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

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

Luke 10,25-37 4315

13. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 058

Rebecca

Felix, Pastor, and Adauctus, Martyrs at Rome under Diocletian, 303

30. August 2015

1. O God, You look upon us, and we find Your countenance in the eyes of the people who come close to us. Help us to not pass them by and help us to attend them when they are in need. Amen. (VELKD, Prayer for 13. Sn. n. Trinitatis § 1 2015)

2. Jesus also And behold, a lawyer stood up to put Jesus to the test, saying: „Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?“ He said to him: „What is written in the Law? How do you read it?“ And he answered: „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.“ And Jesus said to him: „You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.“ But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus: „And who is my neighbor?“ Jesus replied: „A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying: ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?“ He said: „The one who showed him mercy.“ And Jesus said to him: „You go, and do likewise.“

3. The lawyer in today’s pericope asks the age-old human question: „What shall I do to inherit eternal life?“ This lawyer was a Pharisee, and the Pharisees knew the answer to this question: We inherit eternal life by loving God and our neighbors. This love is expressed in doing good works. The lawyer even quotes the Torah to prove his answer is scriptural, specifically Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19; but those two passages say nothing about inheriting or 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; it is 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 Pharisees were proud that they had merited eternal life by rigidly keeping the Ten Commandments and all the precepts God had given Israel. Right away their approach is flawed. You cannot do anything to inherit something. An inheritance is given to you by someone else as a free gift. You cannot earn it, but you can do something heinous to lose an inheritance. Likewise, you cannot do anything to inherit eternal life, for it is a gift freely given to you by God and like all gifts you can foolishly reject it and refuse to receive it.

5. This is the context for Jesus telling the Parable of the Good Samaritan. As this parable unfolds, first a Jewish priest and then a Levite, see a wounded man laying along the roadside. They both pass him by. Under the law, neither the priest or Levite were a neighbor to their fellow wounded Jew. The cost of doing so was too high for them. The priest could defile himself if the man turns out to be dead and it would takes weeks of ritual cleansing to return to Yahweh’s service at the temple, the bandits could be waiting to pounce on those offering assistance, the wounded man could be a ruse to sucker a caring person to offer assistance and then spring up and rob him. A host of other contemplations ran through the minds of both the priest and the Levite. Both reasoned that obeying the law in this instance was too costly, so they reasoned that it is safer and easier to leave well enough alone, consoling themselves perhaps that some one else would soon be by on this well-travelled, busy road and render the beaten man assistance, and thus they went on their way and about their own business. Would the lawyer prideful of his keeping of the law have stopped and helped? Would he have done what the priest and Levite had failed to do? No, he too would have walked past, knowing full well that in doing so he would violate the law to love the neighbor as oneself. Jesus has just showed the lawyer proud in his righteous keeping of the law that even he cannot keep the law at all times and therefore cannot merit eternal life by his good works. In stark contrast to the priest, the Levite and the lawyer, the Good Samaritan gave his all far and beyond what might be expected. The lawyer was humbled when Jesus showed him that even a despised Samaritan is a better keeper of the Jewish law than a lawyer of that very law. You and I are humbled when the law reveals that we are not the paragons of virtue who love God and help our neighbor in every need and with all the means at our disposal.

6. You cannot earn everlasting life; it is a gift that is freely given to you by your Heavenly Father on account of the abundant merit of Jesus Christ. The Apostle 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, then 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; Genesis 15,6).

7. The Pharisees accused Jesus of being a Samaritan (John 8,48). 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. Jesus used this derogatory statement against Him and took the dirty word Samaritan as His own. Jesus Himself is the Samaritan in His parable. The compassion of the Samaritan is the theme of Jesus’ parable. Where you fail to love God and your neighbor, Jesus succeeds. The Samaritan went above and beyond his service to his neighbor. He bound his wounds, brought him to safety, nursed him and paid in full all the monetary debts accrued from his predicament. God requires and expects mercy, a mercy which knows no bounds (Martens § 15). Jesus lived this mercy and He showed this mercy. Jesus was merciful to His own Jewish people, but not only them. He was merciful to women, children, tax collectors, prostitutes, the worst sinners, Gentiles and even Roman occupiers. Jesus’ love for His Heavenly Father and for His neighbors knows no boundaries.

8. On the cross, Jesus showed just how much of a Good Samaritan He is. Jesus 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.

9. 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 Jesus gives 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 the 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.

10. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, Your Name is worthy to be praised! Bless us, O Christ, to that we receive by faith the inheritance You have merited for us as our Good Samaritan. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

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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.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Thursday, September 3, 2015

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

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