“Let the words of my mouth and the
meditation of (our) heart(s) be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, (our) rock
and (our) redeemer” (Psalm 19:14).
In the name of T Jesus.
When you
ask the wrong questions, you will get the wrong answers. And that is exactly what we see going on, as
today’s Holy Gospel begins. “Behold, a lawyer stood up” and said, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit
eternal life?” When you ask the
wrong questions, you will get the wrong answers.
Of course,
there’s a number of things that are wrong with this question, not the least of
which is the lawyer’s motivation for asking it.
Luke tells us that he stood up to put Jesus to the test. Like that annoying, and disrespectful,
student in class who just waits for the teacher to make a mistake, this lawyer
has come to Jesus with the intention of discrediting him. He wants to trap Jesus in an apparent
contradiction so that he might show Him to be a sham.
You see,
the words, he speaks aren’t actually the problem. The question he asks is almost exactly the
same question asked by the crowd who heard Peter’s sermon on the day of
Pentecost. On that day, when Peter had
preached Jesus as the fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophesies, the
crowd who heard his sermon was cut to the heart, in contrition and repentance,
and when Peter had ended, they responded the only way repentance knows how to
respond: “Brothers, what shall we do?” “Repent
and be baptized, every one of you.” But
when this lawyer approaches Jesus, repentance and contrition are far from him,
even though the words he speaks sound so similar.
You see,
this lawyer was an expert in Old Testament Law.
And as an expert in Old Testament Law he was convinced that the keeping
of the Law was, in fact, the way to inherit eternal life. But Jesus had come, and Jesus was preaching a
kingdom of mercy in which the forgiveness of sins was bestowed to people who
had obviously not kept those Old Testament laws of Moses. And so that lawyer thought Jesus was a
sham. That lawyer thought Jesus was
dismissing the Law of Moses, and that lawyer thought he knew better. And so, with his expertise in the Law of
Moses in hand, that lawyer poses his question to Jesus as a test to see if
Jesus upheld the Scriptures or not: “Teacher,
what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
If you ask the wrong questions, you will get the wrong answers.
So Jesus
says to him, “What is written in the
Law? How do you read it?” And the lawyer answers the way Jesus expected
him to answer. He gives the answer that
comes right out of the Law: “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 even though the lawyer has answered the
question rightly, he is about to discover that the rights answer, to the wrong
question, will always be unsatisfying.
If you want to inherit eternal life by something you do, then an expert
in the Law you must become, because that is your only choice. If you want to be saved by the Law, then you
must keep the Law, and since that lawyer wants to be saved by the Law, Jesus
simply gives him the answer he’s been looking for: “Do this, and you will live.”
“Do this, and you will live.” Jesus hasn’t abandoned the Law, he’s shown
that if you want to be saved by the Law the only possibility is to be damned by
the Law. Because no matter how many
years you’ve spent studying the Ten Commandments, and no matter how well you
know the answer to every ethical situation that this broken world can through
your way, and no matter how high your view of God’s perfect Law might be, if it
is the keeping of the Law that you believe will cause you to inherit eternal
life, then you are asking the completely wrong question, and any possible
answer will simply be insufficient for salvation.
And the
lawyer knows this. When Jesus gives His
answer to the lawyer’s question, and that lawyer is directed to go and keep the
demands of the Old Testament Law with all his heart, and soul, and strength,
and mind, the lawyer knows that he has one of two choices. Since Jesus hasn’t minimized the Law, but has
cranked it up, and so the lawyer’s first option is to acknowledge the
impossibility of keeping God’s Law, and to throw himself at the mercy of God
and plead for forgiveness. But if he
were to do that, then his question would have only resulted in confirming the
preaching of Jesus’ Gospel. And that,
you see, isn’t an option for a man in whom repentance and contrition remain far
off. If he chooses mercy, then Jesus
wins, and Jesus’ preaching has only been confirmed.
For a man in whom contrition and
repentance remain far off; for a man who refuses to acknowledge that the
demands of the Law of God will only serve to show his sin; for a man who will not
admit that the keeping of the Law is an impossibility, that man is left with
only one option. He must minimize the
Law so that it no longer applies. He
must interpret the Laws demands in such a way that he might have nothing to
confess. He must deny the Law of Moses,
so that he doesn’t have to rely on the mercy of God, for if he can minimize the
Law, there might still be a way that he can earn eternal life. And that, you see, is exactly what that
lawyer tries to do with his second question.
Luke even tells us, he was trying to justify himself. He tries to reinterpret the Law, so that it
would no longer declare him guilty.
So tell me, Jesus, “who is my neighbor.”
He doesn’t
elaborate on his question, but he doesn’t need to. Jesus knows what he’s up to. And so do you. In fact, you know his question so well,
you’ve almost become an expert in it.
