Since school is about to start, I thought it appropriate to begin this sermon with a test of sorts, a multiple-choice question to be exact, and I want you to choose not just the right answer, but the answer that is most correct.
If someone came up to you, as this teacher of the law did to Jesus one day, and asked, “How can I get to heaven?” would you tell him:
A: You’re already good enough.
B: You must obey what is written in the Law.
C: You can nothing to get to heaven, or
D: All of the above.
Since it’s the one Lutherans are most inclined to pick, let’s start with answer “C”: You can do nothing to get to heaven. I know of many people who would be offended to hear this, and I’m sure this Teacher of the law was one of them. Nevertheless, we do find support for answer “C” in today’s Gospel.
Listen again to what happened to the man that traveled from Jerusalem to Jericho, “He fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothes, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.”
That man is a perfect image of you and me, for when the Serpent tempted our first parents in the Garden, he also attacked us, stripped us of the image of God into which Adam and Eve were created, and beat us to the point of death. Even as this traveler in his present condition could do nothing to reach his destination, so we in sin can do nothing to get to heaven. Indeed, what was true for him is just as true for us. Unless someone comes to our rescue, we will die; only for us it will be an eternal death in hell.
Fortunately, for the man who was beaten on the road to Jericho, “A certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion on him.”
Now while I don’t usually point these things out in my sermons, the Greek word Jesus used here for “to have compassion” is much too significant to overlook. It is used only a handful of times in the New Testament- in other words, it is not a very common word in the Bible, and each time it is used it clearly refers to an act of God. For the Good Samaritan, who stopped to help this dying man, can be none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. And believe me stopping to help us as he did put Jesus in great danger, even as it did the Samaritan in this parable by the way. For who knows? Those thugs might still be lurking around this man’s wounded body to attack and rob anyone who stopped to help him. Only unlike the Samaritan in the parable, Jesus was attacked when he came to rescue us and really did lose his life at the hands of Satan and his thugs. But that is good for us, isn’t it? For listen to these words of St. Paul, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.’”
So if you chose “C”: You can do nothing to get to heaven you definitely chose a right answer to my question. But I’m afraid you didn’t choose the most correct answer. Therefore, let us proceed to answer “B”. To get to heaven, you must obey what is written in the law.
Before you disregard this answer as salvation by works, let me inform you that Jesus accepted it from this Teacher. For when he summed up God’s Law by saying, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and, you shall love your neighbor as yourself,” our Lord replied, “Do this and you will live.”
So answer “B” is also a right answer to my question. We must obey God’s law. Indeed, he commands it under threat of punishment.
And yet God’s law couldn’t save this victim on the road to Jericho. Though the commandment was clear, “You shall not murder,” yet these robbers chose not to obey it, but instead jumped him, stole his valuables, and beat him to the point of death anyway.
Even so, the law cannot save us, as we travel through this life to eternity. If we obeyed it, it would. If we loved God above all things and our neighbor as ourselves, we would get to heaven, no doubt about it. But we don’t. Even when we do what is commanded of us, we’re not doing it for the right reasons, not really as we by nature refuse to love God and our neighbor nearly as much as ourselves.
That was certainly true of this Teacher of the law, who
asked Jesus the question he did only to justify himself- that is, to make him look good to others and feel good about himself.
We’re no different, I’m afraid. We know what we want, and because we love ourselves as we do, we go after it whether God forbids it or not, and whether it hurts our neighbor or not. That is why the law cannot get us to heaven any more than it could this man to Jericho.
But take heart. What we are powerless to do in that sin incapacitated us, Jesus did for us. It’s true. In giving up his life for us as he did, Jesus showed perfect love both to God, who sent him to do this, and also to us, who have no power within ourselves to do this.
Still “B”, though a right answer, is not the most correct answer to my question either, which you will see once we move on to the third answer, “A”: You’re already good enough.”
But there’s no way that can be true, not if we’ve been conceived in sin; not if we love ourselves more than God and our neighbor; not if we are the man in this parable who was robbed, beaten, and left for dead.
Are you sure about that? Let’s return once more to the Good Samaritan, this time to see what he actually did to the dying man he found along the side of the road.
Jesus tells us that he bandaged his wounds, after pouring oil and wine over them to disinfect them. Then he took the man to a nearby inn, where he not only charged the innkeeper to care for him, but also gave him the money he needed to do so, until he returned.
Has not our dear Lord done the same for us whom Satan attacked and left for dead on the road to heaven? So that we might live, and not die, he at our Baptism poured over us his crimson Blood that once flowed out of his pierced side together with water, as well as the soothing oil of the Holy Spirit, and by this he not only cleansed our spiritual wounds but also covered them with the clean, white bandages of his righteousness.
So contrary to what you might be inclined to think, “A” is indeed a right answer to my question. Though it doesn’t yet show in our deeds, and won’t until our bodies are raised from their graves, we who were baptized into Christ are already good in God’s sight, since we have put on Christ and his righteousness.
And so that we stay this way- for make no mistake, the devil is determined to strip us of this clothing, our Savior brought us through Holy Baptism into his Church, where he has given his minister the authority to care for us- that is, to absolve us when we confess our sins, to preach to and catechize us, to feed us his true Body and true Blood, until the Day he returns to take us home with him to heaven.
So after all is said and done, the most correct answer to my question is “D”: All of the above. I will get to heaven even though I can do nothing on my own to accomplish this, because Jesus died for me, because he kept the law God commanded me to obey, and because he covered me with his righteousness when I was baptized with his Blood.
Now, “go and do likewise,” Jesus says. What? You can’t do that? While you can certainly show mercy to a neighbor who is in need, you can’t possibly save him from the curse of hell that his sin has placed upon him? Guess what? Neither can I, and that, dear Christians, is the lesson Jesus wants to teach through this parable. To put it very simply, we need a Good Samaritan much more than to be a Good Samaritan.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
