Sermon - Trinity XIII - Luke 10:23-37 - 2018

“And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”” What a silly lawyer! He asked a nonsensical question, asking what he needs to do to inherit something. That’s not how an inheritance works. By its very nature, an inheritance is something given to you which you did not  earn. Someone else did all of the work to earn the treasure, and the person who receives the inheritance simply receives it as a result of the other person’s labors. But this lawyer was convinced that he needed to keep the law in order to receive the inheritance.

That’s understandable when you consider the fact that this lawyer was an expert in Jewish Law, he was an expert in interpreting the Old Testament and applying the teachings of various rabbis. Imagine a lawyer who studied not US law, but the scriptures; not the opinions of US judges, but the teachings of Jewish rabbis. As such, this lawyer believed that one received eternal life by following the established laws.

But this lawyer asked the wrong question, “What shall I do?” He believed that the law was the answer for sin, the solution to receive eternal life was doing something. But he was wrong. We are not saved by the law, since the law is incapable of rescuing us from our sin. We who are beaten down and left for dead by sin, are rescued by the boundless love and mercy of Jesus.

So Jesus tells a parable, not to primarily teach us how we should follow the law, but explicitly to teach us that we are not saved by the law. Typically when you hear this parable, you probably interpret it in terms of how you must behave. So you identify with the priest, levite, and Samaritan. You hear it and feel guilty that you are tempted to behave like the priest and levite, you feel guilty that you haven’t been merciful enough. So we should be more like the samaritan and be generous and merciful. But that’s not a proper interpretation.

While it is true that we ought to show mercy, this is an important lesson for us today. It is good to be merciful and loving like our heavenly Father above. When we come across someone in need, we should show them charity. As Christ said, the poor will always be with us, and so there will always be people to treat charitably. Do this, you go and do likewise. I encourage you to find a way that we can serve the poor and downtrodden in our communities, find a way to help, let’s get organized if we can and do something. But that’s not the biggest point of the parable. You’re not the Good Samaritan.

Rather, you are the man, going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, who fell among robbers and was stripped and beaten and left half dead. You are the naked, bruised, bloodied, broken, dying man on the side of the road in this parable. You’re powerless to save yourself, you can’t do a thing at this point. You could be miles from civilization, there’s no way you can pull up your boot straps and get over it. You’re dying.

So along come a priest and a Levite, they’re the law that this lawyer dedicated his life to studying. They can’t help this dying man because by doing so they would be ceremonially unclean to serve in the temple as they must do. So the law must pass around this dying man, the law cannot save him. 

“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.” This outsider is the promise, it’s the Gospel, it’s Jesus. 

Jesus sees us who are naked, bruised, bloodied, broken, and dying and He has compassion on us. Compassion, that’s a huge word in the Gospels, whenever you see it, it should pop out to you like a beacon of hope because there’s Christ our Lord who has compassion on us. He has splanknizomai for us, literally he feels for us in his guts. His stomach cramps us, His heart aches, He feels compassion for His beloved people.

He feels compassion for us who are broken by sin. This Samaritan doesn’t know anything about the guy he’s helping, for all he knows he’s the robber who’s putting on a ruse to take advantage of him. Maybe the guy tried to kill someone or rape someone and didn’t get away with it so he was beaten up. The Samaritan doesn’t know, he just shows mercy to him.

Unlike the Samaritan, Jesus knows exactly what you’ve done. He knows every one of our wicked deeds. Every lie we’ve told, every unmerciful action, every hurtful word we’ve spoken or thought, every sin from the most devastatingly evil thing, to the smallest little white lie. He knows them all. Before him we are naked, He sees everything, there’s nothing to hide. 

Frankly, we’re not innocent. Sure not everything is our fault, lots of terrible unspeakable things have happened to us, but a lot of things are at the least partly our fault or even mostly our fault. While the world sees what we’ve done and tells us that we’ve made our bed now we have to sleep in it, Christ does otherwise. 

He sees us for who we really are and He has compassion on us. He comes to you, He binds up your wounds, He carries you, and gives you His bed. “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.’” His love for you is boundless! Whatever the cost to restore you to health, He will pay it all. His love and mercy have no limits. 

“Jesus, Thy boundless love to me no thought can reach, no tongue declare!” God’s mercies are never ending and they are new everyday. It cost the Samaritan at least a denarius each day to care for the man, and a denarius was a day’s wage, so the Samaritan gave everything from each day to care for the dying man. Jesus’ love for you cost Him everything. Jesus paid for your healing, blood for blood, with his own precious blood.

Because of His work, because of His labor, He has earned the inheritance of eternal life for you. You didn’t have to do a thing to inherit this, not because you were lazy, but because half-dead laying on the side of the road you couldn’t. 

But the temptation is still to think that you can isn’t it. I know we say that you can’t be saved by works, we say that work’s righteousness is wrong, but when someone dies you know what I hear? “Oh they were a good person, so kind and gentle, if anyone’s going to heaven, they definitely are.” “They worked for years to get to heaven, now they finally get to go.” “He was a good man.” “She was a lovely lady.”

But that’s not what does it. In fact, it’s not even true. We’re not good people, we’re not gentle and kind. We’re bloodied, broken, sinners lying on the side of the road dying. Every time you hear some false preacher utter something about the power of I am, or that you make your own destiny, you are in control, you just need to get the motivation, you write your own future, your self-worth can get the job done… every time you hear one of those lies from someone who claims to be a preacher, run away fast. 

Every time you fall into thinking that you’re responsible for your inheritance of eternal life, repent and remember where you are in this life: beaten down by sin on the side of the road. It is only through the mercy and love of Jesus that you are picked up, anointed with oil, with the water of baptism, fed the wine of the holy supper of Christ’s body and blood. Only Jesus has the power to heal your sin, and only Jesus has the power to restore you to life.

The Samaritan gave the innkeeper 2 denarii, implying that he will return after 2 days. For three days the man who fell among robbers lay half dead in the inn, but then the Samaritan returned. For three days Christ lay in the tomb, dead, and then He rose again. So when in this life sin overtakes you, and your body of sin is laid to rest in its narrow chamber under the earth, know that Christ will return. He’s already paid the price, He’s going to come again, and when He returns you will stand without faltering because you’ll have received the inheritance of eternal life.