Trinity 13, 2024
Rev. Thomas Van Hemert
St. Luke 10:23-37
Trinity 13
August 25, 2024
In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The Parable of the Good Samaritan is well known to all of us. It is, perhaps, the most well-known teaching of Jesus apart from the Sermon on the Mount and even the Prodigal Son. Because the parable is so well-known among us, we sometimes might fall prone to overlooking crucial details that help us really understand the nature of God’s grace in Jesus Christ and also, the distinction between Law and Gospel.
We as Christians love God’s Law and we love the Gospel. We as Lutherans also love the distinction between Law and Gospel. We love this distinction because understanding it helps us understand the Bible and is useful for us to interpret the Bible. We should think and meditate upon this specific parable because this parable is the paragon of this proper distinction. It is not rightly understood if we do not know what the differences are between the Law and the Gospel.
First of all, what is the Law? Properly speaking, the Law is a divine doctrine, which teaches what is right and pleasing to God, and it rebukes everything that is sin and contrary to God’s will. The problem with we who are sinners is that we do not always do what is right and pleasing to God. This is why we need to hear rebuke and admonition. We need to be shown through preaching that our sins condemn us to hell and that we cannot inherit eternal life by means of keeping the Law. At the same time, God’s Law is still good, even if it condemns us and shows our sin. One of our hymns puts it this way, “The Law of God is good and wise and sets His will before our eyes, shows us the way of righteousness, and dooms to death when we transgress” (LSB, 579:1) The Law’s chief function is to show us our sin and thereby, show us our need for a Savior who alone can save us. Thus, the hymn continues, “But those who scornfully disdain God’s Law shall then in sin remain; its terror in their ear resounds and keeps their wickedness in bounds” (579:4). But we don’t leave it there. God does not leave us in our sin. He has sent us a Savior. Thus, the hymn concludes, “To Jesus we for refuge flee, Who from the curse has set us free, and humbly worship at His throne, saved by His grace through faith alone” (LSB 579:6).
That is what the Gospel is. The Gospel, properly speaking, is the teaching that shows what a person who has not kept the Law and therefore is condemned by it, what he is to believe. The Gospel teaches that Christ has paid for and has made satisfaction for all sins. Christ has gained and acquired for an individual—without any of his own merit—forgiveness of sins, righteousness that avails before God, and eternal life.
We see precisely how this plays out in the in the debate between the lawyer and our Lord in the Gospel reading. The lawyer stands up to put Jesus to the test. He asks our Lord, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” On the surface, it seems like a good, genuine question. The lawyer wants to know what he must do in order to go to heaven. But of course, we must remember he asks this to put Jesus to the test. And his question is really a loaded question. Jesus knows this. Because the lawyer asks “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” I ask you, “What must you do in order to receive an inheritance?” Think about it. What must you do in order to receive your father and your mother’s estate or any other estate that will become yours through inheritance? You do nothing. You wait until they die and all that is theirs becomes yours. That’s what an inheritance is.
Jesus then, in response to this lawyer’s question and so that the hearers would understand the nature of God’s grace and that you can’t and you don’t do anything to inherit eternal life, Jesus tells the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
“A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.”
The man, most likely, was coming down from Jerusalem because he had just finished worshiping and offering sacrifices. You go up to Jerusalem and come down from Jerusalem because Jerusalem is on a hill. This is what we call Mount Zion. And as he’s coming down, he falls among robbers who beat him and leave him half dead. Now if we saw someone like this on the side of the road, maybe some of us who are medically trained would begin to administer care. At the very least, we would call 911 and call for help or an ambulance. But the first two men—the priest and the levite—who walk by and see him, simply pass by on the other side of the road. That’s because these two men in the parable represent the Law. They are tasked with carrying out certain duties commanded by the Levitical and Ceremonial Law. If they touch a dead body, they would become ceremonially unclean and wouldn’t be able to carry out the liturgical duties that were assigned to them. They want to keep the Law and don’t want to become defiled. They cannot help him. So they pass him by on the other side of the road.
So it is that we cannot be saved eternally by the Law. We cannot be saved by keeping the Ten Commandments. The man was not saved by the priest or the Levite. They didn’t help him! This goes to show that we cannot be saved by our works. Isaiah prophesies that even our good works are as filthy rags. Though they may be objectively good, if done in faith, they are still tainted with sin. If you notice as well, the man can’t save himself. He needs someone to do the work for him.
So here comes someone he did not expect: a Samaritan. A man whose race and ethnicity declared him an enemy of the people of Israel. He was an outsider. He was not a Jew but a Samaritan—someone who would have normally gone out of his way to have no interaction with the half-beaten, half-dead man. But when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. Then he promised to pay for it all and return. This is what grace looks like.
Jesus is using this parable as an analogy for the Gospel, which shows all of us who have not kept the Law and are therefore condemned by it, what we are to believe: that Christ has paid for and has made satisfaction for all our sins; that Jesus has gained and acquired for each and every individual—without any of his own merit—forgiveness of sins, righteousness that avails before God, and eternal life.
To the unbelieving world, and even to those who do not have a right understanding of the distinction between Law and Gospel, this parable is not what it seems. They think that this is a parable that shows us how to be nice to people; that they way into heaven is by doing good things, by seeing others in need and helping them. But they are wrong.
This parable is chiefly about God’s mercy for sinners. We come to learn, apart from any work we can do, any keeping of the Law, anything that comes from ourselves, that Jesus Christ is the one who has found us broken and bleeding, Who binds up our wounds, and pays for it all and promises to return. He is the one Who many despise. He is the one who many do not have time for. He is the one who many refuse to believe and trust in. But He loves them anyway. So even though we were beaten, broken, and dead in our sins, He took our place. He finds us and heals us so that He would take our place in death. And He died. Jesus is the Son of God, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, and yet He took our place and died for us. And because He died, He gives us His inheritance. He gives us His Kingdom. We didn’t do anything to earn it. But that’s how inheritances are given: it is simply handed over and entrusted to the next of kin after a death. If you have been baptized, if Christ has poured upon your water and His Word in the Sacrament of Baptism; if you have made your garment white in the Blood of the Lamb, yours is the Kingdom of Heaven because you have become Christ’s brother or sister. You have received that very inheritance.
In +Jesus’ name.
