He That Showed Mercy on Him

In Nomine Iesu!

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Sermon Text: St. Luke 10:23-37

“‘Which of these three, thinkest thou, proved neighbor unto him that fell among the robbers?’ And he said, ‘He that showed mercy on him.’ And + Jesus said unto him, ‘Go, and do thou likewise.’”

Prayer in Pulpit before Sermon:

O Lord + Jesus Christ, our Good Samaritan and only Mediator, Who, seeing us in our guilt and blood, didst have pity upon us, and of Thine infinite mercy didst give Thine innocent blood in payment for our sins that we might live, we humbly thank and praise Thee, that Thou hast saved us from destruction, and by Thy holy Word hast brought us to the saving knowledge of Thee, our only Savior and Redeemer; and we beseech Thee, enable us by Thy Holy Spirit to love Thee, the true God, with our whole heart and our neighbor as ourselves, that we may show mercy on all men in their need, bind up their wounds with tender care, and ever in this evil world follow Thy example of love and service, Who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior + Jesus Christ. Amen. 

My dear friends, our Lord + Jesus, the Christ, in today’s Gospel reading from the Evangelist St. Luke gives us a parable showing what is the consequence of sin and evil in this world. This evil and sinful world will always attack the Church. It will always attack those who profess to be members of the holy, apostolic, and catholic Church. Good cannot be tolerated by evil. Evil believes it must eradicate all that is good and holy in this life. Therefore, my dearly beloved friends, we cannot be surprised when we are attacked by evil. As we confess in the Small Catechism, we have been made enemies of the devil and the world. Even our own sinful flesh wars against us. We have become adversaries with the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh ever since we were washed in the waters of Holy Baptism. 

In those waters we have been joined with the Christ—with our Lord + Jesus. What did this evil world do to Him? It reviled Him, tested Him—just like the certain lawyer from today’s reading, it mocked Him, ridiculed Him, and then falsely accused Him, and put Him to death. We who are baptized, are joined with the Christ in our Holy Baptism. What they did to Him; we can expect to happen to us. This has always been the way of this evil world, since the beginning. Cain killed Abel because his brother was righteous, and he was not. They killed Zechariah, the son of Berechiah between the altar and the steps of the temple because they could not tolerate his preaching. All of the prophets of the Old Testament, if not killed, or imprisoned for their prophesying, were either ignored, or ridiculed. The same thing happened to the Apostles, all but one of them was martyred for preaching that salvation was found only in the resurrected and living Lord + Jesus. 

The same thing continues today. This evil world, ruled by the devil and carried out through the sinful flesh of mankind, seeks to destroy the truth of the Word of the Lord God. If the truth cannot be ignored or mocked into irrelevance, then this evil world will try to silence it by more violent means. We have this threat surrounding us every day we profess to be Christians. They mocked and killed our Lord + Jesus on the tree of the holy cross. He commands us to take up our cross daily and follow Him. His cross led Him to death and the grave. Our cross will also lead us to death and the grave.

This was the state of the certain man from the parable that our Lord + Jesus tells the certain lawyer who tested the Lord, and wanted to justify himself by asking who his neighbor was. A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Our Lord is telling us that in this man’s case he was attacked by the forces of evil on account of his own sinful nature. Jerusalem was the holy city. It was the city where the temple of the Lord God was. It was where the place that represented the presence of the Lord God living in the midst of the people of Israel was built. Jericho was the opposite place. It was the first city on Canaan that the Israelites met when they entered into the Promised Land. It was the first city of Canaan to be destroyed for its evil and unbelief. 

Our Lord + Jesus is saying by his parable that this certain man, on account of his sinful flesh, left the place of holiness, and went to the place of sin and shame. He gave in to his temptations. He gave in to evil desires of his own covetous heart. What did that get him? Perhaps he had a fleeting moment of pleasure, but on the road from Jerusalem—the place of holiness—to Jericho—the place of sinful lusts fulfilled, he fell among robbers. He was stripped of his clothes—his righteousness. He was beaten to the point of being half dead. And he was left for dead by the sinful lusts that promised him the desires of his heart. Sin and evil left him naked, beaten, and barely alive.

This is what giving into our temptations does to our faith. It puts a wedge between us and the working of the Holy Ghost. It leaves us spiritually dead. Or at the very least spiritually half dead. For when we willfully sin, we turn our backs on the Holy Ghost, and He can do no good work in us. We are left for dead by the sinful lusts that promise such great joy and happiness. Sin leaves us with nothing good. When we willfully sin, we are left like the certain man from the parable. He could not heal himself, neither can we heal ourselves. 

This evil and adulterous world does the same thing to the truth of the Word of the Lord God. It attacks it and mocks it and ridicules it, so that those who would hear, cannot because they have been deceived by the lies of this world. These poor, deluded souls, do not even realize how they have been stripped of any righteousness, and have been left naked and spiritually dead in their sins and trespasses—in their unbelief. The robbers—the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh—always seek to destroy us in this sinful and evil world. Those who preach a Gospel of works righteousness can provide no comfort or aid to us poor, sinful beings. The priest and Levite could not help this poor man on the road to Jericho from Jerusalem. For the preaching of works righteousness only leaves a man doubting his faith and salvation. It leaves him wondering if he has done enough works; had his faith been strong enough to overcome the evil of this world. The preaching of works-righteousness is a false help because it causes a person to look for their salvation within himself. This will result in either the person trusting in their own righteousness, which unfortunately for them is not enough to appease the demands of a holy and perfect God. Or, the person will despair because he will realize that his works do not measure up to the standard that the Lord God requires for salvation.

