We are blessed to see Jesus rescue us.

 

Sermon for Trinity 13, September 11, 2022

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  He gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father—to whom be the glory forever and ever.  Amen.

            Jesus sent out seventy-two disciples to proclaim the Good News.  Those seventy-two rookie missionaries returned to Him rejoicing for the response they had received.  They reported that at the mention of Jesus’ name even the demons submitted to them.  Giving thanks to God with them, Jesus replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” (Luke 10:18)  By the preaching of the Gospel, the devil is defeated and is bound in the unbreakable chains of the Good News of what Jesus has done for us, so when Jesus’ followers hear and believe the Gospel, their names are written in heaven.  In this way, We are blessed to see Jesus rescue us.

Luke 10:23–37  ²³Turning to the disciples, he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!  ²⁴Indeed, I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see the things that you are seeing, yet did not see them, and to hear the things that you are hearing, yet did not hear them.”  ²⁵Just then, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  ²⁶“What is written in the law?” he asked him.  “What do you read there?”  ²⁷He replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and, love your neighbor as yourself.”  ²⁸He said to him, “You have answered correctly.  Do this, and you will live.”  ²⁹But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”  ³⁰Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho.  He fell among robbers who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.  ³¹It just so happened that a priest was going down that way.  But when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.  ³²In the same way, a Levite also happened to go there, but when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.  ³³A Samaritan, as he traveled, came to where the man was.  When he saw him, he felt sorry for the man.  ³⁴He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them.  He put him on his own animal, took him to an inn, and took care of him.  ³⁵The next day, when he left, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him.  Whatever extra you spend, I will repay you when I return.’  ³⁶Which of these three do you think acted like a neighbor to the man who fell among robbers?”  ³⁷“The one who showed mercy to him,” he replied.  Then Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” (EHV)

Dear fellow redeemed,

            Immediately after His disciples’ excited return, Jesus gave thanks to His Father for the faith they had been given, which allowed them to have power over Jesus’ most ancient enemy.  Turning to the disciples, he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!  Indeed, I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see the things that you are seeing, yet did not see them, and to hear the things that you are hearing, yet did not hear them.”  Jesus wanted his disciples to recognize how blessed they were to be living at that point in history in which they could experience His love face to face, could see His work of salvation accomplished, and hear Him teach with authority, as only He could, His wonderful, saving Gospel.

Many of the Old Testament prophets and kings had eagerly awaited that moment.  Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Daniel, and countless others, all of God’s ancient faithful believers were called out of this life before the experience of seeing their Savior face to face.  Yet, they all had their names written in heaven because they heard the Gospel and believed God’s promise of a Messiah who would come into the world to save them. 

Naturally, not everybody was so trusting of the Gospel.  Our human nature expects we must rely on our works.  Therefore, most religions preach law and obedience.  Even though Israel had the Gospel, the Law gradually took center stage in their worship to the point that they rejected God’s help.  Consequently, this legal expert tried to trap Jesus with the law, but in reality, it was the lawyer who was caught in the law’s trap.  He asked, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"  His question is flawed.  No one can do anything to inherit something.  An inheritance, by definition, is a gift bestowed after the death of someone who chose to love and bless the person who will receive the gift.

Attempting to help the lawyer get out of his trap, Jesus replied with a question, " What is written in the law?”  “What do you read there?”  The lawyer’s reply accurately recounted the summary of God’s Law, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and, love your neighbor as yourself.”   There is no doubt that the lawyer knew the law, and Jesus confirms it saying, “You have answered correctly.  Do this, and you will live.” 

Jesus is certainly honest in His answer; if you could perfectly obey God’s Law from beginning to end for every moment from conception until the end of your physical life, you would deserve to have eternal life, and God would have no complaint about you.  In fact, God would rejoice for every moment of your life and welcome you home to His heaven.

There is just one “tiny” (as in monstrous) flaw in this concept.  The Holy Spirit warns us, “There is no one who is righteous, not even one.  There is no one who understands.  There is no one who searches for God.  They all turned away; together they became useless.  There is no one who does what is good; there is not even one.” (Romans 3:10-12)

Unfortunately, the lawyer missed Jesus’ point completely.  He arrogantly assumed he had been obeying God’s law, but just to make sure and prove himself worthy, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"  This lawyer was so sure of his self-righteousness, that he didn’t even question whether he had, in fact, loved God with all his heart, soul, strength, and understanding.

My friends, think about this first command: “Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind.”  That means that to deserve eternal life, you and I can never, not for one fraction of a moment, have taken our thoughts off of what is right, what is good, what is pure and holy.  We can never, not even once, think of anything except what God desires for us, and in us.  It means we will never question His care for us, or His motives in what He allows to come our way in this world.  It means we never have, and never will, doubt anything about what God has said in His Word or done in this world.  We will continually serve our Lord God with perfect devotion from conception on into eternity.  No honest person could ever claim this, but even if we did, our inherited sin would condemn us.

