When Bad People Do Good - So Irritating!
Text: Luke 10:23-37
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
The people that we appreciate,
aspire to be like, and want to be around are typically those who do good things
– at least in our minds. The people that
are on our team are the good guys who do good things.
But let us not forget that we all
have those who we do not appreciate. We
have those who we do not want to be like, or around. Now, we do not like to admit it, but deep
down, we hate certain people. We
complain about these people at coffee shops, vote against them in the voting
box, post against them on social media, and gossip about them on the
phone.
For the sake of this sermon, we
really don’t need to mention who these people are. Instead, we simply need to admit that we all
have enemies that we dislike – people different from us.
Take our parable from the reading
in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus mentions a
Samaritan. Now, in America, we tend to think
warm and fuzzy thoughts about the Samaritan, because there are so many ministries,
hospitals, and nursing homes named after the Good Samaritan. However, we must keep in mind that during the
first century, Samaritans were hated by the Jews. They were wicked foreigners. In fact, they were viewed as half-breeds,
both spiritually and physically. They
were secondary and beneath the average Jewish person and certainly ‘way’
beneath prestigious Levites and Priests. To be called a Samaritan was an insult,
practically a cuss word.
And so, when Jesus tells the
story of the poor man being stripped, beaten up, and left for dead by robbers,
one would think that a prestigious Levite or a holy Priest would be the one to
rescue him. But no, this is not how Jesus
tells the story. You see, the hero in
the story is not a Levite, or a Priest, or even a popular Pharisee, but a
half-breed Samaritan.
Can you imagine how the Jewish
people reacted when they heard Jesus tell the story with the Samaritan being
the hero? Can you imagine their twitches
and gagging when they hear that the only one to truly love was a Samaritan?
So, what was Jesus doing here,
besides obviously offending a bunch of people?
Well, it is quite simple. Jesus showed the Jewish people and a
particular Lawyer that day that love is not somehow confined to a political boundary,
or captive to a ethnic tribe. He showed a particular Lawyer that he did not
have a monopoly on love just because he was on the so-called good team – a Jewish
Lawyer. This parable was problematic for
the Jews and for that particular Lawyer.
Now, as we consider this parable
for ourselves, we too come to realize that this parable is problematic. You see, truth be told, I certainly have no
problem celebrating the love shown by people in my tribal groups. But when someone I hate does a good work, it
actually makes me mad. It makes me mad
when those I hate, do good things. And
the reason why? You and I have this
notion to believe that only we good guys do good, and bad guys do only
bad.
We are really messed up with all
of this in our society right now. We
look at people across the aisle from us – people we dislike - and without even
thinking about it, we call them a Samaritan.
We lessen their humanity. We think
of them as sub-human. We conjure up hate
for them. And in the end, if they do
something good – as that Samaritan did – we can hardly acknowledge it. It is like nails on a chalkboard for us to
even admit when our enemies do well, for we have spent so much time and energy
making them out to be evil monsters.
That particular Lawyer in our
Gospel Reading, when he was asked, “Who
showed the beat-up man mercy?” couldn’t even say, “The Samaritan.” He could
only say, “The one who had mercy on him.”
And so, we are quite pathetic
when we draw a line in the sand and allocate all goodness, righteousness, and
love to our little tribes on one side of the line while ascribing all evil,
hate, and scorn to others different from us on the other side of the line. At the root of this kind of thinking is really
self-righteousness – for us and others on the other side of the line. Frankly, we like to think that we are better
than everyone else and that God is pretty lucky to have us.
O Lord, have mercy on us. Have mercy on our neighbors too.
About three years ago, we studied
in the Sunday Morning Bible Study the book of Ecclesiastes. And one of the many things that we learned
from Ecclesiastes is that when we deny not only the fallen nature of this world
but our own sinful natures, we end up not only living in a delusion but we prop
ourselves up with self-righteous delusions of greatness while snubbing our
noses at everyone else beneath us. But
on the other hand, when we come to terms with the reality that this life is fallen
and that all of mankind has this sinful old Adam – including Christians – we
then anticipate that sinful people will do sinful things. That is to say; when we live in the reality
that all of us are dragging our feet through the muck of sin in this life, it
is hard to fly off the handle over sinful words and actions that we come to
expect.
Dear friends, the more we realize
that we are sinners who are totally inadequate before God, just like everyone
else around us, it helps replace our anger and self-righteous attitudes with
empathy for those we formerly hated. As
a Lutheran theologian once said, “An
attitude that conveys ‘we’re in this together’ goes a long way under the grace
of God.” (Bollhagen)
That particular Lawyer that one
day thought he was pretty hot stuff. And
Jesus told a story of a dirty, rotten, half-breed Samaritan who rose above
centuries of bigotry and prejudice. That
parable was meant to knock that Lawyer off his religious pedestal. And dear friends, the Lord does the same for
you and me today, right now.
The good works that you do, do
not originate with you or belong to you.
Before God, you do not have a moral high ground over anyone else in
society. Good works are prepared in
advance for you to walk in, and you simply walk in them. You can’t take credit for them. The good fruit that you show forth in your
life? It is not produced by you but by
the Holy Spirit – you simply bear it.
And so, knock it off. Repent, yes, repent. We are all poor miserable sinners, left for
dead in the ditch of sin. Not a single
one of us is righteous in this world.
None of us are special by our own strength or because of our own group,
pedigree, ethnicity, or tribe.
Now, we should end the sermon
right now because Jesus does not speak the Gospel to that particular self-righteous
Lawyer that day. Perhaps the Law should
do its work on us today and this whole week so that we all come back to this
church clawing and crying for the Gospel. However, though, I am going to trust
that the Law has done its work in you and me.
I trust that the Law has brought us to the fine powders of repentance
and prepared us to hear the Gospel.
And what is that Gospel that we
need to hear? It is quite simple. You
have One that is greater than a Good Samaritan.
You see, Jesus did not just bind your wounds, pour oil on you, and care
for you at a Motel 6. He did not just happen
to notice you in the ditch of sin when He was walking towards a dinner party
one day. No, instead, He knows that you
and I cannot contribute to our forgiveness, life, and salvation. He knows that our tanks are empty of
righteousness. And so, He gives
forgiveness to you and me, as a sheer gift.
He gives us His righteousness. No
strings attached. All of it finished. All of it complete.
Jesus does this not by merely
pulling you out of a ditch of sin – giving you a little hand in this life. No, it is quite the opposite, He pulls you
deeply into death - His death through baptism.
He sinks you not in a ditch but into His cross through baptism. And then, in baptism, you are resurrected in
faith with the perfect righteousness of Jesus.
You are given the goodness of Jesus so you don’t have to ask stupid
questions like that particular Lawyer did that day. He gives you perfect righteousness so that
you don’t have to waste a bunch of time propping up your own
self-righteousness, or comparing with other, or boasting about your religious
games.
And so, when it comes to
righteousness, you are in Christ. No
need to boast in yourself, no need to fear, no need to compare with other, no
lines in the sand – it is simply Jesus for you.
Jesus for your neighbor in need.
Beat your chest in
repentance. Stand boldly in Christ. You are baptized and righteous in Christ and
Him alone.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Comments