Joy from Serving Others

Religious guys seemed to love following Jesus around town.

Could you imagine being the popular guy in a town that stirred up the kind of noise that very religious people hated? That was Jesus.

In the book of Luke, we see a curious religious man who tries to trap Jesus in his words.

“Teacher,” he said. “What can I do to have a life that lasts forever?”

This man thought he already knew the answer as eternal life was a part of the promise for doing all things mandated by his religious tradition - keeping the Law. The Law was important to Jesus, too. He was a student and follower of it and held it in high regard.

Jesus asked for the man’s thoughts on the subject first.

“You must love [God] with all your strength…You must love your neighbor as yourself,” the religious man continued. Jesus replied, “You have said the right thing. Do this and you will have life.”

Seems straightforward, right? The man answered the question according to what the law said. But then, when the religious man asked Jesus who his neighbor was, Jesus taught a lesson that put emphasis not only on loving God, but on serving others. And that was disruptive.

Loving others, according to Jesus, was the way to joy and a full life.

Jesus then told the story of a good neighbor who was in a foreign land– a place that had a bad reputation– called Samaria. On his journey, he saw a man on the side of the road who was naked, had been beaten, robbed and left for dead. The rich and the religious all passed by him. But the neighbor from a foreign land stopped to take care of him. He didn’t ask the man’s name, never pressed him to explain what had happened. He got his hands dirty, touched his wounds and took care of him, no questions asked.

Joy and eternal life are not just about living forever. They are also about serving in a way that will outlive you. How many people do we pass by every day that could use our help? The joy we are lacking could live within the unmet needs of those we ignore.

We may never know of the impact that good neighbor had on the dying man on the side of the road. But what we do know is that this story is still being told - 2000 years later.

Consider this:

1. Have you ever felt the kind of joy that comes from serving others?
2. What is something you could do or plan to do today that would bring you this kind of joy?