Trinity 13                                                                                             Pastor T. Clint Stark

September 6, 2009                                                                             St. John’s LC-MS

2 Chron. 28:8-15; Gal. 3:15-22; Luke 10:23-37                                   Topeka, KS

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

Many people today, like the lawyer in our reading, know the Scriptures forwards and backwards. However, just because a man can quote what God says, doesn’t mean he understands rightly. To understand Scripture, you must understand how God speaks. God speaks two words in Scripture. He speaks Law and Gospel. If you, like the lawyer, don’t understand the distinction between the two, Scripture will remain a closed book and you may not inherit eternal life.

God’s word of Law tells us what we must do to inherit eternal life. “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.” The lawyer answered correctly with a summary of the 10 Commandments. The Law of God does promise eternal life to those who obey it perfectly. If you do indeed fear, love and trust in God above all things and love your neighbor as yourself you will inherit eternal life. What the lawyer didn’t understand is that no one can keep the 10 commandments that came to Moses on Mt. Sinai 430 years after Abraham. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise… For 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.

The Law can save no one. The Law keeps some sort of order in the world and it shows us we are no better than the next man and that we are all chief of sinners. The Law can only kill us and it can never give us life. The Letter kills and the Spirit gives life.  

But our flesh fights hard against the proper distinction of Law and Gospel. You can see this in lawlessness and lawfulness. Lawlessness and lawfulness are really two sides of the same heretical coin. The lawless, those complete heathens who are dead in their sins and liberal theologians who try to delete God’s Law, know nothing of the real Gospel. May we not be found among those who try to silence the Law of God by ignoring It, or like in our Old Testament lesson, the fierce wrath of the Lord is upon us.

The other side of the coin - the lawful - like the Pharisees and lawyer in our text, don’t flat out deny the Law, but try to keep It externally and think that they thereby earn God’s favor. However, to do this one must change the rock hard hammer of the Law into a rubber toy hammer that bounces off of me and sticks to you. “Lord, I thank you that I am not like other people.” This is what the lawyer does. He thought he did love his neighbor as himself. But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” May we also not be found among those who try to justify themselves. May we never say, “I think I will inherit eternal life because I have tried my best to be a Good Samaritan. I mean, I am better than the priest and Levite.” 

Jesus responds to the self-justifying lawyer with the parable of the Good Samaritan. Though many people today know the story of the Good Samaritan, few really understand it. Only those who understand Who the Good Samaritan is, rightly understand how Jesus speaks Law and Gospel. So, Who is the Good Samaritan? “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”

Many, who claim to know and teach the Scriptures, teach that Jesus primarily told this parable to show you how to live your life. As to say, they think that the Good Samaritan is you. Yes, many enlighten rationalists will say that Jesus was a good moral teacher. Many, in the name of Biblical teaching, will say that these are instructions for you to earn a smile from Holy God. “Just be the Good Samaritan.” “You go, and do likewise.”

Those who think that Jesus is the new Moses – on the scene giving practical applications for living, AKA telling you to do something, AKA, giving more Law – miss the boat. Jesus didn’t come and teach new laws. He didn’t come to give you further instructions on how to please God and earn a spot in heaven. He merely states again, in this parable, what was already revealed in the 10 Commandments. Love God and love your neighbor and you will live. He gives the lawyer, and us, the same old Law, not to show us how to earn an inheritance, but to kill us.

Those who primarily hold Jesus up as the lawgiver or even as the moral example to follow, miss the Gospel. It is fine to try to follow the example of Jesus, but He is a tough act to follow. Not only can I not walk on water, but I can’t walk sinlessly keeping the Commandments either. No matter how hard we try, no one is able to live up the standards of the Good Samaritan. We don’t love our family members as ourselves, much less our enemies. We don’t give the homeless guy a $20 dollar bill, much less pay to put him in a hotel room. The Law, no matter how it is packaged, leaves us dead on the side of the road. The Law exposes us to the busy priest concerned only for numero uno, or the Levite who looks to those in need and passes by on the other side. The Law shows our helplessness and drives us to the Gospel.

Jesus is the Good Samaritan. He is the One Who shows mercy. He is the Good Samaritan Who picks us up and saves us. He does this by doing what we are unable to do. We are the lawyer, the priest, and the Levite. We have lived as if God and our neighbor don’t matter and as if we matter most. We have failed to go and do likewise. We have failed to keep the commands and live. Jesus, the Good Samaritan, didn’t fail. He went and did likewise His whole life. Jesus loved the Lord His God with all His heart and with all His soul and with all His strength and with all His mind, and His neighbor as Himself. He always showed mercy to His neighbor. He loved us His enemies who rejected, mocked, and hated Him. He loved us so much that His mercy and compassion drove Him to the cross to suffer and die for all our sins - our sins against Holy God and our sins against our neighbor. The sinless Good Samaritan suffered the wrath of God for all of us lawyers, Levites, and priests.

Yes, The Good Samaritan covered Himself with our sinful lives and in exchanged covers us with His sinless life. Though we were wounded and dead in our trespasses and helpless to save ourselves by the Law - He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. In Holy Baptism Christ pours the forgiveness of sins on us that He won on the cross - washing us clean - and covering our sinful wounds with His righteousness. The perfect life of the Good Samaritan is yours in Baptism. When Holy God looks down at you, He doesn’t see your self justifying thoughts, words, and deeds, but only the life of Christ, the Good Samaritan. His life is credited to you, apart from you doing anything. The Good News is that your inheritance is not based on you doing or promising something. Your eternal life isn’t based on you promising to try harder to be a Good Samaritan. The Gospel makes no demands of us at all.  You receive, through the gift of faith that God creates in you, the promise of eternal life and salvation, apart from the deeds of the Law. Only the Gospel, never the Law, gives life. There is only life in Christ, Who is the Life – Who fulfilled the Law in your place.  

You are resurrected in your Baptism and placed in God’s kingdom. In His kingdom He has His innkeepers take care of you. Pastors nurture your life by feeding you the flesh and blood of the Good Samaritan under bread and wine in the inn of the Church for the forgiveness of your sins. In Holy Absolution, as it is stated in our appointed psalm today, “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

            Jesus, the Good Samaritan, has done everything for you to earn for you the inheritance of eternal life. Christ has done everything for you and just as He lives you do too. Since there is no work left for you to do for salvation, you are free to pour your energy and mercy out on your neighbor. God doesn’t need our good works, but our neighbor on the side of the road does. Amen.