The 13th Sunday after Trinity Sunday | September 6th, 2009
Dear Saints,
In this morning's Gospel text we have the parable of the Good Samaritan, or better, the Samaritan who is merciful to his Neighbor. As we consider this text this morning, I would like to pay special attention to the context. Our Lord Jesus has the whole conversation reported with a lawyer who came asking questions, and the text even tells us why he was asking Jesus what he did.
The first thing to note is that the Scriptures mean something different than we do with the word “lawyer”. This is not an attorney, a person that practices law, but a man given over to the study of the law, like a Scribe. The literal translation might be “law man”, and the law that we are talking about is the law of Moses, the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. So this lawyer was a Bible Scholar, and of the worst sort, because with all his knowledge of Moses he doesn't recognize the Savior Moses promised standing right in front of him.
He, instead, thinks that Jesus is a false Messiah. That is why he asks the question he does, to test Jesus, to expose Him as a fraud. The first question the lawyer asks is, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
Now what would you expect Jesus to answer here? Law or Gospel? I expect a word of Gospel, something like, “Whoever believes in me will not perish but have eternal life,” or “Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved,” or “I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in me shall not perish.” Those are answers that Jesus gives in other places. But that is not the word that Jesus speaks here. In fact, with this question the lawyer gets not a word of Gospel. Why not?
This lawyer's heart was hardened, he was in such a state of mind or heart that he could not hear a word of mercy, so the law must do its work of crushing and killing, breaking up the rocks in his heart to make a place for the Gospel. We have to hear the Pharisee’s question with the emphasis in the right place, not on “eternal life”, nor on the “inherit”, but on the “I do”. The emphasis is on his own actions, his doing, his works. “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
And if you ask a law question like this, you'll get a law answer. Jesus, in fact, answers with a question, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” In other words, “You are the student of the Bible, all your answers are there, what does it say?” And this lawyer gives the proper legal answer, love God and your neighbor. 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." (Luke 10:27)
This is a perfect summary of the law. I don't know if any of you have dehydrators, but I'm sure you've seen them. You have some sort of nice food, and you put it in the dehydrator, and it turns it into a raisin, it gets all the water out and takes a thing down to its concentrated essences. A banana slice becomes a little banana raisin, an apple slice becomes a little apple raisin, a piece of steak becomes a meat raisin, jerky. You get the idea. Well imagine taking your dehydrator and putting the Ten Commandments in there, and what would come out would be the answer that this lawyer gives, “Love God with everything you've got, and love your neighbor as yourself.” This is the concentrated essence of the law.
So this lawyer offers to Jesus an answer that is correct but wrong. He knows what the Bible commands, but not what it gives, he knows the law but not the Gospel.
But here's the rub, the law does promise life to the person who keeps it completely. Listen to what the Lord says in Leviticus 18: “You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.” (Leviticus 18:5) The law promises life to the person who keeps it. But who is that? Has this lawyer kept the law? Have you?
That's the point that's being explored in this next question. First the lawyer came to test Jesus, but his next question is, the text says, to justify himself. To “justify” means to declare righteous. This lawyer wants to declare himself to be righteous, holy, good enough for God, so he asks, “Who is my neighbor?”
Now we have to pay attention to this text. Let's ask ourselves, why would the lawyer ask this question? What possible answer could Jesus give that would help him to justify himself? Do you see what he's after? What he needs from Jesus is a definition of neighbor that assures that he keeps the law. He needs to limit this commandment so that it would be keepable.
Remember that this is the whole business of the Pharisees, to limit the commandments so that they were doable, keepable. The commandments, for the Pharisees, were difficult rules that set you apart from everyone else. And that is the kind of thing that this lawyer must have been looking for from Jesus. “Please limit who my neighbor is, draw a circle so that I know who I have to love.” So you see what this lawyer is asking is not, “Who is my neighbor?” but “Who is not my neighbor? Who don't I have to love?” After all, everyone is not my neighbor, if that were true then I could never keep the command perfectly...
Now we all know something of this temptation. Last year when we heard this text we talked about the neighbor list, how we have a list of who our neighbor is, and we are constantly crossing people off the list. This person offended me, this person didn't write a thank you card, this person gave me a funny look. It could be a serious offense, normally it's not, but whenever we get upset we cross people off the neighbor list. We say in our hearts, “It is okay that I don't love that person, after all, they did this and that...” This happens to all of us, and whenever it does we are acting like this condemned lawyer who wants to justify himself.
The worst is prejudice, or racism. Instead of crossing off a person or a family, racism marks off a whole huge group of people. I don't have to love that person because they're Mexican, or because they're black, or because they're white, or because they're from the middle east. Whatever it is, it is wrong. Listen, you are not given the authority to cross a person off of your neighbor list. That is the import of the parable of the Good Samaritan, the Merciful Samaritan.
Samaritans were barely considered people to the Jews, but Jesus puts it in this lawyer's face: the person in need is your neighbor no matter who they are.
Now there's plenty of repenting to go around this morning, right? You don't love your neighbor as you ought to. Neither do I. That's how it is with love, it's never finished, there's always more to give and more to do and more to serve. You know how it is, when you are getting ready for bed at night and you look over the checklist of things that you had to do. “Take out the trash, check. Sweep the kitchen floor, check. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, check? Love your neighbor as yourself, check?” No. Our love is never finished. And by the standard of our love for God and neighbor, we are not righteous, but are shown to be sinners.
And because of this we have to find righteousness in another place. We heard these words in our epistle reading:
If a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. (Galatians 3:21-22)
We find our righteousness, not in our keeping the law, but in Jesus' keeping the law. Our hope is not in our own perfection, but in His. We look not to our own deeds, but to His death. He is the One who finds us in the ditch of sin and darkness and shame and death, and comes down to us and picks us up and binds up our wounds and pours out His riches so that we might have life.
None of us could check off love for God and neighbor, none but Jesus. When He, on the cross, lays down His head, He says, “It is finished.” His love for you is perfect and complete, and that is the only hope for sinners.
Dear saints, it is your Lord Jesus who forgives you and sets you free, the one who comes to you with His mercy and love, and He says, “Go and do likewise.” May this life giving love of God have free course among us, today and until life eternal. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
