Luke 10:25–37

8th Sunday after Pentecost

Theme: Christ is our Good Samaritan who fulfilled the law so that we are counted righteous in order to inherit eternal life.

²⁵On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" ²⁶"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" ²⁷He answered: "'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.'" ²⁸"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live." ²⁹But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" ³⁰In 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. ³¹A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. ³²So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. ³⁴He 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 took care of him. ³⁵The 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.' ³⁶"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" ³⁷The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

This is perhaps one of the most well known passages of Scripture. This parable, known as the parable of the Good Samaritan, is told and retold around the world even by people who do not consider themselves Christians. It is considered, even by non-believers, to be one of the great pieces of wisdom from one of the wisest sages ever to walk the face of the earth.

Our text begins with one of life’s most important question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” This question was asked by a Jewish expert in the law, a member of the sect of Pharisees.

But the question was all wrong. It was based on the Pharisee’s legalistic interpretation of the Scriptures. It assumed that the Scripture is a book of instructions on what we must do to win God’s favor and get into heaven. There was a disparity between Jesus and the lawyer. The lawyer based his question on the law, but Jesus’ answer was based on God’s mercy.

Jesus’ answer was therefore designed to dismantle this legalistic interpretation. In order to do this Jesus responded with a question: “What does the Scripture say? You are an expert in the law. What is it?”

The lawyer answered with two verses from the Bible: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus said, “You have answered correctly. That summarizes the Law of God. Just do that and you will inherit eternal life.” As the Scriptures say: “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” It’s that simple!

So far there is nothing new. The lawyer already knew that. But Jesus didn’t stop there, he went one step further: “Now, go do it.”

Oops! That’s a problem! The lawyer was only trying to trap Jesus. He didn’t mean to get personal about it. This was getting a little too close for comfort. He knew that he was not perfect. So,… being a shrewd lawyer, he tried to find a loophole to himself off the hook. In order to justify himself he asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”

He couldn’t argue with what Jesus said. His only chance was to challenge the definitions of words. If he could take all the people he don’t love and re-define the word “neighbor” so as not to include those people, them he would be in the clear.

How nice it would be for us too. It is really no problem for us to love our friends and the people we like. Jesus said, “Even publicans and pagans do that.” But Jesus tells us to “love our enemies.”

Now that really is a different story. We have not loved our neighbor as ourselves. This tells us that although we are good at loving and befriending those we like, we have not loved those we don’t like. We have not kept the demands of God’s law. Therefore, we are not eligible to inherit eternal life. We refuse to befriend people whom we consider inferior, perhaps because of their social status, or race, or even just their physical appearance. We refuse to forgive those who have offended us because they haven’t admitted they were wrong. We avoid certain people or feel hatred in our heart for some people because of something they said or did to offend us.

But just as the lawyer tried to justify himself by redefining the word “neighbor,” so do we. When we say, “Well he did such and such to me and didn’t apologize, so I won’t forgive him,” we are simply trying to define that person into a class of people we are not required to love. Or when we say, “He never says ‘Thank you’ for what I do for him, so I won’t do anything anymore,” we are merely defining that person out of our responsibility to love him.

In other words, this simple question “Who is my neighbor?” makes it clear that God is right when He says that we are by nature sinners and deserve His wrath. It becomes clear that we are enemies of God and thus have become enemies of one another. It becomes clear that we have wicked and sinful hearts and do not in any way deserve to inherit eternal life. It is clear that we are all sinners and have fallen short of God’s holy and righteous demands, and that what we deserve is death and eternal condemnation. In the end, the answer to the question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” is we cannot do anything because we have blown it. We do not deserve eternal life and there is nothing we can do.

Then Jesus tells a story to deconstruct the lawyer’s legalistic interpretation. Like the lawyer, most of us think that this parable is to teach us to love our neighbor, even those other people whom we despise. That if we would just love and forgive those people as well, we will be on the right path and doing what God requires of us and winning his favor.

Wrong! Jesus story has a completely different meaning because Jesus has just established that we do not keep God’s law. The point of the parable of the Good Samaritan is not to teach us to love our neighbor, but to show us how God gives us his grace in spite of the fact that we have not loved our neighbor as ourselves.

In the parable, there was a man who had been beaten and robbed. Then, half dead, he was left on the side of the road to die. Along come two prominent leaders in the church. People who should have set an example for the rest and helped their brother in need. They did not. How often we too fail to do good to our neighbor, especially those we don’t like. This deplorable omission of love for our neighbor is not only sinful in itself, it is utterly shameful for anyone who claims to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Too often we are the priest and Levite in the story. We are the ones who pass by our neighbor in need and walk on the other side of the street trying to make it look like we didn’t see the person. We too often bear grudges and are unwilling to forgive. We are too often prejudice and don’t accept people because of their skin color or nationality.

