Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

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Anytime we hear a parable from the lips of Jesus, we must always ask ourselves two questions. Who is Jesus in this parable and who am I? The answer to both of those questions is contained in every parable that Jesus tells because every parable that He tells is all about Himself and you.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, it’s not too hard to identify who Jesus is. He’s the Good Samaritan. Despised and rejected as he is, He nonetheless, out of His great compassion, gives everything He has to save the half-dead man.

So the question is, who are we? Are we the priest or are we the Levite? Or, are we the half-dead man whom the Samaritan saves? These are the questions we need to be asking ourselves as we listen to this parable.

I. The Lawyer Tests Jesus A. He Wants To Argue With Jesus Before we get to the parable itself, we need to spend just a few minutes considering the question that a lawyer asks of Jesus that leads to this answer in the form of an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.

“And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’”

If St. Luke hadn’t told us that this man was just “testing Jesus,” we would think that here’s a man who is interested in his eternal life. He wants to inherit eternal life, which is certainly a good thing to want. I wish more people would give thought to their eternal life. Sadly, too many people never think beyond their temporal life. There’s lots of thought and planning given to retirement and how we will live out the smallest portion of our temporal life on earth, but not even a passing thought about eternal life, which is… eternal.

But this man is thinking about such things. And he comes to Jesus with his concern. Frankly, I’ve got to tell you, I like this lawyer and I’d like to see a whole lot more just like him – people anxious about their eternal life and coming to Jesus with their concerns.

Furthermore, this man understands that such a thing as eternal life is something that one inherits. He doesn’t say, what must I do to earn eternal life. He understands eternal life is an inheritance – something one receives simply because someone dies. So, if we simply take the man at his own words, what he wants to know from Jesus is, how do I get my name on the will? What must I do to become an heir?

This, of course is putting the best construction on things. Luke tells us that the man is just testing Jesus. His question is insincere. His interest is not as much in his eternal life as it is in trying to trip Jesus in His words. He is a lawyer after all. This is what he does. Maybe he just couldn’t help himself.

B. Jesus plays along. And the thing is, Jesus knows that this man is just testing Him. He knows that he’s just trying to trip Him up or put Him off. And the thing is, Jesus loves this lawyer. Here is a lost sheep and the good Samaritan is also the Good Shepherd who would leave the 99 righteous to go to the one lost sheep and when He finds it, He carries it on his shoulders and says, rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep.
So listen, I know he’s not a part of the parable itself, but if you find some of yourself in the lawyer, take heart, Jesus loves you.

“He said to him, ‘What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” As if to say, ‘okay, you want to go at this from a legal perspective, fine. What’s the law say and what’s the intent?’

And the lawyer takes the bait. He quotes the law perfectly. “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 Love your neighbor as yourself.” That’s the summary of the 10 Commandments. The two tables of the Law – love God and love your neighbor. Just the way Jesus Himself summarized the law on another occasion.

And Jesus replied, “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.” Did you hear that? Jesus told this man that if he kept the law, he’d live – he’d have eternal life. Jesus said, eternal life is given by keeping the law. So, have you kept the law or not? If you have, you’ve got nothing to worry about. Keep up the good work. But, if you haven’t… Hmmmm.

And suddenly the lawyer’s number one client is himself. Now, he’s the one being tested by Jesus. Evidently, this man felt pretty comfortable about His relationship with God. He felt he had no other gods, didn’t take the name of the Lord God in vain and honored the Sabbath day and kept it holy. So much for the 1st table of the Law.

But there was something about the 2nd table that caused this man to stop short of his rich, young protégé who, in a similar situation could actually, with a straight face say, “all this I have kept since I was a youth.” By the way, St. Mark tells us that Jesus loved the rich, young man too.

But this man was a lawyer and being a lawyer, he knows that evidence is required to prove ones innocence or guilt. If he were to declare that he loves his neighbor as himself, someone might, oh yes, it would certainly be Jesus, would demand to see the evidence.

C. Who Is My Neighbor. It’s at this point that the lawyer really starts to squirm. And he makes a move which we would expect a lawyer to make. He tries to find a loophole in the law. “But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘who is my neighbor?’” The law doesn’t define “neighbor.”

It’s a clever move. His hope is that he shift the whole focus of this case from the issue of love, to an issue of bloodlines and genealogies, nationalities and religions, liberals and conservatives, democrats and republicans. Until finally the whole matter becomes so complicated that who could possibly know for sure who one’s neighbor is. And in the end he would be able to say, “I would certainly love my neighbor as myself, if only I knew who my neighbor is.”

Yet, even if this man is able to tie up his case in such technicalities, still the question of his eternal life remains.

