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Text is St. Luke 10:23-37
In the Name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Ghost
You can almost see the smug look the lawyer gives Jesus. The glisten of arrogance and pride twinkles in his eye as he says, And who is my neighbor?
The lawyer thought he'd done it all. He recites the Law like a student who learned something by heart for the sake of learning it by heart. Knowing the Law by rote is one thing. Knowing the Law and having it imprinted upon his mind and heart is another. This is the curse of the Pharisees and the scribes. They know the Law, but they don't know the Law?
How well do you know the Law? You know you are to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. You learned the Ten Commandments in confirmation class. You can recite them just like you learned them yesterday. But do you know what it means to love as God loves?
Consider the man left half-dead by the side of the road in Christ's parable. He's on a journey from Jerusalem to Jericho. A band of robbers beat him and take everything he has. They leave him with neither love nor mercy. There's still some life left in him but it isn't much. In fact, if he tries to help himself while half-dead he will make matters worse.
That man attacked, beaten, and robbed is you. You fall along the side of the road as Satan attacks you. You look to the Law and the prophets as your savior. You thought they were your friends. Your so-called "friends" can only pass by on the other side of the road and look at you like the half-dead sinner you are. The glisten in your eye thinking Moses, Isaiah, and all the Old Testament heroes can do the God-job begins to fade as you lie there naked and ashamed.
All of man's noble effort to raise his knowledge and "free will" above God's knowledge and will is foolishness. The Lord says, My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways. The psalmist writes The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are futile. The Law always accuses and condemns. The prophets point to the coming Christ and witness the hope of those who came before them. They too, like you, are half-dead in sin awaiting their savior. So much for those neighbors whom you thought you knew and loved.
Along comes a Samaritan, who takes pity on this half-dead man. He goes toward him, binds up his wounds, pouring oil and wine upon them, and mounts him on his beast of burden and takes him to the inn to care for him.
How quickly you forget about the One Whom the Law and prophets speak. How quickly you abandon the promises of a loving and merciful Father. Look closer at this Good Samaritan. He is supposed to be your enemy. All your life you've learned to hate Samaritans. They gave up their pure lineage to the Assyrians, who mixed their seed with those of the Israelites. Now they are half-breeds who are more to be pitied and despised than seen as neighbors.
Don't look at appearances or genealogy. Look at what this Samaritan does, for He is your Neighbor. He binds your wounds, showing you your sin and teaching you to turn away from sin. He pours on oil through His proclamation of peace, reconciliation, and restoration. He pours on wine to take away the sting of sin and to cleanse the wounds. He places you on the beast of burden just as He was placed on the beast of burden that is the cross.
To be placed upon His beast is to believe that this Samaritan, Who is Jesus Christ, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. So He came down from heaven and took mankind into Himself. God is in the flesh. This flesh hanged upon a cross to bear the sin of the world in His body. Jesus Christ became a beast of burden that your burden of sin would be paid in full and wiped clean. His death destroys your death. His resurrection from the dead bestows everlasting life upon you.
The Good Samaritan takes you to the inn of the Church, where the innkeepers, His apostles and ministers, take care of your needs. They unite you with Him through water and the Word in Holy Baptism. They feed you with His Body and give you to drink of His Blood in Holy Communion. They proclaim to you the two Testaments left by Jesus to His Church. The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed. The New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. The Good Samaritan will return one day to take you from the inn of the Church to the inn of everlasting joy in heaven, where you will be reunited with those who have gone before you in the faith around the Throne of the Lamb of God.
The Good Samaritan isn't supposed to be merciful. Still He brings the mercy of His Father in heaven to this world. He is more than an example of who is your neighbor. He is that neighbor Who helps you in every time of need. You cannot justify yourself, as the lawyer thought he could. Jesus Christ has already justified you. You are made right with the Father. Because Jesus has had mercy on you, you now have mercy on your neighbor through works of mercy and love.
And who is my neighbor? Jesus is your Neighbor. You see Him in your neighbor down the street or down the pew. You who were once half-dead are now alive in Christ. Blessed indeed are your eyes and ears, for you have seen and heard Jesus Christ, the Good Samaritan and the Good Neighbor.
