You can choose not to love, but pretending you don't know what love is will never be an acceptable reason.

When you're born to a virgin, make blind people see and lame people walk, and then you rise from the dead as a closing act, it's easy to have your ability as a teacher overlooked.

But Jesus was an incredible teacher.

There's a story in Luke. A religious expert stands up in the middle of one of Jesus' "classes" and tries to test the teacher. He asked Jesus, "what do I have to do to gain eternal life?"

Jesus, being the teacher he was, turned the question back to the expert. What do the laws say about that, he asked the man.

The man rightly said, well, I have to love God and love my neighbor.

Spot on, Jesus said - sort of a proud tearcher moment - do that and you're good.

The religious expert couldn't leave well enough alone there, though. Not this dude.

But who is my neighbor, the man asked? I mean, how can I love my neighbor if I don't really have a good working definition of what a neighbor is?

I'm picturing all sorts of Facebook emojis that had to be dancing around in Jesus' head at this time. 🙄🤦‍♀️🤮🤬

But Jesus, being the underappreciated teacher that he was, he didn't miss a beat. Instead of unleashing a fury of emojis, Jesus told the man a story.

Jesus told him the story about a man who was robbed, beaten and left for dead on the side of a road. He told the man, a priest passed by this dying man and continued on as if he hadn't even seen the man. Then next, a Levite did the same. But a Samaritan man came upon the scene - a Samaritan with a reputation of not helping out men like the dying man - and he stopped and helped him. He spared no expense to make sure the man was taken care of.

After telling the man this story, Jesus asked the man, now which one of those three men do you think did the neighborly thing for that dying man?

Of course, the answer there was obvious. It was obvious to the religious expert. It's obvious to you and me.

Jesus has a knack for doing that in my life. He has a way of pointing out how frequently I hide behind a frantic search for answers to avoid the hard work of living out the answers I already know. Jesus has a way of pointing out how often I go around trying to memorize the rules of life when there's really only one rule that needs memorized.

Love.

Jesus, through the kindness of a story, with the gentleness of a teacher, was telling this religious expert, quit playing dumb. You know daggone well what love looks like.

You can choose not to love, Jesus was telling him.

You can choose not to love, but pretending you don't know what love is will never be an acceptable reason. At least not in this teacher's classroom.

I love how Jesus could get his point across. To religious experts, and to me...