Pentecost 8 [Luke 10:25-37] (14 July 2013)

This sermon was preached at Trinity Lutheran, Tailem Bend (9 am) and St. John's Lutheran, Karoonda (11 am).  

In my country, people were killed for drinking from the wrong drinking fountain. Understand? Some drinking fountains were for “whites” only. That's meant to be shocking, because it's wrong. But more shocking is that the problem of this expert in the Law who spoke to Jesus isn't that he didn't know who his neighbor was – it's himself, the books of Moses, and Jesus that he didn't know.

Oh but he thinks he knows all the answers. So he puts Jesus to the test by asking him a question that he already knew the answer to. And how did he know the answer? How is this man described? A “lawyer”, that is an expert in the Law, that is an expert in the books of Moses – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. We listen to the Gospel and hear this man and we think “oh, he doesn't know the Old Testament better than Jesus does!”, but, well, as we hear “And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" ²⁶ He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How do you read it?" ²⁷ 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." ²⁸ And he said to him, "You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live." ²⁹ But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" ”

Now here's where it gets interesting. Jesus says he answers rightly. He answers rightly by quoting a verse from Deuteronomy 6:5, which as an expert of the Law he would know, especially since it follows the Shema, which is Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” And then he brings together another verse from Leviticus 19:18, “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” In doing that, he briefly summarized the ten commandments, maybe because he heard that Jesus himself made that connection.

But the problem reveals itself in his second question “and who is my neighbor?”, and the proof that this is a problem is when it says, “he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus . . .” Now you get to see that he's not reading God's Word as well as he thought he was. Why? Because while it would be a good question for the man to ask “and who will inherit eternal life?”, it is ridiculous to think that there are restrictions on whom he is to love, so that he could ask “who should I love as a neighbor, and who shouldn't I? Who isn't my neighbor?”. The books of Moses themselves show that God required the Israelites to show mercy to the poor, widows, and also aliens and foreigners.

And there's another problem with that question. The man tries to make it look as if God's Word isn't clear. “And who is my neighbor, because people who don't follow the books of Moses certainly can't be.” The assumption there is that God's Word isn't clear, and I have to make it clear. Because God's Word couldn't possibly say something that I don't want it to!

There is a big problem lurking just underneath for this man: he doesn't want Jesus for a neighbor. He's already tried to prove he knows the books of Moses better than Jesus does. But in not considering that Jesus is a neighbor to him, he shows he himself doesn't know the books of Moses. Are they about the way that you are supposed to earn your own eternal life, or are they about how God deals with sin? The answer to that starts in Genesis 3 and keeps going throughout the whole OT. And how does God deal with sin? In the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus! That same Jesus you're talking to!

And this self-justifying denial of God's Word, this denial of Jesus, does this have anything to do with you? You'd love to go beyond the books of Moses altogether with new rules, you know, ones that would work. How easy it is to look at the books of Moses, not to see how God deals with sin, but instead to see ways to improve yourself. But then you don't stop there! You see you haven't improved yourself with the ten commandments, so you find new rules you'll really keep. And how do those work? It's like when you eat a cheeseburger and say “It's okay to eat this now, because I'll go to the gym later.” But then instead of going to the gym later, you eat an entire cake. “The deal's off” you say. That doesn't work.

It's saying, “I can do a better job than Jesus”. I can be a better god for myself than Jesus can be for me. I can give a better salvation. I can do something to inherit eternal life. I can do all this good stuff. I'm obeying commandments that haven't even been invented yet!

And if God's Word got in the way of your self-justifying? You'd just brush it aside like the expert in the Law. Because God's Word couldn't possibly say something that I don't want it to! And if there is a part you don't like, what do you do? Get rid of it!

But the young man hasn't seen the answer to his first question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” In asking it, he hasn't seen that the answer is: nothing you can do. But that's not the fault of the books of Moses. That's your fault. And it's not what the books of Moses say either. They speak about how Christ Jesus deals with sin. And surprisingly enough, that's what the parable of the Good Samaritan does!

It's a surprising parable. First, because it's not a lecture about how to be a good neighbor – not primarily. If it was, the half dead man would have been the Samaritan, and the one who rescues him would have been a noble Israelite. And even if the expert in the law wants to think some people aren't neighbors, he doesn't need to be told “love your neighbor as yourself” because he's the one who said it to Jesus.

No, this parable answers not so much the question “who is my neighbor” but “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”, answers surprisingly with the answer of shock and accusation. Listen again, “But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. ³⁴ 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. ³⁵ 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.' ³⁶ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" ³⁷ He said, "The one who showed him mercy." And Jesus said to him, "You go, and do likewise." ”

And, surprise, when Jesus says, “go and do likewise”, that is a convicting statement. It links together with the word that the man was trying to justify himself. Jesus himself is doing Law and Gospel by pointing first to the good word of the double commandment and then to the failure of the man to keep it by that convicting word, and then the man will look and will see Jesus having mercy and justifying sinners, that is, declaring righteous by the forgiveness of sins. Seeing Jesus do that is to believe that this Jesus is the Good Samaritan. What you have not done, Jesus has done in your place. What washing you needed, Jesus has done in your baptism. What looking after you need, Jesus has arranged for by the means of a washing of forgiveness, a feeding of forgiveness, and a preaching of forgiveness. “Do this and you will live” - “Do” and “life” have a surprising answer in Jesus – he does, to give you life in the place of death. You'd think it would end, “you haven't done these things, but now you should really do them”, but no. It says “go and do likewise” to show that only one person has done them in your place: the Lord Jesus.

The hints that Jesus is the Good Samaritan are all over the place. The expert in the law himself says that the Good Samaritan is the one who had mercy, and anyone who's heard of Jesus should know that's what he does. The Good Samaritan has compassion, is moved right down to the guts at the need of this poor mostly dead man. Jesus has compassion on all sorts of people in need. The Good Samaritan cares for the man at great expense to himself. He puts this mess on his own donkey, and gives money to the innkeeper as if he's taking responsibility for what happened. That means that by doing so, he's put himself as the only suspect for revenge from the man's family. Well, Jesus takes responsibility for something that also isn't his fault when he puts himself in your place, and at great expense sheds his blood and dies for you. His blood poured for you is healing – is healing in the waters of your baptism (baptized into his death), and is healing in the Lord's Supper (shed for you for the forgiveness of sins). The Good Samaritan did what the half dead man needed. Jesus has done what was needed – for you who in sin is totally dead!

What you wouldn't put on your own donkey, Jesus put on his (by putting a cross on his back) – and the answer to both is you!

When the Law shows you an accurate picture of yourself – well, you wouldn't put that on your own donkey. But in putting a cross on his back, Jesus has put you on his donkey (so to speak).

So that then means that faith is the response to God's mercy and love, not in making deals, inventing rules, or self-improvement, but in getting it done for the neighbor. The Gospel reveals that such doing flows only from having received God's mercy. Legalists who cross-examine Jesus make no progress until they recognize that they are the man half dead and Jesus is the one who does mercy as neighbor.

Conclusion: There's a lot of surprises when a question about inheriting eternal life gets an answer that shows that only this Jesus who pulls a dead mess onto his own donkey (that is, dies for you on the cross), only he can do this. When you're the dead mess born dead in sin, when God's Word speaks Jesus, and when Jesus puts himself in your place, then you know who your neighbor is. And then you constantly praise God for the gift of eternal life. Amen.