The only One Who can save us from this evil and adulterous world; the only One Who can redeem us from our many sins and transgressions that have left us half dead, and naked on the side of the road, is our Lord + Jesus, the Christ. It is the Good Samaritan Who is our only help and aid in this fallen and sinful world. Many people in their interpretation of this text fail to see that the Good Samaritan in the parable is the Lord + Jesus Himself. They try to turn this parable into one about helping our neighbor. Certainly, we should do good works toward our neighbor, but those works are not going to win for him salvation. The best our works can do is lead our neighbor to the only One Who can provide true help and aid—true salvation for their souls. Even this cannot be accomplished without the work of the Holy Ghost through the pure preaching of the Word of the Lord God. This is why the proper interpretation of who the Good Samaritan is is that it is the Lord + Jesus Himself. 

The scribes and Pharisees, and other unbelievers, mocked and ridiculed the Lord + Jesus by calling Him a Samaritan and having a demon. It is interesting that the Lord chooses a Samaritan, someone hated by the Jews, as the person symbolizing Him in the parable. He was Himself hated by this world. As was said earlier, He was mocked, ridiculed, beaten, spit upon, falsely accused, and killed on a tree to bear the curse of mankind. This is what this evil world did to our Lord and Savior, and it is what they desire to do to us—to all those who confess that the Lord + Jesus is the only Lord and Savior of the world. As much as this evil and adulterous world hates the Lord + Jesus, He is the only One Who shows mercy and compassion for this poor, lost, adulterous and sinful world. He wants all mankind to repent and turn in faith to Him. For it is only through Him that forgiveness for our sins can be found. Salvation can only be found in Him, for it is only Him that shows mercy and compassion for us poor, miserable sinners.

By His stripes we are healed. By His wounds on the tree of the holy cross, He binds up our wounds, and pours oil and water upon them. He pours the water and blood which flowed from His side upon our wounds. He baptizes us and gives us to eat and drink of His Body and Blood in bread and wine for the remission of our sins. He carries us on His own shoulders, like a lost lamb, to the place where we can find the healing of our souls. He brings us into His holy Church, and by the pure preaching of the Word of the Lord God heals our souls, and strengthens our faith, and through the two shillings of the Law and the Gospel, He convicts us of our sins, and comforts us with the assurance of forgiveness found in Him alone. The Holy Ghost works through the Innkeeper, the Minister of the Lord God, to preach into our ears the saving message of salvation in the Lord + Jesus, and to impart to us the saving grace found in the Blessed Sacraments. And whatever other need we may have that will strengthen and heal our sin-sick hearts in this world, He gladly pays and gives so that we may find comfort in the One Who showed us mercy.

Those who hear this truth are convicted in their hearts, and turn away from their own works and righteousness, to find true comfort in the works and merits of the Lord + Jesus. It is for this reason that the Church, the spiritual hospital of the Lord + Jesus, is constantly under attack in this world by those who refuse to hear; by those who are possessed and controlled by the devil and this evil world, those who are ruled by their sinful flesh. We who are in the Church should not find it surprising when this evil and adulterous world lashes out against the truth of the Word of the Lord God. For the devil and his agents cannot tolerate that those who they have robbed and left for dead, should find healing and compassion from the Lord + Jesus.

Therefore, my dearly beloved friends, let us not fear the enemy. For our Lord and Savior has defeated him soundly with His death on the holy cross, and by His rising to life again on the third day. He has led us to this holy place to receive the compassion and mercy that He has for all mankind so that we may be strengthened in our faith by the pure preaching of the Word of the Lord God, and the right administration of the Blessed Sacraments. So that even though this evil world seeks to rob us, and leave us naked, and dead, and attack us for our beliefs, we can find comfort where our Lord promises to be, in His Word and Sacraments. We can find comfort here in this place. For our Lord + Jesus has brought us into His holy Church so that when this life is over, we may be with Him and all the saints and angels in Heaven for all eternity. There we will be freed from the persecutions and assaults of the Evil One, who would rob us and leave us for dead. There we will live forever in peace and joy, and sing eternally of the righteousness, and mercy and compassion of our Lord and Savior + Jesus, the Christ. In the Name of our Lord + Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

Prayer in Pulpit after Sermon:

Almighty God, be pleased to accompany Thy Word with Thy Holy Spirit and grant that Thy Word would increase faith in us; bring into the Way of Truth all such as have erred; turn the hearts of the unrepentant; and for sake of Thy Name grant succor to all heavy hearts and those who are heavy-laden, that they may through the mercy of the Lord + Jesus Christ be relieved and preserved so that they succumb not to the temptation of despair but rather that they gain the victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil; through the same + Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with the Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.

The Votum:

The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!