Trinity 13
Dear friends in Christ. At the very beginning of our text Jesus takes the disciples aside and says to them 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.” He tells them they are blessed because they were living at the time when the long promised Messiah, announced already to Adam and Eve, had come. They were eyewitnesses of the fulfillment of the prophecies—the prophecies that told of the Person and work of the Messiah. They were blessed—God blessed them; He appointed them to see and hear Jesus—from the beginning of His public ministry, beginning with His baptism by St. John the Baptizer and then going out into all the world being witnesses of His resurrection and ascension. These were all things that the OT prophets like Zechariah and Isaiah and kings like David and Solomon prophesied about and longed to see but didn’t; they only saw them looking forward in faith to the days of Jesus.
Here Jesus calls them Blessed and by doing this He is reminding them of the great blessing that is literally before their eyes and resounding in their ears. It was very easy for them to take for granted the blessings they were experiencing being with Jesus. Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! But here Jesus once again makes them aware of their blessed state.
Although we are certainly not apostles, we still need to hear the same reminder from Christ because, although in a different way, we are surrounded by the gifts and graces of the Lord so much that we all too easily take them for granted. We need to hear that we are Blessed by the Lord which causes us to look at and be reminded of our blessed state as Christians. We live in a time after the Savior of the world has come. That means we don’t have to look and wonder whether the Savior will come; whether, perhaps God changed His mind and would leave us in our sin. No! God has sent His Son; He has become man and by His holy life and His suffering and death reconciled us sinners to Him. We are certain that things are right between us and God, that our sins are forgiven us and heaven is open to us. In the Gospel word and absolution, His gifts and graces swirl about our head and our ears pick up the blessed tidings: Your sins are forgiven you! In the Blessed Sacrament we see Christ’s Body and Blood that were given and shed for our forgiveness. That’s something none of the OT saints ever saw: 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.”
Dear Christian because of the laziness of our sinful flesh and its hostility to the things of God, we often lose sight of what great heavenly and spiritual blessings we have in Christ. And that’s how the devil and its ally, our old sinful flesh, want it! That’s why we need to hear again and again that we are Blessed, by God.
The natural result if we take our faith for granted and don’t think that all we are and have is by God’s grace and are so tremendously blessed by Him is some sort of works righteousness—that we are good enough, that somehow we earn God’s favor and heaven by what we do, that we aren’t all that bad, and that if we do sin our sin is really not that bad.
Our text: And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “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 neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
This expert in the Law of Moses was trying to trick Jesus to contradict Moses. But Jesus doesn’t. He simply gets the law expert to state what God demands in His holy Law; in short, we are to love God and our neighbor— perfectly. What shall I do to inherit eternal life? Yes, eternal life and heaven can be gained by works: You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live—if we live a life of perfect love toward God and neighbor; if we live a life without sin. But sadly, because of Original Sin, that guilt and corruption of sin that we are conceived and born with and by adding our own sin to it, we have nothing but sin.
You have answered correctly, but knowing is not the same thing as doing. That’s the purpose of God’s holy law—to show us our sin. This expert in the Law obviously felt ashamed and hurt because Jesus applied this double commandment of love to him. He didn’t want to be a transgressor—he wanted to feel good about himself. But the law was there accusing him, so wanting to be his own judge so he could absolve himself, desiring to justify himself, [he] said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus then tells the parable of the merciful Samaritan driving home in it the point that not just people who are nice to us but even our enemy—here Jews and Samaritans were the greatest enemies—is to be the object of our love; and that our service of love to the neighbor never ends—not only does the Samaritan bind up the wounds, but he brings the man to an inn, cared for him all night and then pays the innkeeper for any further care and will come back and pay if there’s anything remaining. Notice: Jesus preaches law to this self-satisfied expert in the Law who thought he could gain heaven by what he thought were his good works: “You go, and do likewise”. By it Jesus shows how impossible it is to love both God and neighbor perfectly as the Law demands if we are to gain salvation by it. For us as Christians, it is a further proclamation of Christ to us that we are Blessed.
Our Lord’s parable of the merciful Samaritan is, on the one hand a mighty preaching of Law and on the other hand a powerful preaching of the Gospel.
