Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Luke 10,25-37. 13. Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Luke 10,25-37 4714

13. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 058

Holy Cross Day, 629

14. September 2014

1. O Lord Jesus, who heals the wounded and binds up the broken-hearted, our needs never end. Pour out Your love an mercy upon us so that we are comforted that no cry, no complaint, no pain, no tears escape Your gracious attention in our lives (VELKD, Prayer for the 13. Sunday after Trinity ¶ 1). Amen.

2. »And behold, a lawyer stood up testing Jesus, saying: „Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?“ And Jesus said to him: „What has been written in the Law? How do you read it?“ Then he answered: „You will 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 you will love your neighbor as yourself.“ [Deuteronomy 6,5; Leviticus 19,18]. And Jesus said to him: „You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.“ So wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus: „And who is my neighbor?“ Jesus replied and said: „A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and was seized by bandits, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him about to die. And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he was compassionate, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring olive oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own donkey, and brought him to an inn and cared for him. On the next day he took out two day’s wages and gave them to the innkeeper and said: ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’ Which of these three do you think has been a neighbor to the man who was seized by the bandits?“ And he said, „The one who showed him mercy.“ Then Jesus said to him: „Go and do the same.“«

3. The question discussed in this morning’s Gospel pericope deals with the topic of eternal life. The lawyer had asked Jesus what should he do to inherit eternal life. Jesus then asked him what does the law say about this. The lawyer responded with the Golden Rule: love God and love your neighbors; he reasoned that by doing these things then one earns eternal life. Interestingly, the Holy Scriptures he quoted from Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19 say nothing about meriting eternal life. In fact Deuteronomy 6 goes on to say that the Ten Commandments (which is what the lawyer had argued merits eternal life) were given to fear Yahweh, for our good always, so that He might preserve us (Deuteronomy 6,24). Deuteronomy continues to say that the Ten Commandments mean that it was Yahweh who had redeemed them from Egyptian slavery, brought them out with a mighty and miraculous hand and lead them into the promised land of Canaan (Deuteronomy 6,20-23). Go back and read Exodus 20 and you will not find any cause and effect between doing the commandments and earning eternal life. Only the 4. Commandment extends a promise: Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that Yahweh your God is giving you (Exodus 20,12). That is a promise of temporal long life for them in the Promised Land, not a promise of eternal life. Again, Exodus 20 puts the context of the Commandments with the Exodus, saying: »God spoke all these words saying: „I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.“« (Exodus 20,1-2), and then Yahweh lists the Ten Commandments for the people. Jesus therefore tells the Parable of the Good Samaritan to show the lawyer that even he cannot keep the law and therefore cannot merit his eternal life.

4. The Ten Commandments and the Parable of the Good Samaritan show what righteousness looks like and that it is manifested in good works for the neighbor. Both the Commandments and the parable also teach that while the law shows what righteousness looks like the law cannot empower us to act righteously nor can the law assure us that we have the promise of eternal life. Paul says: »The righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, for the righteousness of the God is manifested through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe« (Romans 3,21-22). To be righteous is to have the promise of eternal life. Thus Paul continues: »What then shall we say was gained by Abraham? For if Abraham earned eternal life by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was merited to him as eternal life.« (Romans 4,1-3).

5. The question is then: What did Abraham believe? Whom did Abraham believe in? Jesus said: »No one has seen the Father except He who is from God; I have seen the Father« (John 6,46). »I and the Father are One« (John 10,28.30). »And this is eternal life, that they know You the Only True God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent« (John 17,3). From this we conclude that Abraham believed in Jesus. Not only did he believe in Him, Abraham conversed with the Son of God several times during his lifetime. »Now Yahweh said to Abram: „Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing“« (Genesis 12,1-2). »And Yahweh appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day« (Genesis 18,1). »After these things God tested Abraham and said to him: „Abraham! Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.“« (Genesis 22,1-2).

