Prayer: Dear Jesus Christ, our Good Samaritan. How you found us face down in a ditch of our sins, spiritually dead and unable to call for you. You came to lift us out of our sins like a Good Samaritan. You took the time as the God who cares, to bandage us, and carry us to a place of eternal recuperation. Praise Be To You, O Christ!

St. Luke 10,23-27. On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” The expert in the law answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all you strength and with all your mind,” and said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied.  “Do this and you will live.” But he wanted to justify himself, and so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
 In reply, Jesus said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him. He took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and tokk care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. “Look after him,” he said, “and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.”
 Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him,” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
 

If we did not have the Bible, do you think we would, on our own, picture God as the Bible pictures him? A God of love who came into the world as a man to rescue us from the ditch of sin, to bandage our wounds? This is the Biblical picture of God through our Savior! Jesus came into the world as a man—bringing His Word of hope to prostitutes, the downtrodden, other lowly people whose sins had left them face down in a roadside ditch. He took the time to bandage these wounds with forgiveness. He lifted their hearts by giving them faith to believe in Him. We would never picture God this way without the Bible.

For an example, look at the ancient Olympian gods of Greece, gods like Zeus, and Apollos. These Greek gods are strictly human conceptions of what God is like. They were prideful. They kept to themselves on Mount Olympus, far removed from the world of man. Many of them considered the men and women of the earth puny, almost like playthings whom they could bless or curse, depending on the whim of the moment. This is far-removed from the God of the Bible.

Another example of a strictly human conception of God, are the early American Deists, like Ben Franklin. A deist sees God much like a watchmaker. God puts the world together, with all the gears and mechanisms working in sync. He then winds it up. After winding up the world like a clock, he then steps back and lets it tick down on its own. In other words, God watches his creation from a distance, uninvolved in its troubles and cares.

There is a good reason why mankind tends to picture God this way. The reason is the sin that lives in each of our hearts. If sin did not live in us, we would still know God the way Adam and Eve knew him: A God who walks side by side with his children in the garden. But when they sinned, Adam and Eve became separated from their God their Father. They were now sinners; he was still holy. The two do not mix. Because their sin has been passed down to us, from generation to generation, we experience this separation still. Therefore, without the Bible, we picture God the only way we can: far removed from us. In order to reach him, we must do penance first. We must make up for the past. We must show him that we really are worthy. Reaching God like this is the basis of all man-made religion.

Let us return to the Biblical picture of God. John 1, 14, strikes us with this picture: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” This verse is talking about the Son of God and how he came into the world. This verse calls Him, “The Word.” This Word—this Jesus—became flesh and made his dwelling among us. Literally, he “set up his tent” among us. This is some picture! God is not some far off “mountain-top dwelling” God. God came into the world to live among the people. He didn’t take up residence in a high palace either; he set up a tent! A tent! How God cares for the lowly, spiritually poor, downcast people of the world! I should say, how he cares for you and me. The Savior has come to bandage your wounds and mine, wounds caused by sin. Picture yourself flat in a ditch and unable to move. You are lonely. You are scared. Suddenly, like the Good Samaritan, Christ's concerned face appears above yours. He bends down to care for your wounds. He picks you up. He carries you to safety.

Jesus took the time to bandage your wounds simply because he loves each of you that much. It is one thing to say “I love you.” It is quite another to prove it by our actions. God has proved his love for us by sending his Son to save us from a ditch of sin by the roadside.  I will use the dialog between Jesus and an expert in the law, as we read in our sermon text, to highlight how we ended up in that ditch in the first place, and how Jesus took the time to bandage our wounds, and lift us to eternal safety.

This expert of the law comes up to Jesus and asks him a question, a question dealing with salvation. He asks, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” What a question this is! The assumption here is that he can do something to inherit eternal life. Of course, if this were true, friends, why would God have sent his Son to save us? If we did not need a Savior, why did God send one anyway? The law expert makes a wrong assumption about himself.

Jesus wants to expose this man's error for his good. He needs to see that he is not OK. He needs to see that his sins have thrown him in a ditch, and that he needs a Good Samaritan to rescue him. Jesus answers the man’s question with another question, “’What is written in the law?’ he replied.” Or to put it this way, Jesus is saying "You want to know what you must do to reach heaven…Oh my friend, you have no idea. Tell me what the law demands of you; then you will know!"

