The sermon for September 10 was based on Luke 10:23-37.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

You who are sitting hear today are blessed because of what you have seen and heard. For you have seen and heard what the apostles have seen and heard: the life and work and accomplishing of salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ. Prophets and kings for many ages longed to know the details of the Lord's work of saving sinners, but blessed are you who have the eyewitness testimony and the words of those eyewitnesses, recorded in the Holy Scriptures, to bring Christ to you. Indeed those kings and prophets of old were saved by the same Jesus by whom you are saved. But blessed are you for you know His name: Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, born of Mary, the Christ. You know the details of what He has done: whose life, death and resurrection have taken away your sins. Blessed are you who hear and see these things! Don't ignore them! Rather, make the learning of the words of Jesus your life's work. Make it the most important thing you shall do: to hear and learn and believe the words from and about Jesus Christ your Savior. For it is those words alone which will save you from certain doom.

And certain doom comes to all those who try to justify themselves. The lawyer who asked Jesus what to do to have eternal life was in turn asked by our Lord what the Commandments teach. "That's easy," he said, "Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor." But, because he wanted to justify himself, he asked, "Well, who is my neighbor?" What does it mean to "justify himself?" What do you do when you "justify" yourself? When you get home and your wife finds that you have with you a new set of golf clubs or a new high-definition something-or-other sitting in the car, you immediately have to explain why you bought it. You have to justify your purchase. If your husband asks you about the big charge on the card for a new outfit or makeover, you find that you have to justify yourself for spending that money. When the report card comes home, and it's less than it should be, you try to think up reasons for why you didn't do so well. You're justifying yourself. Justifying yourself means making an explanation for why you are what you are and do what you do and why it's all OK. The young lawyer wanted to justify himself before God and prove that he could keep the Law. You justify yourself all the time: explaining, excusing, trying to persuade others that you are right, propping yourself up, making yourself look good. This is what many think the Law of God is for: rules for living so you can show God and everybody else how good you've been.

Wanting to justify yourself and trying to justify yourself will lead to hell. Speaking always about your rights and reasons will leave you nowhere but under God's wrath and punishment. You must be justified by God Himself or you haven't got a chance. You must be declared right on the basis of who Jesus is and what He has done. Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan to teach the lawyer that he had better learn to see himself as he really is: naked, robbed and half-dead on the side of the road. Can a man who is robbed and beaten to within an inch of his life save himself? He desperately hopes that the priest or the Levite will help him. But they are the Law. The Commandments will never save you. They will just pass by and condemn you. Robbed of your righteousness by sin, beaten and left for dead by the devil, you are lying in a ditch to die. And die you will, unless you are rescued, unless the Samaritan shows up. That Samaritan is Christ.

If you do not learn and confess that you are a naked and half-dead sinner, you cannot be saved. If, while being a naked, half-dead sinner, you groan for the Law to save you, then you cannot be saved. The only thing that saves you is the Good Samaritan Jesus showing up and taking care of you. The Christ, who comes to this world to Himself be stripped and beaten and left for dead on the cross, redeems you from your sins. The Samaritan Jesus pours in healing oil: anointing you as a child of God in the waters of Holy Baptism; and pours on you cleansing wine: the Blood shed for you and given to you in the Holy Sacrament. Then Christ carries you to the inn: the holy Christian Church, where He puts you under the care of your innkeepers, your Pastors, to watch over you until He returns. See yourself in the victim of this brutal highway robbery, for such is your repentance and faith: that you are indeed naked and near-death, but for Christ rescuing you and putting you in the care of His Church until He returns. And in that holy Christian Church, whatever it costs to forgive and minister to God's people is charged against the Lord's account.

Flee the temptation to justify yourself, to prove how right your are, to explain and excuse and lift yourself up. Such justifying is like the robbed man trying to pull himself out of the ditch and crawl to safety. It will never happen. To learn this work of repentance, just listen to yourself talk to others. Is what comes out of your mouth a confession of Christ's mercy and salvation? Or is it talk about you and what you've done and accomplished and have and are? Is your speech all about your opinions and ways of doing things, or is it of Christ and His Word? Is the hope and confidence you have in yourself or in Christ crucified and risen? Is your boast in the gifts you think you have to give or the gifts of Gospel and Sacraments that Christ has given you? There is much for you to repent of here, when you refuse to acknowledge how wretched and lost you are and that your only hope for recovery is in the oil and wine of the Good Samaritan Jesus and the constant care of the innkeeper until the Lord's return. You, and every Christian, lives under the care of their Pastors. For your innkeeper-Pastors call you to repentance and give to you as much oil—life in Holy Baptism—and wine—the Holy Supper—as you need to strengthen you and keep you in the one, true Faith unto the life to come.

Having learned and received this saving mercy from your Good Samaritan Jesus, you learn how to exercise such mercy to your neighbors. The whole point of the Law—to love God and our neighbor—is to teach you mercy! The Law of God properly teaches you to seek mercy and forgiveness from the only place it comes: Christ. And it teaches you that to love your neighbor is not to show your neighbor how right you are and wrong he is, but to show mercy and forgiveness to others. The "go and do likewise" from Jesus' lips is first of all an invitation to have such a neighbor as Jesus who rescues you from the assault of sin. Then it is also an invitation to go and have mercy upon your neighbors. When your neighbors have fallen prey to sin, go and rescue them. Bring them to the inn, to the Church, where the Word and Sacraments of Christ will heal and save them, too. If you see anyone who is in need of clothing and healing, bring them to the inn and let the Lord's innkeeper care for them through the holy ministry of the Gospel and Sacraments.

Blessed are you for having heard and seen what prophets and kings longed to hear and see, to hear and see Christ. Blessed are you to know and learn that the Son of God comes to rescue you who are all too ready to try to justify yourself. Blessed are you, for your Lord has rescued you from sin and death. He has justified you. No more explaining or excuses are needed before your Father in heaven. The answer is already given: Christ has rescued you from sin and death, has placed you in His Church and will return to bring you to everlasting life. You are justified in Christ. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes . . .

Last Updated: 5/27/2009