Hosea 6:1–6
Galatians 3:15–22
St. Luke 10:23–37
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
No one has ever seen God. He is invisible. He is a spirit. He lives in that unapproachable light and no one can see Him and live to talk about it. Remember how Moses had to hide himself under the cleft of a rock when he spoke to God on Sinai? Or how Isaiah cringed in fear, crying “Woe is me! I am undone!” when he saw God in a vision? Even the holy angels, who are not God but live in the presence of God, evoke fear in the hearts of those who see them. God is a consuming fire.
But God hides His terrible, unknowable, awesome glory beneath the most humble form. God became a man. He took upon Himself our own flesh and blood, body and soul. He has joined the human race. And His prophets had prophesied this, but they never got to see it. They never heard His voice spoken with the vocal cords of a man. And the old kings, whose kingdom Christ would inherit and bring to fulfillment, also never saw or heard what they yearned for. So Jesus says to His disciples: “Blessed are you… For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” The disciples are blessed because they see and hear it: Jesus—God in the flesh. Make no mistake about it. He doesn’t do His miracles or teach His teaching as a wise man who shares the wisdom of humanity, but as the eternal God. Our God is a man—His name is Jesus. And if our God had not become a man we could never have known Him. He joined us sinners in our helplessness in order to bring us back into fellowship with Him.
The prophet Hosea desired to see what he prophesied when he was given this Word from the Lord: I desire mercy and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. God doesn’t desire that we would serve Him for His benefit, that we would fill Him up and please Him with sacrifices and burnt offerings. But He desires to serve us with His mercy for our benefit and to give us a right knowledge of God. And He desires that we would also follow in His ways by showing mercy to others. In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God’s desire for mercy was fulfilled, and the fullness of the knowledge of God was given to mankind. The disciples saw this mercy in Jesus. They heard and learned the knowledge of God by listening to Jesus’ voice. And so they were blessed.
But this lawyer, in the text today, did not see and hear what they did. Of course, he was smart. You have to be smart to be an expert in the Law of Moses. But even with all his learning he had no true knowledge. He missed what the prophets and kings had longed for, even though it was standing right in front of him: his God and Savior in the flesh. This expert in the Law didn’t come to Jesus to worship Him, or to be taught by Him, or to receive from Him the gifts only God can give: forgiveness, life, and salvation. This lawyer came to test Jesus. Not only test Jesus, but also prove himself. He was desiring to justify himself. He wanted to show that he was just, he was righteous by keeping the Law. He thought he could be saved by keeping the Law.
Now all the Lutherans go “Oh silly Pharisee. We all know you can’t be saved by works.” But that’s not quite fair, because like the disciples, we see and hear what others do not. The kingdom of God is revealed by faith in the Word of God, but it is hidden from those who do not believe. And we have the extra benefit of the written New Testament Scriptures. We have St. Paul’s epistles that so clearly teach we cannot justify ourselves by our works, our feelings, or our good intentions. As St. Paul wrote: It is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Galatians 3:11).
Ah, but that does raise the question in our Epistle reading today: Why then the law? If trying to keep the commandments won’t save you, then why does God command them?Answer: the Law was added because of transgressions. The Law does three things in connection with our sin, our transgressions. (1) The Law keeps our sinful flesh in bounds, it holds us in check so that we don’t utterly destroy one another and ourselves. (2) The Law acts as a mirror to show us our sin—it reveals just how horribly sinful we are, just how much we deserve death and hell. (3) And because we as Christians are not yet perfect in this life, because we still struggle with sin, the Law rebukes us and teaches us what a God-pleasing life looks like. So, all of this means that the Law is not for salvation. The promise of the Gospel, the promise of the Savior who forgives sins—that is for salvation.
So, St. Paul goes on: Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Do the Law and the Gospel contradict each other? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Law and the Gospel are for different things. The Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
This is important for understanding the Parable today. The Parable of the Good Samaritan cannot mean you should be a good person, and if you are good enough and try to help people then you will inherit eternal life. Remember, that was the lawyer’s question, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” The answer cannot be, “Act like the Good Samaritan.” Salvation is not by works of the Law. God desires mercy and not sacrifice. God is the One who gives mercy—He is our God the Man Jesus who died and shed His blood for us. The point of this Parable is to show what had once been hidden but now is made known in Jesus. This Parable shows what is now seen and heard in Jesus. We are blessed by seeing and hearing Jesus our God and Savior in this Parable as the Good Samaritan.
Jesus humbled himself. He made Himself the lowest of the low, and came to serve sinners. He sees us in our sinful condition, dying and helpless on the side of the road. And what the Law cannot do, He does. He bandages our wounds. He pours on oil and wine, to soothe and to disinfect—that is He pours on His holy medicine in Baptism, Absolution, and the Holy Communion. He takes us to the inn, paying for us to have a place in His holy Church. He paid that price by going to the cross where He offered to God His obedience to the Law: His perfect love for God and for neighbor. That was the one and only sacrifice God desired, and in that vicarious offering of love Jesus won for us the forgiveness of sins. Jesus, the Good Samaritan, who is despised by those who seek to justify themselves, He justifies us by His blood.
And He’s not done. He doesn’t stop helping us because we never stop needing His help. Again and again, we confess our sins against God. We have not loved him with our whole heart, soul, strength, and mind. And we confess our sins against our neighbor. We have not shown the mercy that our God requires. We have loved ourselves more than we have loved either God or our neighbor. But our Good Samaritan sees the wreckage we have made of our lives and He loves us. Not only does He freely forgive all of our sins, but He fills us with His own love. He changes our hearts so that we want what God wants and love what God loves. And when we fail and fall and lie helpless, He lifts us up again, forgives us again, and shows us His mercy.
And this is how we learn to love and show mercy. Our God and Savior says, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. We receive mercy from Him and that teaches us to give it. Having His mercy empowers us to do mercy like Him. As our Lord said after His Parable, “You go, and do likewise.” So, we pray in our Collect today: Almighty and everlasting God, give us an increase of faith, hope, and charity; and that we may obtain what You have promised, make us love what You have commanded.
In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.
A few paragraphs are adapted from Rev. Rolf Preus, Trinity 13, 2012 & 2015
