Trinity 13
Dear friends in Christ. Today’s Gospel of our Lord’s parable of the Merciful Samaritan is one of the more well-known and beloved of His parables. It came about as a result of Jesus being questioned by an expert in the Jewish law. This man was looking for one thing to do to be certain he would have eternal life: “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” That’s always the way it is if we hope to be saved/ to enter heaven by our works. There is always that horrible monster of uncertainty; there is always that unease/ unrest of soul/ conscience. Have I really done enough? So what is the silver bullet that Jesus gives him, the one thing that he can do to be sure of eternal life? To do God’s holy law—perfectly. Jesus said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And 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.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” That’s the whole OT law in summary fashion—love God and neighbor perfectly—and if you love both God and neighbor perfectly, you will not sin and therefore you can receive eternal life.
That was not the “profound” answer this lawyer was expecting. It was the answer any even reasonably devout Jew would know/ give: do the Law of God perfectly and you’ll get into heaven. But this lawyer knew he didn’t; the law was condemning him in his heart and conscience. He thought there had to be some sort of “out” or “end run.” Maybe, he thought, it was in the word “neighbor;” maybe the word neighbor not so all-encompassing. But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” And then here Jesus gives the parable of the merciful Samaritan. This lawyer’s intent was on finding out who his “neighbor” was so that he could love him and do all sorts of good to him, with the implication being what? So that I can find out who I don’t have to love as myself. And the usual Sunday School answer to the question, Who is my neighbor? is “everybody.”
To be sure, that’s true enough at a certain level, but what does Jesus do at the end of the parable? He asks the question, “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” Notice that Jesus flipped it. The lawyer was looking for “as neighbor” the one that he had to be nice to, to love as himself; the recipient of his love. But Jesus turned it around: the neighbor was the one doing the work; he’s not the recipient of the work.
So what does this mean? By flipping this idea of neighbor, Jesus was trying to get this man to recognize that he, this lawyer, needed a neighbor; that he was like that man who fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. And so by flipping the lawyer’s expectation of “neighbor” Jesus is here teaching us that He is the merciful Samaritan, that He, and He alone is the One who is “neighborly.” “But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’”
Here is a beautiful description of Jesus and His saving work in finding us sinners, lost and beaten by sin, devil, and death; that He has done all to help us out of our wretched spiritual condition, that He finds us, [binds] up [our] wounds, pouring on oil and wine, giving us His healing gifts of forgiveness of sin and peace with God, bringing us into his holy Church in which He continues to give us healing by His word and sacrament. Jesus, the Merciful Samaritan, alone proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers.
1. This is the heart and core of our holy Christian faith! God becomes man to be our Savior. The holy God enters into the nitty gritty of this sin contaminated world, deals with and even endures the worst this world can dish out. All of this is contained in the little phrase in the creed: And was made man. This is the true God being the neighbor to us who have been beaten and left for dead by sin, devil and death. And this fact of God entering this world, of God becoming man, and even Himself suffering and dying for us seems to many people to be “beneath God”. They don’t like the idea of God “coming down from heaven”—being a neighbor—but think that we, by our works must rise up to God; the works righteous crowd. God is too high and mighty they think. But as we examine our text, we will see that God’s majesty and His mercy belong together.
Notice how St. Isaiah introduces the Lord in our text: For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy. And then the Lord Himself confirms this as He says: “I dwell in the high and holy place...” What an impressive description of God! He is high and lifted up/ exalted. His is absolute majesty and rule. There is none that is above Him. There is none that can overrule Him. There is no one that can depose Him from His throne. He is the one true God. People may set up/ worship other gods but they are not true gods, only worthless idols that have no real power. The holy Triune God, though, rules all things in heaven and earth because He made all things. Speaking of the Son, the Second Person of the holy Trinity, who took on human flesh and blood, St. John [John 1.3] writes: All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
And this God who is high and lifted up is also eternal. He was there already [Gn. 1.1] in the beginning and He created all things and He will draw this present world/ time to a close. Since no one can remove Him, He occupies His throne of majesty forever.
