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"Justified by Grace"
We have before us this morning, perhaps the most familiar story
in the whole Bible. Even for people who have never read the Bible,
may not even know that Jesus is the one who originally told the
story, the Good Samaritan is an idea, an accepted principle of
good behavior almost universally known that one should give
assistance to those who are in need along life’s way.
It is also one of the most misunderstood, misinterpreted
and misapplied passages of the whole Bible.
Why do I say that? Well, because the typical reading of the
parable of the Good Samaritan goes something like this. Jesus
met this guy one time who had questions about how to get to
heaven. The guy had a pretty good understanding of what God
expected. He even quoted a Bible passage, “Love the Lord you
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.” Jesus commended him for his answer, but the man
was still unclear about exactly what it meant to “Love your
neighbor” and asked Jesus for clarification and exactly who
is meant by “neighbor.”
Jesus tells him the story about the priest, the Levite, and
the Samaritan (sounds like the beginning of a lot of religious
jokes “did you hear the one about the Lutheran, the Catholic,
and the Baptist that went fishing”). The point of the story is
obvious even to the man who asked the question – your neighbor
is anyone you come across in life who needs your help. So Jesus
concludes – go and do likewise – go and help the people who need
your help – do better, try harder, don’t be like the priest and
the Levite and just pass by too busy to care.
And here comes the faulty conclusion, because remember the
question was “how do I get to heaven” – well, it would seem,
by going and helping the people who need your help – do better,
try harder, don’t be like the priest and the Levite and just
pass by too busy to care – and you will be on your way to
eternal glory.
I would like for you all to leave here today refreshed, inspired,
motivated to go and help the people who need your help – to do
better, try harder, to stop being like the priest and the Levite
and just pass by too busy to care – but there is only one way for
that to happen – and it is not by giving you a list to follow,
shaming you into better behavior, and becoming a moral policeman
who enforces the code of conduct becoming of one who calls himself
or herself a Christian. It just won’t work. It never has worked.
The only way for you to be refreshed, inspired, motivated to
go and help the people who need your help – to do better, try
harder, to stop being like the priest and the Levite and just
pass by too busy to care – is if you actually meet Jesus, come
face to face with him for the first time or the 10,000th time,
because we can never have enough of him. And so I will argue
with you today that, that is what Jesus was trying to accomplish
with the expert in the law who stood up to test him by asking,
“Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus longed for this man to come to that moment of
realization in his life that would stop him dead in
his tracks and from the deepest depths of his soul say,
“I can’t keep going the way that I am going in my life
or I’m going to wind up a dead end.”
Jesus always meets us wherever we are and seeks to bring us
to that moment. The man in our text is one of the most common
meeting places. It is familiar territory to all of us. For you
see it is the most widely held and accepted understanding of
life that we will be judged on the basis of our performance.
That is the misunderstanding we are born with. It is the notion
that society and culture and our education system operates under.
If you work hard and try your best you will be rewarded. It makes
absolutely perfect sense to us – and it is true of many things
in this world – and so it seems only logical to apply that same
principle to our relationship with God and eternity in heaven –
work hard and try your best and you will be rewarded.
That is the mindset of the man who stood up to test Jesus. It
is that mindset that leads people to say that all religion is
the same and it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you
are sincere. If getting to heaven, being right with God is about
working hard and trying your best to earn a reward, then what
difference does it make whether you follow Jesus, or Buddha or
Mohammed or a guru with a box of crystals to align the positive
energy in your body and the universe?
Jesus seeks to paint the man in our text into a corner,
to eliminate all escape routes, to bring him to that
terrifying moment of realization where he stands,
dumbfounded, speechless, a queasy feeling in his stomach
and mumbles, “Oh my God! If that’s what it takes to get
to heaven then I am utterly and miserably lost because I
could never do what you are describing.”
Don’t you see? That is the moment of truth to which Jesus
constantly, daily, repeatedly seeks to lead you and me. He
meets you wherever you are at, whatever you cling to as the
source of your security, whatever you might hold up as an
example of your best effort and he disassembles it right
before your very eyes. For what purpose – to humiliate you,
to knock you down and stomp on you, to keep you in your
place – no, no, and forever no, but rather to show you the
most remarkable thing ever conceived in the history of world.
Namely, himself, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the
virgin Mary, true man, like us in every way except without
sin, and true God able to be the perfect Good Samaritan to
the entire world. This is Christianity. This is what sets it
apart from all other ways of believing. It is not a system of
behavior modification where by hard work and your best effort
you slowly improve until you are good enough for God. Christianity
is death, complete destruction of all human effort followed by
resurrection from the dead with new life, eternal life as the result.
This is what we believe – that when you reach that terrifying
moment of realization where you stand, dumbfounded, speechless,
with a queasy feeling in your stomach and mumble something to the
effect, “Oh my God! If That’s what it takes to get to heaven the
I am utterly and miserably lost because I could never do what you
are describing” or perhaps the more familiar words – “I a poor
miserable sinner confess unto you all my sins and iniquities with
which I have ever offended you” – then, finally, unexpectedly, God
the Father reaches down from heaven, puts his hand under your chin,
and lifts your eyes to see the cross of Jesus Christ and He whispers,
“I forgive you!”
My friends we believe that that is exactly what God does
through his Holy Spirit in the water of your baptism –
every time you remember it – every time you pass by those
waters in the entry way – he slips his hand under your chin
and lifts up your eyes to cross of Jesus Christ and He whispers,
“I forgive you! You are mine. I am with you to strengthen you
and sustain you. That’s what we believe happens in this meal
of bread of wine – that same Holy Spirit brings the very body
and blood of Jesus and connects him to the bread and wine and
he slips his hand under your chin and lifts your head to direct
your gaze to the cross and hear the words, “I forgive you.”
That’s what we believe happens when you listen to the words
proclaimed in worship. You die every Sunday in worship and
are brought back to life again!
The old story never loses its humor even after the 100th time
you’ve heard it – somebody sent it to me again this week in an
e-mail – about the little boy who was standing out in the entry
way studying the plaques on the walls with lists of names of
people on them. When he asks the pastor what they’re for the
pastor explains they are the names of people who died in the
service. Wide-eyed and a little bit concerned the boy asks –
the early service or the late service?
The Bible doesn’t tell us what happened to the man in our text,
but I can show you what will happen to you. Having died and
been brought back to life the Good Samaritan, Jesus, dresses
your wounds from this past week and provides for your healing
and recuperation. And yes, He does say, “Go and do likewise.”
Not to earn a reward, but because the reward has been given
to you to share with the world – to leave here today refreshed,
inspired, motivated to go and help the people who need your help –
to do better, try harder, to stop being like the priest and the
Levite and just pass by too busy to care.
There is an interesting little detail I never noticed before
in the story. Look at the progression from the priest to the
Samaritan. The priest, in verse 31, is simply going down the
same road. The Levite, in verse 32, comes to the place and saw
the man. But the Samaritan, in verse 33, came to where the man was.
Let me leave you with that. Having died again today and being
raised to life once more we leave here to not simply travel
down the road, or to come to the place and maybe even point
and say, “gee isn’t that too bad, somebody should do something.”
Having died and been raised to life we can come to where a
person actually is.
Christianity is finally about relationships, recognizing as I
have told you many times and will tell you many more, there is
only one thing in the world that is eternal, that will live
forever, and that’s the person sitting next to you, and behind
you, and in front you, and living next door, and on the other
side of the world. Who is your neighbor?
Amen.
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