On Self-Justification (Luke 10:25 - 37)

Luke 10:27 - 35

25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”  (Luke 10:25–37, ESV)

The way this is traditionally presented, the lawyer is depicted as attempting to justify himself before Yeshua by way of highlighting his own faith & practice, thereby drawing attention to his own hypocrisy.    Speaking for myself, I think that’s only partially the case, insofar as there’s a similar text in Matthew 22 in which a lawyer asks which commandment is greatest & appears to ask as the antidote to the Pharisees & Sadducees, which means that if he is seeking to justify himself then he’s drawing attention to his faith & practice and that of Yeshua & the reform movement that had coalesced around Him in contrast to the hypocrisy & merciless of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, Zealots, & Romans.  

The target audience for Luke’s Gospel is primarily a Gentile audience, specifically the Pauline communities, & those churches, within the Pauline corpus, are churches who contended with corrupt civil & ecclesiastical authorities like corrupt magistrates, gospel peddlers, & the “superapostles” operating in the & around the Mediterranean Basin.  

Consequently, when I read & hear Luke’s account, I don’t hear the lawyer in Matthew 22 as much as I hear a more generic use of the term, which is why I think that Luke’s emphasis is on the pride of the lawyer moreso than Matthew’s lawyer.   Thus, I think we have two different lawyers here.  One lawyer leans toward the generic magistrate who fears God & wants Yeshua to acknowledge that fact the way we picture a typical/stereotypical Pharisee; whereas the lawyer in Matthew 22 is looking to justify himself the way Zaccheus did or Joseph of Arimathea (Thaddeus) mights. 

Luke’s lawyer leans toward, “Get to know me, I’m a good man.”   Matthew’s lawyer leans toward “We all know what’s going on here.  I’ve been accused by my peers & others, as have You, for quite some time, & I need some vindication & relief from this as do You.”