapped in God’s love that we stop worrying about the expense of the effort. We begin looking beyond the need to the restored person. We stop wondering, “Have I done enough?” We begin thinking, “Who needs the help I can provide?”

It would be good to have a lawyer with a heart like Jesus. Feel free to substitute “lawyer” with your profession. What Samaritans are lying on the road where you live, work, and play? What would Jesus do for them? How can you express God’s unquenchable love? How can you demonstrate his unending mercy?

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I will live and love like Jesus.

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Our Father, empower me to see others as you see them. Empower me to love them as they need to be loved. Empower me to serve them in whatever manner they need to be served. Amen.