Trinity 13
Lk
10:23-37
8/30/26
At some point, many of us have had
our house toilet papered. We have walked outside one morning and found a tree –
or trees - festooned with toilet paper by pranking youth. Perhaps at some point
you have been one of those youth throwing toilet paper all over a tree.
By contrast, what the Samaritans did
to the temple in Jerusalem at the very beginning of the first century A.D. was
no mere prank. And they did not use toilet paper. The Jewish historian Josephus
tells us that the Jewish custom at the Passover was to open the temple gates
just after midnight. The Samaritans knew this, so they snuck in and spread
human bones around the temple grounds. On the occasion of the most important
festival of the Jews, the Samaritans defiled the temple.
This event illustrates the hatred
that was present between the Jews and the Samaritans. The Samaritans existed
because in 721 B.C. the Assyrians has conquered the northern kingdom of Israel
and had taken it into exile. In their place, the Assyrians brought in people
from elsewhere in their empire.
These people took up a form of the
faith that was very similar to what would become Judaism. It was the same. But
it was also very different. They had their version of the Pentateuch – the
first five books of the Old Testament. They had their own temple that they
built on Mt. Gerizim. The significant differences that existed in the midst of
the similarities turned Jews and Samaritans into committed adversaries. In the
second century B.C. the Jews destroyed the temple of the Samaritans on Mt
Gerizim. Under Roman rule, the two groups were always trying to use their
rulers in order to gain an advantage over each other.
It is this background that helps to
provide the surprise in out text today – the parable of the Good Samaritan. For
the Jew the name by which we know this text would have been an oxymoron. The
phrase “good Samaritan” was absurd. Yet in the parable we learn about how God
has loved us in Christ. And at the same time we also learn how we are to love
others because of what God has done for us.
Just before our text, Jesus had
commented on how the wise and understanding did not believe, and instead those
considered to be little children did. Those who believed in Jesus did not have
great standing in the world. But in spite of this Jesus says, “Blessed are the
eyes that see what you see! 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 who believed in Christ were blessed because
they were seeing the fulfillment of God’s end time salvation. They were seeing
what the prophets and kings of Israel in the Old Testament longed to see but
never did.
We immediately then encounter one of
those so called wise and understanding people who rejected Christ. Luke tells
us, “And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying,
‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’” This man was an
expert in the interpretation of the Law of Moses. He had come to test Jesus – to try and catch
our Lord in something that he said. It’s impossible to miss that his
understanding of life with God was based on what a person did. This didn’t mean
that he denied God’s grace – almost no one in first century Judaism did that.
But it did indicate that the man’s actions had taken on a prominent role in the
way he thought about salvation.
Jesus’ answer was simple. He said,
“What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” The man replied with the word
of Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19. He answered, “You shall 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 your neighbor as yourself.” So Jesus said,
“You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
The lawyer was trying to test Jesus
– to catch him in something. Instead, Jesus had made him look silly by
revealing the simplicity of the matter. Then Luke tells us, “But
he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’”
The lawyer was trying to recover by
asking what he thought was a complicated question. Yes, a Jew was to love his
neighbor. However, who qualified as a neighbor that was deserving of this love?
In other words, who was really a Jew who should be loved in this way? We
know that this was a question that mattered to many Jews. The Pharisees didn’t
consider other Jews to count in this way. The Jews at Qumran who made the Dead
Sea Scrolls thought no one outside their community counted in this way.
In response, Jesus told a parable.
He replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell
among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half
dead.” The fifteen miles from Jerusalem
to Jericho was known as an area where robbers often operated. The robbers
attacked the man. They beat him, took away his clothes, and left him half dead.
The man was fortunate because by
chance a priest was going down that road. He was someone who offered sacrifices
at the temple and was also charged with teaching the people God’s Word.
However, when he saw the man he ignored him and passed by on the other side.
Why did he do this? Did he fear that the robbers who had attacked the man were
still around? Was he concerned that the man was in fact dead, and touching him
would brings about ritual uncleanness that required time and money to remedy?
We don’t know.
Later a Levite was traveling on the road and came upon the man. He
was part of the group that was responsible for the operation of the temple. But
like the priest when he saw the man, he ignored him. He passed by on the other
side of the road.
Representatives from two of the most respected groups in Judaism
had ignored the poor man. Then Jesus springs the surprise in the parable as he
says, “But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he
saw him, he had compassion.” The one who finally stops and helps the wounded
man is a hated Samaritan! The Samaritan bound up the mans wounds, and poured
oil and wine on them. He put the man on his own animal and brought the man to
an inn where he cared for him. Then he paid the in keeper two denarii so that
he would assist the man, and promised to pay whatever more was needed when he
returned.
