2 Chronicles 28:8-15; Galatians 3:15-22; St Luke 10:23-37
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Beloved in Christ, this great and beloved parable, the Parable of the Good Samaritan or perhaps of the Man who Showed Mercy to His Neighbor, is set before us today from our Lord Jesus that we would hear and learn, that we would meditate upon His Word and take it to heart, that we would inwardly digest His Law and Gospel, His threats and promises, and so doing, would repent and believe.
But before this parable was recorded by inspiration of the Spirit by St Luke, it was spoken by Jesus to a certain Jewish lawyer. Lawyer had a different meaning in ancient Israel than it does today. This is not an attorney arguing cases before a judge. A lawyer was a man who studied the Torah, the Law of Moses, along with the Rabbis and commentaries. He was well versed in the Old Testament and debated its meaning and theological interpretation in the synagogues.
And his question to Jesus, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?, betrays his motives. He wishes to test Jesus. That is, he wishes to prove Jesus wrong, to expose Him as a false teacher and show forth that Jesus has a fundamentally different view of the Bible than this lawyer and the rabbis. And of course, this is true.
But this question is not unlike the questions you ask your friends and neighbors with whom you discuss and debate theology. The lawyer listened to Jesus, to His teaching on sin and grace, on mercy and love, on forgiveness and life, on the Son of Man and the kingdom of God and he came to the conclusion, “We must have different views on salvation.” Its just like you with your Calvinist and reformed friends, your Roman Catholic cousins and pagan in-laws. So you ask that most basic of all theological questions: “How are you saved?”
For the lawyer this begins as a purely intellectual question. But Jesus doesn’t do just intellectual discussions. For our Lord, all theology is eminently practical. And so He puts the question back on the lawyer, What is written in the Law? How do you read it? Jesus is asking him, “What does the Bible say? How do you interpret it?” Its kind of like some folks who say, “I only believe what the Bible teaches.” Well that’s great. But what do you believe the Bible teaches? About sin and grace? About good works and salvation? About Baptism and the Lord’s Supper? You heard it last week - with the heart one believes and is justified, but with the mouth one confesses and is saved (Rm 10:10).
You ask a law question, you get a law answer. We would expect no less from a lawyer. He sums up the law perfectly, almost a word for word answer as Jesus gives to a scribe in Mark 12. Love God with your all. Love your neighbor as yourself. That is the Law. The sum of the Ten Commandments. You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.
If there was a way to be saved by the Law this would be it. Love God with your all, all of the time. Love your neighbor as yourself, all of the time. Keep the Law with everything you’ve got, always, and you’ll be saved. The problem is you can’t. You know you can’t. And its in the trying that you realize you are condemned by this demand for sheer and utter perfection before God and man. In attempting to do the Law you are crushed by the Law.
So what was at first only an intellectual debate has now turned personal for the lawyer. His conscience is pricked, he is guilty and he knows it. And see how the flesh instinctively reacts when the law has convicted us: self-justification. Desiring to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” The parable of the Merciful Samaritan follows.
But what is the point of this parable? The lawyer asked, “What can I do to be saved?” Jesus gave him a law answer: do the Ten Commandments, perfectly, inwardly and outwardly, all the time, and you’ll be saved. But this Law always accuses. How can I make it manageable? How can I shorten the list of neighbors? Maybe that will make it easier. Is that what Jesus is saying here? “You haven’t kept the Law perfectly, try harder.” Let’s make it more manageable for you. Try these seven things this week to get right with God. Is that how Jesus is preaching? Because that’s what the rabbis and lawyers of this age think. That’s how the media preachers talk. Do more. Be better. Try harder. And you’re left broken and crushed, with an uneasy conscience and a disquiet spirit with no hope before God.
All of a sudden that question you ask your heterodox friend becomes entirely personal: How am I saved? How do I inherit eternal life? It is written, If the inheritance comes by the Law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.
Beloved, you are not the Samaritan in this parable, nor are you the priest or the Levite. You are the man who fell among robbers, stripped and beat and left half dead. For the Law and your conscience have attacked and pummeled you. You have been stripped of all your good works, which are but filthy rags anyway, you are battered and bruised in heart and mind over the things you have done and the things you have left undone. The only reason you are half dead and not all dead is solely by the grace of God who has used His Law to bring you to such desperation and need.
So as you lie there, being passed over by ineffectual helpers and law oriented advice - do better, try harder - when all hope seems lost, along comes a Samaritan coming to where you are, coming down to meet you in the ditch, covered in blood and dying, and he has compassion. He is moved with pity; a deep visceral, guttural mercy that moves him to action. He dismounts his animal, stoops down into the gutter to bind your wounds, to pour on the healing oil of his mercy and the wine of his loving kindness. He lifts you up, sets you on his own animal, and brings you to the inn, caring for you. He sets the innkeeper in charge of your recovery, but will himself be back the day after tomorrow, leaving two days worth of money to cover the cost.
Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? Which of these three kept the Law perfectly, inwardly and outwardly? How do you read the Bible? How are you saved? Who is the Samaritan?
The answer to all these questions is the same: our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the sum and substance of Holy Scripture, the fulfillment of the Law and Prophets, who keeps the Law in perfect obedience, actively and passively. He is the Samaritan, one who is not encumbered by the accusations of the Law, but is free to help. He showed tremendous mercy and compassion upon you, when He stooped down from on high, dismounted His throne, setting aside His honor and glory, and took the form of a lowly and despised Servant. He got down into the gutter with you; climbed not only into your flesh and blood, but also your grave.
For He is not only the Samaritan, but also the Man. He is beset upon by the devil and death. Beaten and bloodied, not half dead, but completely, totally, utterly killed. But on the day after tomorrow, having paid he complete sum, the total ransom, the Father raised Him from the dead, back to life, never to die again. This is the promise made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: the Seed who has come and removed the power of death and the devil, who has silenced the accusations of the Law, and has enacted the New Covenant in His Blood, to be put forward as a propitiation for sins.
Beloved, He has brought you to the Inn of His Church and gives the inn keeper, His pastors, the Oil of His Absolution and the Wine of His Gospel to be poured out generously upon you for the full and free forgiveness of all of your sins. How are you saved? In the promise by faith in jesus Christ given to those who believe. In Him you have a clean conscience and a renewed spirit. The joy of His salvation is restored to you and you are upheld with His Spirit by His Word.
Why then the Law? Well, the Law always accuses, but it doesn’t only accuse. Having been set free from the burden and condemnation of living under the Law, by Christ who came under the Law, you are set free by His Gospel to now live in the Law. That is, to be merciful as your Father in heaven has shown you mercy in His Son. You are free to, “Go and do likewise,” as the Samaritan. Realizing again in the attempt to do the Law that you are guilty and so return to the One who has and continues to show mercy unto you, even Jesus Christ.
Beloved, your list of neighbors is long. You are husbands and wives, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, friends and workers. Managing this list can be impossible. You are called to love one another as Christ has loved you. Which is to say, your neighbor is not a nuisance or a bother. Your children, your spouse, your parent, your friend are not interruptions on your way to finding life, but caring for them is exactly the life that God has given you to live right now. Learn from the catechesis of your forefathers in Second Chronicles.
And fear not, for our Lord has placed into my hand the two denarii as your pastor: His Body given and His Blood poured out for your for the forgiveness of sins. Where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also eternal life and salvation for you.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Beloved in Christ, this great and beloved parable, the Parable of the Good Samaritan or perhaps of the Man who Showed Mercy to His Neighbor, is set before us today from our Lord Jesus that we would hear and learn, that we would meditate upon His Word and take it to heart, that we would inwardly digest His Law and Gospel, His threats and promises, and so doing, would repent and believe.
But before this parable was recorded by inspiration of the Spirit by St Luke, it was spoken by Jesus to a certain Jewish lawyer. Lawyer had a different meaning in ancient Israel than it does today. This is not an attorney arguing cases before a judge. A lawyer was a man who studied the Torah, the Law of Moses, along with the Rabbis and commentaries. He was well versed in the Old Testament and debated its meaning and theological interpretation in the synagogues.
And his question to Jesus, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?, betrays his motives. He wishes to test Jesus. That is, he wishes to prove Jesus wrong, to expose Him as a false teacher and show forth that Jesus has a fundamentally different view of the Bible than this lawyer and the rabbis. And of course, this is true.
But this question is not unlike the questions you ask your friends and neighbors with whom you discuss and debate theology. The lawyer listened to Jesus, to His teaching on sin and grace, on mercy and love, on forgiveness and life, on the Son of Man and the kingdom of God and he came to the conclusion, “We must have different views on salvation.” Its just like you with your Calvinist and reformed friends, your Roman Catholic cousins and pagan in-laws. So you ask that most basic of all theological questions: “How are you saved?”
For the lawyer this begins as a purely intellectual question. But Jesus doesn’t do just intellectual discussions. For our Lord, all theology is eminently practical. And so He puts the question back on the lawyer, What is written in the Law? How do you read it? Jesus is asking him, “What does the Bible say? How do you interpret it?” Its kind of like some folks who say, “I only believe what the Bible teaches.” Well that’s great. But what do you believe the Bible teaches? About sin and grace? About good works and salvation? About Baptism and the Lord’s Supper? You heard it last week - with the heart one believes and is justified, but with the mouth one confesses and is saved (Rm 10:10).
You ask a law question, you get a law answer. We would expect no less from a lawyer. He sums up the law perfectly, almost a word for word answer as Jesus gives to a scribe in Mark 12. Love God with your all. Love your neighbor as yourself. That is the Law. The sum of the Ten Commandments. You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.
