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.
There are many ways to understand and speak about sin. Sin can be defined as disobedience or rebellion, the breaking of moral rules, “missing the mark,” or simply falling short of God’s commands and expectations. However, there is another way to understand sin that, I believe, gets straight to the heart of the matter: Sin is a failure of love. We love the wrong things, or we love the right things in the wrong way. Either way, sin is a failure of love.
This gets straight to the heart of the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods.” Luther explains it in the Small Catechism: “You shall fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” Even Luther’s use of fear and trust directs us toward love, the fulfilling of the Law. St. John writes, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” And St. Paul writes, “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
That you love, what you love, and how you love is directly connected to what you believe about God, what you think about God, and whether you trust in God above all things. And that is at the heart of Jesus’ teaching in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. What you fear, love, and trust will either permit or prohibit you from loving your neighbor. Fear, love, and trust in God above all things frees you to love in any and all situations and any and all of your neighbors, without fear.
Jesus had just sent out the seventy-two to proclaim peace and that the kingdom of God was near. He sent them with this promise: “The one who hears you hears Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me, and the one who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.” They returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name!” Jesus acknowledged this, but directed their joy elsewhere: “Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Then Jesus prayed, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.” Turning to His disciples, He said, “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 was it that Jesus’ disciples could see that the prophets and kings of old did not? They saw Jesus, the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets and the covenant promises of God. More to the point, they saw that God was not their enemy. They could fear Him, not as a cruel master, but as a loving Father. They were not slaves to legalism, but were free to live in the same love they had freely received from God.
Immediately, a lawyer stood up to put Jesus to the test. “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” The question itself revealed the lawyer’s misunderstanding. You cannot do anything to merit an inheritance. An inheritance is received freely because of your relationship with the one who gives it. But the lawyer was not interested in a relationship with God. He wanted to merit eternal life by his works. He did not fear, love, and trust in God above all things; he feared, loved, and trusted in himself and his works.
So Jesus answered the lawyer’s Law question with a Law answer: “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 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 your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus said, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” But the lawyer was not satisfied. Jesus had pricked his conscience. He knew that he did not properly love God or his neighbor, and Jesus’ command exposed the fact that He knew it too.
The lawyer’s sin was a failure of love. He did not love God above all things. He loved himself and trusted in his works. He despised God’s Law and saw God as a cruel master instead of a loving Father. And because he did not love God, he could not love his neighbor. So, seeking to justify himself, he asked, “And who is my neighbor?” He was looking for a loophole, a way around the Law’s demands so that he could justify himself. It is like an employee doing only the minimal duties his job requires, doing them spitefully and with loathing for both his vocation and his employer. Because he did not love God, the lawyer could not love his fellow man.
So Jesus answered with the Parable of the Good Samaritan. A man was attacked by robbers, stripped, beaten, and left for dead. A priest passed by. Then a Levite passed by. Neither helped him. But a Samaritan came upon him, had compassion on him, bound his wounds, poured on oil and wine, placed him on his own animal, carried him to an inn, and paid for his care. Jesus asked, “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” The lawyer could only answer, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said, “You go, and do likewise.”
The fact that Jesus made the Samaritan the hero of this parable was not lost on the lawyer. Jews regarded Samaritans as religiously and ethnically corrupted, outside the covenant people. And yet this Samaritan showed mercy while Israel’s most respected religious leaders passed by. Why? Because the Samaritan understood something the priest, the Levite, and the lawyer did not. He knew God not as a cruel master demanding meritorious works, but as a loving, gracious, and merciful Father. He had received God’s mercy and therefore was free to show mercy.
This is precisely what St. Paul teaches in Galatians. The Law was given 430 years after the covenant God made with Abraham. The Law did not annul that covenant. God’s promise came first. The covenant with Abraham was a covenant of grace. The Law reveals sin. It exposes our failure to love God and neighbor. It cannot give us the inheritance. But the promise gives what the Law cannot: Christ. You are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh, not by your works of obedience under the Law. And as you have freely received, so you freely give.
Jesus’ command, “You go, and do likewise,” is not a command by which you earn eternal life. It is the exhortation and empowerment of the Gospel. Just as Jesus sent the seventy-two equipped only with His Word, so He sends you to love your neighbor with His love. How you hear those words depends upon how you see God. Do you see Him as a cruel master and tyrant, or as your loving Father? Jesus would have you see Him as the disciples and the Samaritan did: “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!”
What must you do to inherit eternal life? You don’t have to do anything. But you do have to be something: You have to be a child of God, a recipient of His love, and a bearer of His love. You are His child, born again of water and the Spirit in Holy Baptism. You are the recipient of His love, poured out for you in Jesus’ holy, innocent blood for the forgiveness of your sins. And you are a bearer of His love when you love others as He has loved you. Such love is not a work by which you earn salvation. It is a fruit, Jesus’ fruit, and therefore it is pleasing to the Father.
And when you fear, love, and trust in God above all things, you need not fear God and His Law as a cruel master. Instead, you receive Him as the loving Father who reaches down to you in your death, heals and binds your wounds inflicted by sin and Satan, and carries you to this inn, this hospital, the Church. He has carried you here upon the burdens of His Son, Jesus, who has paid all that was necessary to heal you, care for you, and preserve you until He returns to take you to His Father’s house in heaven.
So come. Eat and drink His saving love. Receive His mercy. And, having freely received, freely give. Fear, love, and trust in God above all things, that you may love your neighbor as yourself, and live.
In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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