My friends, this lawyer, and to be honest, every person on earth including all of us, needed this lesson on what it means to love the way God wants us to love.  Our natural man has a highly inflated sense of his own holiness.  However, to love as God expects us to love, it’s not enough to treat well those who love you.  It’s not the same love just to take care of those whom we hold near and dear.  God wants us to love, as He does, without regard to whether the person deserves our love. 

The true love of which God speaks in His commandments means surrendering ourselves completely and totally into God’s loving care and then caring for our neighbors with the same loving concern God has shown to us.

Now, be honest, how do you think you have done when it comes to loving as God expects?  As we read Jesus’ account of the Good Samaritan, I hope you came to see your place in it.  Many would assume that Jesus told this parable to make us be like that Samaritan.  Of course, some people might imagine they already are, but truth be told, you and I and all people are represented by that poor man lying beaten and half dead on the ground.  This account of the Good Samaritan is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus.  Therefore, in the parable, We are blessed to see Jesus rescue us.

Jesus didn’t tell this story as a morality play.  Certainly, Jesus does want us to care for those less fortunate and to help those who find trouble along their way, but Jesus tells this account as a graphic description of what He has done for all of us.  You see, all the people who have ever lived on this earth were robbed of all they possessed by the devil when he stole our innocence and left us for dead in the Garden of Eden.  It is because of that ancient thief that you and I suffer the blows and pains, the bleeding and death, that so afflict this world.  We were left for dead. 

The devil didn’t care about what he took from us, and we were too broken to be able to recover our holiness.  Our beautiful clothing of perfect righteousness, and the riches with which God had endowed us in His image at our creation, were gone forever, unless someone from a foreign place would come to rescue us.  That someone from outside our world is Jesus, and He didn’t just happen to be wandering along our path.  Jesus came down our road of suffering and death, because He was looking to save us.  Jesus made it His business to be here at the right time to make us whole.

Jesus told this parable because He wanted the lawyer to understand that those who were focused on the law couldn’t do anything to save themselves or anyone else.  In reality, they suffered the same affliction as the poor man lying in the road, they just didn’t know that they were already half dead in their uncaring attitudes.  Many of their day would have assumed that touching a bloody, perhaps even dead, body would have made them ceremonially unclean; so why risk it?

Truly though, this account parallels the Good News of Christ.  Jesus travelled down our road to become our Rescuer.  While all the world was passing us by, Jesus came down from heaven for the express purpose of healing our wounds.  He had compassion on our fallen race.  He wouldn’t turn away from us in the face of danger.  Jesus didn’t worry about blood or death making Him unclean.  Instead, He willingly allowed His own blood to be shed as payment for our sins.  It is through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross that our spiritual wounds were bandaged.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, God pours on us the healing medicine of His Gospel to rescue us from certain death.  Through the work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus picks us up and carries us to a place of rest where we can be taken care of until completely healed.

Any guesses as to what the inn of our sermon text represents?  It is, of course, the Christian Church.  In the Church, the Gospel is proclaimed, and our sins are absolved—here we find rest from the wounds and worries, the burdens and cares of this sin damaged world.  Here, Jesus gives His riches as payment to the innkeeper and says “Take care of [them].  Whatever extra you spend, I will repay.” 

Do you still want to be the Good Samaritan?  That role, my friends, has been taken by the One Man who could fulfill the role perfectly.  There is no need for another.  Still, our Good Savior shares with us the task of carrying on His work here on earth.  Here, as the assembly of Christ’s believers, we are to live as His body, picking up the injured we see along the way, carrying them to the place of rest that gives eternal life.  Here, through the pouring on of the oil and wine of God’s Word, we help bandage up the wounds and bruises this world inflicts.  We become Jesus’ hands as we reach for the spiritually broken sinners we find along our road.

Though some people will always want to earn a place in heaven, you and I have already inherited our homes there because Jesus paid the price.  The rich blessing of eternal life in God’s mansions was purchased on our behalf by the richness of our Savior’s sacrifice and can only be given as an inheritance of faith, which comes through the healing message of His Gospel.  The Holy Spirit signed over the titles to those homes at our baptisms where He worked in our hearts the faith to believe in Jesus as our Savior.  Still, we don’t want to take our inheritance lightly.  Rather, we live our new life here on earth, serving our Lord and Savior in thought, word, and deed as we continue to be His hands of healing through the sharing of his Gospel, because We are blessed to see Jesus rescue us.  Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  Amen.