A Law to frighten the secure and to guide the forgiven

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Sermon for Trinity 13

Galatians 3:15-22  +  Luke 10:23-37

I saw a post on one of the Las Cruces community groups on Facebook this week. A local man was recounting how he had noticed a young woman, a complete stranger, being followed by a scary-looking man at a gas station, how he kept an eye on the young lady, gave her some advice, followed her to her car and scared the stalker away. It sounds, just a little bit, like the deed of a “good Samaritan,” doesn’t it? Now, did he do the right thing there for that stranger? Absolutely! Should every man offer that kind of assistance to a woman who may be in danger? Absolutely! But the question I’d like you to consider this morning is this: Did that man earn himself a place in heaven because of that good deed? The answer is, absolutely not!

And yet, some people are confused about the parable Jesus told in today’s Gospel. They think that’s exactly what it’s about, that Jesus is commanding people to go around doing good deeds for strangers in order to earn themselves a place in heaven. Nothing could be further from the truth.

You have to read this parable in context, as with all of Scripture. And what is the context of it? Luke tells us. An expert in the Law of Moses was testing Jesus. What must I do to inherit eternal life? It’s a strange question, because you don’t normally “do” anything to “inherit” something. You inherit something based on your relationship to someone, not because you’ve done a good deed. But this expert in the Law was confused, as many people are confused on this point. He was confusing the promises that God had made in the Old Testament to Abraham and his Seed—promises of the free gift of an inheritance—with the laws commanded by God through Moses, laws that had to be kept, that had to be obeyed, where God agreed to do His part if the people of Israel would do theirs.

Jesus asked him, What is written in the Law? How do you read it? Remember, “the Law” refers to the first five books of the Bible, starting with Genesis. Jesus was giving the man the opportunity to cite the promise God made to Abraham and his Seed in the book of Genesis about the inheritance. But instead, the man cited a portion of the law-covenant from Mt. Sinai: 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. That’s a good summary of the whole moral Law. Complete and utter devotion to God, from the heart, and devotion to one’s neighbor has always been God’s will for mankind. And that will of God was codified and written down at Mt. Sinai, where the people of Israel all agreed: (1) This is what is good and right, and (2) we will do it. All the other laws proclaimed by Moses were examples of putting this law of love into practice.

So, since the expert in the Law wanted to focus on God’s moral commands, and since he believed that keeping those commands was the way to inherit eternal life, Jesus went along with him. You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live. Love God with your whole heart. Love your neighbor as yourself. That’s your end of the bargain. That’s what you have to “do” to inherit eternal life—if you get it by “doing something.”

But if you do—if you gain eternal life by doing—then there’s always a follow-up question: “And how do I know I’ve done enough?” How do I know if I’ve loved the Lord enough, or if I’ve loved my neighbor as myself enough? You see, the expert in the Law was left in doubt. He understood that his own law, the law he loved so much, only made his hope of eternal life more doubtful. And so he tried to “justify himself.” He asked, “And who is my neighbor?” You see what he was getting at. If he can narrow down the list of people he’s commanded to love as himself, maybe he can at least pretend he’s done it. But if “his neighbor” includes too many other people, he knows he has no chance.

So Jesus answers the man’s question with the parable of the Good Samaritan. A man was beaten and robbed and left for dead on the side of the road. A priest (a servant of the Law) came along and offered no help. A Levite (another servant of the Law) came along and offered no help. But then a Samaritan came by. Samaritans lived in Samaria, north of Jerusalem. They had a little Jewish blood left in them and some Jewish practices and beliefs, mixed with pagan practices and beliefs. The Jews hated them. But this Samaritan came along and, when he saw the injured man, went right over to help him and offered every sort of help you could think of, including caring for his wounds, taking him to an inn, caring for him there, and then paying the innkeeper to keep looking after him while he was away on his journey, adding the commitment to return and pay any additional expenses he might incur.

