Luke 10:23-37;
Galatians 3:15-22; 2 Chronicles 28:8-15
In the Name of the Father and of the
+ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
In our Old
Testament reading today from 2 Chronicles, the men of Israel had taken captive
200,000 of their own Judean kinsmen, men, women, and children. The LORD had
delivered the people of Judah into the hands of their kinsmen because His wrath
burned against them and their idolatry. However, the actions of the men of
Israel against their southern brethren had far exceeded the righteous judgment
of the LORD. The Israelites “killed them in a rage that reached up to heaven,”
and they intended “to subjugate the people of Judah and Jerusalem, male and
female, as [their] slaves.” Because the Israelites were unmerciful,
uncharitable, and unloving to their own kinsmen, the LORD became angry with
them. Therefore, Oded, a Prophet of the LORD rebuked them saying, “Have you not
sins of your own against the LORD your God? Now hear me, and send back the
captives from your relatives whom you have taken, for the fierce wrath of the
LORD is upon you.”
The
Israelites had somehow forgotten that they were no more righteous in the sight
of the LORD according to their own merits than were their southern kinsmen who
had fallen into idolatry and apostasy. Thus, the Prophet Oded rebuked them and
reminded them of their own sins upon which God’s wrath would be outpoured if
they did not repent and show mercy. As Jesus would put it over 700 years later,
“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the
log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take
the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You
hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see
clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”
How often do
you fail to show mercy to, to be neighbor to, those right in front of you,
those closest to you, to your own family members, your kinsmen, and to your
brothers and sisters in Christ right here in this sacred space? Charity begins
at home – Charity begins in your home, and in this home, the Church. If you do
not show love, charity, compassion, and mercy to those who are closest to you,
how do you think you will be perceived outside of these walls? Jesus teaches you
of a love that reaches beyond the boundaries of your own family and church to
people very much unlike yourselves. Satan tempts you, and your flesh is all too
eager to agree, that you are right to judge and condemn others for their sins.
God condemns homosexual acts, right? Therefore you think that you are justified
in condemning homosexuals, while feeling reassured that you are in the right
and enjoy the favor of God. How about those how have abortions? Illegal
immigrants? Those living together outside of marriage? Those ISIS terrorists
you fear and hate? What is your pet sin you like to be so indignant about and
that makes you feel better about yourself? “You hypocrite.” Repent. “First take
the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck
out of your brother’s eye.” Repent, and show charity, mercy, love, and
compassion to your brother, your sister, your neighbor, the stranger, even your
enemy, or have you forgotten the mercy you have received from the LORD through
Jesus Christ who died to set you free and to cleanse you from your sins?
When you
refuse to show mercy, compassion, love, charity, and forgiveness you are
holding the Law against your brother and you are submitting yourself to its
slavery once again. The Gospel of Jesus Christ’s vicarious atonement has set
you free from the Law’s condemnation; will you hold others to a slavery from which
you have been set free? The Gospel has set you free from the condemnation of
the Law that you may do it, that you may keep the Law without coercion and
without fear of punishment when you fail. This is true freedom, freedom to love
God without asking how much or how often or how sincerely, and freedom to show
mercy, love, compassion, and forgiveness to your brother, sister, neighbor, and
enemy without fear.
That was the
sin of the lawyer to whom Jesus taught a lesson about the freedom the Gospel
gives to show mercy, love, compassion, and forgiveness. The lawyer knew the Law
of God well, but he didn’t recognize that he was incapable of keeping it. When
Jesus asked him what is written in the Law, the lawyer answered correctly, “You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all your strength and with all you mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus then said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will
live.” The lawyer was not pleased with Jesus’ response, for Jesus did not
praise him for keeping the Law as he had expected, but implied that, though he
knew the Law, he failed to keep it. Though the lawyer was right in saying that
love is the fulfillment of the Law, he did not keep the Law by showing mercy, love,
compassion, and forgiveness to others, particularly to those who were unlike
himself. Therefore Jesus told the lawyer a story, a parable, about a priest and
a Levite who were so enslaved to the Law that they could not help a fellow Jew
who had fallen among thieves and was left for dead bleeding out in a ditch, and
a despised Samaritan, unbeholden to the Law, who gave all he had to help a
stranger and enemy.
