Luke gives four beautiful accounts of people at the feet of Jesus:

In chapter 7 a forgiven sinner now loving much—her heart was made right;

In chapter 8 a demoniac, now clothed and sensible—his soul was made right;

In chapter 8 a father, whose daughter had been raised in weakness, beseeching the Lord—his strength was made right;

In chapter 10 a woman, Mary, listening to His word—her understanding was made right.

In our verse the lawyer made inheriting eternal life to depend on two scriptures: Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. He felt pretty comfortable about how he measured up to the first, but he tried to worm his way out of the second. In answer to his attempt to find a loophole to escape the demands of the second scripture, the Lord tells him of the “good Samaritan.” In this the Lord showed him that the issue was not “who is my neighbor?” (v. 30) but “will I be a neighbor to another?” (v. 36). The lawyer, like the priest and the Levite, had clearly failed completely in this.

The surrounding accounts show that, despite having scored himself highly on the first test—from Deuteronomy 6:5—he had actually completely failed in this too. The passage begins like this: “And behold, a certain lawyer stood up tempting Him” (v. 25). In such a position he could never be right. Our heart, soul, strength, and understanding can only be right towards God when we have come to the feet of Jesus—forgiven, sensible, supplicating, and learning.