This sermon was preached at St Peter’s Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Public Schools Club, Adelaide, 9am
Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Which one of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbour to the man who fell among the robbers? He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Today in our Gospel reading we read the well-known parable of Jesus about the Good Samaritan. Now, this parable comes from Luke, chapter 10, and earlier in this chapter, we read about how Jesus sent out seventy-two missionaries out on a kind of mission trip, who were to visit people and stay with them, and heal the sick, and all kinds of things like this.
Now, after this mission trip, we read about the tremendous sharing of joy between these seventy-two missionaries and Jesus and the disciples. When the wise men from the East visited Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus, we read that they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy! This is quite some joy! And in this chapter of Luke, we read about something similar. It says: The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And [Jesus] said to them, “Behold, I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
You can see here that the seventy-two were so encouraged by their missionary trip, and also when they came back to Jesus, they shared their joy with him, particularly the joy that they found in having authority over the demons, and this authority was not from themselves, but it was from Jesus himself. And what tremendous joy this is, because often when people are dealing with unclean or evil spirits, and demons, people often feel quite desperate and are tempted to despair, because people’s lives are often turned into such a mess, and they don’t know how to fix it. However, we are taught here in this passage, that actually the wonderful name of Jesus has power over all these things. If only people in all their desperation and despair would commend their situations and the lives into the hands of Jesus, and place them under the protection of his holy name. He is our one Good Shepherd, he knows how to lead his people, he is the chief and the head missionary in the church, and all missionaries follow behind him, simply with his name on their lips.
Jesus, however, says: Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Of course, the fact that the demons are subject to them, and also to us, is an amazing thing. But even more wonderful and amazing and tremendous is the fact that their names are written in heaven, and even our names too. Jesus is not just a missionary, and an exorcist, and a Shepherd, but also a Saviour too. His protection and leading of his people extends not just in this life, but also into the next life too, where we follow him, covered in his blood and in his righteousness, from this valley of sorrow and tears to be with him in heaven.
And so, we read that Jesus also rejoices, and it says in the Gospel of Luke, he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit. This missionary work that the seventy-two have done in Jesus’ name has been empowered and strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit. And the same goes for us: we are weak sinners, who are conceived and born in sin, and even every day, our sinful nature, our sinful and corrupt flesh, is always bursting forth like a volcano and pouring sin forth from our hearts and our mouths. And yet, Jesus himself has borne this sin, he has taken it on himself, and he has stood in our place, and offered his life and his blood for all of it, and then through Holy Baptism, he has received us into his kingdom, given us the Holy Spirit, forgiven us all our sins, covered us with his blood, and clothed us with his righteousness.
And, so as Christians, when we gather together as the church for the Divine Service, what are we doing? We are gathered here for our sanctification, for being made holy, for being continually filled with the Holy Spirit. And what are the wonderful gifts that serve for this purpose? It is the Word of God and the Holy Sacraments. We come here to hear the Word of God, to speak the Word of God, to pray the Word of God, to sing the Word of God. Even in our chapter from Luke, Jesus sent the seventy-two out and said: The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me. And so, just as we come to hear and receive the words of God’s prophets and apostles and evangelists in the Divine Service today, we hear Jesus himself, and when we hear Him, we receive the Holy Spirit and are filled with the Holy Spirit, so that we become living temples of the Holy Spirit and living temples of the Word of God. And we receive the holy and precious body and blood of Christ for the forgiveness of sins, for our strengthening in our Christian life, according to the gracious will of Jesus.
Now, all of these things are given to us for our sanctification, meaning, our being made holy, so that we may be transformed in the renewing of our minds, and also for our great encouragement, as we also constantly recognise our own unworthiness, our unholiness and our struggles and fight with sin each and every day. We read in Ephesians: Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We also read in Romans 8: If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through the Spirit who dwells in you. Jesus has died for sinners, and he writes the names of his people in heaven, and rejoices in the Holy Spirit over it.
We read: In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
So in the midst of all this rejoicing, and all this gladness, and joy, and happiness, which comes from the Holy Spirit, we come to the first words of our Gospel reading today, where we read: Then turning to the disciples he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”
It’s an amazing thing, really! When we consider this wonderful missionary activity that has just been happening, we need to remember that this is how we became Christians. Somewhere in our lives, or somewhere in our family history, the drag net of Jesus and his apostles and his disciples was cast, and drew us into it. Many people in history – prophets and kings – were looking forward to the time of Jesus, but never saw it and heard it and experienced it for themselves.
In the same way, there are many people, even people who are in the church, who have the Bible and read it, but don’t believe that it is the living Word of God, and so they never really meet Jesus. They only go along with things in the Bible that they think they already know, and so make themselves the authority over everything, rather than Jesus. They want to save themselves by their own works, and their own efforts, and all this kind of thing, but to actually have Jesus as their only Saviour, as their only hope, as their only Good Shepherd, as their only missionary and their only exorcist, as we were reading about before, this is quite a different thing. To have Jesus as the one who writes their name in the book of life and rejoices over them in the Holy Spirit is quite a different thing! And so Jesus says to his disciples: Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! May the Lord Jesus, by His Holy Spirit, open our eyes, and remove whatever scales from our eyes are still there to prevent us recognising and seeing what he would have us see, and open our ears to hear his Words, and fill us with the Holy Spirit. Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!
By stark contrast to all of this excitement and this joy and rejoicing in the Holy Spirit, arises a lawyer, who is spiritually dead. Is it too harsh to say this? Well, our text says that he did not come to learn from Jesus, and sit at his feet, like Mary did, in Mary and Martha’s house. But rather it says: a lawyer stood up to put [Jesus] to the test. He says: Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? When someone asks a question like this, we realise that he is not really interested in Jesus’ answer so much, as to see if he catch him out.