The law expert answers, “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.”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus tells him.  “Do this and you will live.” What an understatement! “Oh, just love God perfectly and your neighbor, then heaven is yours!”

The expert was apparently unsettled by Jesus’ last comment. Why do I say that? Because upon hearing that he must love perfectly to enter heaven, he tries to gain himself some wiggle room. He asks, “And who is my neighbor?” The law expert was trying to draw a very small circle around himself. “Everyone inside my circle is my neighbor. Everyone outside is not!”

Certainly, it is God’s will to love our neighbor. Our neighbor needs our love in action.  For instance, parents are called to love their children. Parental love in action can take many forms. Parents love their children simply by reading them books, changing their diapers, brushing their teeth before they go to bed. They love their children by having them baptized. When children grow older, parents love their children in different ways. They help with homework. They give guidance to help them in school, or with dating. They encourage them to fully use their God-given talents. Of course, they continually teach them God’s Word.

There are many other neighbors to love. Spouse to spouse, brother to sister, friend to friend. Employee even shows love to employer by working hard. Employer shows love to his employee by treating him fairly. Our neighbor is the stranger that we stumble upon, who is in real need of a few bucks, a ride to the closest phone, a call for an ambulance.

All of this responsibility is daunting. This is why the law expert asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" He was trying to draw a tight circle around his life where only a few special people would qualify to be his neighbor. He was trying to make the commandments manageable. He wanted to hear Jesus say, "Select a few good neighbors to love; I give you permission to ignore the rest. If you love these chosen ones very well, heaven is yours.

And this is why this law expert lay spiritually dead in a ditch. He was unable to love as God demands.  This is why we are in the same ditch. Our identical sins put us there, too. Our sins mug us like robbers who spring up from behind.  As tight we draw our circle of neighbors around ourselves, we don’t even love these as we should. For example, every family has testy moments. Husband or wife is tired. Kids are acting up. A bad day at work. You burned the dinner. Suddenly it all spills over. Sharp words fly. Cold silence simmers in the house. We can get so angry at the ones we love that if we were come upon them at that moment, face down in a ditch, we would just pass on by. This sounds extreme, but emotions like these do well up inside of us. This happens because we don’t love God like we should in the first place. When trust in God is lacking, burned dinners, and bad days at work, causes sin to spring up behind us and we die. How glad are we that Jesus has come in the flesh like a Good Samaritan to rescue us from this ditch, to bandage our wounds!

As Jesus tells the parable, a man goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho and is ambushed by robbers, stripped, beaten, and left for dead. A priest hurries by on one side, never stopping to help. A Levite passes by on the other side soon after. They think, "He’s not my neighbor! If I stop, I’ll get robbed and beaten too!" But then a Samaritan comes by. He does stop! He cleans the man’s wounds with oil and wine and places bandages on them. Then he places the injured man on his own donkey, and brings him to an innkeeper. He pays the innkeeper to care for the man until he is healthy again. He even promises to return later to pay off any extra expense. This is a picture of our Savior helping us!

He found us spiritually dead in a ditch of sin. Being dead, we were unable to come to God or believe in him on our own. So God comes to us in Jesus, setting up his tent of flesh among us!

He did so when he was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary, born of the Virgin, and became man. For thirty years on this earth, he took to time to love his neighbor perfectly for us, fulfilling the commandment to love thy neighbor in our place. Then he went to the cross. There He made the ultimate Good Samaritan sacrifice by taking on our sin, and taking the right cross of God’s judgment for us so that we would be spared. His blood was shed.

This wonderful blood now comes to your wounds of sin today. Just as the Good Samaritan rubbed oil and wine to clean the man’s wounds, just like a mom or dad tends to their child's scrapped knee, Jesus takes the time every day by his cleansing blood in baptism to forgive us and bandage up our guilt. This washing what makes us born again, spiritually alive! Alive to believe in him as our Savior! When he picks us up, we wrap our arms of believe tightly around his neck like a little injured boy holds on to mom or dad as he is carried home.

Isn't it wonderful that God cares for each of you this much? With our arms of faith wrapped around his neck, Jesus will carry us all the way to our heavenly home itself! There is one reason that He, like a Good Samaritan, takes the time to do this: He loves you!
                                                                                                Amen.

        Pastor Matthew W. Crick
        Thirteenth Sunday After Trinity
        17 September 2000