Redefine what it means to be your neighbor, and you are no longer bound
the love and serve that person. For this
lawyer, Jesus knew that it would be a Samaritan. But who is it for you? Who is it that you refuse to see as your
neighbor so that you can be free of the Law’s demands to love and serve him, or
her? Who is it that you hate, or that
makes you uncomfortable? Who is it that
you can’t seem to find any good in, or who is always pushing your buttons? Who is it that has disrespected you, intentionally
or not, or has even purposefully tried to harm you, so that you attempt to
justify yourself and free yourself of the Law’s demands to love, and serve, and
pray even for those who would be called your enemies?
“Who is my neighbor?” This isn’t just the lawyer’s question, it’s
our own. And like the lawyer, we usually
ask it of ourselves in an attempt to justify ourselves so that we might have
the appearance of keeping the Law of God.
Like the lawyer, we try to redefine the Law of God so that we might be
able to lump certain people into a category that would make them no longer our
neighbors, so that we might be free to hate them, or even to harm them. “Who
is my neighbor?” The lawyer tries to
limit the definition, but all that does is limit the love he would give., and we
have done the same.
Deny it, and you will end up like
the lawyer, with contrition and repentance being far from you. Refusing to see certain people as the
neighbors you’ve been called to love and to serve will not lighten the burden
of the Law, but will make you guilty of it.
Remaining in the blindness of trying to be justify yourselves by
reducing the number of neighbors you have been called to love will not make you
any less guilty, but will only result in reducing the love your neighbors end
up receiving from you. And in the end,
if there is anyone in your life who is unworthy of being the recipient of God’s
love and compassion, it is not the one who you struggle to love, but the one with
the struggle to love.
And so the Parable of the Good
Samaritan isn’t told so that you might be given a method of serving your
neighbor that might earn you eternal life.
On the contrary, the Parable of the Good Samaritan is told to the
lawyer, and to those like you and me, who like him, have failed to see the love
of Jesus for all that it is. The Parable
of the Good Samaritan is about Jesus, who will not limit the Law of God but
will fulfill it. The Parable of the Good
Samaritan will show us the love of Jesus, who refuses to limit any definition
of who His neighbor might be, but who has come to serve and to save those who nobody
else would love.
Just as the Good Samaritan got off
the back of his animal, and went to that helpless man who had been left to
die—Jesus has taken on flesh, and come down to a helpless human race. Just as the Samaritan bound up the wounds of
that man, and treated them with ointment, Jesus has taken our foolish attempts
to minimize God’s Word, and our failure in loving our neighbor, and he has
bound them up on the cross where they were crucified along with Him. And even as we daily struggle to look at
those who are different from us with the eyes of Christ, the Samaritan promised
to pay for anything that was needed to bring that man back from health, and
Jesus has done the same for you and for me.
Dear brothers and sisters in
Christ. It is the Good Samaritan who
sees the one in need, and whose gut aches with the compassion of Jesus. It is the Good Samaritan whose compassionate
deeds show us the compassionate deeds of Jesus, who would lay down his life,
and pay whatever price was necessary in order to cover your sins, and to heal
you with the forgiveness that is freely given even to you who have failed to
love our neighbors. It is the Good
Samaritan in this parable that shows us the compassion of Jesus, which shows
itself in the love, and service to those who would not qualify to be his
neighbors. It is the Good Samaritan who
loves those who have been broken by the world, and who Satan continues to
accuse, and who have been left by sin to die.
For it is Jesus who sees those who are unrighteous, and guilty, and who
cannot do anything to inherit eternal life, as the neighbors he has been called
to serve.
And so, you see, that the Parable
of the Good Samaritan is not about you, and it’s not about what you must
do. With that view, we’ll be left only
to ask the wrong questions. And any
answers we get will be less than satisfying.
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
is about Jesus. It’s all about Jesus; for
it is Jesus who fulfills the Law. It is
Jesus who loves his neighbor as himself.
And it is Jesus whose love and compassion is given to all, no matter
what they’ve done to disqualify themselves from mankind’s definition of what it
means to be a neighbor. It is Jesus, who
refuses to discriminate, but whose love is given to all. It is Jesus who even loves you, and who calls
you His neighbor, so that you might no longer try to earn eternal life, or to minimize
the Law in an attempt to justify yourselves.
You see, in the end, it is true,
that the Law demands that we love and serve our neighbors. And it doesn’t allow us to limit who will
receive that love and service. The
Church is called to be merciful, and to show compassion to those who cannot
help themselves. And it will. Because the true Church of God is made up of
everyone who in contrition and repentance, has confessed that it has failed to
keep the laws demands, and could never earn eternal life. And because they’ve been blessed to be loved
by Jesus, and served by Jesus, and even forgiven by the wok of Jesus, who is
the Good Samaritan, they will learn to ask the right question, and begin to let
Jesus show them, who, in fact, they might go and love. And when this happens, the love of Jesus will
not be limited, but will be extended to many who would otherwise be left to
die. In the name of T Jesus. Amen.
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