Then Jesus turns to the expert in the Law and asks: Now which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell among the thieves?” And he said, “The one who showed mercy to him.” Mercy, which is nothing but a form of love. Mercy and love were at the heart of all God’s commandments. And so, with one parable, Jesus turned this man’s religion upside down, forcing this expert in the Law to look at what his Law really demanded of him: mercy and love toward everyone he encountered on his earthly journey, not once, not once in a while, but at every single opportunity.

And then Jesus spoke those terrifying words: Go and do likewise. What must you “do” to inherit eternal life? This is what the Law of God demands. If you would be saved by that Law-covenant, by doing your part to obey God’s commands, while God does His part to pay you the wages of eternal life, then you must do as the Good Samaritan did, showing genuine over-the-top mercy at every turn, in every way, with every person, at every opportunity, in every setting. Not just for injured (or endangered) strangers you come across, but for your parents, for your children, your brothers and sisters, your husband or wife, your coworkers, your boss, your friends and acquaintances, your fellow citizens whom you encounter day after day after day—and also for your enemies. Mercy. Self-less love, love that’s just like the kind of love you would have others show to you. And that’s just what God’s Law requires that you do toward your neighbor. We haven’t even touched on all the things you owe to God directly, to fear, love, and trust in Him above all things, to honor His name, to worship Him, and to cherish His Word above all things.

Terrifying, isn’t it? It should be, if you’re honest with yourself. And that’s the point. In fact, that was always the point of the Law, to reveal the sin that already lives inside each of us. As Paul wrote in today’s Epistle, “The Law was added for the sake of transgressions,” that is, that the Israelites and that all people might have God’s will spelled out for them so that they could see just how much they transgress it. Because sin is there in your heart and in your being, whether you can see it or not, whether you help the occasional stranger or not. The Law simply reveals it for what it is.

And then, once you’ve been beaten to a pulp by the Law, once it’s left you for dead on the side of the road, unable to lift a finger to save yourself, along comes this Samaritan—the Son of God, true God and true man, though despised by men. He comes along with the very, genuine, heartfelt mercy and compassion that He demands of us, because He made us originally in His image and wanted us to be like Him. But now, having come as a man, the Lord Jesus shows this mercy, not only as our example, but first and foremost as our Substitute. He gave His life on the cross for us out of mercy, as the payment for our sins. He began to heal us through Holy Baptism, where He forgave us our sins and gave us His Holy Spirit and made us heirs of eternal life—heirs who will inherit eternal life, not by doing the right things, but by believing in the Lord Jesus, who did everything we were supposed to for us, because we couldn’t.

And then, before He ascended to heaven, He put us battered, weak, still-sinful believers into the charge of the “innkeepers,” the ministers whom He has called into His Church, to keep tending to the spiritually wounded, to keep us on the narrow path that leads to life, to spur us on to love and good works, because while we received the forgiveness of our sins in Baptism and live now under God’s grace, we are not yet what we should be, what God is healing us to become: truly good Samaritans whose hearts are as full of mercy for our neighbor as the heart of Jesus Himself was and is.

We call that aspect of healing “sanctification,” the Holy Spirit’s ongoing work of turning believers into the image of Jesus in how we think and in how we live. So the same “go and do likewise” that first was intended to strike terror into the heart of secure sinners becomes, for the believer, our marching orders, to go and be like Jesus. It begins in the heart—hearts that have been renewed and recreated by God’s mercy and grace toward us. And then it extends to our hands and to our whole life. “Go and do likewise.” Go and walk in the footsteps of Christ, with mercy toward your neighbor, toward everyone whom God places next to you on your path through life, until He determines that your time here is done, or until He returns from His “journey,” and He brings you at last into the eternal life that all who persevere in the faith will inherit, not by doing good works under the Old Testament, but by believing in Christ Jesus, who has made us coheirs with Him in the New Testament in His blood. Amen.