Undoubtedly, the lawyer identified with
the priest and the Levite, two outstanding figures of righteousness and piety
under the Law of God. Surely, he thought, they were the “good guys,” for they
were most like himself. Sadly, they truly were like the lawyer: proud, not
thinking of their neighbor, and most importantly, interested in justifying themselves
by their keeping of the Law. But, then comes along a Samaritan, hated and
despised by the Jews for being idolaters and apostates, much like the Judeans
in the Old Testament lesson today. The Samaritan didn’t spend time deciding
whether or not is was lawful for him to help the man, but he had compassion on
him, went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, set him on
his own animal and brought hi to an inn and took care of him. Then he left him,
giving the innkeeper money to care for him and promising to repay him for any
extra when he returned. The Samaritan knew that the spirit of the Law was love
for God and for neighbor, just like the lawyer had answered, but he put his
love into action showing mercy and compassion for the man in the ditch, who was
a Jew, not like him, and an enemy. Where the priest and the Levite, and the
lawyer alike, knew the letter of the law and believed they were right and just
in passing by, the Samaritan knew that love is the fulfilling of the Law and that
love covers a multitude of sins, his own first. The Samaritan had known love,
mercy, and compassion and therefore he freely extended these to his neighbor.
He was free from the coercion of the Law and fear of punishment. He was free to
keep the Law and do it without fear.
This story is popularly called the
Parable of the Good Samaritan. Like so many of the popular titles given
pericopes in the Scriptures, this one is also unhelpful. There is no mention of
the Samaritan being good, or of the
priest, Levite, and lawyer being bad,
for that matter. That little word good
in the title misdirects our focus upon the works of the Samaritan instead of
the much more important thing, his faith in the mercy and forgiveness he
himself had received from the LORD. The Samaritan believed and trusted that the
LORD loved and forgave him. He knew the LORD’s compassion and mercy, and
therefore he was free to love his neighbor, his enemy, without any coercion or
fear that he was doing something wrong. It was not that the Samaritan was good, but it was that he was repentant, forgiven, and humble. The
so-called Good Samaritan wasn’t good, but he was compassionate and merciful,
and that is what the LORD desires from you as well.
“Which of these three, do you think,
proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” Jesus asked. “The
one who showed him mercy,” the lawyer had to answer. The word proved is an interesting word choice.
The Greek word means appeared or seemed to be. Jesus was focusing the
lawyer upon the actions of the three men, the priest, the Levite, and the
Samaritan. The lawyer thought he knew who was righteous and kept the Law,
namely the priest and the Levite. However, Jesus’ parable forced the lawyer to
confess that it was the Samaritan who appeared
to be, who seemed to be, who proved to be neighbor to the man who
fell among robbers. The lawyer had answered correctly concerning the Law, love
God, and love your neighbor, but now, the same Law by which he sought to
justify himself was condemning him. He did not show love. He did not keep the
Law. And, neither do you when you refuse to show mercy, compassion, love, and
forgiveness to your brother, sister, neighbor, and enemy.
The Lutheran faith, the Christian faith,
is a confessional faith. That means that appearances matter. What people see
you saying and doing matter. Your words and your deeds are a confession of what
you believe in your heart. When you come to church and show reverence in your
worship you are making a confession of what you believe about Jesus in your
hearts: that He is God, your Savior, and your Lord, and that He is present
among you now with His sin-forgiving, faith-increasing, temptation-protecting
gifts of Word and Sacrament. And, when you leave this place, what you say and
do towards your brother, your sister, your neighbor, and your enemy are a
confession of what you believe in your heart that God has done for you, and is
doing still for you, in Jesus Christ His Son. So, be careful of what you do and
what you say, and do not judge and condemn others without first considering
your own sins, failings, and unworthiness. This is not an exhortation to bless
sinful behavior. That you can never do. But, this is an exhortation to love the
sinner, to love all sinners, all the time, just as your LORD and God has loved,
and continues to love, sinful you. Only sinners can be forgiven, and there is
no one for whom Jesus did not die that their sins might be forgiven. Let your
words and deeds communicate to all, without discrimination, that the
forgiveness you enjoy is available to them and to all, to the glory of our
Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
In
the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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