He is high and lifted up, [He] inhabits eternity, [and His] name is Holy. The eternal God of all power and majesty is holy. He is far removed from sin. St. Paul describes Him this way [1 Ti 6.16]: He is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in an unapproachable light. So great is His holy glory.
As the holy God, He demands holiness of us, as He says [Lv. 19.2]: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. That’s why He has given us His holy Law—his holy and righteous demands/ expectations of us. The lawyer in today’s Gospel was right in his summary of God’s holy law: “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.” But as the lawyer rightly recognized as he felt the condemnation of the law for not doing it: this is impossible. The blessed Apostle [Rm 3.23] rightly and succinctly puts it: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. As a holy God He cannot let sin stand in His presence. He must punish sin.
2. At first read, if we were to stop here, our text would sound very ominous for us; it would bring us nothing but bad news: For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place…” Here we have the majesty and holiness of God—the almighty, eternal God, dwelling in the highest heaven—is a holy God who has laid down His law for us demanding holiness from us. All hope would be gone if our text stopped here. But this holy, eternal and majestic God continues speaking: For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” As high, holy and exalted as He is in the highest heaven, He still also dwells in grace with the poor, lowly, penitent sinner. His majesty and His mercy belong together; His mercy is never detached from His majesty. In fact, His mercy trumps all: even though He is angry, He will never stop showing mercy; but in mercy He will refrain from anger. And so who is the One showing mercy, refraining from His righteous anger over our sin? The One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy. It is He who delights in showing mercy as He tells us in our text: For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry; for the spirit would grow faint before me, and the breath of life that I made. To be sure, the holy, exalted, eternal God must rebuke and punish; He must contend and be angry but it is not forever. In mercy, He recognizes that we are frail sinful human flesh and blood; He does not want us to grow faint before Him; as our Creator He wants to have mercy on us: the breath of life that I made. God’s majesty and His mercy/ grace belong together and so The One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy is merciful.
Precisely when we feel His holy law accusing and condemning us for our sin, precisely when we feel and recognize that by our sin we have earned and deserved nothing but God’s wrath and condemnation, precisely when we feel overwhelmed by His holiness and majesty, precisely then He wants to be merciful to us; precisely then He comes to us in grace.
This is the marvelous thing—the God who is high and exalted, who dwells in the highest heavens, whose name is Holy is omniscient; He knows all things. He knows that spark of longing for forgiveness in your heart; He knows your sorrow over your sin; He knows your hatred of your sin and that you don’t want to sin but do so in weakness; He knows the faith in your heart in Jesus your Savior. There and then, not only does He show grace and mercy but He delights to dwell in the heart of the contrite sinner. He says in our text: I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite. Here is our comfort as we very much feel our sin, as the devil wants to get us to think that there is no hope, no forgiveness for us, that God wants to do nothing but pour out His righteous wrath and anger on us, that our sins shut heaven and eternal life to us: the God of mercy is also the high, exalted, majestic God who knows all things—even our heart’s faintest longing.
Not only does He know all things, but the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, dwells in the heart of the repentant sinners. What a great mystery beyond all understanding—the holy God whom the universe cannot contain dwells in grace with His dear lowly, repentant Christian struggling against sin. We, dear Christian, have this consolation: God dwells with us and so we can never lose hope of forgiveness and salvation. I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite. Don’t ever think of God confined somewhere, locked far away off in heaven. No! He dwells in the highest heaven and also with the lowliest person. Like the man in our Lord’s parable who was beaten was served by the Merciful Samaritan, so too to us bruised and crushed by sin, made lowly by confession Jesus, the Merciful Samaritan comes to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite; He comes binding our wounds, pouring on us the oil and wine of His holy word, the absolution and Sacraments. As we receive the forgiveness of our sins, our despondent hearts are made joyful and filled with new hope and comfort. Especially as we receive the Blessed Sacrament where Jesus comes to us with His body and blood, there it is crystal clear that the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy is coming to our crushed hearts to give us life again. With the holy majestic God in us, He leads us and empowers us to life a life full of good works to His glory, praise and worship.
What a great comfort and blessing to us: God’s majesty and mercy are together. The one true high exalted and holy God is also merciful dwelling with us in grace. INJ