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How kind the Good Samaritan

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Sermon for Trinity 13

Galatians 3:15-22  +  Luke 10:23-37

This was only the second time we sang that last hymn, “How Kind the Good Samaritan.” I found the words to it just last year, right after we celebrated the 13th Sunday after Trinity, and I liked it so much that I composed this little tune for it. We first sang it as Vespers last year. The composer of the text was John Newton, more famous for the hymn “Amazing Grace.” I was really very impressed with how well he understood today’s Gospel, which includes Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan. That parable is so poorly understood by so many people, but over 200 years ago Newton captured the main idea very well in that hymn, which depicts us, not as the Samaritan going around doing good to strangers, but as the dying man who is passed by by the teachers of the Law and rescued by the Samaritan, who represents Jesus.

You have to read this parable in context, of course, as with all of Scripture. You see, the point of this parable is to show the expert in the Law who was testing Jesus, and to show all who hear this parable, that they’re doomed if they rely on doing good to earn them a place in heaven. The Good Samaritan gives us just a glimpse, a tiny picture and example of the mercy and love God demands from each of us for our neighbor—not to even mention the love and commitment we owe to God directly! That’s the degree of love that God’s Law demands, if we are to earn a place in heaven by keeping the Law. But He hasn’t found it in us. And so each of us, like a beaten and bloodied man lying half dead on the side of the road, is in dire need of a heavenly Good Samaritan to come to our aid. Because no one else can or will, especially the Law of Moses!

An expert in the Law—that is, the Old Testament Law—stood up, not to ask an innocent question, but to test Jesus. What must I do to inherit eternal life? And right away, if you’re paying attention, you see the problem with his question. What must you do to inherit anything? An inheritance isn’t given for doing things. It’s given because of the relationship that exists between people, usually family, so that when the one dies, the other receives what the deceased has left to him as an “inheritance.”

Now, the expert in the Law was right to use the word “inheritance,” which he got from his own Law, from the book of Genesis, where, as St. Paul also makes clear in today’s Epistle, it was an inheritance that God promised to Abraham and his Seed, which is Christ. It was a Testament God made with Abraham, like a Last Will and Testament, where one party promises to give something away to another. Eternal life is part of that Testament God made with Abraham, the promise to be God to Abraham and his Seed forever, even after death. And Scripture says that Abraham didn’t “do” anything to be justified by God. “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness.”

But the expert in the Law got confused, as many people do. He confused the promise God made to Abraham of an inheritance, which a person can’t work to earn—it has to be simply received by faith—with the Law-covenant God made with Israel on Mount Sinai, which was established as more of a bargain, where each party agreed to “do” their part.

Jesus asked him, What is written in the Law? How do you read it? Jesus was giving the man the opportunity to cite the promise God made to Abraham and his Seed in the book of Genesis. But instead, the man cited a portion of the covenant from Mt. Sinai: 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. That’s a good summary of the whole moral Law. Complete and utter devotion to God, from the heart, and devotion to one’s neighbor—doing to others what you would have them do to you—has always been God’s will for mankind. And that will of God was codified, written down, and agreed upon by the children of Israel at Mt. Sinai, where they all agreed: (1) This is what is good and right, and (2) we will do it. All the other laws proclaimed by Moses were examples of putting this law of love into practice.

So, since the expert in the Law wanted to focus on God’s moral commands, and since he believed that keeping those commands was the way to inherit eternal life, Jesus went along with him. You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live. Love God with your whole heart. Love your neighbor as yourself. That’s your end of the bargain. That’s what you have to “do” to inherit eternal life—if you get it by “doing something.”

But if you do—if you gain eternal life by doing—then there’s always a follow-up question: “And how do I know I’ve done enough?” How do I know if I’ve loved the Lord enough, or if I’ve loved my neighbor as myself? You see, the expert in the Law was left in doubt. He understood that his own law, the law he loved so much, only made his hope of eternal life more doubtful. And so he tried to “justify himself.” He asked, “And who is my neighbor?” You see what he was getting at, don’t you? If he can narrow down the list of people he’s commanded to love as himself, maybe he can at least pretend he’s done it. But if “his neighbor” includes too many other people, he knows he’s doomed.

