If all Jesus came to say was “be nice to each other” then, really, his whole trip to the cross was pretty unnecessary, don’t you think? And yet, somehow, this is where the story of an unfortunate man who was robbed, assaulted and left for dead on the road to Jericho, usually ends up. When really this story rests, properly, on observing God’s whole law, which Jesus and the legal expert would have called the Torah.

It’s what Jesus pointed to, after all, when the legal expert asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus replied, “What is written in the Torah, what do you read there?

On the one hand, this just seems like a good application of the Socratic method of teaching. When the student asks a question, the teacher responds with a question. The intended result is that the student will arrive at an answer on their own.

But Jesus goes deeper. He asked the legal expert not only what is written in the Torah, but also, how the legal expert read it. Meaning, how did he understand, interpret and apply the Torah? Which reminds us in turn that the Torah is not a static list of rules, or a rigid guardrail on a dangerous road. Torah is God’s inspired and dynamic word for living well.

The Deuteronomy text speaks to this. God wills that people shall live well. God provides what we need. Fruitfulness is realized as we attend to God’s ways as expressed through God’s commandments and decrees.

Observing them doesn’t mean looking at them from a safe distance. Or approaching them from a neutral point of view. Observe means to keep, protect, honor. Not the law as a set code, but as God’s active word. And to do this with all our hearts.

Can you appreciate the humor of Deuteronomy when the text says, “Surely, this commandment …is not too hard…too far away.” As in, God isn’t asking you to do rocket science here. Or to commission a spiritual expedition to go find out what is being asked of you. Listen carefully to your heart. God’s word, the Torah is there.

The Torah instructs us in the way of living together with respect for God and one another. Torah says that living well is about far more than getting our own needs met. And living well calls for something much harder than being nice. It calls for an ethic of generosity, grace and mercy.

Paul said he was praying and giving thanks for the Christians at Colossae. Whatever sort of background they’d come from, whatever sin they’d done, in this new community they’d accepted one another as people forgiven and reconciled. They shared both goods and good will with one another, and far beyond their community. In doing so they discovered that eternal life was not some future hope. It was the experience of the joyfully gracious and merciful ways that they were living every single day.

Wonderful though it was, Paul knew that there would be pressures on these people. Being followers of Jesus could mean persecution from governmental forces, and social alienation. It’s strange how enacting generosity, grace, and mercy can draw fear, anger, and rejection from others.

But it did. And it does. So Paul prayed for the people at Colossae that they would always walk in the holy way of God, keeping the Torah with gratitude, and with every ounce of their being.

The temptation to make the Torah into a code rather than a practice of relationship is very great. Which may be why the legal expert wasn’t satisfied with his own conclusion that eternal life comes to those who protect, honor, and keep the Torah. Even when Jesus said, you answered rightly, so go, live already!

So let’s cut to the chase here. That legal expert wasn’t just some random guy in the crowd. He was every person there listening to Jesus that day. And you, and me. We’re all asking Jesus to give us the right code to satisfy the requirements of the commandments.

But Jesus doesn’t do that. Instead he gives us complexity in relationship. And discomfort. Which is the very place in which we all are invited to protect, honor, and keep the Torah.

Think of someone you can’t stand. Someone whose lifestyle, or politics, or social standing you really don’t like. That’s the Samaritan who becomes a first responder. The one whose heart is moved to act not just minimally, but selflessly and generously with grace and mercy.

Think of people whom you hold in high esteem, whom you would trust with your life. People you think of as “good”. In this story these are the ones who walk by, seeing the carnage but able for various reasons to justify doing nothing. They do not listen to their hearts.

Think of the victim who cannot do a thing to help himself. Who badly needs someone to care. This is not theoretical or remote, it is the urgent reality around us every day and every hour. If you don’t hear and see it, you’re not paying attention.

Who will be that neighbor in the time of need? Responding without worrying about right or wrong sides. Without needing to approve of the person’s circumstances or right to aid.

And Jesus says to us all, go and do likewise. Be that neighbor. It’s the Torah.  It’s not a code. It’s your heart breaking open, and with it the door into eternal life.