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INJ
St Luke 10:23-37
'The Neighbor List'
Divine Service
The 13th Sunday after Trinity Sunday | August 17th, 2008
Dear Saints,
Again this morning we come to a familiar text that might be so familiar that we become dangerously comfortable with it. A few weeks ago this special about this fellow who lives in Alaska with the grizzly bears. He pets them and feeds them and they walk in and out of his cabin, and as I'm watching this the only thing I can think is: this won't end up good. It's dangerous to become too comfortable with something so dangerous. This guy is going to be mauled.
And that's how it is with us and the lawyer and this text. It mauls us. It leaves us stripped naked and laying half-dead in the ditch waiting for a Savior.
But this is the last thing the lawyer was expecting. He comes to test Jesus, but ends up being tested; he comes to justify himself, but ends up condemned.
He came in haughty pride to, the text says, test Jesus. This is now the third year of Jesus' ministry, and you would think that enough of these lawyers and Scribes and Pharisees have brought their testing and tempting to Jesus, and had fallen flat on their faces, that they would know better. But pride blinds us always to the blessings that Jesus has to bring.
So the lawyer comes to test Jesus. This is a bad idea. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” But Jesus won't be tested or tempted or trapped. He turns it back on the lawyer. “You have a Bible, what does it say?” And the lawyer answers correctly, “You shall love the Lord 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 now Jesus turns things around. He is not being tested, He is testing. He is going to hold up the standard of the law to this lawyer. “You have answered correctly, do this and you will live.”
Well now this guy is in a pickle. He must have been thinking, “Wait, this isn't how the conversation was supposed to go.” He was ready for the great debate, for subtle argument and for a display of his great learning. But now he is sent, in the simple words of Jesus, to keep the whole law with his whole being.
Now at this point we say, the guy is sunk. The law has brought it full condemning weight. Surely the lawyer has been shown his sin. But not yet. We hear, “Love you neighbor as yourself,” and we think, “O Lord, forgive me. I've barely begun to love my neighbor. There is so much more I could do. Have mercy on me, and grant me Your Holy Spirit that I might begin to love and show your mercy to those around me.” We hear the command like that because we are Christians, because the Holy Spirit does with us the work He was sent to do by Jesus, convicting us of sin.
But this lawyer is not a Christian. In his pride the law does not yet crush him. He is still trying to be righteous by his own efforts. The text even tells us that his next question to Jesus was an attempt to justify himself. “Who is my neighbor?” When the lawyer hears the command, “Love your neighbor,” he thinks, I can do that if I know who my neighbor is.
Now, dear saints, this is how it is with us and our own sinful flesh. We are constantly trying to justify ourselves by keeping the law. And in order to keep the law we have to limit it, downsize it, have it in little manageable chunks. That's what this lawyer is doing. “Who is my neighbor?” is really asking, “Who is not my neighbor?” Who don't I have to love? I can't love everyone, right?
If I know that these eight people are my neighbors, of these 80 people, or these 800 people, then I can get a handle on loving them and being a good person, and I don't have to worry about all the millions of others that I don't know.
We do the same thing. We love the people that love us, but the people that hurt us? Not a neighbor. The people that are mean to us? Not a neighbor. The people next door that don't take care of their yard or have rowdy parties? Not a neighbor. The kids that climb on the roof and leave messes in the lawn? Not a neighbor.
We have our groups and we call them our neighbors: Lutherans, Republicans, white people. If you're outside the group then you're off the neighbor list.
“They only come around when they need help.” Must not be a neighbor. “They are constantly talking behind my back.” Scratch them off the neighbor list. “I can't believe they said that to me.” Neighbor no more. We could go on like this, right? I'm sure that you all are right now thinking of the person that you've scratched off your neighbor list.
We are all like the lawyer trying to limit our neighbor list. It's easier that way. If we can manage who we are supposed to love then we can, perhaps, manage the command to love.
But Jesus will not have it. There is no one who is not your neighbor. There is no one that you are free to despise and hate or ignore.
The Jews hated the Samaritans. They considered them to be unholy and unclean and ignorant and believed false doctrine. This racism was one of the worst fruits of the Jewish false-doctrine. The Samaritans were not on the neighbor list. It was never thought that love for your neighbor included the Samaritans.
But Jesus won't let the law be diluted. He won't let anyone be taken off the list. It is the Samaritan who picks up the man in need, it the Samaritan who carries him to the inn and pays for his healing, it is the Samaritan who is the neighbor.
And now, at last, the lawyer is sunk, and so are you, and so am I. There are no excuses, no exceptions, no exemptions. There is no reason for you to withhold your love from anyone, no matter who they are and what they done to you. You cannot escape this condemnation of the law.
“If there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been given by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those why believe.” [Galatians 3:22,23]
We cannot justify ourselves. We cannot keep God's command to love. We cannot, by our own efforts, be holy in His sight.
But look, dear saints, the Lord does not leave us mauled by the law and our own sin. The love that He commands He also gives, fully. Jesus considers you to be His neighbor, and He is not ashamed to come down in the gutter and take hold of you and lift you up and bind up your wounds and heal and forgive and have mercy on you. He comes to us and lays us on His back and travels to the cross to die for us. He pays the price of our salvation with His own blood.
He has you, in spite of your lovelessness. He brings us to the end of all of our self justification so that He can justify us, so that He can forgive us, so that He can call us holy and saints and His people and His friends and His children.
And this, dear saints, is our comfort and peace. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO
