Sermon Audio

"Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?", the lawyer asks. It's an age old question, isn't it? Oh, the forms always change, but the question is always the same. "What must I do to be saved?" "What can be done to get to heaven?" "What can I do to transcend this mortal coil?" Every one of them seeks a way to move from this life to the afterlife, however that is defined by the one doing the asking or redefined by the one doing the answering. "What can I do to be rewarded with a good afterlife?"

It's a question that transcends traditions and continents. It has been asked by adherents to all of the world's religions seeking guidance from their gurus, imams, spiritual leaders, priests, and pastors. It has been asked on mountain tops by those searching for themselves in some sort of spiritual quest. It has been asked in simple buildings in ordinary cities and towns by those seeking to understand the religion being taught there. It has been asked in all sorts of situations in between.

And so, it would make sense that this sort of question would be found in the Bible. The wording this time, though, is very interesting: "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" This lawyer, this teacher of the law, this man who puts the Law of God into manageable chunks, seeks to put Jesus to the test, so he asks a Law question.

Ever astute to what's going on, Jesus knows He is being put to the test. So, He turns the question back to the lawyer. "What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?" What does the Torah say? How do you summarize it? He asks the lawyer a Law question in return.

Ever the astute lawyer, he puts the Torah into very manageable chunks. He summarizes the first table of the Law as we have learned it: "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind." It's the answer given by God Himself in Deuteronomy 6:5. He also summarizes the second table of the Law as we have learned it: "[You shall love] your neighbor as yourself." Once again, the lawyer has given the God-given answer, this time from Leviticus 19:18.

Love God and your neighbor, and you have inherited eternal life the lawyer says. And you know what? He's right...partly, and we'll get to that part in a bit. For right now, though, it is enough to say that from the doing of the Law is received the promise of life. If you can keep the Law, every single letter of it, in whole, and in spirit, you will have earned eternal life. God clearly said, "You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them: I am the LORD." (Leviticus 18:5) "You have answered rightly; do this, and you will live," Jesus responded.

Now, the lawyer was on his heals. No longer was this a test of Jesus. Now, it became a time to make sure he was justified. He may have answered correctly, but something didn't feel right. So, seeking to justify himself, he asks, "[W]ho is my neighbor?" Oh, he certainly loved God; of that, there was absolutely no doubt in his mind. He thanked God lovingly for everything God had given him and made him. He loved himself, too. He knew who he was and where he was from. He knew God had given him everything and made him who he was...what's not to love. So, he again would lovingly thank God for everything, even, perhaps for not making him like...the lowly and outcast. Could those be his neighbors, too? What about the people who hate him or have an argument with him? What about the enemies of the state? What about those Samaritans? Could those be his neighbors, too? Loving God and not loving them could be tantamount to hypocrisy.

If "love for God and neighbor" is the summary of the Law, and doing these things earns eternal life, and it is and does as Jesus confirmed, then the lawyer has some work to do. So do we, if we would rest our claim to eternal life on "doing good," (not just "good enough") meaning, of course, keeping the Law. Again, love for God isn't a problem; it's that love for our neighbors that is the sticky part. Sure, it's easy to love those who do good to you—who give you gifts and let you borrow things from them, who invite you over for supper or to watch the big game or a blockbuster movie. But what about the people next door who play their music too loud when you're trying to fall asleep. Or your other neighbors who have that dog that just won't stop barking...ever! Or those neighbors across the street who just grind at you for no particular reason; they're just...weird.

Furthermore, where does the label neighbor stop? just those around me? my street or block? my town? my county? my state? my country? Where? Is it those who are neighborly or those who live close to me? This is the question the lawyer had: "[W]ho is my neighbor?"

It's another Law question, just like his first. The point of asking Law questions like these is make sure you get the Law straight, thereby insuring that your justification is on track. The first question—"What shall I do to inherit eternal life?"—is to ensure that he was doing the right things. The second question—"Who is my neighbor?"—is to ensure he's got the neighbor part down. Get this part right, and the love part is easy—eternal life is in the bag.

It's all an attempt to deflect attention away from the lawyer and onto the Law. The Law, his questioning implies, is the problem—it is unclear. To the lawyer, it was necessary to clarify who is a neighbor and who is not. Who can he exclude from loving? None of us can deny that the same thought hasn't crossed our minds; after all, there are some people that are just plain difficult to love—can we exclude them from being loved? "Who is my neighbor?" or perhaps more to the point, "Who is not my neighbor?"

And, once again, Jesus gives a Law reply. This time, however, He gives it in the form of a parable—The Good Samaritan—which ends with a Law question.

A certain man was going from Jerusalem to Jericho. Jesus' use of the phrase "certain man" would seem to indicate that this man is a Jew. This certain man, while traveling, fell among thieves. They stripped him naked, beat him to a bloody pulp, and left him to die.