So Jesus answers the man’s question with the parable of the Good Samaritan. A man was beaten and robbed and left for dead on the side of the road. A priest (a servant of the Law) came along and offered no help. A Levite (another servant of the Law) came along and offered no help. But then a Samaritan came by. Samaritans lived in Samaria, north of Jerusalem. They had a little Jewish blood left in them and some Jewish practices and beliefs, mixed with pagan practices and beliefs. The Jews generally despised them. But this Samaritan came along and, when he saw the injured man, went right over to help him and offered every sort of help you could think of, including caring for his wounds, taking him to an inn, caring for him there, and then paying the innkeeper to keep looking after him while he was away on his journey. How kind the good Samaritan!

Then Jesus turns to the expert in the Law and asks: Now which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell among the thieves?” And he said, “The one who showed mercy to him.” Mercy, which is nothing but a form of love. Mercy and love were at the heart of all God’s commandments. And if you read the Gospels, you know that the Pharisees and experts in the Law were characteristically low on mercy. They may have kept the commandments externally and performed all the rites and rituals they were supposed to perform. But they were cruel and condescending to their fellow Israelites, not merciful. And so, with one parable, Jesus turned this man’s religion upside down, forcing him to look at what his Law really demanded of him: mercy and love toward everyone he encountered on his earthly journey.

And then Jesus spoke those terrifying words: Go and do likewise. What must you “do” to inherit eternal life? This is what the Law of God demands. If you would be saved by that Law-covenant, by doing your part to obey God’s commands, while God does His part to pay you the wages of eternal life, then you must do as the Good Samaritan did, showing genuine mercy at every turn, in every way, with every person, at every opportunity. Not just for injured strangers you come across, but for your parents, for your children, for your husband or wife, for your coworkers, for your friends and acquaintances, for your fellow citizens whom you encounter day after day after day, and also for your enemies. Mercy. Self-less love, love that’s just like the kind of love you would have others show to you. And that’s just what God’s Law requires that you do toward your neighbor. We haven’t even touched on all the things you owe to God directly, to fear, love, and trust in Him above all things, to honor His name, to worship Him, and to cherish His Word above all things.

Terrifying, isn’t it? It should be, if you’re honest with yourself. And that’s the point. In fact, that was always the point of the Law, to reveal the sin that already lives inside each of us. As Paul wrote in today’s Epistle, “The Law was added for the sake of transgressions,” that is, that the Israelites and that all people might have God’s will spelled out for them so that they could see just how much they transgress it. Because sin is there in your heart and in your being, whether you can see it or not. The Law simply reveals it for what it is.

And then, once you’ve been beaten to a pulp by the Law, once it’s left you for dead on the side of the road, unable to lift a finger to save yourself, along comes this Samaritan—the Son of God, true God and true man, though despised by men. He comes along with the very, genuine, heartfelt mercy and compassion that He demands of us, because He made us originally in His image and wanted us to be like Him. But now, having come as a man, the Lord Jesus shows this mercy, not only as our example, but as our Substitute. He gave His life on the cross for us out of mercy, as the payment for our sins. He began to heal us through Holy Baptism, where He forgave us our sins and gave us His Holy Spirit and made us heirs of eternal life—heirs who will inherit eternal life, not by doing the right things, but by believing in the Lord Jesus, who did everything we were supposed to for us, because we couldn’t. How kind the Good Samaritan!

And then, before He ascended to heaven, He put believers into the charge of the “innkeepers,” the ministers whom He has called into His Church, to keep tending to the spiritually wounded, to keep us on the narrow path that leads to life, to spur us on to love and good works, because while we received the forgiveness of our sins in Baptism and live now under God’s grace, we are not yet what we should be, what God is healing us to become: truly good Samaritans whose hearts are as full of mercy for our neighbor as the heart of Jesus Himself was and is.