Finally, however, someone did stop to help. It turned out to be a Samaritan. Wait a minute. A Samaritan? Now, we must understand, that the Samaritans were despised by the Jews. They were looked down upon, considered sinners and unworthy of God’s kingdom. They could not inherit eternal life because God would have nothing to do with them. For all the same reasons, Jesus was despised and rejected by the Jewish leaders as well. He hung around sinners, ate with them, slept with them, talked with them; he even touched them. So, just as the Samaritans were despised, Jesus was despised.

We find the real key to this parable at the end when Jesus asked the lawyer, “Who was the neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” In the lawyer’s legalistic interpretation, he wanted to define some people out of the word “neighbor.” But Jesus skewed the whole discussion. Instead of asking “Who are we supposed to love?” he asks, “Who is it that loves us?” He changes the “Who?” from the object to the subject.

This is an entirely new interpretation. Instead of interpreting it as law, Jesus interprets it as Gospel.

In Jesus’ interpretation, the half-dead men, broken and lying at the side of the road to die is us. Indeed, we are the ones who are dead to God; dead in our trespasses and sins. The Samaritan, whom the world has despised and rejected but who comes to bind up our wounds, give us food and drink, carry us to shelter, pay our expenses, and give us lodging in his kingdom is Jesus Christ himself.

Rather than this being a parable of law, telling us what we should do, it is a parable of Gospel, telling us what God has done for us through Christ.

This remarkable story tells of the suffering and rejection of Jesus Christ, who gave up his throne in the heavens to become a man, to be rejected of men, to be despised, whipped, beaten, and scourged. It tells of the Son of God who came to suffer the shame of the cross, to be abandoned by his Father and to die for our sins.

That is what it means to be a neighbor. It is Jesus Christ who loved his neighbor as himself. It is Jesus Christ who, in spite of the fact that we hated and despised him, as the Jews hated and despised the Samaritans, loves us as himself. It is Jesus Christ who loved us so much that he gave himself for us so that we might not perish but inherit eternal life. Jesus is the Samaritan and we are the broken man dying in the road.

Jesus is the only one who has loved God with all his heart, soul and strength and loved his neighbor as himself. And he did it in our place; on our behalf. He did it so that it would count for us. When we are baptized and have faith in Christ, his obedience counts for us as if it were we who obeyed. His righteousness is counted as our righteousness. In baptism we are joined to the life of Christ and his life becomes ours; his obedience counts as ours; his faith counts as ours; his love counts as ours. When Jesus fulfilled the demands of God’s law for us, they were fulfilled and now God counts his law as having been obeyed. God no longer has anything against us. Our debts have been paid.

All the times we did not love our neighbor; all the times we passed by someone in need and did not help; all the times we held a grudge or despised our neighbor, have been wiped off our record by our Good Samaritan. All the times Jesus loved our neighbor have counted as if we loved our neighbor. Our Good Samaritan loved our neighbor for us and because of him we have inherited eternal life. The lawyer asked the wrong question. Instead of asking “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” he should have asked, “What did Jesus do so that I may inherit eternal life?”

On account of Jesus’ righteousness, we now stand holy and righteous before God. Like the man on the side of the road, Jesus washed our souls, healed us, and carried us to the inn: eternal life.

And as our lives are embraced by Christ, we die to ourselves. “It is now not I who live, but Christ who lives in me,” says Paul. The Holy Spirit cleanses our hearts and transforms them with the love of Christ for others. He transforms our lives to look like Christ and renews us in the image of Christ. Therefore, we begin to love our neighbor and serve him and do good unto him, even as Christ, our Good Samaritan, did good to the robbery victim. This love of God begins to work in our hearts by the Holy Spirit and the example of Jesus loving his neighbor becomes a reality in our lives as we are sanctified by the Holy Spirit. In Christ, by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we take on the life of Christ and we become Samaritans for our neighbors who lie wounded and broken by the road side. When we see our neighbors, dead in their sins, we revive them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ calling them to repentance and faith. Renewed in the image of Christ we become Samaritans.

So back to the original question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” It’s not about what I must do, but about Christ did. We were dead men lying on the side of the road; dead in our sins and but the merciful Good Samaritan, by his own death in our place, washed our wounds, healed us in our baptism and will one day carry us to his own home to live with him for eternity.

Amen.