That’s what the teacher of the law asked Jesus in Luke 10:25-37 (otherwise known as the Parable of the Good Samaritan).

I was having a lunch with a buddy of mine yesterday, and, since his wife is studying to be an attorney, the subject of law and lawyers came up (he had some good news to relate regarding her studies). I happened to mention that I’ve been reading Team of Rivals, and, in the book, the author stresses the point that the path to power, wealth, and prestige generally came through reading the law.

That prompted a thought this morning regarding what the per capita of attorneys might be with respect to the U.S. population, which, according to one source, turns out to be approximately 7.48% (with the highest concentration, naturally, in Washington D.C. = 2.77%). By comparison, the percent of the U.S. population engaged in the plumbing industry is 0.19%.

And that made me wonder if the reason we have so many attorneys isn’t directly related to our sinful nature.* It was our sense of Entitlement, our mistaken idea that we, too, deserved to be gods, which caused the Fall in the first place. And, ever since then, God has recognized our need for Law, presumably as a direct acknowledgement of our litigious fallen nature. We, of course, have taken that to extremes and applied beyond the spiritual to the physical realm of our existence. Everything we do is contract based – I’ll do this if you do that…and, if you don’t, well, get a lawyer. Everything’s about what’s legal or not (not whether it’s right or wrong) and what I deserve according to the contractual obligations.

For me, it casts the “teacher of the Law” in the passage in an entirely new light and especially with verse 29 wherein he feels the need to justify himself. His response smacks of the same wish fulfillment Entitlement philosophy to which the Rich Ruler adhered. It’s that great juxtaposition between the inborn knowledge that we were born and destined for greater things (being made in His image) and our poorly placed faith in our ability to get there of our own strength and effort. It’s the genesis of works-based salvation and legalism.

We still want to be our own god.

 

 

* Note that this is not a rant against attorneys. They’re a symptom, not the cause. One might note in passing, however, that the phrase “teachers of the Law” returns several instances throughout the Bible, and not very many of those are flattering.