Trinity 13
Beloved. Our text this morning is probably one of our Lord’s best known parables and a favorite of many—the parable of the Good Samaritan. In it we earn who truly was a neighbor to the man in need. It is very easy to moralise this parable—we ought to, we should, we have to be like the Samaritan who helped his neighbor. But to do this, however, would miss the entire point of why Jesus told this parable to this self-righteous expert in the Law.
Jesus had just finished telling His disciples: “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! Indeed, I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see the things that you are seeing, yet did not see them, and to hear the things that you are hearing, yet did not hear them”, that is, the Old Testament saints longed to see the Messiah and to hear the message that He had come and brought salvation to the sinner—all by God’s grace, through faith in Him. It was at this point that the expert in the law stood up and asked, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He rejected the proclamation of Jesus, the long awaited Savior, that those who believe in Him have their names written in heaven. He believed that he had to earn His salvation—what must I do? Jesus points the man back to the word of God for the answer: “What is written in the law?” “What do you read there?” Although the man correctly answered, he never took these words to heart. This was his sin—he thought that by his works he could gain heaven.
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus shows the man that he cannot in the least keep the seemingly simple command love your neighbor as yourself. And if a person cannot do this, then certainly he cannot Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind.
The question before us this morning, then, is what must [we] do to inherit eternal life? If we look at the world around us, we see that conventional wisdom says that if we are “good” people and try to do “good” then we can be eternally saved. This is the foundation of all the religions of the world except for Christianity, the one true faith. They all say that we earn salvation, heaven, by what we do. “The best thing we can do is try to live a good life and help others. God will look favorably upon that.” The various religions will add their own list of demands of what a person must do to gain heaven and eternal life. Even a virtuous atheist will still strive to live a good outward life.
So, what does Christianity, the one true faith teach? As we look at our text, it seems as if Jesus, too, says that we will inherit eternal life by what we do. After this expert in the law answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and, love your neighbor as yourself”, Jesus answered him, “You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live.” Elsewhere Jesus said of these commandments [Mt. 22.40]: On these two commandments depend all the Law and the prophets. So Scripture then indeed says that by keeping the law, by loving the neighbor, we will obtain eternal life. Elsewhere God says in Scripture [Lv. 18.5; Gal. 3.10]: You shall therefore keep My statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord, and, Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.
But the Bible also clearly says [Rm. 3.20; Gl. 3.11]that no person can possibly obey the law and hope to be saved by it. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin; and Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the Law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ This is precisely the point that Jesus was teaching this expert in the law—no one can possibly keep the law; no one can be perfect, without sin, as God demands in the law and so be saved by doing the works of the law. How did Jesus try to do this? –by showing the man what kind of love toward the neighbor the Law of God demands from us. The more we strive and try to keep the law, the more we will recognize our great inability to keep it and to be saved by it and to inherit eternal life by it.
As we look at our Lord’s parable, we meet the man going from Jerusalem to Jericho who was robbed, beaten, stripped and left for dead. Both a priest and a Levite—men who had full knowledge of what expects and demands of us in His law, saw the wounded man there but left him there to die. What the robbers had actually tried to do, namely, kill the man by leaving him there to die, the priest and Levite also did by not helping him. Then comes the Samaritan, the least likely person to help because Jews and Samaritans were greatest enemies. But when he I saw the man, not only did he not pass by on the other side, but he had compassion on him; and not only did he have compassion on him, but he used his own goods to disinfect, soothe and bandage his wounds; and then he put him on his own animal and brought him to an inn. His service to the man still did not end but he took care of him that entire night; and it did not even end there but he gave the innkeeper money to help the man when he couldn’t anymore. To top it all off he would return to repay the innkeeper for any of his own money that he spent on the hurt man. By this the Samaritan showed himself to be a neighbor to the innkeeper as well.
This is the perfect love that God demands of us, that we are to show our neighbor. Who among us can say that “I have always shown this perfect love to all those that need my help?” Too often we are like that expert in the law—we apply our own standards to ourselves and not the law of God. If we apply our own standards to ourselves, it is easy for us—like it was for the expert in the law in the parable—to become self-righteous and not to consider our sin and their enormity. We may show great love to our friends, but what about to people we don’t know, or know and our enemies?
This parable shoes our utter inability to love our neighbor as the law of God demands. May we recognize and repent for all the times that we do not love as we ought, for all the times we are not a neighbor like the Good Samaritan.
