LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 285

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II. THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS­­—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS
Setting the Context:
The Leading Questions

When studying a parable, it is always important to notice
what situation or question serves as the occasion for the
parable. (Recall the question above about the relationship
between Luke 18:9 and 18:14.) As we read verses 25–29, we
see that several questions are raised that set the stage for the
parable. Since they lead both the lawyer and the reader into
the parable, we will refer to them as “leading questions.”
Read together Luke 10:25-29 and note the questions below.
LEADING QUESTION NO. 1:

“Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? (v. 25, lawyer)
LEADING QUESTION NO. 2:

“What is written in the Law? (v. 26, Jesus)
LEADING QUESTION NO. 3:

“How do you read it? (v. 26, Jesus)
LEADING QUESTION NO. 4:

“And who is my neighbor? (v. 29, lawyer)
Each of these questions is important in its own way, so let’s
look at them a little more closely.

Leading Question No. 1

The question in verse 25 would be better translated,
“Teacher, having done what, will I inherit eternal life?” or
“Teacher, after I have done what, will I inherit eternal life?”
This is exactly the same question asked by the ruler in Luke
18:18, but it’s actually very different from the question asked
by the Philippian jailer in Acts 16:30 and even more so from
the question of the crowds in Acts 2:37. The English translations often obscure the differences, so compare the questions in the Greek (with a more wooden translation beneath
each question):
Luke 10:25 διδάσκαλε, τί ποιήσας ζωὴν αἰώνιον
κληρονομήσω;
didaskale, ti poiēsas zōēn aiōnion
klēronomēsō?
Teacher, having done what, will I inherit
eternal life?
Luke 18:18 διδάσκαλε ἀγαθέ, τί ποιήσας ζωὴν αἰώνιον
κληρονομήσω;
didaskale agathe, ti poiēsas zōēn aiōnion
klēronomēsō?
Good Teacher, having done what, will I
inherit eternal life?

Acts 16:30 κύριοι, τί με δεῖ ποιεῖν ἵνα σωθῶ;
kyrioi, ti me dei poiein hina sōthō?
Sirs, what is it necessary for me to be doing
in order that I may be saved?

that the man has answered correctly. The problems, if there
are any, will clearly be with respect to understanding the
Scriptures correctly.

Acts 2:37

Leading Question No. 4

τί ποιήσωμεν, ἄνδρες ἀδελφοί;
Ti poiēsōmen, andres adelphoi?
What shall we do, brothers?

The first two questions, with their aorist participles, suggest
that the questioners are looking for a standard, one which
they may have already met. “When I have done what” suggests the idea “What is the standard I need to meet? Please
tell me, so that I will know if I have already met it or not.”
The jailer’s question is already more urgent: the με δεῖ (me
dei; “it is necessary for me” = “I have to”) suggests that he
wants to know — because he doesn’t — what he has to do.
The present tense of the infinitive places the focus on what
he needs to be doing now, and the ἵνα-clause (hina-clause)
shows that he has a purpose in all of this: he wants to be
saved. The most desperate question of all is the question of
the crowd in Acts 2. The deliberative subjunctive ποιήσωμεν
(poiēsōmen; “shall we do?”) shows that they are searching
for alternatives and that they’re hoping the apostles can
give them some possible way out of their desperate situation. The lawyer in our text, remember, is “testing” Jesus.
It’s not so much that he desperately needs to know what to
do; rather, he wants to find out if Jesus has the right answer.
And it’s at this point that we readers really wonder if the
lawyer had heard Jesus’ earlier words in Luke 10:21–24: Was
Jesus saying that “these things” had been hidden from the
lawyer? How would this teacher, who claims to know “all
things” make plain the Father’s will?

The lawyer’s follow-up question seems a perfectly natural
one, given the way the conversation has progressed. And
quite often, we’re so eager to get to the parable itself that
we don’t think about this question carefully enough. Two
points stand out as especially important for our present
study of this passage.
• Notice that the lawyer asks only about his neighbor — he
does not ask about his God. In one of his sermons on this
passage, Luther wrote,
He does not ask: Who is my God? As though he would
say: “I owe God nothing, with God I am in good
standing. I am also inclined to think that I am under
obligations to no man; yet, I would like to know who
my neighbor is?”3

Gui de

Session 1:
Introduction/The Parable of the Good Samaritan in Context

In our next session, we will carefully read through the
parable together, but this is most likely a very familiar
parable to most of us. After our discussion in this session,
where do you think these “leading questions” are leading
us? What would you say the parable is about? What is its
message for us? [The leader should not try to respond to
or correct the students’ answers to these two questions,
but he may want to take note of them for his own
sake. The remaining sessions of the course will address
these questions.]

Not merely “willing,” but “wishing to justify
himself.” For what? Some say, for having
omitted to perform this duty in the past.
Others, for having asked such a question,
the answer to which had been shown to
be so simple. The latter is perhaps nearer
the fact; but it almost involves the other.
“Wishing to put himself in the right,” he
points out that the answer given is not
adequate, because there is doubt as to the
meaning of “one’s neighbour.”4

Jesus responds by asking two questions of His own, and His
two questions remind us that there are two very important
ways we can go astray when trying to find answers to our
questions about salvation. First, do we know what God has
said in His Word? Second, have we understood God’s Word
correctly? How have we read and interpreted it? Either
ignorance or misunderstanding can lead people to incorrect answers to Question No. 1. In our passage, the lawyer
knows what God has said in His Word, and Jesus responds

Pa rti ci pa nt ’s

Looking Ahead

• Luke gives us the lawyer’s motivation for asking this
question: ὁ δὲ θέλων δικαιῶσαι ἑαυτὸν (ho de thelōn
dikaiōsai heauton; “But he, desiring to justify himself ”).
Since we are asking what this parable teaches about
justification, it is especially important for us to note
that the lawyer’s question comes in an attempt at selfjustification. And yet, we need to ask, “Why should this
lawyer need to justify himself? Justification for what?”
Plummer’s discussion is brief but to the point:

Leading Questions No. 2 and No. 3

He Is Our Righteousness

It would, then, be putting too much theological weight on
this infinitive to understand it as “wishing to justify himself before God,” but Plummer is correct that this greater
matter of justification is not lurking far in the background.
The connection between the two — that is, between a
person’s behavior among his “neighbors” and his standing
before God — will be raised again by Jesus’ words following
the parable.

It is extremely ironic that the lawyer does not ask, “And
who is my God?” since the lawyer’s God is standing right
in front of him and he does not recognize Him.

4. When you find yourself thinking about your salvation,
which of the questions above are you most likely to ask?
Do you think in terms of a standard you need to meet, of
a minimum entrance requirement? Do you simply wonder
what can be done?

Leader’s Guide |

285

3
Martin Luther, “Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity,” vol. 3, The Complete Sermons
of Martin Luther, ed. John Nicholas Lenker (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2000),
26–27.
4

5

to S. Luke, International Critical Commentary, 5th ed. (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark,
1989), 285.

Alfred Plummer, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According

6 | He Is Our Righteousness | Session 1

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2019 Convention Workbook