The text this morning is from the Gospel according to Luke, the 10th chapter:
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him 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 he 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.”Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
This is probably one of the more shocking parables that Jesus ever told, at least to His original hearers. We talked about this a few weeks ago, but you need to remember that, even though the word “Samaritan” has taken on a context today that means a good guy, to the Jews of Jesus’ time, the Samaritans were a heretical sect, filled with half-breeds that you wouldn’t let your third cousin marry. The Samaritans were unclean according to the Levitical Law and they had strange notions based out of the Jewish religion that separated them from all the Jews. To hear that one could act in a righteous way, and that this exalted teacher was saying so, was both incredible and insulting.
It all starts when this lawyer, which doesn’t mean an attorney, like we would hear it today, but one who knew the Law of Moses backwards and forwards, stood up to put Jesus to the test. I don’t know the motivation of this lawyer, really. It could have been that he was trying to trap Jesus, or it could have been that he was genuinely curious, but he does ask a question to which he himself knew the answer. What do I do to inherit eternal life?
Well, we heard it in Leviticus today. The righteous do righteously. God said, right before our Old Testament reading, that if you keep His statutes and rules, He shall live. TO do the Lord’s Law is a completely different way of living than the rest of the world. It effects every aspect of your life. And if you keep all of them, you will live. So, when the lawyer asks Jesus the question, Jesus turns it back on him. He should know it. And he does. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. These are the two tables of the Law, the first dealing with God and the second our neighbor.
And the amazing thing is, the lawyer thinks he’s done this. He thinks he’s righteous. He goes to Temple, he goes to the synagogue, he’s kept all the laws that he has ever read. But, he still wants to justify himself in Jesus’ eyes. He wants to show Jesus how great he is, and assure himself that he is good. He’s been wonderful to his mother, his father, his siblings, his extended family, his community. He’s loved everyone around him. He’s secure in his life. He’s been a good man.
But, there is no good man. There is not one righteous person on the planet. All of us have fallen from grace, all of us break the commandments, all of us think too highly of ourselves. We are the lawyer. And confronted by the man’s pride, and our own pride, Jesus desires to break it. So, He brings the man, and us, down low.
Sure, you’ve been good to your mom and dad. But what about the neighbor down the street? What about the guy who lets his dog bark too long at night? What about the thrice-divorced man living with yet another woman? What about the girl who stumbles home drunk from the bar too often? What about the guy who’s letting his car rust in the driveway? What about the one who spread that rumor about you at work? What about the girl who stole your best friend from you by lying? What about that Republican? What about that Liberal? What about the gay guy? What about whatever other person you’re thinking of? Have you loved them? Have you treated them righteously?
Now, Jesus could have asked all that, but instead He tells a parable. A man was beaten on the road and left for dead. A priest, who is supposed to be the bringer of God’s mercy to the people passes by him, not wanting anything to do with the whole thing. A Levite, the tribe which makes the priests for the people, doesn’t want to make himself, or anyone in his line, ceremonially unclean by touching a dead man, so he doesn’t even bother to look. The only one who stops is a Samaritan, an untouchable, who stoops down, checks the man, bings his wounds, pours expensive medicine on them, inconveniences himself by having to walk instead of ride so the horse can carry the dying man, and pays for his stay in an inn, paying also for his medical care. The people who had been shown mercy could not bother to show mercy. The untouchable one, to whom mercy had never been given, was righteous in His deeds. He loved his neighbor; the Jews despised theirs.
Jesus made it clear that, in order to break the pride of a person, they must leave behind the false piety they show to God and others and show mercy instead. Humbling yourself to serve the most unlovable person you can think of takes away all the pride in the world. To love your neighbor means to stand knee-deep in the sludge of their lives with them, to serve them, to love them, to just be with them. It’s the hardest thing in the world that you’ll ever have to do because it requires you to leave yourself behind.
And we don’t do this enough. We really don’t. Our needs come before others, always. Even when we actually go through with what needs to be done, it’s begrudgingly, thinking of the inconvenience they’re being to us, thinking that they better either pay it back or pay it forward. We don’t do things for the right reasons at the right time. We do things when they’re convenient to us, and that’s not really loving your neighbor. God says to love our neighbor as ourselves, that we love our neighbor in the same way we love ourselves. And if we, in our sinful pride, put ourselves first, that means always, always putting others first.
And we’re the lawyer, here. We don’t do that. We don’t put others first. We don’t love our neighbors as ourselves. We don’t show mercy. We don’t show compassion. We don’t do as we ought. We look to the forgiveness of God without ever showing it ourselves.
But Jesus told this parable, not just to scold the lawyer, and bring him to repentant faith. That was a purpose of the telling, where Jesus tells him to go and do likewise. There’s something greater here, though. There’s something here about Jesus. Remember that Jesus has two things about Himself that we forget: the pious people hated Him and wouldn’t go near Him because they thought He had defiled Himself all the time by eating with tax collectors, prostitutes, breaking the Sabbath. That’s the first. The second is something those same pious people didn’t see, that He is God and He should not want to come near us in any way, lest He have sin before Him, in His presence.
In this telling, in this parable, Jesus is the Good Samaritan. He was untouchable for us, we wouldn’t have gone near Him because we would not have thought much of Him, but He comes to us nonetheless. He comes to us when we’re broken and bleeding. He comes to us, as sinful as we are. He leaves behind His status as the holy, righteous, untouchable God, and lives among us that He might save us as the Samaritan saved the broken man. He comes near to us, even if we wouldn’t have sought after Him.
Our God in Jesus Christ is good and gracious. He preaches to us the mercy of God, that He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and taken us to the kingdom of the Son of God, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. There is no more merciful act than that. There is no greater love than that, that He would leave His throne in heaven to lay down His life for His sinful creation, whom He counts as His friends.
Jesus teaches us that there is more to the righteous living of the Law than just the words. The words are important, but they are fulfilled in the righteous life of Jesus Himself. He kept the Law so that we need not be righteous by ourselves, but that we have His righteousness. When we don’t love our neighbor, He did. When we don’t show mercy, He has. When we break the Law, He kept it. And He gives us these things so that we are judged by His keeping of the Law, not our own. It’s true, if you kept the Law perfectly, you would live forever. Even ignoring our sinful nature, which makes that impossible, Jesus has made clear it’s not just an outward obedience to the Law which God demands, but an inner obedience. Never a stray thought, never a sharp word, never a doubt, never a hesitation. None of us could ever hope to do that, even if we lived as righteously as a good man could be expected to do.
But, unlike the lawyer, we don’t need to depend on our obedience, whether outward or inward. We do need to keep the Law, not to be saved, but because the Lord who saved us told us to do so. We keep the Law because God has demanded it. But we keep it without fear. When we have the sharp word, the bad thought, the hesitation, we don’t need to fear God coming down like a hammer. We trust that He is, in that very moment, acting as the Good Samaritan, coming down to bind that wound, to forgive that sin, to make us well again. We do need to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves, but we don’t depend on that. We need to that for the sake of our neighbor, not for us. We have all that we need. We have a Savior who will bind us, care for us, carry us, give us rest, pay our way. We need nothing more. But our neighbor needs that, too. That’s why we go and do likewise, for our neighbor’s sake, never our own. We do it because we love our neighbor as ourselves, because God loves us like He loves Himself. He loves us enough to give everything He has to take care of us, He loves us enough to die for our salvation. And so He has. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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