Like this expert in the Law of Moses certainly saw and felt in himself, he was unable to keep the Law of God like he thought he did. So, much like the man in Jesus’ parable going from Jerusalem to Jericho, and…fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead, this lawyer found out he was unable to do the Law of God, found out that he could not do what God required and demanded of him in his holy law. He was, if you will, beaten, stripped and left for dead by the Law. The Law of God commands us but does not give us the strength or the ability to do it. Since it only commands—and we can’t do it—it, then, accuses and condemns us for not doing it. It leaves us lying there for dead.
Dear Christian, we are unable to fulfill God’s holy Law like He demands of us. Keeping the holy 10 Commandments is not a nice little option/ extra. It is required of us. Where we do not fulfill the holy 10 Commandments perfectly only death and damnation await. That’s why it is a painful thing to look at our hearts and lives, our motivations, thoughts, words, deeds in the light of God’s holy law. It is painful, yes, but necessary. If we do not examine ourselves according to the holy Ten Commandments we become like this lawyer in the text and think that heaven and salvation is something that I can and do earn.
So why is a life of examination and repentance necessary if it makes us feel bad? Precisely because as we are accused of sin, condemned by the law and left for dead, we then long for and yearn for a Savior from that sin. And there, in the Savior Christ Jesus, is our rescue from sin and damnation. What a tremendous blessing and may we never take it for granted that Jesus is our Savior from sin, death, devil and hell. 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.
What happens next in the parable to the man beaten, robbed, stripped and left for dead? 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. A priest and a Levite go on the same road, probably returning home from Jerusalem from temple service. Did they help? No! They didn’t want to or couldn’t contaminate themselves by touching a man who might be dead. Any compassion is nipped in the bud and they go on the other side. What is this pointing to? —Simply this: the OT ceremonies and laws--personified by the priest and Levite-- couldn’t save anyone. They merely pointed forward to the one perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world that the long promised/ awaited Savior would bring. The point Jesus is making is this: a person isn’t saved from sin and death by mere ceremonies of the OT—but through faith in the One the ceremonies point to. In other words, 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.
Carrying the image in our Lord’s parable forward: who then can and does save the man robbed, beaten, stripped and left for dead? But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. One that was an enemy; one that no one would have expected showed mercy to the beaten man. And here is a picture of Christ. He is the Samaritan who comes having compassion. Jesus a Samaritan? Yes, to denigrate Him because Jesus was from the north, Galilee, the Jews called Him a Samaritan [John 8.48]: Do we not rightly say that You are a Samaritan and have a demon? How does that fit here? Remember: the Jews and Samaritans were enemies; and by our sin and rebellion against God and against His holy will, we have made ourselves His enemies. Just as the one the Jews hated, a Samaritan, had compassion on this man, who should have been his enemy, so too does God have mercy on us, His enemies, and came to be our Savior from sin and death. St. Paul writes [Rom. 5.10]: …when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son...
What does this scene show us? Just like there was nothing the beaten man could do or offer the Samaritan and yet the Samaritan showed him mercy, so too with us: there’s nothing good in us, no merit and worthiness in us that causes God to have mercy on us. Like the Samaritan, He sees only our need—as Luther describes it in the hymn [TLH #387]: Fast bound in Satan’s chains I lay, Death brooded darkly o’er me, sin was torment night and day…deep and deeper still I fell….Free will against God’s judgment fought… God, the Son, in compassion, became also true man; He obeyed all God’s commandments for us; He took our sins upon Himself, made them His own and bore the Father’s punishment and wrath in our place. He rose again from the dead—His sacrifice complete and perfect for the sins of all; forgiveness of sin has been gained for all.
He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Now Christ in mercy comes to us who are laying dead in sin; He bandages our wounds, giving us in baptism and absolution the forgiveness of sins and life He won for us.
Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. Through holy baptism He brings us into His Church where He continues to come to us in His holy word of Law and applying the healing balm of the Gospel to our sin and hurt.
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.’ In the Church, through His servants of the word and sacrament He continues to strengthen us and grant us healing throughout life.
Dear Christian, how blessed we are to hear, to see and touch in the Sacraments and to receive by faith the mercies and blessings of Christ. May we always hear and take to heart Jesus saying to us: Blessed are the eyes that see what you see, because He has shown and gives us, unworthy sinners, every grace and blessing. Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? We, dear Christian are the man who fell among robbers and Jesus is our neighbor, the One who saved us. INJ Amen