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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text comes from the Gospel reading regarding the parable of the Good Samaritan. You may be seated. This is probably one of Jesus’ most well-known parables, but I want to ask you a question to consider. What do you think the main point of the parable really is? I mean, is the Good Samaritan nothing more than a moral story? Be a good boy, be a good girl, love those people, serve other people. Yes, but no. Because if it’s only a moral story about being good to someone else, serving them, then we sure don’t need that crucified Christ on the cross because all we got to do is try harder.
This parable is not about moralism, because moralism is a Christless religion, and the world is full of Christless religions, which are all moral religions. Christianity is about Christ. So this parable has to have something to do with Jesus and has to have something to do with you, or else it’s just a moralistic parable, and we don’t need a crucified Christ anymore. And we’re just like all the other religions in this world.
Well, first let’s look at the lawyer. Now, he’s not a lawyer like you and I know lawyers in this world. Lawyers are attorneys who have something to do in their expertise in civil law. That makes sense. This isn’t civil law that this man is an expert in. He’s an expert in religious law. He is a Bible law expert. Right? So he, who is a Bible law expert, is wanting to validate something by asking Jesus because was the question that he asked Jesus answered by himself? Yes. Remember? He asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus puts it back on him and says, “Well, tell me what the law says.” And he gives the law: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind and love your neighbor as yourself.”
This is the interesting statement that this lawyer or this Bible law expert asks. He doesn’t ask, “How do I love my Lord and God above all things?” He asks, “Who’s my neighbor?” The text says he asked that because he desired to justify himself. You and I are picky people. We don’t give love and compassion and mercy to everybody. We give it more to one person because we feel like they deserve it more than we give it to this person. And in having done so, we justify our actions to ourselves.
You’ve been hearing a lot of people justify their actions in the last several weeks, haven’t you? Political figures justify their actions, haven’t they? They chose what’s right. They didn’t believe in an absolute truth. Sports figures justify their actions, off or on the field or the court. And in doing so, they say, “That’s why.” Because there isn’t an ultimate absolute truth. Hollywood figures justify their lifestyles and their comments and their inclusiveness or exclusiveness, however one wishes to look at it. And they justify that because they too believe in their not being an absolute truth of right, wrong, true, false, good, bad, just like we do.
Why else, in our arguments with our spouses, do we give reasons why this happened to our spouse, justifying why we acted the way we did? Rather than just saying, “I was wrong.” Why is it that when we were children, we gave a litany of reasons to our parents as to why we did or didn’t do what we were supposed to have done or not supposed to have done? Because we wished to justify our actions. This man in this text wanted to justify his actions to be selective as to who received his mercy. He determined who was worthy of mercy.
That’s why this parable is not about moralism, because how often have you been blind in your giving of mercy? About as much as I have, haven’t you? You’ve been very selective in who gets mercy, protective of some, defending of others. Oh, you and I are all about justifying our actions. We are not blind. We are extremely selective. When we take this selective attitude upon our hearts and we don’t confess sins, then there is no need for forgiveness. And if there’s no need for forgiveness, then there is no need for Jesus. If we justify our actions and do not repent and ask for forgiveness, then there is no need for Christ and him crucified for us, paying for our sin.
This parable is not about moralism. It’s about Jesus, and it’s about you. You know who you are in this parable? You are not the Good Samaritan. You are the man. You are the man who had been trapped by robbers, beaten, and left half-naked. That’s who you are. Because in order to be blind and show mercy, you first have to come to terms with you receiving mercy and not being worthy of it. Because everything about that man lying in that road is about undeserved forgiveness. Everything about that man who’s broken and bleeding and dying, left half-naked, is about undeserved service received.
Every one of them. The Levite, when he looked at him, passed by. The priest, when he looked at him, passed by. When the Good Samaritan looked at him, the text says he had compassion. You and I know how to give compassion. We know how to feel it, but we’re selective in who receives compassion. We are not blind and give everyone the same compassion. So if this is about moralism, it will leave us completely without hope and without forgiveness, and that means without Jesus.
Therefore, this parable is not about moralism. You are the man in the road, beaten, stripped, and half-naked. And Jesus is the Good Samaritan, not you. Jesus is the one who looks upon you and finds you in the mess that you and I are and rescues us. Jesus is the one who binds up your wounds with oil and wine when you can’t bind them up yourself. Jesus is the one who puts you on his horse to carry you when you can’t walk. Jesus is the one who brings you to the inn, or the church, and leaves you with others who will care for you. And Jesus is the one who says, “I’ll be back. I’ll be back to settle up with all those who care for you.”
We love to be the star in every single parable as if we’re the one doing it. There’s only one star, and that’s him. When was the last time you were bereft of any help or any hope and you had to be served or cared for by someone else? Not very often for most of us. You tell me when you visit someone who is a shut-in or in the hospital or in a nursing home. You tell me what it’s like to be served and no longer to be able to serve. You ever taken keys away from a father or a mother? They have to be served and depend upon you for every single thing they themselves used to do.
It is then, and at that point, when you are the one being served that you now have this revelation of what it’s like. How can you be blind to giving mercy unless you first receive undeserved mercy, undeserved forgiveness, undeserved service? How can you show compassion unless you, who do not deserve compassion, have been shown compassion? This parable is not about moralism but about Jesus serving you. That’s what this parable is about. Jesus is the Good Samaritan. You are the man.
What does that mean then? It means the more you and I grasp our being that man, the more you and I learn to be blind to showing compassion to other people. The more we have confessed that our wounds have been bound up and healed and that we have been brought to other people to be served. We’re the only people we’ve got in this world. We’ve got nobody else in this world who can support us and love us like each other. And we’ve got to receive strength and encouragement from one another because we can’t stand on our own two feet. But it’s a heck of a humble thing to have that done. To admit we can’t make it without somebody else.
That’s who we are, the man. And the star of this whole parable is Jesus, not you. So then, what’s the point? The point of the parable is, is Jesus serving you? The more you grasp what Jesus has done, then and only then do Jesus’ words have any meaning when he says, “You go and do likewise.” Because the context of “you go and do likewise” is you first were the man in the road, remember? Oh yeah, now I can go and do likewise because I first am acknowledging who is the Good Samaritan in my life and what I really am in this life.
Now you go and do likewise. In the name of Jesus, amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