If we cannot perfectly love our neighbor, then we certainly cannot perfectly love God as He demands from us and so be saved by what we do; it is never enough. What help is there for us? Can we ever indeed hope to inherit eternal life? Thanks be to God that our salvation does not depend on the perfection of our love for or neighbor—or especially of the perfection of our love for God. Instead, our salvation depends upon God’s love for us.
None of us has ever or could ever love perfectly and show ourself to be a neighbor, like the Good Samaritan. Only the Lord God shows himself as love—because He Himself is love. Only one Man ever showed Himself to be a neighbor as the Good Samaritan was—Jesus. Because of our Lord’s love for us and because Jesus Himself is our Good Samaritan, we have hope and reason for rejoicing. That’s why we cling in faith to Jesus; cling to God’s love for us in Jesus.
Beloved, it was we who were left for dead in the road by Satan, sin and death. Nothing could or would help us—especially the Law. But Jesus, the true Good Samaritan, came. Because of our sin, we were His enemies; but He loved us and came down from heaven to become one of us. Not only did He bandage our wounds of sin, but He heals us from sin as by His work and merit our sins are forgiven. He did not merely bandage our wounds, but He Himself took the curse and burden of our sin upon Himself to the cross where He suffered, was wounded and bruised and died for them. But He rose from the dead on the third day—our wounds are now healed. He did not merely place us on an animal, but in holy baptism He took us up in His arms in and brought us to the Father presenting us to Him holy and without blemish. He did not merely take us to an inn to nurse us back to health, but He brought us into His holy Church where He could feed and nurse us by His holy word and sacrament. And He will return on the Last Day to bring us body and soul into heaven.
We can rejoice! We do not earn eternal life by our work, by our love; but we receive it by faith because of God’s love for us in Christ Jesus, the Good Samaritan.
St. John, the beloved disciple, writes [1 John 4.19]: We love because He first loved us; we love/ can love Him because of His love for us first. This is a wonderful commentary on that greatest commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind. This first and greatest commandment is one which invites us to believe/ to trust in the Lord. This love toward God is faith, trust, confidence in Him for what He is: gracious, merciful, love—and what He has done for us and our salvation. We love Him because He first loved us.
Because of God’s mercy, grace, and love toward us poor sinners, because He showed this love for us in Jesus’ life, suffering, death and resurrection, how can we not love Him for all His gifts and blessings to us? Our love of Him is only/ can only be there because He loved us first. That means that we cannot gain salvation by what we do, because Jesus has already gained it for us. The very love which we as Christians have for God—which is faith, trust, confidence—He Himself created in us. Our love of God is in no way a good work that we do that then makes Him favorable toward us. His love was there first!
Do you love God? The He Himself created that love in you. What shall we do to inherit eternal life? Nothing! Simply receive in faith—the very faith God created in you—His gifts of forgiveness of sin, life and salvation.
As we look at our lives, we often see that our love for God is weak. We see how often we place ourselves first and God, at best, second. When we see and feel our lack of love for God, may we simply repent and comfort ourselves in His love for us. Let us be diligent at these times in using God’s holy word and sacrament. For through these God will strengthen our love toward Him. By the Word, we will be assured of God’s love for us. As we receive the holy absolution/ the forgiveness of sins, we are clinging to God’s promise to us in baptism to forgive us. In Holy Communion, as we receive Jesus’ very body and blood, we are receiving in our mouths the very love of God for us.
Although in this life our love for God will waver and be at times very weak, it is still love of God and it is still a love and faith clinging to Him and receiving His gifts; it is still looking to him as the one, true saving God. We still are clinging to His love for us in Jesus—a love that is never weak or wavering but strong, fervent and sure.
How blessed is the parable of the Good Samaritan. It points us away from thinking we can do something to gain eternal life ourselves. It leads us away from the sin of self-righteousness and points us directly to Jesus, the only truly Good Samaritan there ever was, who saved us from sin, death and devil. In this Good Samaritan, Jesus, alone we have forgiveness of sin and eternal life. We cannot earn it by our efforts; it is God’s gift to us in Jesus. We rely upon God’s mercy and grace to us in Jesus. This love/ this trust in God is loving God with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength. And this leads us to love others as God has loved us. INJ Amen.