Jesus tells His disciples in the Gospel today, “Blessed are your eyes and ears which have seen and heard things that the prophets longed to see and hear!” Blessed are YOUR eyes and ears, brothers and sisters in Christ, for they too have seen and heard things that the prophets longed to see and hear. What things? The things of Jesus. The gifts of the Son of God. The promises of the Father fulfilled in the flesh in Jesus. Here, in Jesus, the world can finally see and know a religion unlike any other. To be sure, the prophets and faithful people of God in the Old Testament knew this religion, and they trusted in the promise of the Savior. But here, in Jesus, in the flesh, we see it all worked out and presented to the whole world. And what is this religion that the world doesn't know? What is this gift of salvation and way of life? Blessed are your eyes and ears for here you have preached the Christ who comes to save us from our sins and teach us how to love our neighbor. The religion of the world goes like this: Do good works to the people you like and you will impress God. God will have to like you if you do good in this life. The religion and salvation that Jesus bring sort everything out for us so that we need no longer depend on ourselves. Rather, God is now impressed with you, His child, IN JESUS who has taken away your sins. More than that, Jesus teaches us to love our neighbor not for OUR sake but for our neighbor's sake. Now we learn to love and care for others not because it makes ME look good to God but simply because it helps my neighbor whether they can repay me or not. It's nothing like the world knows. But you are blessed to see and hear such teaching.
Listen to our young master of the Law in the Gospel today. He's got it all down. He knows he should love God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself. Jesus even commends his answer as the right one! Now listen closely to what St. Luke records: “But he, wanting to justify himself, asked, 'who is my neighbor?'” Did you catch that? To JUSTIFY himself. What is he trying to do? Trying to make it sound like he CAN love his neighbor and that doing that will impress God and get him eternal life. What does it mean to justify yourself? It means to show someone else why you're right, why you are allowed to do what you do. For example, when FedEx shows up at the door with some big new wargame for me, I will probably have to JUSTIFY my purchase to my wife, who is required to account for every penny she spends. When your kids don't do the chores they were assigned, they have to JUSTIFY themselves as to why they didn't do what they were told. We do this all the time. We JUSTIFY ourselves to others, giving reasons why we are right and our actions should be considered acceptable. This lawyer guy wanted to JUSTIFY himself. He wanted to prove to Jesus not only that he knew what the Law says, but that he could actually keep it and impress God. He wants to demonstrate for Jesus why he is so deserving of eternal life. When we think we can somehow talk our way into God's good graces, that we can fool the Lord into believing we're WORTHY, then the Law strikes! Like a bandit it comes to strip us naked, rob us of our supposed worthiness, beat us up and leave us within an inch of our lives, naked and bleeding in a ditch. That's the Law's job! To rob us of any notion that we can actually earn God's favor by what we do.
Now notice that in the religion that Jesus brings and teaches us, we have two kinds of neighbors, neither of which we want. When we are laying beat up and robbed by the Law, who do we want to save us? The Law! We want to figure out some way to obey the commandments and work ourselves out of our sin and punishment. But the priest and the Levite just pass by on the other side. They represent the Law. The neighbor we lift our bleeding hands toward but which ignore us and keep going. So who comes to save us? Who is the neighbor who takes care of us? It is a Samaritan. Someone the Jews would never even want to touch them! Our Samaritan is Jesus! The God nobody wants. The world wants a glorious and bright and shiny God. But it's Jesus. God in the flesh. A guy nobody wanted. A guy they nailed to a cross to shut him up and make Him go away. Jesus comes to save us by giving us HIS goods to rescue and take care of us. By His death on the cross, Jesus allows HIMSELF to be the one numbered among the criminals, hung between two thieves, hung there in our place. And this death and His triumph over death are our rescue from the ditch. Jesus, coming out of the grave lifts us from the ditch. He heals our wounds by pouring in the oil and wine of the Holy Sacraments. Washed clean in the waters of Baptism and fed with Jesus' blood. He takes us to the inn, His holy church, where He provides His gifts to the innkeeper, the pastor who administers care and comfort to sinners. We, who could do nothing to save ourselves, are rescued by Jesus our neighbor and good Samaritan.
And we learn from this who the people are to whom we are to be neighbors. Even as we are rescued by a neighbor we would not have picked to save us, so we learn from Jesus to do good to the neighbors we would not choose to help. Who wants to go and touch some guy who's bleeding to death in a ditch! Who wants to put up with a spouse who won't change? Who wants to obey parents that are so embarrassing? Who wants to do good for kids who don't appreciate anything you do? Who wants to deal with that family member or co-worker that are so irritating? Who wants to talk to and help that person from church who hurt you so long ago? The fact is, brothers and sisters, our lives are filled with neighbors to whom we DON'T want to go near. We'd rather pass THOSE people by like the priest and the Levite. But remember what our Lord is teaching us: We have been rescued by Jesus when no one else would even come close to us let alone touch us! Now we learn that doing good to our neighbor isn't about JUSTIFYING ourselves to God. Rather, our neighbor needs us. It's that simple. So take a look around and see who your neighbor is. See what it is that they need. Mindful of your own rescue from sin and death, do whatever they need you to do. Not because it impresses the Lord. Not even because it impresses your neighbor. Only and simply and just because they need you to do it.
These two kinds of neighbors come together in one place. In the church. In the church we have our neighbor Jesus who rescues us from the ditch of trying to justify ourselves. By HIS death for sinners He accomplishes what we never could. By the delivery of His forgiveness in the means of grace—water, word, body and blood—He heals us where the Law of God has wounded and left us to die. In the church, we learn that Christ is the one who is neighbor to us, to save us when we could not save ourselves. Then in the church we learn who those people are to whom WE are to be neighbor: the people that we don't like, can't stand, don't get along with, don't care about—these are the ones whom the Lord teaches us to love. NOT to justify ourselves to God. Not even to justify ourselves to those people. But just because they are there and they need us to help them. And what better neighbors to learn this lesson with than the very ones the Lord surrounds us with on Sunday morning!
Blessed are your eyes and ears, brothers and sisters in Christ! Why? Because you have learned something the world doesn't care to know: You don't have to try to get on God's good side. You are already on His good side IN CHRIST. And more than that, you have learned what it is to love your neighbor, not because it benefits you but because it benefits them. This notion that we need to be saved by Jesus alone and that our good works are only for our neighbor—these are the things the world doesn't know anything about. But you, as you heal from your wounds in the inn that is the church, as you savor the soft comfort of the oil and wine that Jesus gives in His holy sacraments, rest easy. Rest easy knowing that you are safe in Christ. And when the opportunity come for you to help and do good to other people, well, don't worry about making God happy; that's a done deal in Jesus. Rather, when you see your neighbor in need, just go and do likewise. Jesus is neighbor to you. And you are neighbor to others. In Jesus. Amen.