Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and from our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:
[Intro]
“Teacher,
what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25b)
This is the question at the heart of today’s Gospel lesson.
The man who asked this question was a lawyer. To us today when
we read this, we may think of a defense attorney or a prosecuting attorney. We
may think of those class action lawsuit commercials about what we deserve. But
this isn’t the occupation of this lawyer. The lawyer in our gospel lesson is an
expert on the Torah. He is an expert on the Old Testament.
In fact, he knows the answer to his own question. So, when he
asks Jesus, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life,” this lawyer
is just trying to see if Jesus really knows what He is talking about.
Shockingly to the lawyer, Jesus returns his question with a
question from Himself: “What is written in the Law? How do you read
it?” (Luke 10:26)
This is not what the lawyer was expecting. He was expecting to
stump Jesus, but now he is the one who has to say the answer to his own
question.
The lawyer responds saying: “You shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your
mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27). Jesus then says to
him, “You
have answered correctly; do this, and you will live” (Luke 10:28).
But, this lawyer wasn’t finished. He wanted some retribution. He
wanted to justify himself. So, he says: “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke
10:29)
But, the lawyer’s real question is this: “Who isn’t my
neighbor?”
[The
Parable]
For this lawyer, he had many friends. Chief among his friends
would be priests and Levites.
So it was quite a shock to him when Jesus responds to his latest
question with a story. It was a story about neighborly compassion. It was a
story about friends and enemies. It was a story that was unexpected to a high
class Jew.
Jesus then speaks of a man who was traveling from Jerusalem to
Jericho on a road that would have been familiar to the lawyer. This road would
have been familiar to everyone. You see, this road was dangerous. It was like
driving in a bad neighborhood today, everyone knew to keep their windows shut
and to keep moving.
So, running into robbers wasn’t a shock, but what happened after
the robbers was shocking.
One might expect a man of God to have compassion upon a man who
was stripped, beaten up and left half-dead on the side of the road, but the
priest just passed by. The priest ignored a fellow man.
Then a Levite – an assistant at the temple – did the same.
Why didn’t they help their neighbor in need? Well, it is likely
they were walking to the Temple in Jerusalem and they wanted to remain ritually
clean. You see, if a Jew touched a dead man, that person wouldn’t be able to
set foot inside the temple for days or months.
These men were more concerned with ceremonial law, rather than
God’s moral law. They were more concerned with being ritually clean, than
caring for their neighbor.
But, then the shocker of shockers, a Samaritan man showed
compassion. This Samaritan stopped and went to this man in desperate need. He
bound up his wounds. He poured oil and wine upon him. Then he brought this
half-dead man to an inn so he could heal from his injuries.
For this lawyer, this was blasphemy. How could a dirty, sinful
Samaritan do such a good thing? How is it that he is the one who cared? After
all, Samaritans worship God at the wrong place. Samaritans are outcasts from
Jewish society.
Then Jesus asks the question: “Which of these three, do you
think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”
(Luke 10:36)
The lawyer thought a moment and said: “The one who showed mercy”
(Luke 10:37a). Jesus said, “You go, and do likewise” (Luke
10:37b).
[We
are Dead in our Trespasses]
Now, don’t forget the question that ultimately led to the story
of the Good Samaritan. Remember, the question was: “Teacher, what shall I do to
inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25b)
This is what the Parable of the Good Samaritan is all about. It
is all about how we inherit eternal life.
So, what in this parable is about inheriting eternal life?
Well, we have this half-dead man lying on the side of the road.
He is hopeless. He is stripped. He is beaten. He is bruised. He is bleeding. He
is near death. He is us.
This is the point of the parable. We are the half-dead man.
Ever since Adam and Eve sinned against God by eating the
forbidden fruit, we have been beaten up constantly by Satan by giving in to our
sinful desires. Satan bombards us on all sides. We are dead in our sins. We are
dead in our trespasses. We are on the side of the road bruised, beaten and
dying. We can’t get up to help ourselves.
But then Jesus shows up. This Jesus who was promised right after
the Fall of Adam and Eve. God the Father showed compassion by sending prophet
after prophet to tell of the coming Messiah. The Messiah who would rescue us
from our foes: sin, death and Satan. The Messiah who remembered us all in our
low estate.
