July 13 – Sermon
God of love, the way of Your Son Jesus has revealed all that is required of us and supplied all that is lacking in us. Trusting in the guidance of Your Holy Spirit may we love our neighbors wherever we encounter suffering and neglect. We pray in the name of Jesus our Redeemer. Amen
We are different. We are set apart. We are forgiven, because we have a good and gracious Lord, caring for us and providing for us. Taking it a step further that means we can be as generous with other people. Not because it’s the rules, but because we want to please God. It’s not driven by guilt. It’s because we have been freed and forgiven. So not only are we different, we need to live that way.
Sometimes I’m not real sure we know how to do that–to live differently. The parable of the Good Samaritan in our Gospel for today is a good example. But this parable is often misunderstood. The Good Samaritan is not just a parable telling us to be good Samaritans, but it also teaches us that we have a good Samaritan in Jesus.
The lawyer who went up to Jesus that day did so to test him, because he thought he could do something to inherit eternal life. He just needed to know what it was, and how much. Jesus then told this parable. (I wonder if the lawyer—on his way to see Jesus, passed by someone in need because he desperately needed an answer to his question!)
It wouldn’t be surprising for Jesus to do something like that. Hey Mr. Lawyer, did you help that person you saw beat up on your way here? Or did you just pass by in a hurry to get an answer to your question about what you have to do to inherit eternal life? Almighty God is the one who gives you eternal life and you can’t earn it. So you should have stopped to help the man, just because you could!
But if Jesus really had done that, it would explain two things:
First, Jesus is the Lord who spoke to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Jesus with God the Father and Holy Spirit did all those things for Israel, keeping every promise ever made to them. Jesus says, I am that Lord! and I am the Lord who has come now to be your Good Samaritan. Because Mr. Lawyer, not you or anyone else can do what is needed for eternal life. You’re the person beaten left to die in the road.
We—every single one of us are that beaten wounded person lying in the road bleeding to death. Sin, death and the devil beat us, robbing us of life God intends for us. Jesus reminds the lawyer—as he does all of us, no one can save themselves. The man left to die, needed someone. He needed a Savior.
Have you ever wondered what the victim in this parable did after he recovered and got better? Chances are pretty good, the next time he was walking down that road & found someone beaten, bleeding and dying, just like he had been. Do you think he would have become a good Samaritan? Did he help someone, not because he had to, but because he could? Because he knew what it was like hoping someone would help?
So every week, churches all over the world are filled with people beat up and abused. People who have been attacked, robbed and bleeding. People with wounds that if not treated would die. There are people in the pews crying out for help. The Good Samaritan comes to be with us, just as He did over 2000 years ago. He comes to us in His holy word, He comes to us in the sacraments. He is present in with and under the consecrated elements, as we remember that he was attacked and beaten and killed! Jesus took upon himself the death and grave we’ve deserved because of sin.
But our crucified and risen Lord did not remain a victim. As our Savior rescued us all from the grip of sin, death, and hell. As our Savior, He came to get us, to wash us clean, feed us, carry us that we might forever be His own. Healed. Whole. Saved. Forgiven.
Every Christian life has been restored and given new life. Every individual in the body of Christ is called to minister to those still needing to be rescued. If we’re not too busy we will see them; if we are in Christ, we won’t ignore them. Jesus asks each one of us to be the one to show love and forgiveness; compassion and mercy of Jesus.
Dare to live as one saved by grace through faith alone. Dare to live this Gospel believing that it defines us and makes who we are. The Lord our God brought us through the waters of Holy Baptism, where your sin and guilt were washed away. It is the Lord our God who feeds us with bread that is the Body of Christ, giving us wine –His blood for the forgiveness of our sin.
Go to the highways and byways as one forgiven and redeemed, seeking the lost and forsaken. Amen
