2 September 2012 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA
Text: Luke 10:23-37 (2 Chron 28:8-15, Gal 3:15-22)
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
“Which… proved to be a
neighbor?”
The technical term for this
kind of a question is “a softball.” This
is a question that is beyond easy. It is
obvious. It’s a question that is so simple
that we could almost call it a rhetorical question.
Could even this Pharisee, a
lawyer whose goal is “to justify himself” by putting Jesus “to the test” have
answered this question any other way than to reply: “The one who showed him
mercy”? Could he have in any way made
the argument that the priest who turned his back on the dying victim was the
right answer? Could even a hotshot lawyer
have made a case for the heartless Levite who did the same thing as the priest to
be the example of mercy?
In fact, like a good lawyer
Himself, Jesus argues His case with only one right answer, an obvious answer,
an answer that also points to Himself.
For Jesus is the Answer. And the
question is “Who is merciful to me, a poor, miserable sinner?”
The question is “Who” and the
answer is most certainly “The One who showed him mercy,” Jesus.
Some people believe Jesus the
rabbi is giving a discourse on ethics, teaching the lawyer a lesson about right
and wrong. He is doing nothing of the
sort. That is the very point of our
Lord’s story. We all know right from
wrong. We all know mercy when we see it,
when we experience it, when we do it, when it is shown to us. We know right from wrong because it is
engraved on our hearts, it is engraved in the stone tablets, it is engraved on
the pierced hands of Him who has never done wrong, and who is the living
embodiment of righteousness.
The Parable of the Good
Samaritan is no stunning revelation of ethics.
Everybody in the world, believers and unbelievers alike, everyone knows
who the good guy in the story is. For
only an evil person, a person lacking in morals, or perhaps a person who is deranged
could see “mercy” in the actions of the priest and the Levite. Only a wicked or very sick person takes
pleasure in the suffering of another human being or another living
creature. We know it is wrong not only to
bully and assault and rob people, but we also know it is wrong to turn a blind
eye to suffering, to have the power and the ability to help in some way, but to
do nothing.
We also know it is wrong to
rely on our own station in life or perceived righteousness to justify
ourselves. It is wrong for a minister or
church worker to presume he has no obligation to show mercy because of his
churchly vocation. It is wrong for a
Christian to believe that he is absolved of sinful behavior because of his
church membership, his grasp of doctrine, his attendance at services, his
family’s history, or his past deeds or gifts to the church.
We cannot justify ourselves
any more than medieval pilgrims could buy salvation by putting coins in a
coffer or staring at relics in a glass case.
We cannot justify ourselves
any more than the victim in our Lord’s parable could have willed himself well
or overcome his own weakness and heal his own infirmity.
No, he needed a good priest
or a good Levite – or in this case, a Good Samaritan to come and show him
mercy. He needed salvation and healing.
It’s easy for us
English-speakers to separate salvation from healing. We might be tempted to see salvation as
purely a spiritual matter. To be “saved”
might make us think of our souls going to heaven when we die. To be “healed” might make us think of getting
rid of a cold or being cured of cancer – a purely physical matter. But in fact, in the Greek of the New
Testament, there is only one word for both.
To be saved is to be healed, and to be healed is to be saved.
The victim in our Lord’s
parable was injured and in danger of death.
He needed to be saved by being healed.
He needed to be healed by being saved.
He needed a healer and a savior.
He needed to be shown mercy. And
that is where the priest and the Levite failed.
They could have been instruments of healing and salvation, but in their
selfishness, they chose not to be inconvenienced. It was the lowly Samaritan who was the
healer, the savior, the shower of mercy – the one who “proved to be a neighbor
to the man who fell.”
Dear friends, we have all
fallen. We have fallen into sin. We have fallen into the hands of the chief
robber himself, Satan. We have fallen
wounded and battered and bleeding to death, unable to heal ourselves, unable to
save ourselves, in need of mercy.
Indeed, we know right from
wrong. We know that we act more like the
priest and the Levite. We know that we
seek to justify ourselves. We know that
we put Jesus to the test. We know that
we are cold to others in need of mercy.
We know that we fail to “go and do likewise.”
Jesus did not come to teach
us right from wrong. We know that
already.
But we do know who our Good
Samaritan is. We know who is our Healer,
our Savior. We know who shows us mercy!
For it is not the priest or
the Levite, not the Law of the Old Testament, not the office we hold or our
hereditary class that saves us, heals us, and shows us mercy. Rather it is Jesus, Jesus only, the lowly One
who was treated like a Samaritan, rejected, scorned, stricken, smitten, and
afflicted, the crucified One, the One who “on the night in which He was
betrayed took bread.” It is our Lord who
“had compassion” on us poor, miserable sinners, who “went to us” even as we sin
against Him, He who “bound up” our wounds, who seals us with baptismal oil and
heals us, saves us, by means of His Eucharistic wine, His very blood. It is Jesus who sets us on His own animal,
conveying us to the Heavenly City, preparing lodging for us with the Father,
and who even pays for our healing, for our salvation – mercifully, with His very
own lifeblood.
Jesus is the Good Samaritan,
dear friends. He has healed us, saved
us, and shown us mercy. And like the
self-justifying lawyer looking to test Jesus, we can only answer the great
question posed by our Lord in one way.
There is only one right answer to the great question “Who proves to be a
neighbor to fallen mankind by healing them and saving them?”
The answer remains: “The One
who showed him mercy.”
Jesus, dear brothers and
sisters, Jesus alone shows you mercy, saves you, heals you, forgives your sins,
and gives you eternal life! Amen.
In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment