Trinity 13 + Luke 10:23-37 + September 10, 2017

Order of Holy Communion - Pg. 15
Hymn # 548 My Inmost Heart Now Raises
Hymn # 384 Oh, How Great is Thy Compassion
Hymn # 344 Come, Let Us Join our Cheerful Songs

Introit

HAVE RE- || spect to Your covenant, O | Lord; | - *
            Oh, do not let the oppressed | re- | turn | a- | shamed!
|| Arise, O God, plead Your own | cause; | - *
            Do not forget the voice of | Your | en- | e- | mies. (Psalm 74:20a, 21a, 22a, 23a)
|| O God, why have You cast us off for- | ev- | er? *
            Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep | of | Your | past-| ure?
|| Remember Your congre- | ga- | tion, *
            Which You have | pur- | chased | of | old,
|| The tribe of Your inheritance, which You have re- | deemed | - *
            —This Mount Zion | where | You | have | dwelt.
|| Do not forget the life of Your poor for- | ev- | er. *
            Let the poor and need- | y | praise | Your | name. (Psalm 74:1–2, 19b, 21b)
|| Have respect to Your covenant, O | Lord; | - *
            Oh, do not let the oppressed | re- | turn | a- | shamed!
|| Arise, O God, plead Your own | cause; | - *

             Do not forget the voice of | Your | en- | e- | mies. (Psalm 74:20a, 21a, 22a, 23a)

Collect for the 13th Sunday after Trinity

Almighty and Everlasting God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity, and that we may obtain that which Thou dost promise, make us to love that which Thou dost command; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Readings
Leviticus 18:1-5
Galatians 3:15-22
Luke 10:23-37

Sermon

Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

1)         A lawyer, a student in the Law of Moses, asks Jesus a simple question: “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Since the man’s question runs in the way of the Law, in the way of “doing,” Jesus sends the man back to the Law. “What is written in the Law? What is your reading of it?” The lawyer doesn’t disappoint, either. He takes the entirety of Mosaic Law, all the legislation that begins with the Ten Commandments and ends at the conclusion of Deuteronomy, and distills Moses’ teaching to two commandments. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind.” That covers one’s relationship with God. He says, “You shall have no other gods” in Exodus 20:5, and that means that not only do you have the true God as your God, it also means that you love Him wholly, fear Him above all other things, even death itself, and that you trust Him no matter He sends you in the life. Love God, “and your neighbor as yourself.” The second commandment deals with his relationship with his fellow man. He’s to love his neighbor. Jesus congratulations the scholar on his answer from the Law. “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.” The lawyer asked a question that ran the way of the law, the way of “doing” and “earning” eternal life, therefore Jesus sets him back to the Law and says, “Do this and live.” But this answer makes him squeamish. If “love your neighbor as yourself” is left as it is, with no glosses or explanations, without definition or delineation of just who he’s supposed to treat this way, then that leaves the commandment open to apply to anyone. That’s intolerable, for that makes the commandment impossible to fulfill every day. Wanting to earn his righteousness by doing the Law, or as Luke writes, “wanting to justify himself,” he tries to get Jesus to narrow the playing field. He asks, “and who is my neighbor?” To answer the lawyer’s question, “who is my neighbor?” Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan.

2)         A man travels from Jerusalem to Jericho. He falls into the hands of robbers. They stole his belongings, stripped his clothes from him, and beat him within an inch of his life. The leave him there on the road, half dead. If anyone could use someone who knows the commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” it is this man. Three men pass by this way. The first is a priest, a man of God who has God-ordained duties in the worship service at the Jerusalem Temple. He knows the commandment. But he walks by on the other side of the road. The second man is a Levite, also a man of God, one who was responsible for studying Moses and teaching him to the people. He knows the commandment to love one’s neighbor. But like the priest, he passes by on the other side of the road. The third man passes this way. He is a Samaritan. Jews don’t like Samaritans for all sorts of reasons we won’t get into here. This Samaritan, this one who is rejected by the Jews, has compassion on the wounded, stripped, and half-dead man. The Samaritan bandages his wounds, pouring in soothing oil and stinging wine as an antiseptic. The Samaritan puts the man on his own animal and leads the way to nearest inn, cares for him there, and then leaves the innkeeper to care for the man until he is back on his feet. Jesus concludes by asking the lawyer this question: “So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among thieves?” When the lawyer correctly identifies the Samaritan, whom he can only call, “the third one” because of his disdain for Samaritans, Jesus sets the man back to the Law a final time. “Go and do likewise.” “And who is my neighbor?” Whoever needs your help and your aid.  

3)         Jesus does not want to send this Lawyer back to the Law though. Jesus knows that one cannot inherit eternal life by works of the Law or any amount of “doing.” That’s what Christ’s Apostle, Paul, says in Galatians 3:21. He says, “For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law.” The lawyer’s original question, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” is a bad question because it assumes that eternal life is to be had by “doing,” by works of the Law, Mosaic works or man-made works. By saying, “Go and do likewise,” Jesus is effectively telling the Lawyer, go and love your neighbor as yourself, and when you have found that you cannot do that, then come back and ask a better question. But Jesus has already given him the answer to that question, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He answers this question too, with the parable to the Good Samaritan. Once the lawyer realizes that he is unable to truly love his neighbor as himself at all times, and once he realizes that he cannot love the Lord his God with all his heart, soul, strength, and mind, he will see the answer to his question in the parable Jesus already told him. Since he was looking for works to do, the lawyer assumed he was to be the Good Samaritan. But once he realizes that “by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified” (Galatians 2:16), then the lawyer will see the parable in a new light. He’ll see it as the answer to his original question.

4)         The man who travelled from Jerusalem to Jericho is Adam, the first man, who wandered from God his creator and fell into the hands of the thief and murder, the Devil. The devil stripped Adam of the image of God, that perfect robe of righteousness and holiness which God had given to Adam at his creation. The devil steals from Adam all the gifts which God had graciously given to Adam, his innocence and blessedness. The devil wounded Adam by alluring him to sin against God’s commandment, wounding him mortally so that he was left there half-dead, still physically alive but spiritually dead. That sin of Adam and that mortal wound of spiritual death was then passed on to each and every one of his descendants. St. Paul writes in Romans 5:12 that “through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” So all who are born of Adam’s line in the natural way are born like their ancestor Adam, having no righteousness, only sin, having no innocence, only guilt which damns, having no blessedness, only the misery of being spiritually stillborn and dead in transgressions and sin. Adam’s fall was his own but it was humanity’s fall as well. That makes Adam the man lying half-dead on the side of the road. Because you and I are from Adam, that makes us the man on the side of the road, stripped, beaten, and left for dead as well.

5)         And as St. Paul says, the Law was not meant to give life. So the Priest, a representative of the Mosaic Law, walks past, but offers us no help whatsoever. So the Levites, another representative of the Law, walks by but offers no comfort or consolation. From this we see that in our sinfulness, the Law offers us no help whatsoever. “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Nothing. By nature you cannot fear, love, or trust in God above all things. By nature you can only love yourself and despise your neighbor, thinking little of him. The Law only shows us the terrible depth of our condition, as Paul writes in the Epistle, “What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come” (Galatians 3:19). He also says that “the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe” (Galatians 3:22). The Law wasn’t given so that we might inherit eternal life by its works and by our “doing.” The Law was given to diagnose our disease and show us that since we come from Adam, we share in Adam’s sin and bear Adam’s guilt. You cannot inherit eternal life by works of the Law or by good works as a Christian. That’s not why the Law was given. Using the law to earn eternal life is using it against its nature, which is also sinful.

6)         “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?”  You are of Adam’s descent. You’re the man lying wounded and half-dead on the road. You need a Good Samaritan if you want to inherit eternal life. Jesus is the Good Samaritan. He is the one who was “despised and rejected by men” (Isaiah 53:3), even as the Jews despised and rejected Samaritans. He is the one who looks out on the multitudes and, as the Good Samaritan, has compassion on those who are half-dead; physically alive to spiritually dead. Jesus is the Good Samaritan who bandages our wounds of sin by pouring in the sweet oil of His blood shed upon the cross for the all the sins of the world. He pours the stinging wine of the cross over our wounds so that they are healed. He bandages our wounds. He sets us on His own animal, carrying us to the inn of His Church. Here He cares for us each day by forgiving us our sins when we confess them. Here He cleanses our consciences with “the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). Here the Good Samaritan nourishes our faith and strengthens our confidence in Him by feeding us with His very body and blood in the Holy Supper. Here he sets innkeepers over us, pastors, to care for us with His Word, His Baptism, and His Supper, until He returns for us. Jesus is the Good Samaritan.

7)         So we see that the parable really answered both the lawyer’s questions. “Who is my neighbor?” Christ shows us who our neighbor is, who we are commanded to love as ourselves, and tells His Christians to “go and do likewise,” doing good to all who are need as we have opportunity. Since our neighbor is anyone who is in need, this means we will never run out of good works to do which glorify God. He wants us to be as the Good Samaritan for those around us. But He also shows us that we are not to rely upon our good works, or trust in our “going and doing likewise” to inherit eternal life, “For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise” (Galatians 3:18), as St. Paul tells us it has always been. To inherit eternal life, as one born dead in trespasses and sin, you need a Good Samaritan to heal the wounds of your sin, to bear the burden of your guilt, and to restore you with His gifts in His holy Church. Thanks be to God that we do not rely upon the priest, the Levite, or any work of the Law, but look solely to Christ our Good Samaritan for our forgiveness, righteousness, and eternal life. Amen.

May the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.