We call that aspect of healing “sanctification,” the Holy Spirit’s ongoing work of turning believers into the image of Jesus in how we think and in how we live. So the same “go and do likewise” that first was intended to strike terror into the heart of secure sinners becomes, for the believer, our marching orders, to go and be like Jesus. It begins in the heart—hearts that have been renewed and recreated by God’s mercy and grace toward us. And then it extends to our hands and to our whole life. “Go and do likewise.” Go and walk in the footsteps of Christ, with mercy toward your neighbor, toward everyone whom God places next to you on your path through life, until He determines that your time here is done, or until He returns from His “journey,” and He brings you at last into the eternal life that all who persevere in the faith will inherit, not by doing good works under the Old Testament, but by believing in Christ Jesus, who has made us coheirs with Him in the New Testament in His blood. Amen.

Source: Sermons

Fear the Good Samaritan. And thank God for Him.


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Sermon for the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity

Galatians 3:15-22 + Luke 10:23-37

Even people who don’t know the Bible or pay much attention to the words Jesus spoke are familiar with the term “Good Samaritan.” They think of a Good Samaritan as basically a nice guy who stops along the road to help a stranger in need. In fact, just last week there was a tragic news story, headlined, “Good Samaritan killed after helping two South Carolina teens pull SUV from ditch.”

We need to pause again this year, on this 13th Sunday after Trinity, to recalibrate our understanding of the Good Samaritan, to line it up with what Jesus was teaching, as opposed to what the world has come away with from this parable, which is basically the notion that you’re supposed to lend a helping hand to a stranger once in a while. That’s not why Jesus told this parable. He told the parable of the Good Samaritan to frighten his hearers to death.

Let’s back up for a moment. Let’s start where our Gospel starts. Then He turned to His disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see; 24 for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it. Why? What was it that Jesus’ disciples were seeing and hearing that the prophets and kings of the Old Testament all yearned to hear and see?

They were hearing and seeing the Seed of Abraham in action. Remember what you heard in today’s Epistle from Galatians 3—that’s a key chapter of the Bible for understanding the role God intended for the Law of Moses to play. Paul reminds us that God made a covenant with Abraham—that God would cause Abraham and His Seed to inherit the earth, to inherit eternal life. And the apostle points out that God did not make that covenant with all of Abraham’s descendants (plural), but only with THE promised Seed of Abraham (singular), which was Christ. He was the Heir of the Old Testament. Prophets and kings longed to see His day—which meant the fulfillment of the Law, the atonement for sins, and the proclamation of the day of grace—salvation for sinners by grace through faith in the Seed of Abraham. That was always God’s intention, always the only path for sinners to inherit eternal life.

But what happened between the time of Abraham and the time of Jesus? The law was added, summarized in the Ten Commandments, and summarized again in a different way with the twofold command: You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ Why was the law added to the covenant God made with Abraham and his Seed? Paul tells us that it was not added in order to void or to change in any way the promise of salvation by grace that God made with Abraham. It was added, Paul writes, because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made. In other words, the law was added in order to shine a bright light on the transgressions—the sins—that all men commit, so that we might repent and believe in the promised Seed of Abraham for the forgiveness of sins and for the gift of eternal life that only He can give.

But human beings still have this innate, twisted tendency to think that we can earn a place in heaven by keeping the law, even though the law was never given for that purpose. That’s what the lawyer in our Gospel thought. What was his question again? Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And since the lawyer was infatuated with the law, Jesus sent him back to the law for his answer, and he answered correctly—Love the Lord with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus agreed. If you do this, you will live.

The problem is, he couldn’t do it, and neither can you. Neither can anyone. As Paul wrote, For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. If life could be won by the law, it would have been done by the law. If man was capable of earning his way to eternal life, God would have made the law the way to enter eternal life. It’s a good law, after all! Love for God! Love for your neighbor! What could be better than that? But human beings are fallen. Human beings are sinful. We can’t do it. And not only can’t we do it, but we can’t even recognize that we can’t do it.

