The story of the Good Samaritan is one of the most unforgettable and best known stories of Jesus. In fact, we are so familiar with it, we may overlook its richness and some of its meanings. For instance, when we focus on the story we may miss the context of the lawyer's questions. This provides us with the context which always has to do with our cultural setting.

The lawyer asks Jesus two questions.

The first question: What must I do to inherit eternal life?

How do we ask that question? What must I do to be saved? How can I have a good and meaningful life? What is the goal and purpose of life and how can I participate in it?

Jesus asks the lawyer to answer it, based on his knowledge of the law of God and his own insights. The lawyer answers, essentially, love God and love your neighbor as you love yourself."

Right on, Jesus says.

The second question: Who is my neighbor?

Why did he ask this second question? Luke says, "Seeking to justify himself."

Self-justification. We all do it. We live in a culture of self-justification. How do we do it? In all sorts of ways. We want to be good enough. We want to be religious enough. We want to be right enough. We want to be rich enough. We want to be successful enough. We want to be beautiful enough. We want to be smart enough. We want to be thin enough. We want to be liked enough. We want to be accepted enough.

And in our culture we are always being asked to justify ourselves. For a mortgage. For a job. For a place on the team. For a place in college. For being a friend. For joining a club. For social acceptance? Are we liberal enough? Are we conservative enough? Are we good enough?

So self-justification in our culture becomes almost second nature.

In our discussions of Christ and culture we have seen that the gospel almost always turns things in culture upside down. The values of the kingdom of God are different than the values of the kingdoms of this world.

In the values of the kingdom we do not "do in order to be justified" but we are "justified by God in order to do." We simply cannot put God, or life, in our debt. Our "doing"-if we want to really live, to have real life, to inherit eternal life, to live life in the vision of Jesus-is not about having and getting and succeeding and achieving in all our frantic efforts of self-justification, but our "doing" is about loving God and others. It is about showing mercy, according to Jesus.

Luke makes clear that life in the kingdom of God is not a discussion about religion but a decision about being loving and merciful. As with the lawyer, we do not need more information. We need to act on what we know. Our knowing almost always outstrips our loving, our information almost always outstrips our performance. Our understanding is greater than our obedience. We might have a four point GPA in Bible or Religion and still miss the point. Knowing the right answers and having enough stuff, enough beauty, enough education, enough religion, enough good works, enough success and enough popularity, doesn't mean we know God or have God's life, genuine life, eternal life, in us.

Life in the kingdom is not in self-justification but in self-emptying unconditional love. It is a love that does not seek to justify itself, but a love that knows no boundaries and expects no recompense.

If we are to live as Christ in culture, we are not called to set limits in order to justify ourselves but to show mercy in order to love. On another occasion Jesus said, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be given mercy." Or as in this story today, "show mercy and you will live."