Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Thursday of Easter 4, 2024

25 Apr 2024

Text: Luke 10:23-42

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

St. Luke places the Parable of the Good Samaritan right before the lesson of Mary and Martha.  It’s an interesting contrast.  In response to a question from a lawyer about salvation and works, Jesus composed a story called the Good Samaritan.  In this parable, the priest and the Levite have the opportunity to serve their neighbor by acting, but they don’t – and they are the villains of the story.  And of course, the Samaritan who takes action in showing mercy and serving his neighbor, is the hero. 

In the real-life incident between the sisters Mary and Martha, it is Mary, who instead of “much serving,” like her sister Martha, chooses to sit down “at the Lord’s feet” and just listens to Him.  Martha is annoyed that she is doing all the serving, while Mary is not doing anything.  And Martha scolds Jesus: “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?  Tell her then to help me.”  Jesus is gentle with Martha, but He corrects her: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things.  But one thing is necessary.  Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” 

So what is better, dear friends?  To sit and listen, or to act?  Is it more blessed to hear the doctrine, or to do it?  Our sinful flesh, like the lawyer, wants to do something – even to “inherit eternal life.”  The lawyers and the Pharisees were engaged in this kind of serving: but it is self-serving, “desiring to justify [themselves].  Martha, though she was serving her neighbors, was “distracted.”  She was mentally occupied with herself, fixated on how she was doing the work while her sister was not – and this made her increasingly angry.  But true service is not concerned with the self.  True service, like that of the Samaritan, is consumed with love, and not with self-righteousness and self-justification.  True service is the emptying of the self for the sake of the one in need.  And in order to become such a servant to one in need, one thing is indeed necessary: to listen to Jesus, and not to be distracted with the self-serving desire to “do something.” 

The lawyer’s question, “What must I do?” is all about him: himself, his actions, and his rewards.  It is service, but only to the self.  The priest and the Levite were serving themselves by ignoring the one thing necessary that their neighbor, the crime victim, could have used at that time.  Maybe the priest and the Levite felt that it was better to think about doctrine and meditate on the law rather than put it to use as a matter of compassion to one in need.

Dear friends, one thing is indeed necessary, the good portion, that is, the Word of God.  In order to serve, we must first be served by the true Good Samaritan: our Lord Jesus Christ.  Unlike the priest and the Levite, and unlike the lawyer, Jesus has compassion on us.  He binds up our wounds with the wine and the oil of the Word and the Sacraments.  He becomes the beast of burden Himself, carrying us to the only one who can help us, bringing us to our heavenly lodgings.  He pays the entire cost by means of His own blood.  For He was not merely stripped and beaten and left half-dead.  He was put to death for us, as the victim, as the sacrifice, as His priestly service to us.  The one thing necessary is to believe this Word of compassion that is given to us by His blood: to hear and to believe our Lord’s promise.

We must avoid being “distracted with much serving,” with being “anxious and troubled” about ourselves.  Before we can serve, we must ourselves be served.  Before we can be instruments of rescue to those who are left half-dead by this world, we must ourselves be rescued by the Good Samaritan Jesus.  Indeed, the Christian life is about both listening and serving.  It is neither like the priest and the Levite – who know the Law but refuse to act with compassion – nor is it the kind of self-made busyness that would make us think we deserve credit for our service, and to think busy work is better than sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening.

It is not either/or, but both/and.  It is only in light of our salvation, by the one who has compassion on us, that we can be revived from our own mortal wounds.  And it is only then that we can “go and do likewise.”  We do not “do” in order to “inherit,” rather we inherit, freely and with no strings attached, at the feet of Jesus, listening to His teaching, believing His promise, being rescued by Him – and then (and only then) are we freed to serve our neighbor with the same compassion which Jesus gives to us.

So, whatever our vocations, and however we serve, let us choose the good portion.  Let us not forget the one thing that is necessary.  Let us both listen, and let us always be eager to share and show the compassion of Jesus with those who are in need.  For Jesus tells us that many prophets and kings have desired to see what we see, and hear what we hear – but did not.  We have, dear friends.  And blessed are we, dear brothers and sisters, blessed are we to see the kingdom through the compassion of our Servant-King!    

Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

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