Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Rev Mark Duer
Luke 10:25-37
July 11, 2025
In today’s gospel, Jesus is on His last Journey to Jerusalem before His arrest and crucifixion.
He is traveling from the region of Galilee to Samaria, He is healing, teaching, and proclaiming the Good News that the Kingdom of God is near.
Today’s gospel tells us that a lawyer came forward to put Jesus to the test and asked, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” You would think that a lawyer would see the contradiction in the very question that he asked.
In looking at verse 25, we see the words “what shall I do” then the word “inherit.” Right away we see a contradiction. An inheritance is a gift. If you’re in the will, you get the gift. If you’re not in the will, you don’t get the gift. There’s nothing you can do to force God to include you in His will.
Jesus has already completed the work of salvation by His suffering and death on the cross. For you and me and for all people This gift of faith comes to us through the Holy Spirit, and we receive it in faith. God does everything. Salvation is ours.
There is nothing we can do. But there is always some temptation to try to earn our salvation by keeping the law.
The instant we try to earn our own salvation; we have left the path of truth and are headed toward false doctrine. Since God wants us to learn from our mistakes, He will often show us the ultimate results of this false thinking.
In today’s text when the lawyer asked a law question. In order to help the lawyer, see the error of his ways, Jesus gave him a law answer.
[Jesus] answered him, in verses 26-28 “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 Jesus said to him, "You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live." The lawyer knew the law, but didn’t fully understand it.
So, in order to satisfy the law, all the lawyer had to do was love God perfectly, and love his neighbor perfectly and heaven was his. Now loving God is one thing. Loving neighbor is something else. God is perfect. He is holy. He is merciful. He provides for all our needs.
And then there is the neighbor. Loving some of our neighbors is usually is pretty easy. The ones who are not rude, and help us when we are in need, the ones who watch out for our property.
But loving some of our other neighbors—well—not so much! You probably know all too well about those neighbors, the ones who are loud, and don’t take care of their yard, and don’t lend a helping hand when you need it.
If you’re honest, you admit that you can't love all your neighbors as you love yourself.
The lawyer “desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
That’s when Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan.
You all know the story and the moral to the story. If we are to earn our own salvation according to the law, we must do what the Good Samaritan did. If we find our mortal enemy in some kind of difficulty, we should do what we can to help him.
We should be eager to do whatever it takes to help our enemy in any circumstance. That’s just part of keeping the law perfectly.
Our Gospel says that the lawyer desired to justify himself. If we tried to justify ourselves according to the law, then the story of the Good Samaritan sets a standard that none of us could possibly keep.
Once again, “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.” This man is us. The devil, the world, and even our own sinful flesh has mugged us with our own sin. We are literally dead in our own trespasses and sin.
“Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.”
“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.’
36‘Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?’ 37He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘You go, and do likewise.’”
The Samaritan is none other than Jesus Christ Himself. He generously applies the oil of His righteous life and the wine of His own blood. He gave us His righteousness and took our sins onto Himself as He suffered and died on the cross.
Jesus then took us to the inn of the church. There he gave instructions to His pastor to care for you. He has given the pastor His holy Word, Confession and Absolution, the sacraments: Holy Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
He has given His pastor instructions (the Office of the Keys) to use these Means of Grace to tend to the well-being of all those who have been beaten up by sin.
Finally, the day will come when our Good Samaritan, Jesus Christ will return to make all things right. He will settle all accounts. He will deal with the evil one and throw him into the abyss. Sin, death, and the devil will no longer affect us for they will be gone.
Just as Jesus rose from the dead in an immortal body, we too shall rise from the dead never to die again. Then we shall live forever with Jesus in a new heaven and new earth where there will be no more sin, or sorrow, or death.
We cannot live up to the standard of the Good Samaritan. Sin mugs us and leaves us at the side of the road to die. In fact, we are spiritually dead. Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Colossians 1:13-14: “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
Jesus is the one who set His face to go to Jerusalem so that He could die for you on the cross. He is also the one who rose from the dead to give us eternal life with Him.
He has bound our wounds in the waters of Holy Baptism. He has fed us with the bread and wine of his very body and blood in the Lord’s Supper.
He has brought us to the Inn of the Church where God’s Word is proclaimed in its truth and purity and the sacraments administered according to the promises of God. Jesus has given us the best gift of all: the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting.
May God bless us as individuals and families, as a congregation, and as a church body, so that the compassion of the Good Samaritan would abound in you, and among us, and as that happens, God’s works of mercy will abound in our daily lives.
Be a neighbor to those in need, if they are hungry, feed them, if they are thirsty, give them something to drink, needing clothes, clothe them, etc. Share the Good News, invite them to church.
The Holy Spirit establishes the faith that trusts in Jesus for that forgiveness. There is nothing left to do. When it comes to our salvation, God does all the work. He is our true Good Samaritan. Amen
May God grant it to you in Jesus’ name. Amen