The Great Samaritan Sends Out Good Samaritans

13th Sunday after Trinity

August 21, 2016

Luke 10:36-37

The Great Samaritan Sends Out Good Samaritans

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

Everyone knows that they should help dying people on the side of the road—so why does Jesus tell this story?

He tells us this story because we forget who our neighbors are.

So who are your neighbors? Those who are in need, especially those you can hear and see. We learn this joyfully because Jesus is our Great Samaritan. He chose to make us His neighbors, and not just you and me, but all people, because He hears and sees all people. For us, the neighbors we help the most are those who we can see and hear, just like the Good Samaritan could hear and see the needs of the dying man.

This Samaritan in Jesus' story made a grand gesture to save this dying stranger, though he didn't intend to be grand. He simply saw someone in need—his neighbor—and helped him.

We can fall into the temptation and sin of grand gestures with our neighbors. Permit a couple of examples.

Busy working parents can save and plan a grand trip to an exotic location for their kids, when perhaps it would be wise to ponder if the time spent making the money to travel would be better spent with your kids at your non-exotic home.

As Good Samaritans, rescued by the Great Samaritan, we must ask how we can best care for our neighbors, who happen to be our kids.

Kids, we sin, too. Instead of saving and planning for a grand gesture of breakfast-in-bed on your mother's birthday once a year, what she would enjoy more is you picking up your dirty clothes once a day. She also would enjoy you cleaning up the kitchen, especially after making breakfast-in-bed for her.

As Good Samaritans, rescued by the Great Samaritan, we must ask how we can best care for our neighbors, who happen to be our parents.

The greatest king of Israel, King David, showed this Good Samaritan care, when he looked after the needs of a lame man who happened to be the son of his best friend Jonathan who was dead.

⁶When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor. David said, “Mephibosheth!” He replied, “At your service.” ⁷David said to him, “Don’t be afraid, for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.” ⁸Mephibosheth bowed down and said, “What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?” ⁹Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul’s steward, and said to him, “I have given your master’s grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. ¹⁰You and your sons and your servants are to farm the land for him and bring in the crops, so that your master’s grandson may be provided for. And Mephibosheth, grandson of your master, will always eat at my table.” . . . ¹³And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table; he was lame in both feet. (2 Samuel 9:6-10a, 13)

Mephibosheth was a nobody. He was disable and worse, he was member of the former regime of dead King Saul. But David didn't care about that, and cared for Mephibosheth. A cynic might say that this was a wise public relations move on David's part: help out a disabled person, show what a caring guy you are. This wasn't PR. This wasn't a grand gesture. David looked out for Mephibosheth because he cared. David knew how much he had received from the Lord, above all the forgiveness of his sins. How could he fail to show mercy when God had been so merciful to him? David's grand gesture was rooted in Jesus.

You see, in order to save us from dying, Jesus did something grand: He died. Imagine every one of us dying on the side of a road. Your Great Samaritan finds you and instead of taking you to an inn or hospital, He sets up the cross that He was carrying. He raises it up right next to you and climbs up it and hangs there for you. He dies and then on the third day He comes back to life. And then He comes to you, not just with wine, but with water and bread, too, and raises you to life when He speaks to you: “Get up, for I forgive you in My name and in my Father's name and in my Spirit's name.”

As you have been shown mercy, getting the opposite of what you deserve, show mercy to those close to you and support those who give mercy to those far away. Show mercy to your parents and to your kids; use money to send out nurses, builders, and pastors who bring mercy to those who seem far away to us.

Dearly raised dead, we are alive in Christ. Jesus sends you out to show mercy to those who used to be dead like you and to those who are still dying in unbelief.

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Alleluia! Amen!