Holy Angels Anglican Church
The 13th Sunday after Trinity
(August 30, 2026)
St. Luke 10:23-37
“What Shall I do to Inherit Eternal Life?”
Given by: The Rev. Fr. Vincent J. Varnas
Today’s Gospel reading from St. Luke contains one of the best-known stories from the New Testament. It is the parable of the Good Samaritan. You probably know it by heart, so I am not going to repeat it today. Rather, I am going to delve into the first part of today’s Gospel that is often overlooked and even ignored by some, most likely because of conflicts among the three Synoptic Gospels.
It is a complex interaction between Jesus and a lawyer who tempts Jesus, pitting the lawyer’s rote knowledge of Scripture against Jesus’ insightful comprehension of the true meaning of the Word of God. The lawyer is testing Jesus to see if He really knows Scripture or is just a “bag of hot air”! It is a “cat and mouse game” of sorts. But who wins the game? Is the lawyer converted to Christianity by faith or is Jesus deceived into thinking that conversion has taken place? Let’s see.
The lawyer or scribe seems disingenuously to ask Jesus: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” . Is this a lost soul seeking spiritual help or is it a carefully laid trap? And if a trap, who falls into it: the lawyer himself who thinks he has found a way to ensnare Jesus by exposing His falsely perceived ignorance of Mosaic Law, or is it Jesus who seems to misunderstand the lawyer’s apparent acquiescence to Jesus’ commanding knowledge of the Law by telling the lawyer that he is on the right track?
As we heard today, the lawyer answers his own question about inheriting eternal life in reply to Jesus’ question to him: “What is written in the law? How readest thou?” . The lawyer’s response is from the Shema Israel (i.e., “Hear O Israel”) as found in both the Books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus, reading: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself” . However, from the Synoptic Gospels, we find this same story with a significantly different approach. From both St. Matthew and St. Mark, it is Jesus who directly answers the Lawyer’s or scribe’s question about inheriting eternal life, quoting the Shema Israel. It is only in St. Luke’s Gospel that Jesus in Socratic fashion asks a question in reply to the Lawyer’s or scribe’s initial question about how to inherit eternal life. Only St. Luke writes of Jesus asking the lawyer: “What is written in the law? How readest thou?”
As Anglicans we all know that our answer to the lawyer’s question (“What shall I do to inherit eternal life”) would be that everything necessary for salvation is to be found in Sacred Scripture.
From today’s Gospel reading, one must wonder if the lawyer is so impressed by Jesus’ comprehension of the Law of Moses that he begins to experience a change of heart and becomes a disciple? If the lawyer had indeed believed in his heart that Jesus was Lord, he might also have remembered the words of Moses from the Book of Deuteronomy: “Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God”. But, instead, the lawyer was acting on behalf of the Pharisees who wanted only to condemn Jesus. Thus, it is unclear whether the lawyer remained a skeptic or not. Most likely, not. Because the sticking point about what constitutes love of neighbor remains in dispute. That’s when and why Jesus then relates the parable of the Good Samaritan to the lawyer and the Pharisees in order to make the connection between love of neighbor and eternal life in God’s heavenly kingdom.
Among the lawyers or scribes, we know that knowledge of the Law of Moses was lacking in its merciful application. They were experts in knowledge of the letter of the Law, but their’ understanding of its righteousness and charitable application was lacking.
From the Gospel of St. Matthew, we learn that Jesus, “… taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes” . “This may refer to the fact that the teaching of Jesus was His own, not a compilation of quotations from the Law and the traditions of the elders” . Thus, Jesus was an intellectual threat to the lawyers and scribes, as well as a threat to the power and control of the Pharisees.
When Jesus asked the lawyer in today’s Gospel reading: “What is written in the law?”, His question transcended a request for the lawyer to regurgitate the Law of Moses. The lawyer’s answer is on the mark, but is from rote learning and lacking in insightfulness, because he is still tied to a stilted and harsh understanding of the Law and its unjust application. Jesus was looking for depth of meaning in the lawyer’s reciting of the Shema. What was missing from the lawyer’s recitation of the Law was any appreciation for mercy and love in the day-to-day application of God’s Eternal Law, as originally given to Moses.
Then, Jesus responds to the lawyer saying: “Thou hast answered right: this do and thou shalt live” . Here Jesus speaks of love of neighbor as charitable giving of self; not harsh, rigid misapplication of the Law of Moses.
By His comments, Jesus is not fully validating the lawyer’s response or initiating him into discipleship, but simply acknowledging that the lawyer is on the right track toward the destination of eternal life in God’s Kingdom; not that he had experienced a metanoia, or transformation of heart.
Jesus prevails in this contest of wits, but does not wish to humiliate the lawyer. However, like a bulldog whose bone has suddenly been snatched from its mouth, the lawyer growls a reply to Jesus, asking: “And who is my neighbor?” .
A tricky question, because in Jewish tradition, one’s neighbor is understood to be another Jew and not a Gentile. If Jesus says one’s neighbor includes Gentiles, then the lawyer saves face by shaming Jesus in the presence of the Pharisees and others who despise Gentiles. If Jesus says one’s neighbor is restricted to fellow Jews, then Jesus’ message of universal love is undercut. Thus, the parable of the Good Samaritan follows.
The merciless interpretation of the Law by the scribes and Pharisees is laid bare for its conflicts with God’s purpose and intent in giving the Law of Moses to His People in the first place.
God made no mistake in giving the Law to His Chosen People. This was all part of God’s plan for salvation. The relationship between God and man established at the time of Adam and Eve in the very first covenant was still developing and emerging over the centuries toward its culmination in the Covenant of Love written onto the hearts of all men and women in Christ Jesus.
The Old Covenants were covenants of relationship, peace, promise and laws. They were a foundation for the New Covenant of Love which could not have flourished in the hearts and minds of men without preparing us to accept as little children, open-handedly and open-mindedly the truth and meaning of love and charity. As St. Paul so aptly puts it: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” . new” . Consequently, our hearts become newly fashioned in God’s loving image. And, a newly developed principle of love of God and neighbor was forged from the iron hardness of the old law as coldly misapplied by the Jews and warmly refined into the steel of Christ’s virtuous image and finally formed into the real and true image of God that He created in Man which is loving relationship and freedom for excellence in the virtues of Christ.
And on the day of His Resurrection, when Jesus appeared to His Apostles, “... he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, ... concerning me” .
Thusly, St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans contains the key to the meaning of today’s Gospel reading, as he says: “Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” . And God is love. And Jesus is His Son. Therefore, the Law of Moses is fulfilled in Jesus.
So, how do we inherit eternal life in God’s heavenly kingdom? There are guideposts all around us and messages being sent through Sacred Scripture and by the Holy Spirit telling us how to find the Way. And how do we recognize them? The guidepost is the destination and the messenger is the message and both are Jesus, who is the Way as well as the Truth and the Life: life eternal in Christ Jesus.