The lawyer had asked Jesus, “And who
is my neighbor?” When Jesus had finished the parable he asked the lawyer, “Which
of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among
the robbers?” He answered, “The one who showed him mercy.” And so our Lord
responded, “You go, and do likewise.”
The great surprise in the parable
this morning is that the one who stops to help is a Samaritan. So how
are we supposed to understand this, and what is Jesus teaching us? The place to
begin is the description of the Samaritan’s reaction. We learn that when he saw
the man he had compassion. Prior to our text, this verb has occurred
only one time in Luke’s Gospel. This was in chapter seven when Jesus came upon
the widow and her dead son as he was being carried out of the village of Nain
for burial. There we hear, “And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion
on her and said to her, “Do not weep.”
After our text it only occurs one
more time. In chapter fifteen our Lord tells the parable of the prodigal son.
After demanding his inheritance and wasting it in profligate living, the son
finally decides that he will return to his father and ask to be received as a
hired hand. Then Jesus says, “But while he was still a long way off, his father
saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed
him.”
The Samaritan in the parable is God
who has acted in Christ to save you. He is the One who has had compassion. And
if God is the Samaritan, then you are the man who is beaten, stripped naked,
and half dead along the road. You are the helpless one.
Jerusalem was the place where the
temple was located – the place associated with God’s presence. The city was
built on a hill that is the high point of the surrounding area. Just as in our
text, people are always described as “going down from Jerusalem.” The man
descends from Jerusalem and the temple to being a helpless figure, bleeding and
lying along the road. Many of the early Church fathers took this to be an
illustration of our own experience.
We were created in the image of God
and lived in fellowship with him. But in the sin of Adam we were plunged into a
sinful and fallen existence. We call it “the Fall” because we descended from
this perfect existence with God to one which is ruled by sin and death. The man
was helpless by the side of the road. We were spiritually helpless. We were not
just half dead like the man. We were dead, and worse than dead, for we were
under the devil’s power and hostile to God.
But like the Samaritan, God had
compassion on us. He helped the helpless. He did this by sending his Son into
the world in the incarnation as Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary. The Samaritans were despised by the Jews. Jesus
had come to receive the rejection that led to the cross. In the previous
chapter Luke tells us, “When the days drew near for him to be taken
up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” Even as we hear Jesus tell
the parable in our text he is on his final trip to the holy city where he knows
crucifixion awaits him.
Our Lord was in the world as the sinless One who had come to take
the place of sinners. At his baptism he was anointed with the Holy Spirit and
designated as the Servant of the Lord. He went to the cross as the fulfillment
of Isaiah’s words about the Servant: “But he was pierced for our
transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the
chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All
we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own
way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
The sin of Adam brought death. But Jesus Christ is the second Adam
who redeemed us from sin by his death, and then began the new life of the
resurrection when God raised him up on Easter. This new life is now at work in
you through his Spirit. You have been born again in the water of baptism. You
live in Christ as his Spirit leads and enables you.
And this leads us to recognize that the Samaritan in the parable
must be understood in a second way as well. Christ is the Samaritan who had
compassion on us when we were helpless and lying at the side of the road. Now
as those who are in Christ, through the work of the Spirit we become Christ to
those around us. We become the means by which Jesus shares his love with
others. We become the Samaritan in the parable.
Jesus said to his disciples, “You know that the rulers of the
Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over
them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must
be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even
as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his
life as a ransom for many.” The Lord Jesus’ service to save us becomes now
the pattern for our life.
The Samaritan helped the man who was lying helpless along the road.
Christ has called you to help those in need – to help the people the Lord has
placed in your life. These needs do not
have to be dramatic like the man in the parable. Instead, it may simply be
taking the time to listen to those who are suffering and to encourage them. As
Paul told the Romans, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who
weep.” We show love and care towards others because of what Jesus has done for
us. As Paul told the Galatians, “Bear
one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
In our text the Samaritan came upon the man who was stripped and
half dead. Because of his condition it was not possible to tell anything about
his background. One could not know whether he was wealthy or poor. It wasn’t
possible to know anything about his social status. And this is a reminder that
the love of Christ that we share includes all people. It knows no limitations because God’s love
for us was not limited in any way. As Paul reminded the Romans, “Do not be
haughty, but associate with the lowly.”
The parable of the Good Samaritan teaches us about how God has
loved us in Christ. Although we were helplessly trapped in sin and death, God
acted to save us through the death and resurrection of Christ. He has given us
forgiveness and life in Christ – life that will be resurrection life when Jesus
returns in glory on the Last Day. And because we now live in Christ through the
work of the Spirit, we share God’s love with all those around us
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