If there was a way to be saved by the Law this would be it. Love God with your all, all of the time. Love your neighbor as yourself, all of the time. Keep the Law with everything you’ve got, always, and you’ll be saved. The problem is you can’t. You know you can’t. And its in the trying that you realize you are condemned by this demand for sheer and utter perfection before God and man. In attempting to do the Law you are crushed by the Law.
So what was at first only an intellectual debate has now turned personal for the lawyer. His conscience is pricked, he is guilty and he knows it. And see how the flesh instinctively reacts when the law has convicted us: self-justification. Desiring to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” The parable of the Merciful Samaritan follows.
But what is the point of this parable? The lawyer asked, “What can I do to be saved?” Jesus gave him a law answer: do the Ten Commandments, perfectly, inwardly and outwardly, all the time, and you’ll be saved. But this Law always accuses. How can I make it manageable? How can I shorten the list of neighbors? Maybe that will make it easier. Is that what Jesus is saying here? “You haven’t kept the Law perfectly, try harder.” Let’s make it more manageable for you. Try these seven things this week to get right with God. Is that how Jesus is preaching? Because that’s what the rabbis and lawyers of this age think. That’s how the media preachers talk. Do more. Be better. Try harder. And you’re left broken and crushed, with an uneasy conscience and a disquiet spirit with no hope before God.
All of a sudden that question you ask your heterodox friend becomes entirely personal: How am I saved? How do I inherit eternal life? It is written, If the inheritance comes by the Law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.
Beloved, you are not the Samaritan in this parable, nor are you the priest or the Levite. You are the man who fell among robbers, stripped and beat and left half dead. For the Law and your conscience have attacked and pummeled you. You have been stripped of all your good works, which are but filthy rags anyway, you are battered and bruised in heart and mind over the things you have done and the things you have left undone. The only reason you are half dead and not all dead is solely by the grace of God who has used His Law to bring you to such desperation and need.
So as you lie there, being passed over by ineffectual helpers and law oriented advice - do better, try harder - when all hope seems lost, along comes a Samaritan coming to where you are, coming down to meet you in the ditch, covered in blood and dying, and he has compassion. He is moved with pity; a deep visceral, guttural mercy that moves him to action. He dismounts his animal, stoops down into the gutter to bind your wounds, to pour on the healing oil of his mercy and the wine of his loving kindness. He lifts you up, sets you on his own animal, and brings you to the inn, caring for you. He sets the innkeeper in charge of your recovery, but will himself be back the day after tomorrow, leaving two days worth of money to cover the cost.
Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? Which of these three kept the Law perfectly, inwardly and outwardly? How do you read the Bible? How are you saved? Who is the Samaritan?
The answer to all these questions is the same: our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the sum and substance of Holy Scripture, the fulfillment of the Law and Prophets, who keeps the Law in perfect obedience, actively and passively. He is the Samaritan, one who is not encumbered by the accusations of the Law, but is free to help. He showed tremendous mercy and compassion upon you, when He stooped down from on high, dismounted His throne, setting aside His honor and glory, and took the form of a lowly and despised Servant. He got down into the gutter with you; climbed not only into your flesh and blood, but also your grave.
For He is not only the Samaritan, but also the Man. He is beset upon by the devil and death. Beaten and bloodied, not half dead, but completely, totally, utterly killed. But on the day after tomorrow, having paid he complete sum, the total ransom, the Father raised Him from the dead, back to life, never to die again. This is the promise made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: the Seed who has come and removed the power of death and the devil, who has silenced the accusations of the Law, and has enacted the New Covenant in His Blood, to be put forward as a propitiation for sins.
Beloved, He has brought you to the Inn of His Church and gives the inn keeper, His pastors, the Oil of His Absolution and the Wine of His Gospel to be poured out generously upon you for the full and free forgiveness of all of your sins. How are you saved? In the promise by faith in jesus Christ given to those who believe. In Him you have a clean conscience and a renewed spirit. The joy of His salvation is restored to you and you are upheld with His Spirit by His Word.
Why then the Law? Well, the Law always accuses, but it doesn’t only accuse. Having been set free from the burden and condemnation of living under the Law, by Christ who came under the Law, you are set free by His Gospel to now live in the Law. That is, to be merciful as your Father in heaven has shown you mercy in His Son. You are free to, “Go and do likewise,” as the Samaritan. Realizing again in the attempt to do the Law that you are guilty and so return to the One who has and continues to show mercy unto you, even Jesus Christ.
Beloved, your list of neighbors is long. You are husbands and wives, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, friends and workers. Managing this list can be impossible. You are called to love one another as Christ has loved you. Which is to say, your neighbor is not a nuisance or a bother. Your children, your spouse, your parent, your friend are not interruptions on your way to finding life, but caring for them is exactly the life that God has given you to live right now. Learn from the catechesis of your forefathers in Second Chronicles.
And fear not, for our Lord has placed into my hand the two denarii as your pastor: His Body given and His Blood poured out for your for the forgiveness of sins. Where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also eternal life and salvation for you.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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