Along came a priest. He is one who should know the Law forward and backward. He should know the summary of the Law is "love for God and neighbor." His love for neighbor should compel him to have compassion on his fellow Jew lying in a ditch, bleeding and dying. But, what does He do? He passes by on the other side. He was, after all, keeping the Law of purity—he may have wanted to help, but he couldn't, for touching something bloody would have made him unclean and unfit for duty as a priest without a lengthy purification ritual. The thought of that was simply too much to bear, so he passes by the beaten traveler, making sure to go nowhere near him.

A Levite comes along, too. And, just like the priest, he goes around the beaten man on the other side of the road. He, too, must keep pure for his duties as a Levite, or, like the priest, go through a lengthy purification ritual.

The Law says, "Love God and neighbor...do this and live." And then, ever so often, along comes a neighbor who is difficult to love, an inconvenience in your path. Quick...what do you do? You pass by on the other side and make up some excuse to prove that you have kept the Law and thereby justify yourself. It's what the priest and Levite did.

However, there was a fourth traveler on the road that day. This one was a Samaritan, though, the most vile and despicable and unlovable person known to a Jew, next to a Gentile. These Samaritans were half-breeds. They didn't even have the whole Law of God. They were impure and their religion was impure. Seeing the beaten man, he had compassion on him. He bandaged him, put him on his donkey, and saw to his care at an inn, even after he could no longer stay with the "certain man."

Now, here comes Jesus' Law question in response to the lawyer's second Law question, "So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?" To the lawyer it was impossible that a Samaritan of all people could keep the Law better than a Jew, especially a Jew of such stature as a priest or Levite. It was so impossible, that he couldn't even answer Jesus' question with, "The Samaritan." No, he answers correctly, but skirts around the fact that the neighborly Law-abider was a Samaritan: "He who showed mercy on him." I like to imagine that this lawyer even stuttered a bit answering that.

"Go and do likewise." The lawyer must have left with his hope of inheriting eternal life dashed, though we simply aren't told. Still, I'm sure we are left with memories of times when we haven't shown mercy to someone inconveniently in need. Perhaps feelings of guilt abound when we recall those times. And it is right that it should happen, after all a neighbor is "anyone in need whom God has ‘placed in your path,' whether he is a friend or an enemy, a believer or an unbeliever." (Lutheran Catechesis, Catechist Edition, 261) So, to answer the more pointed question, "Who is not my neighbor?" No one—no one is not my neighbor, there is no one excluded from being loved by God's Law—therefore everyone is my neighbor.

Dr. Norman Nagel was fond of telling his classes that if you ask a law question, you will get a law answer. Ask Jesus what you need to do, and He will tell you what you need to do. Go to Him broken and in need, and He will show mercy.

The lawyer asked, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus knew what He wanted to hear, and so He received a Law answer: "Go and be a neighbor to everyone in your path." But, we also get from the lawyer's question a handle from which we can find some Gospel. After all, what is done to inherit anything?

The answer is, "Someone else dies." Your close relative dies, and because they loved you, they leave you an inheritance, generally speaking. You are their heir without having done anything; you are simply loved. So, what must be done for you to inherit eternal life? Someone who has eternal life to give must die, and He did!

The Law says, "Do," and none of us can, so the Law demands our death. But, thanks be to God that One who did keep the Law perfectly died in our place when He was nailed to a cross on Golgotha. There, He died that we may live. There, He showed the greatest love anyone can have for another, for a neighbor: "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13) He died to call you friend.

This is the Gospel for today: Jesus' love for you covers your lovelessness in His death—your lovelessness for those neighbors that you have found unlovable and inconvenient. Your lovelessness was assumed by Him and died with Him—you died there with Him, having been bound to Him and His death in your Baptisms. Your lovelessness—your sin—remained lifeless on the cross when He was taken down, and He rose victorious over death and now gives His eternal life to you all out of His perfect, neighborly love for you.

Now the question can be asked differently. How is eternal life obtained? By God's grace through faith in Jesus' death and resurrection. It is given freely by God and received by God-given faith. The Law of love for God and neighbor breaks us and empties us—the entire Law does. We cannot keep God's Law, but Jesus the Christ has done it for us, and gives us the benefits of His love for God and world—of His keeping of the Law—having taken the punishment we deserve for our lack of love—it is that great, blessed exchange! You have been made an heir of eternal life by grace through faith—thanks be to God! Now, what do you do as an heir of eternal life? By God's grace, you are a neighbor to all whom God "places in your path," "whether he is a friend or an enemy, a believer or an unbeliever.

"Go and do likewise," Jesus told the lawyer. He says the same to you: "Go and be a neighbor to everyone placed in your path." He doesn't leave you hopeless or empty, for He has kept the Law perfectly for you and set you free from the Law. He has made you an heir of His eternal life, so you are now free to serve and help your neighbor. That is, you can go and do likewise, because you are forgiven for all of your sins.