The readings for the fifth Sunday after Pentecost are taken from Leviticus 18:1-5, 19:9-18; Colossians 1:1-14; and Luke 10:25-37. The word “love” is at the center of all three lessons. The love of God was evident in Jesus and the tide that Jesus’ resurrection set in motion keeps rising and coming inland. God IS love, thus love is the source of God’s will—His design in creation, His redeeming work, and everything He says and does.
In the reading from Leviticus, God warns the Israelites (who have just been brought out of slavery) to beware of making themselves slaves again to the evils of Egypt or the nations that surround them. God describes the nature of bondage to sin by forbidding it. God describes the nature of goodness in a single positive command: “You shall love your neighbor.”
Paul begins his letter to the Colossians with a prayer of thanks for their redemption and a command for them to walk “worthy,” which means to walk in a way that is consistent with their calling as children of the kingdom of the Son of God’s love. Walking THIS WAY depends on living in the knowledge of the Lord (see 2 Peter 1 on “knowledge”).
Luke records a powerful and memorable example of the corruption of Adam, which is still determined to hold us in bondage to death. The lawyer did not come to ask Jesus how to love or become a loving person. The lawyer, like us all, came to justify himself by changing the law so it approves of his selfishness rather than exposing it. Jesus used a parable to do what Leviticus commands: “You shall not hate your brother but shall surely rebuke him . . .” Love never looks for excuses to be loveless. Love grows by the knowledge of the Lord and is ever growing in awareness of opportunities to love, as the Samaritan did.
By the way, did you see yourself in everyone in the lesson from Luke? The corruption of Adam in our minds and hearts makes us use our strength to argue against God rather than listen to Him. And what is the benefit of contradicting God in order to establish our own standards that leave us opposed to each other? We are too often the priest and Levite that see a need and pass by (not just big needs of strangers, but all day long the little needs of family and friends). Sometimes we are the one who was robbed and left for dead. But Jesus is the One despised and the One who came to us and comes to us still. He binds up our wounds, carries us to a place of rest, and pays for our care, no matter how great the cost–even to the cost of His life to redeem us from the curse of the law. And, now that our soul is regenerated by God in His image and inspired by the Holy Spirit, we are beginning to be good Samaritans too!