Now, in the Bible, we constantly come across two doctrines: the Law of God, and the Gospel. And the Law tells us what we should do and shouldn’t do, and what God threatens because we don’t follow his law, and also the rewards if we do follow it. The Law is also God’s teaching about sin and judgment. But the Gospel is spoken for those who have been crushed and broken by the law and know their sin. The Gospel shows us that we have a Saviour, Jesus Christ, who has paid the price for sin, and forgives us our sin freely, apart from any works that we have done.
Now, also, the Law and the Gospel differ in the fact that in different situations, some people need to hear the Law because they need to be woken up from their sleep, and also some people need to hear the Gospel because they need to comforted and encouraged.
And so in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, we see how Jesus deals with this man completely on the basis of the Law, and wants to show him that he has not fulfilled it. But also, at the same time, Jesus also hides in his parable a wonderful comfort and picture of himself as our Saviour, and preaches the Gospel to those who have the ears to hear it.
So, Jesus says to the lawyer: 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 neighbour as yourself.” And [Jesus] said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
Now, this is very interesting. Actually, the lawyer is obviously a man who knows the Word of God very well. He actually answers very well, and Jesus commends him for it. Even at one time a lawyer asks Jesus, which is the great commandment in the Law? And Jesus answers in an almost identical way. But the Law is all that this lawyer has. And Jesus says: You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.
When Jesus says: Do this, and you will live, there is also something which isn’t said: “If you don’t do this, you will die!” And so the man, with his book knowledge, with this theological studies, as it were, is left with the cold hard law. Most people who aren’t Christians are left face-to-face with this cold law. They know, if they do this, they will live. But the problem is, they think they can do this, and therefore that they can live. Or else, they change God’s law into a law that they can do, and by doing so, they actually make themselves into their own God.
The lawyer realises that there’s something about this answer that has left him unsatisfied, and realises that he can’t possibly do everything the law requires. So we read: But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”
And so, Jesus tells this parable. The man is beaten and left half-dead on the side of the road, while walking from Jerusalem to Jericho. We read: Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
Here Jesus shows to the man the righteousness of the Law. This lawyer in all of his helplessness just can’t be helped by this priest and Levite. And Jesus mentions a priest and a Levite, because he wants to lawyer to see in this parable someone like him: someone righteous, and holy, and pure. Perhaps they were in a hurry – also, they didn’t want to touch the man, and become unclean. So, Jesus says to the lawyer: Look at this priest and the Levite! They are just like you. They know the correct answers on the test-paper, but they can’t, they won’t, they refuse to help this man. And so they break the law. They see a man just like themselves in need, and they refuse to help him.
At the end of the parable, Jesus says: Which one of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbour to the man who fell among the robbers? The man knows full well that it wasn’t the priest and the Levite. And when he says: The man who showed him mercy, Jesus says: You go, and do likewise. On the other hand, Jesus also says: Don’t go and do like the priest and the Levite. Don’t follow their example. They are just like those prophets and kings who lived in old times, who desired to see what you see, and yet they didn’t see it. But also, there were many people at the time of Jesus, who also saw what these people longed for, but didn’t recognise Jesus as their Saviour.
And so Jesus tells us about the Samaritan. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he saw, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Now, it is the example of this man that Jesus then says: You go, and do likewise.
When Jesus mentions a Samaritan, he is showing to the lawyer, someone who is not like him at all. The lawyer was a self-respecting Jew, who would have despised Samaritans. Jews were not allowed to converse and associate with Samaritans, because in some sense, they believed falsely. But later on, after Jesus rose from the dead, he sends his disciples out to Samaria, and includes them in his kingdom, because when they acknowledge their sin, and receive Jesus as their Saviour and are baptised, they then believe rightly. Just as before our reading, there was all this missionary activity, Jesus points in this reading to the fact that there will also be some wonderful missionary activity coming soon, even among those dirty Samaritans! We read about how Jesus says in Acts 1, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. And we can read about the Gospel going to Samaria in Acts, chapter 8.
Even in John chapter 4, we receive about how Jesus has a conversation with a Samaritan woman. We even read there where it says: For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. But as the conversation goes along, Jesus then says to her: The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
What is Jesus saying here? There is coming a time when people will not be saved because they fulfilled the law, but they are saved—Jews and Samaritans and all people—through faith in Jesus, who has fulfilled the law for them.
And so, what about the Samaritan in our reading? Well, Jesus is telling you about himself here. Because of our sin, we are left beaten and naked and half-dead on the side of the road. Jesus himself has entered our world—like a person from a foreign country, even from heaven. He is a stranger, but he sees us in our need, and he has compassion. And he gives us everything that he has that he could possibly give to us. He heals our wounds with his own life and his own death, and forgives us our sin, and carries us to his church where we will be looked after. And what does he give to the innkeeper? He gives a payment. Here see a wonderful picture of how Jesus pays to the innkeeper, as to his own Father, the ransom and the price for our sin, with his own sacrifice and atonement and death on the cross. Whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back. This is how Jesus himself shows us mercy, and there is no limit to his mercy and no price too high, which Jesus has not paid.
Which of the three, do you think proved to be a neighbour to the man who fell among the robbers? He said: The one who showed him mercy. Not the priest, not the Levite, but Jesus, who in all his compassion, reached out to us, and shows us mercy. And in all attempts to go and do likewise, we are always only ever learning how to do to others, as Christ has done to us first. As it says in St John’s first letter: We love, because he first loved us.
And so, let’s learn from our merciful Lord how to be his merciful people. Let’s thank him for his compassion and his mercy to us, and rejoice with him in the Holy Spirit, that our eyes have seen in him what even many prophets and kings desired to see. Amen.
The peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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