6. Here we see the connection Jesus makes with Abraham: Just as Jesus told Abraham to sacrifice His only son, Isaac, unto God, so Jesus would be sent by God the Father to be the sacrifice unto God. Jesus said: »As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life (John 3,14-15). When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to Myself« (John 12,32). Jesus draws our eyes to the cross, thus the doctrinal axiom: Allein das Kreuz ist unsere Theologie. (The cross alone is our theology.) [1] Not the cross itself, for we do not need the true cross that St. Helena found and placed in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 335. Our focus is on the one who was crucified upon that cross 300 years earlier. How many Jews had the Romans crucified that year alone before they got to Jesus in early April? We do not know, and it is not important to our salvation in any event, for it is the sacrifice of one particular man, who is also the Son of God, that made the cross important because that particular man, Christ Jesus, purchased our eternal life on that cross.

7. The Apostle Paul says the one crucified on the cross is a stumbling block and foolishness to many people (1. Corinthians 1,23-25). Isaac was a stumbling block to Hagar who was dumbfounded that the promise would go through Sarah’s son rather than her firstborn. Hagar’s Ishmael was the true and rightful firstborn son of Abraham. But Jesus had specifically told Abraham that it was not son of Abraham and Hagar who would get the promised covenant but rather the son of Abraham and Sarah who would be the heir of the messianic promise. Jesus is the Second Isaac, and He was also a stumbling block; Jesus was a stumbling block to pious Jews and others. On one occasion they called Jesus „a Samaritan“. That was a derogatory name, much like an Israeli calling someone a Palestinian today. And yet, Jesus is unconcerned about being associated with the Samaritans. In today’s parable, Jesus makes the Samaritan the virtuous hero over the pious priest and Levite. Jesus tells the story and then drops the shocking clincher: you must let this Good Samaritan save you, too. For you see, the Good Samaritan in the parable is a type of Jesus. The Samaritan saw someone left for dead and he bound his wounds and saved him. This is what Jesus did on the cross: He takes us who deserve the cross, suffers it in our place, bears its wounds for us, dies the death we deserve, is buried in the grave that has our names inscribed on it and descends to Hades where all who are separated from God abide. By doing so He has taken possession of the keys to Hades, has burst asunder the grave’s coffin, conquered sin, overturned death and and has shown you mercy.

8. Thus we return to the question asked by the lawyer, for it is a question that everyone asks throughout their life: „What shall I do to inherit eternal life?“ The answer is: absolutely nothing! This is shocking, and how many stumble over this simple answer because it removes from us any claim to self-righteousness before God. The reason the answer is „absolutely nothing“ is because Jesus has done everything to merit our eternal life. And this is nothing new or innovative. Page through Bible and you will discover from the very beginning, from Adam and Eve onward, that it is God in Christ who is redeeming His fallen creation, meriting their righteousness and leading them on the path of everlasting life that finds its Source and Certainty in Jesus alone. One person, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Mary, earned your eternal life and He gives it to you as a gift born out of love and mercy for you. That „for you“ is imperative, for it makes the blessing personal: it is yours, and it is yours because Jesus says so. Jesus doesn’t let us wiggle out of the joy of the promise by hanging our heads in sorrow mumbling „O that is true for everyone else, but that gospel is not for me.“ Jesus is for you. His gospel is for you. His promise is given to you through the means of grace. Believe that promise and receive it with great joy, for Jesus has done it all for you. It is true! You have eternal life, yes, Jesus’ very life, and that is in accordance with His will for you. Amen.

8. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus, whose Name is praised throughout the earth, bless us and our names so that we may live bountiful and respected lives to the glory of Your Name. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Martens, Gottfried. A sermon preached on 22. August 2009 (11. Trinitatis) in Berlin-Zehlendorf, Germany on Luke 18,9-14. Copyright © 2011 St. Mary Church in Berlin-Zehlendorf (SELK). All rights reserved. The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind, Tr. © 2011.

[1] From the Latin: Crux sola est nostra theologia.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Monday, September 15, 2014

Luke 10,25-37. 13. Sunday after Trinity

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