The Samaritan, the Inn, and You

[I’ve written a different sermon for this coming Sunday, which I may use instead of the one already posted. In any case, you may use this one if you choose to do so. Or, you can use it for your own benefit.]

Luke 10:25-37
The parable of the Good Samaritan that Jesus tells in today's gospel lesson is dangerous. There are two reasons for that. The first reason is that we're so familiar with it, we may not allow it to speak to us.

That's bad enough. But the second danger, the worst, is that we may derive the wrong conclusion from it. You have probably heard many sermons on this text and been left with a message from the preacher that goes like this: "Go and be a good neighbor.” Of course, God does want us to be good neighbors. All your neighbors are people for whom Jesus died and rose, as much as He died and rose for you. He cherishes all your neighbors, and if you’re indifferent to them or hate them, you’re being indifferent to or hating God.

But if we think this parable is just Jesus guilt-tripping us into being good neighbors, we aren’t just mistaken, we’re in grave peril. missing out on the life and salvation this Word gives.

Jesus told this parable in response to an expert in the Law, both the Law of God in the Old Testament and all of the laws that some Jewish traditions added to God’s Law. This “lawyer,” as he’s called, came to test Jesus. The word translated as “test” in our lesson is, in the Greek in which it was originally written, peirazo. It can also mean tempt. It's the same word that is used for the temptations the devil threw at Jesus in the wilderness. It’s a form of this same word that Jesus uses when He teaches us, in the Lord's Prayer, to ask God to “lead us not into temptation.” The lawyer wants to show Jesus up. Jesus taught that we are only saved from sin, death, and condemnation by grace through faith in Him. The lawyer didn’t like that teaching. And so he asked Jesus, “What must I do to be saved?”

The problem with this question, of course, is that it’s based on the idea that there is something we can do or something we must do to be saved from the death and condemnation that we as sinners all deserve. Jesus says, "Okay, Mr. Lawyer, you're an expert in the law. You seem to believe that perfect obedience to religious law can save you. So, I’m going to give you a Law answer: another question. How do you read the scriptures? What do you think it takes to be saved?” The Lawyer responds: love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. These responses are based on the law as it appears in Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19. We know that Jesus, elsewhere, describes this as the great commandment. It is God’s Law that we love God and love others. “Do this,” Jesus tells the man, “and you will live.”

But the lawyer wants a loophole. He knows he doesn’t love all of his neighbors. He wonders which neighbors he can get away with not loving and still have eternal life with God. So, he asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” This brings us to Jesus’ parable, familiar to all of you.

The Good Samaritan of Jesus’ story was a man whose behaviors and actions contrasted with those of the priest and Levite in the parable. Priests and Levites were religious figures whose work was to serve God at the temple. Presumably, the fictional priest and Levite of Jesus’ story had just completed a shift in Jerusalem and were going to Jericho, the place where many priestly families lived.

All of that would have been familiar to Jesus’ original hearers. What was jarring about Jesus' story for those who first heard it, of course, is that he made a Samaritan its hero. Jesus’ fellow Jews hated Samaritans. But in the parable, a Samaritan is the one who risks being attacked by the robbers who had mugged the wounded man in order to care for him and THEN pledges to pay any price needed for the man’s care. Jesus effectively says, "Your neighbor is the person you encounter in life for whom you can provide care, and caring for your neighbor goes with loving God. Go and do likewise.”

That, of course, is a command, a Law from God in the flesh.

But what do we know about the law? The law of God, though it reflects the will of God, cannot save us. That’s because there isn’t a single command in God’s Law that any of us has ever obeyed perfectly.

St. Paul, in the New Testament, calls God’s Law “the ministry of death.” (2 Corinthians 3:7) God’s Law kills us, convicting us of our guilt, showing us that we do not love God completely and we do not love our neighbor selflessly. The Law shows us that we are lost and damned and have no hope of life with God if that life depends on our being good people. The best the Law can do for us or in us is, as Martin Luther put it, drive us to the cross.

Far from giving us eternal life with God, the Law of God kills us and our self-righteousness. Anyone who hears the parable of the Good Samaritan can't derive any pride in their behavior or think, "Well, I measure up pretty well," or “I'm almost that good.” This is why: God doesn’t grade on a curve. The minimal qualification for admission into the kingdom of God is the kind of perfect righteousness that the Samaritan demonstrates in the parable.

Our first reaction to Jesus’ parable should be despair. We don't measure up. If perfect obedience to God's law of love for God and love for neighbor is the minimum requirement for entrance into the Kingdom of God, we all are damned and doomed.

Jesus must have felt a sense of sorrow for the lawyer when he parted from Jesus, because the man should have known to say, “Lord, I don't measure up. I'm a sinner. Save me.” But we have no record of the man saying any such thing. And so this parable acts, first of all, as a convicting law.

But, friends, it also acts as God’s saving gospel for you. The only One Who has ever exhibited perfect righteousness, Who has ever lived sinlessly, Who has faced down every temptation, Who has loved God and loved others completely, is Jesus Christ, God in human flesh. And He did all of these things for you!

Jesus is your good Samaritan. You are the person wounded by sin, death, the devil, and the world. You were born into this world burdened by these things. You inherited them from Adam and Eve and your parents. You were born separated from God and, in your power, you are lifeless, without hope for the life that only God can give to the lifeless. The religion of Law is unable to give you, me, or anybody else the righteousness–the innocence–required to live with God. Satan, back in the Garden of Eden, long ago robbed us of life, innocence, and fellowship with God.

But in Christ, God gives you perfect, saving fellowship with God. Jesus finds you and comes to you, even this morning, in His Word, whether given in the Scriptures, Holy Baptism, or Holy Communion, and He forgives you, saves you, making you and keeping you as His own dear child! He covers you in His perfect righteousness and makes you fit for heaven!

But there’s more to Jesus’ ministry to you and for you than what He accomplished at the cross and the empty tomb.

In today’s parable, the Good Samaritan, representing Jesus, takes the wounded man to an inn and says to the innkeeper, "Care for this man until I return and I will pay whatever debt his care is incurred in full." (Just as Jesus Christ has already paid the debt for sin that you owe to God.) The inn is the Church of Jesus Christ. Jesus establishes the Church as the fellowship within which His Word is heard, His forgiveness is given, and eternal life is ours through Holy Baptism, the Word, and Holy Communion. Jesus places you (and many of your neighbors) in the care of His Church. The Church is the inn, God’s hospital for human souls. That includes this wonderful church, for which I have always had so much respect and affection.

In the face of sin and death, you and I are helpless to save ourselves. There is nothing you can do to be saved or gain entry into God’s Kingdom. Without Christ, you and I are the wounded, dying man in Jesus’ parable. But Christ, your Good Samaritan, through His life and death and resurrection–His Gospel, saves you! This Word comes to you now to say: In Jesus Christ, all your sins are forgiven. In Christ, you have everlasting life with God. You can receive these gifts with confidence and hope today, because, friends, Jesus IS your Good Samaritan. Amen.