II. Jesus Answers The Lawyer A. Answer not “everyone.” But Jesus will not be lured into our little loopholes or our grand diversions by which we try to justify ourselves and avoid Him. He knows that we cannot justify ourselves. He know that this is why He has come down from heaven. And that is why He is being so patient with this lawyer and why He is so patient with us too.
The great surprise in Jesus’ response to this man is that He doesn’t do what we expect Him to do. To the man’s question, “who is my neighbor?” we expect Him to say, “everyone is your neighbor.” “You must love everyone as yourself.” That’s what we expect Him to say isn’t it?

But can you see, that if this were Jesus’ reply, He leaves this man damned and each and every one of us the same. For no matter how hard we try, none of us love our neighbor as ourselves. None of us can produce the evidence required to justify ourselves before God by the law. If this were the answer that Jesus gave this lawyer, then He is just another law-giver – no better than Moses. But Jesus is greater than Moses.

B. Priest and Levite So, now we’re ready to hear this parable. “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho.” “A man…” No man in particular. A generic man. We don’t know his race, nationality, political affiliation, whether he was a Red Sox or Yankees fan. Frankly, it just doesn’t matter. It could be anyone.

“He fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.” This poor, pathetic, pitiful man could do nothing to help himself.

Who will be a neighbor to him? A priest and a Levite pass right by him. They see him but they don’t stop to help. They’re too busy with their religious duties. Too busy loving God to love this man. Surely, they too try to justify themselves. “I’ve got responsibilities to others which I wouldn’t be able to keep if I actually stopped to help this man.” “Besides, he probably deserved it.”

Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago there was a story on the news about a person how was shot in a convenience store and no one helped the wounded person. In fact, some actually stepped over him to pay for their coffee and gas and another took his picture with her cell phone camera? I wonder how they justified themselves?

And how will we justify ourselves? How many times do we see our neighbor in need and walk by him because we’re too busy, or too distracted, or to whatever. How often to we tell ourselves it’s okay just to leave him for dead, shouldn’t have got himself in that situation in the first place? How will be justify ourselves?

Find yourself in the priest or the Levite? Don’t worry if you do. Jesus loves them too.

C. Samaritan “But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion on him…” How do we know? By the evidence.

This helpless, faceless, nameless man occupies his entire attention. He binds up his wounds with wine and oil. He puts the servant on His donkey while he walks along. He takes Him to an inn where he can recover and pays for everything. And He promises to come back. You get the impression that this Samaritan has nothing else to do but to revive this man.

And then the question, which by this point is simply rhetorical. “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” Of course it’s the one who showed mercy. And of course, this is Jesus.

He is the One who loves God with all of His heart and soul and strength and mind. He is the One became man, and who loves His neighbor as Himself. He is the One who sees poor, pathetic, pitiful mankind, robbed and beaten by the life in a fallen and sinful world and left for dead. He is the One who comes to fallen mankind and disinfects him of all of his sins by pouring on the oil of His love wine of His forgiveness. He is the One who brings us the Inn of His Church where we receive the care we need.
And it is He who pays the full debt of our redemption. And He is the one who promises to return.

So now we realize who we are in this parable. We are the stripped, beaten, robbed man who is as good as dead. We cannot love God with all our heart and mind and strength because we’re dead. W cannot love our neighbor as ourselves because we’re dead. Yet, it is the dead man who is saved.

“What must I do to inherit eternal life” was the lawyers question. And Jesus’ answer is, ‘there’s nothing you can do. You’re dead. You’re dead in your sins and cannot help yourself. But I have come to you and I am filled with compassion for you and I have saved you. You are my neighbor and I love you as myself. And by my love and for my sake, my Father has written your name into His will and you are an heir. Through me, you have eternal life.’

Conclusion Unfortunately, Jesus leaves his parable unfinished just as Luke leaves his account of the encounter between the lawyer and Jesus unfinished. Jesus doesn’t tell us what ever became of the man after he was saved by the Samaritan. Nor does Luke tell us how the lawyer responded. Was there a happy ending or was there a tragic ending.

What could be a more tragic ending to the parable than for the man who was saved by Jesus to walk right on by a neighbor in need on his way home from the Inn? And what could be a more tragic ending to the encounter than for the lawyer to resent Jesus’ answer to his question. What could have been a more happy ending than for the lawyer to fall at Jesus feet and implore His mercy on a dead man who cannot save himself and then go and be a neighbor to everyone?

Actually, we do know how it went. “Crucify Him, crucify Him,” they cried. And by His death, we are justified and by His death we inherit eternal life.

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