What Must I Do? Part 1
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A question of epic proportions is tucked into the pages of our Bible. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Seems like a reasonable, common enough question anyone can identify with.
When this question arises, straightforward answers are given. But you might never know it because we keep asking, over and over. We keep proposing alternative answers as if Jesus didn’t already make it clear.
In fact, some have suggested one of the most widespread - and most anxiety-inducing - global questions is “What is God like and what does he think of me?” So much human life is a response to this question or to someone else’s answer to this question.
Looking around at what churches often do with believers (potential, new, and old) reveals that either the answers aren’t as simple as they appear, or that we just don’t care. It’s no accident that such an ultimate question found its way into our sacred text, multiple times.
Let’s take a look at what Jesus really said.
HOW TO INHERIT ETERNAL LIFE
This question shows up in the 3 Synoptic Gospels in uniform fashion, asked of Jesus by a young, wealthy man unwilling to part with his many possessions (Matthew 19, Mark 10, Luke 18). The resoundingly clear conclusion in the text (spoiler alert) is the all too familiar saying, “What is impossible for mortals is possible for God” (Luke 18:27).
Earlier in Luke, a lawyer asks Jesus this question in a different context. Jesus eventually retorts with the parable of the Good Samaritan, misnamed as it may be. The key link in these stories (other than the verbatim question) is Jesus’ appeal to the law of Moses and the seekers’ claims of utmost personal compliance.
In response to the wealthy guy, Jesus points to the 10 commandments. In response to the Lawyer in Luke 10, Jesus turns the question back on him asking what he reads in “The Law.” Jesus is directing both of them to what they already know from Moses.
Claiming they’ve already mastered adherence to the Law of Moses, the questioners press further. Jesus tells the rich guy to sell everything to give to the poor, and he tells the Jewish Lawyer to imitate the Samaritan who spent a fortune on a mostly dead Jew - both utterly life-ending and ruinous actions.
PEOPLE CANNOT ACQUIRE ETERNAL LIFE
Jesus’ extreme responses do not satisfy the questioners. Sure, he may have practiced what he preached here, but Jesus is setting himself up as a Savior, not a shining example. And he’s not advocating that these men upgrade their law-abiding game, he’s proving they can’t. This difference makes all the difference and the proof is in the pudding, as they say.
Jesus is setting himself up as a Savior, not a shining example.
Jesus goes to great lengths to explain in these stories that the answer to the question, “what must I do to inherit eternal life,” is “it is impossible for people.” People cannot and will not do enough of something to inherit eternal life. This is something only God does.
The repeated appeal to the Law of Moses provokes a crisis of capacity in the questioners. It is a cunning move by Jesus, really. Thinking to trap Jesus by pitting him against Moses, Jesus aims the pressure of Moses’ judgment back on them, showing them the deadly trap in their chosen method of religion-logic.
They can’t embody the heart of their own law, the very center of their profession, “love your neighbor as yourself.” Perfection, the presumed way into eternal life, is not an option. Unable to continue sparring with Jesus, they leave sad and frustrated, beaten at their own game.
You see, if you’re asking “what are you supposed to do to get into God’s good graces,” the answer is clear. Nothing. You can’t. You won’t. You didn’t. How do you get into the presence of God where life is found? You don’t. This looks and feels like very bad news, especially for a gift-allergic species like us.
ASKING THE WRONG QUESTION ABOUT ETERNAL LIFE
The wrong question is being asked. And the question being asked betrays the ultimate problem: we cannot imagine a world where God doesn’t need us to live acceptable lives. And we balk at any version of existence in which we don’t have some sort of control. Jesus calls these questioners to follow impossible examples.
There’s no world where people finally overcome the depraved religion-logic of the rich guy and the lawyer. So, it is high time to do away with the theory that these stories are good examples for us to follow or something we must imitate.
Don’t get me wrong, they are the picture of the world God is reestablishing by the Spirit. But, if the question being asked is “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” then the answer is not actually, “give away everything you have to the poor and needy.” That is the answer given in this story to prove that you can’t, and you’ll never be able to do what it takes to inherit eternal life.
Something else must be going on here. The worn out strategy of spiritualizing and sanitizing these high demands will not do either. Jesus wasn’t saying, “Try your best to be a good neighbor,” and, “As long as your heart is at least willing to give away some of your things to the poor, you’re good.”
So, what is Jesus actually getting at?
DEAD IN THE WATER AND ETERNAL LIFE
Jesus is bringing us to the end of ourselves, not teasing out our best selves. Jesus is drawing us to himself, not equipping us for empowered living, “for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing” (Galatians 2:21, NRSV).
Jesus is bringing us to the end of ourselves, not teasing out our best selves.
The literary context most often neglected when interpreting all these stories is the fast approaching crucifixion of Christ, the focal point and climax of each Gospel-writer’s story. Throughout these encounters, Jesus’ face was set toward Jerusalem (Luke 9:51) where he was going to take away the sins of the world and stunningly make us “joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17).
Talk of inheriting something in light of what Jesus is doing unfortunately usually leads us to new crusades instead of trust and astonishment that you can only inherit something that already belongs to you by birthright. The question negates the very nature and mechanics of “inheritance.”
I can’t deserve or not deserve to be an Allen. I was born an Allen, and even if the name is revoked, my DNA doesn’t lie and cannot be changed.
You cannot deserve or not deserve something that’s fundamentally and irrevocably true about you. You can’t deserve to be human. You are a human being. So also, you are a child of God, His offspring. Always have been and always will be.
Again, if the question being asked is “what must I do to inherit eternal life,” then the answer is “Jesus already did it.” There’s nothing you must do to inherit something that is already yours. The doing part is already done, God gave you the spirit of adoption through his son Jesus (Romans 8:15).
Breath that in.
Check out the LARKCAST episode this blog is paired with to dive deeper into the conversation:
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