Like the lawyer in the Gospel. He heard Jesus’ reply, Do this and you will live, and he knew how broad and overarching that command was, but still tried to wiggle his way out of the law’s sweeping command—and condemnation. But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Maybe if I can narrow down this command of the law to include only a small set of people—my immediate family, my next-door neighbor, people of my own race. Who is my neighbor?

That’s what prompted Jesus to tell the parable of the Good Samaritan. You heard it. You know it. We’ll summarize it briefly.

There’s a man in need. He’s been robbed and beaten and left for dead on the side of the road. Two men come upon him—two men from Jerusalem, two “holy” men, two “children of Abraham,” a priest and a Levite, the guardians of the Law. They see the man lying there, right on their path, needing their help, needing their love. He’s their Jewish brother, their fellow church member. But they each go out of their way to step to the side, to avoid him, to avoid loving him.

The Samaritans, on the other hand, were treated poorly by the Jews, despised as foreigners and half-bloods. But see how this Samaritan treats the dying Jewish man as if he were his brother, his next-door neighbor, his friend. Some people might see a wounded man on the side of the road and despise him, or fear him. The Samaritan has compassion on him. He runs over to help. He takes all those loving steps to tend to his wounds, to bring him to safety, and to see to his ongoing care there at the inn until the Samaritan returns from his journey. It’s a beautiful story of love and compassion.

But it’s also a terrifying story. Because this is what God’s law requires, if you would do something to inherit eternal life. Not the once-in-a-while helping of a stranger, but the ongoing treatment of every single person around you with this level of care and compassion, even putting your own life at risk if necessary—in addition to that perfect love for the God of Abraham who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Love your neighbor as yourself. Do to others what you would have them do to you. That’s the model the Good Samaritan sets for you. That’s the Law. Either keep it without fail, or be damned.

The parable of the Good Samaritan should terrify people. It should send them running for cover from the Law’s condemnation, which is aimed at everyone who has ever shown anything less than the mercy of the Good Samaritan in our Gospel. If people understood that, they would not think so highly of the Good Samaritan. Because he puts all men to shame and shows us what we must do, if we would inherit eternal life.

What a terrible lesson. But what a necessary lesson for us poor sinners to learn. Because most people live under this delusion, that you can be good enough for God to accept you into eternal life. But you can’t. That’s why you should fear the Good Samaritan.

But at the same time, if you’ve learned to fear the Law and to tremble at your sins, there is great comfort and hope for you in this Gospel. Indeed, as Paul writes to the Galatians, the Scripture has confined all people under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

The Lord God saw us wounded by the devil, abandoned by the Law, helpless to save ourselves because of our inborn sin. He saw us, wretched, poor, naked and blind, and He took pity. He had mercy. He sent His Son into our flesh, even though we were His enemies by birth. He became our Neighbor. He came and helped us, putting His own life in danger, even sacrificing His own life on the cross in order to buy the bandages and the oil and wine to heal our wounds, to forgive us our sins. He sent His Gospel to you in the ministry of the Word, He sent someone to baptize you, washing your sins away from God’s sight. He brought you into the inn of His holy Church, where His ministers look after you and keep applying the healing salve of Word and Sacrament, until He returns from His journey to bring you safely home.

Once the Good Samaritan has terrified you, so that you flee from the law and from thinking you have to do something good in order to inherit eternal life, flee in faith to the truly Good Samaritan, Christ Jesus, and thank God for Him who has loved you with a love you can never equal.

And yet, because He has loved you and granted you the gift of eternal life that is only His to give, as the Seed of Abraham, now you are equipped, as a son of Abraham through faith in THE Son of Abraham, to spend the rest of your life on earth imitating His love. You’ve experienced the love of Christ, the Good Samaritan, firsthand. So it’s a fitting thing for the Holy Spirit to call out to you now, Go and do likewise. Not in order to inherit eternal life. But because Christ has inherited eternal life for you and gives it away for free to all who believe in Him. Amen.

Source: Sermons