Sermon: Trinity 13 - 2019

15 September 2019

Text: Luke 10:23-37

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Our Lord’s Parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the most recognized stories in history.  

In response to a dishonest question from a lawyer who was trying to trick Jesus over the definition of the word “neighbor,” Jesus tells the famous story.  To really mix it up, He makes the main character a Samaritan – an ethnic group that was hated by the Jews.  And the Samaritan is not just the main character, but the hero.  The Samaritan encounters a crime victim, who “fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.”  

Next Jesus introduces two characters who would normally be “good guys” – but not in this story.  For the priest and the Levite pretend not to see the crime victim.  But in contrast to the priest and Levite, the Samaritan has “compassion.” 

He goes overboard to help the victim, treating him with first aid, transportation, and even housing until he can heal up.  And he promises to come back.

And Jesus asks the lawyer for his judgment of the case: “Which of the three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”  What could the lawyer say?  The hunter has become the hunted.  The lawyer who sought to snare Jesus fell into the trap himself.  There was no way to get out of admitting the correct answer: “The one who showed him mercy,” says the lawyer.  He cannot even bring himself to use the distasteful word “Samaritan.”

And Jesus acknowledges the correct answer, and as a rebuke to the lawyer’s trickery and self-justification, our Lord tells him: “You go, and do likewise.”

Of course, there is a lot to this story, and there are two main ways to understand it.

The first is that the parable is about us, that it is a morality fable.  “You go, and do likewise,” is, after all, the last word of the story, not unlike the “moral” of a fable.  Jesus is telling us to be merciful, to “do likewise.”  We are to be doers of the word and not merely hearers.  We are to get our hands dirty helping those in need.  We are to be compassionate workers in the kingdom, and not be hypocritical religious people like the terrible examples of the priest and the Levite who refused to lift a finger.

The second is that this parable is actually about Jesus (who was actually denounced by the Jewish priestly and Levitical elites and called a “Samaritan”).  For the Good Samaritan in the story is a savior.  He shows selfless compassion to one in need and rescues him from sin and from death.  And whereas the priest and the Levite, representing the Law, could not save the man who had been beaten down by sin in our fallen world, what could help him?  Compassion, that is, the Gospel.  And so the Samaritan heals by means of elements: oil and wine.  The Samaritan brings the victim where he needs to be, provides shelter for him, ransoms him at his own cost, and promises to return.

The crime victim was helpless to do anything for himself, and in his half-dead state, the Old Testament was of no use to him.  He needed to be saved by the merciful outcast who has compassion.

And so there is a bit of a debate about this parable.  Is it about us, or about Jesus?  What does it mean?  Those who believe that it is about calling us to practice a godly life and to be doers of good deeds look at the second interpretation, and see excuses to be lazy.  For if the parable is all about Jesus, and if Jesus does everything, how are we any different than the priest and the Levite who don’t do anything?  So they deny that Jesus is the Samaritan, arguing rather that we are called to be the Good Samaritan in our own lives.

Others look at the parable as stressing God’s mercy (not ours), God’s grace (not ours), and our helplessness to save ourselves.  They look at the unmerited forgiveness won by the One who administers the oil used in Holy Baptism as we are sealed by the Holy Spirit, and the wine use in Holy Communion: the blood of Christ that cures us of even death itself – and they ask how this parable can possibly be about us and not the Lord Jesus Christ.

But, dear friends, why must it be one or the other?  Isn’t our Lord Jesus Christ both God and man?  Aren’t the Scriptures both written by men and by God?  Aren’t we both saints and sinners?  Aren’t the elements of Holy Communion both bread and wine and also body and blood?  

Our Lord is indeed teaching us about Himself.  He is revealing Himself as the Good Samaritan, the despised and hated one whose love is infinite – even to the point of the cross.  He is the Savior who rescues the victim of the devil, the world, and of his own sinful flesh.  And He does show compassion where the Law shows none, and He does save where priests and Levites can at best only point forward to the coming of Christ.  For where they fail, Jesus succeeds.  And unlike the exclusive nature of the Old Covenant, in the New Covenant, both Jews and Gentiles are given new life.  

But why must the interpretation stop here, dear friends?  For our Lord is calling the lawyer to repent.  He is telling him to reorient his heart and mind away from sin and toward loving God and neighbor.  And indeed, he calls him to repent of his lack of compassion – for the lawyer is not unlike the sinful priest and Levite.  Jesus calls the lawyer to task for his lack of compassion and bids him to amend his ways – and not merely in word, but in deed: “You go, and do likewise.”  “You” he says, using the singular personal pronoun, “You go, and do likewise.”

When we acknowledge this parable as being a call to repentance and an exhortation to live a godly life, we are not denying that the parable is about Jesus.  Of course it is.  But it is also about why Jesus has to have compassion on us in the first place: because we are sinners: poor, miserable sinners bloated with pride, always seeking to put the Word of God to the test, always looking to do something to inherit eternal life (as if there were something that we could do).  Like the lawyer, we want to justify ourselves and play games with the definitions of words, looking for loopholes.  

Dear friends, our Lord isn’t playing games here.  You bet that he is calling us to repent.  He is telling us to “go and do likewise.”  And think of the many ways we behave like the priest and the Levite.  Our failures are mainly not as spectacular as avoiding a bloodied crime victim.  We are the priest and the Levite when we turn aside and refuse to financially support our church.  We are the priest and the Levite when we choose not to come to church (for we are letting our neighbors down who greatly benefit from well-attended services, as there is indeed strength in numbers).  We are the priest and the Levite when we don’t pray, don’t study God’s Word, don’t lead our children in devotions, and when we are too ashamed to admit to our friends and colleagues that we are Christians.  We are the priest and the Levite when we sit next to people in the church year after year and don’t even know their names – avoiding the blessings of Christian fellowship and love, and seeking our own selfish ends.  

Being a Good Samaritan is to be inconvenienced.  It is to put others before ourselves.  It is to be merciful to our neighbor without looking for a loophole.

And indeed, our Lord Jesus Christ is the ultimate Good Samaritan.  For when we are beaten up by the Law, when we look at the bloody mess that is ourselves being self-centered and uncompassionate, when we fail to love and serve our neighbor, and when we are beaten up by the devil, the world, our sinful flesh, and by God’s law itself, it is our Lord who comes to rescue us.

Yes, he calls us to repent.  Yes, He commands us to “go and do likewise.”  But He does not leave us as orphans.  He sends the Holy Spirit to work in and through us.  He sends us His mercy so that we can be merciful to others.  He forgives us so that we can go and do likewise and forgive others.  He provides the wine and the oil of the sacraments to comfort and strengthen us.

For the Good Samaritan is not either/or, but rather both/and.  It is both Law and Gospel.  Thanks be to God for our Good Samaritan who has come to rescue us, to save our lives – even unto eternity!  

You go and do likewise, dear brothers and sisters, for He has done likewise to, and for, you!  Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.