We were all destined to hell. That was our inheritance.
But then Jesus came. Jesus fulfilled the Law. He showed us how
to truly love our neighbors by taking on the wounds of our sin upon the cross.
He died so that we could live. He rose from the dead to show that we, too,
would rise from the dead.
Jesus picked us up from the side of the road. He bound our
wounds and gave us eternal life. It is only by God’s grace that anyone could
ever inherit eternal life.
You see, eternal life is a gift. Eternal life is not something
that we can earn. Eternal life is given by grace through faith in our Lord
Jesus Christ.
[Carried
Home]
Some years ago, the Western Oregon’s women’s softball team
played against Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington.
During the course of the game, Western Oregon senior Sara
Tucholsky hit the first homerun of her college career. She dropped her bat and
started to make her way around the bases.
In the midst of her excitement, she forgot to tag first base. Immediately
the first base coach brought the mistake to her attention and she quickly
turned around.
To everyone’s horror, her right knee buckled. Crying, she tried
her best to crawl back to first base.
To make matters worse, Tucholsky’s teammates were warned by the
umpire that if they touched her, she would be called out. The umpire also said
that if her team put in a pinch runner, the homerun would be changed to a
single.
Then Mallory Holtman, the opposing team’s first baseman, turned
to the umpire and asked, “Would it be okay if we carried her around the bases,
and she touched each bag?”
The umpire gave the approval. Then Holtman and her teammate Liz
Wallace picked up Tucholsky and carried her to second base. Once there, they
lowered the injured player and gently touched her foot to the bag. They did the
same for third base and home plate.
The Central Washington softball team displayed compassion. They
may not have been thinking about Jesus, but they carried their softball enemy
home.
Western Oregon went on to win the game, eliminating Central
Washington from the playoffs.
[Enemies
of God]
Each one of us was born as an enemy of God. But then God showed
us compassion by bringing us into His kingdom. He brought us home. We didn’t
deserve it. In fact, we only deserve eternal damnation, because of our sin.
You see, when we remain in our sin, we die in our sin. We are
without hope.
But the Triune God loves each and every one of us for His
steadfast love endures forever. Out of God’s steadfast love, whenever we repent
of our sin of thought, word and deed against God, that sin is forgiven.
We were in the domain of darkness, but through Jesus Christ’s
death and resurrection, He has brought us out of that darkness and transferred
us to the Kingdom, in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins
(Colossians 1:13-14).
In fact, it was at our baptism when God rescued us from that
ditch on the side of the road. It was then that all of our sin was wrapped in
the righteousness of Christ. We have been given the gift of eternal life.
We are now in Christ’s righteousness. In Christ alone, we are
sinless. We are reconciled; we are brought back into the Father’s love.
It is only you and me that can deny God’s love by not following
God’s just decrees and His statutes (Leviticus 18-19). If we do not obey God’s
will for our lives, we are choosing not to love God and choosing not to love
our neighbor.
But, all the while God loves each and every sinner. He only
desires that we repent and thus, love Him in return.
[Do
Likewise]
At the end of the story, Jesus asks the lawyer: “Which
of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among
the robbers.” The lawyer responds: “The one who showed him mercy.”
Jesus says: “You go, and do likewise.”
Jesus is the Good Neighbor. Jesus saved us from sin, eternal
death and Satan. Through Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection from
the grave, He has created us anew. We are now in Jesus. We live in His grace!
So, as Jesus showed compassion upon us. We are to show
compassion upon all people. This is our calling. This is our vocation. God
doesn’t need our good works, but our neighbor does.
Now, there are no limits to who our neighbor is. Our neighbor is
everyone we meet day in and day out.
The culture would say that compassion is accepting every
person’s faults. The culture would say that each person is fine in their sin.
But that is not compassion, true compassion is caring for one another, lifting
each other up and guiding each other to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,
fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the
knowledge of God (Colossians 1:10).
This is what a true neighbor is. As Christians, we follow the
footsteps of Jesus who saved us from death to bring us to His marvelous light.
He has picked us up purely out of His grace to freely give all who trust in Him
eternal life. Amen.
The peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
T SOLI DEO GLORIA T
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