In the Name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Ghost
In the Name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Ghost
You can almost see the smug look the lawyer gives Jesus. The glisten of arrogance and pride twinkles in his eye as he says, And who is my neighbor?
The lawyer thought he'd done it all. He recites the Law like a student who learned something by heart for the sake of learning it by heart. Knowing the Law by rote is one thing. Knowing the Law and having it imprinted upon his mind and heart is another. This is the curse of the Pharisees and the scribes. They know the Law, but they don't know the Law?
How well do you know the Law? You know you are to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. You learned the Ten Commandments in confirmation class. You can recite them just like you learned them yesterday. But do you know what it means to love as God loves?
Consider the man left half-dead by the side of the road in Christ's parable. He's on a journey from Jerusalem to Jericho. A band of robbers beat him and take everything he has. They leave him with neither love nor mercy. There's still some life left in him but it isn't much. In fact, if he tries to help himself while half-dead he will make matters worse.
That man attacked, beaten, and robbed is you. You fall along the side of the road as Satan attacks you. You look to the Law and the prophets as your savior. You thought they were your friends. Your so-called "friends" can only pass by on the other side of the road and look at you like the half-dead sinner you are. The glisten in your eye thinking Moses, Isaiah, and all the Old Testament heroes can do the God-job begins to fade as you lie there naked and ashamed.
All of man's noble effort to raise his knowledge and "free will" above God's knowledge and will is foolishness. The Lord says, My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways. The psalmist writes The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are futile. The Law always accuses and condemns. The prophets point to the coming Christ and witness the hope of those who came before them. They too, like you, are half-dead in sin awaiting their savior. So much for those neighbors whom you thought you knew and loved.
Along comes a Samaritan, who takes pity on this half-dead man. He goes toward him, binds up his wounds, pouring oil and wine upon them, and mounts him on his beast of burden and takes him to the inn to care for him.
How quickly you forget about the One Whom the Law and prophets speak. How quickly you abandon the promises of a loving and merciful Father. Look closer at this Good Samaritan. He is supposed to be your enemy. All your life you've learned to hate Samaritans. They gave up their pure lineage to the Assyrians, who mixed their seed with those of the Israelites. Now they are half-breeds who are more to be pitied and despised than seen as neighbors.
Don't look at appearances or genealogy. Look at what this Samaritan does, for He is your Neighbor. He binds your wounds, showing you your sin and teaching you to turn away from sin. He pours on oil through His proclamation of peace, reconciliation, and restoration. He pours on wine to take away the sting of sin and to cleanse the wounds. He places you on the beast of burden just as He was placed on the beast of burden that is the cross.
To be placed upon His beast is to believe that this Samaritan, Who is Jesus Christ, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. So He came down from heaven and took mankind into Himself. God is in the flesh. This flesh hanged upon a cross to bear the sin of the world in His body. Jesus Christ became a beast of burden that your burden of sin would be paid in full and wiped clean. His death destroys your death. His resurrection from the dead bestows everlasting life upon you.
The Good Samaritan takes you to the inn of the Church, where the innkeepers, His apostles and ministers, take care of your needs. They unite you with Him through water and the Word in Holy Baptism. They feed you with His Body and give you to drink of His Blood in Holy Communion. They proclaim to you the two Testaments left by Jesus to His Church. The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed. The New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. The Good Samaritan will return one day to take you from the inn of the Church to the inn of everlasting joy in heaven, where you will be reunited with those who have gone before you in the faith around the Throne of the Lamb of God.
The Good Samaritan isn't supposed to be merciful. Still He brings the mercy of His Father in heaven to this world. He is more than an example of who is your neighbor. He is that neighbor Who helps you in every time of need. You cannot justify yourself, as the lawyer thought he could. Jesus Christ has already justified you. You are made right with the Father. Because Jesus has had mercy on you, you now have mercy on your neighbor through works of mercy and love.
And who is my neighbor? Jesus is your Neighbor. You see Him in your neighbor down the street or down the pew. You who were once half-dead are now alive in Christ. Blessed indeed are your eyes and ears, for you have seen and heard Jesus Christ, the Good Samaritan and the Good Neighbor.
In the Name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Ghost
