Thirteenth Sunday after
Trinity
August 21, 2016
What Jesus shows you in the Gospel reading today
isn’t easy to see. What you see is a confirmation of what you already think. That
Samaritan guy who helped out the other guy in need—that’s what we ought to do.
Jesus said it Himself, “Go and do likewise.” The man who approached Jesus
asking what he must do to obtain eternal life was given the answer, “Be
merciful to others. Help them in their need.” And this is on top of what Jesus
had told him earlier, “Love God and love your neighbor. Do this and you will
live.”
What you see is not what Jesus is showing you. You
see what you want to see. You see what you want Jesus to show you, but not what
He actually is showing you. You want Jesus to confirm what you already know and
think. If you do certain things and live a certain way, you’re in. You’re good.
But this is the world’s view of Christianity. And
you are at home with this form of Christianity. You identify with the lawyer
who came up to Jesus. You want to know what you should do. Because of your
sinful nature you take the same approach to Jesus that the world does. It doesn’t
matter if others belong to other religions or say they have no religion, you
want the same thing they do. And you want it in the same way.
The lawyer in the Gospel reading was a
professional. He wasn’t a lawyer as we know them today. He was a professional
in the Word of God. He knew the Scriptures. That was his job. As a lawyer, he didn’t
study the law of the land. The lawyers of Jesus’ time were those who were
trained in the Law of God. They knew the Bible.
So he knew what he was supposed to do and not
supposed to do. But he didn’t know grace. You can see exactly how well he knew
the Scriptures in that he got every question right Jesus asked him. And yet, he
got the whole thing wrong. He knew what the Bible said, but he didn’t believe
in the grace of God. He didn’t see that God’s Law isn’t the whole of God’s
revelation in the Bible. Grace is the thread that runs through the whole
Scriptures. The expert in the Law was under the misunderstanding that it is all
about the Law. He comes up to Jesus to test Him. He thinks Jesus is going
against God’s Law and so wants to trap Him. But when Jesus actually confirms
what the Law of God says, namely, to love God completely and your neighbor as
yourself, the lawyer knew that that didn’t get him any better off than he was
before. So he wanted to justify himself.
If you look at God’s Law and think you’re doing
pretty well you’re not taking it at its word. Love the Lord your God with all
your heart, soul, strength, and mind. Love God with your whole being; with
everything you are and do. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love your neighbor
not with conditions and expectations attached, but simply out of what he needs.
The world looks at the Law of God and sees it as
confirmation of their goodness. The hymn Salvation Unto Us Has Come eradicates
this notion by showing what God’s Law really shows: “The Law is but a mirror
bright To bring the inbred sin to light That lurks within our nature.”
What about Jesus’ parable? He tells us about a good
Samaritan and then says, “Go and do likewise.” Isn’t this Jesus answering the
lawyer with what the lawyer should do? It seems so. But Jesus isn’t giving the
world’s version of Christianity. He is giving His. And when He gives His He
shows you what you cannot see except by faith. What He shows you is not what
you should do, which is what the lawyer and the world and you seek. What He
shows you is Himself.
First you need to see yourself. When He holds up
the mirror of the Law, pray the Holy Spirit to show you your utter failure at
keeping God’s Law. Repent of your sin. See yourself as what you are, dead in
your sins. The man who was beaten, robbed, and left for dead wasn’t able to get
up and walk for help. He wasn’t even able to cry out for help. It was only when
someone else saw him and his need that he was able to be saved.
And who was it that saved him? It wasn’t the
priest. The priest was bound by the laws of purity, not able to touch a man in
such a condition. He put the Law before his neighbor. The Levite followed suit.
These men thought they were keeping God’s Law but Jesus shows that they missed
the whole point of the Law. It is compassion. It is not your being pure in the
sight of God but rather getting your hands dirty where the need is. The lawyer
was pictured in the priest and Levite. He could not see himself as the one in
need. He was too busy focusing on what he must to do earn favor from God.
The Samaritan saw the man in need and had no
thought of what he must do. He had compassion. Compassion flowed over into
action, using all that he had to bind up the man’s wounds and carry him to
safety where he could be restored.
Jesus says, “Go and do likewise.” But how can you
do so when you at first you do not see yourself in the man who was left for
dead? We call the Samaritan in the parable the Good Samaritan, but Jesus is
really showing us Himself. He is the true Good Samaritan. He sees you in your
need and binds up your wounds. When you’re dying in your sins He doesn’t tell
you to get up and stagger for help. He lifts you up and carries you to the
place of rest, His Holy Church. There He pours on you the oil of the waters of
Holy Baptism and gives you the wine to drink of His very blood.
Your answer to What must I do? is what Jesus shows
you. What He shows you is Himself. He gives of all He has to bind you up and
save you. You need look no further than the cross to see the extent of what He
has given you. He gave of Himself completely on the cross, giving His life and
shedding His blood. He has done everything to save you. He raises you from the
dead.
The answer to salvation is Christ. The answer to what
you must do is not what you must do. It is how you live. How you live is in
Christ. The lawyer who came to Jesus seeking to know what he could do to gain
heaven apparently interrupted Jesus telling His disciples that they were
blessed to see the things they saw; things the prophets who went before them
longed to see. This is what the lawyer missed, though Jesus was standing right
in front of him. How often do you miss the very same thing? You have even more
than the apostles did. You have the fullness of the Scriptures in both the Old
and New Testaments. You don’t talk to Him face to face, but you commune with
Him. You are united with Him in Baptism. You say with Paul, “It is no loner I
who live but Christ who lives in me.”
Because you live in Christ you do not live as the
lawyer or the priest or the Levite, focusing on what you must do; in other
words, on yourself. You live, rather, as one who has compassion on others,
showing mercy to others. Your thought is not for yourself but the Lord your God
and those He has placed in your life to serve. This is why you come here to the
Lord’s House. Certainly it is to hear the Gospel and be forgiven. But it is
also so that you may be here for your brothers and sisters in Christ, an encouragement
to them. It is why you give a portion of your income as an offering. Not simply
to keep the electric bill of the church paid but also so that the mission of
the Church continues in making known the Gospel in this community.
It is why you take care of your family, and pray
for your neighbors. It is why you smile and ask others how they are doing. It
is why you take the time to listen to them and pray with them and give them
your aid as you are able. It is why you care enough about your friends who do
not believe in Christ to tell them of Him and how He loves them enough to die
for all of their sins and rise from the grave to accomplish eternal life for
them.
See what Christ shows you and go and do likewise.
See what the lawyer failed to see, the fulfillment of the Law, Christ Himself.
See that it is not what you do that saves you, but what Christ has done. See
what the hymn Salvation Unto Us Has Come helps you to see about the
relationship between faith and works: “For faith alone can justify; Works serve
our neighbor and supply The proof that faith is living.” God works flow from
faith. You are not saved by good works, you are saved for good works. Luther
said, “God doesn’t need our good works but our neighbor does.”
He has saved you, bound up your wounds, raised you
from the dead. You are free. You will live eternally and you are freed up to
live in compassion and mercy. Amen.
SDG
