Good samaritan (13set-a)

Hymns

Opening hymn: Komum, fögnum fyrir Drottni (212)

Before scripture reading: Hver fögur dyggð í fari manns (195, lag 118)

Before sermon: Vor Guð oss lýsa lát þitt orð (söngblað)

Offering: Guðs kirkja er byggð á bjargi (288)

Closing hymn: Nú héðan á burtu í friði eg fer (424)

Collect

Almighty, everlasting God! Plant us in your love, that we may love you above all things, and our neighbour as ourselves, and be made fit for the heavenly joy, which you have promised us by you eternal love. Hear our prayer, through your son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Scripture reading

First reading

Genesis 4:3–16 ESV

3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” 8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” 10 And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. 11 And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” 13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14 Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” 15 Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. 16 Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

L: This is the Holy Word.

S: Praise be to God.

Second reading...

1 John 4:7–11 ESV

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

L: This is the Holy Word.

Gospel

Luke 10:23–37 ESV

23 Then turning to the disciples he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! 24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” 25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 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.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” 29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “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. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 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. 35 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?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

P: This is the Holy Gospel.

Sermon

We have now heard two stories from the Bible, which are in many ways opposites. In the first story, we heard about two of Adam and Eve's sons, Cain and Abel. Both offered sacrifices to God; Cain from the fruits of the earth and Abel from the sheep of his flock. It is especially noted that Abel sacrificed the firstlings of the flock and their fat, which would later become a provision in the law.

‌The letter to the Hebrews also states that Abel offered his sacrifice in faith and trust in God. Nothing is said about Cain there, but in the account in Genesis it was revealed that he was quick to envy and to hate his brother. It is therefore not unreasonable to assume he expected to receive something in return for his sacrifice.

It seems that Abel's faith and trust is the reason why God looked with favor on Abel's sacrifice, but not Cain's. For Cain, however, it hardly mattered much. Whatever God's reason was, Cain became so bitter that he decided to secretly kill his brother in the field. When God then asks him where Abel is, Cain says he doesn't know, and then adds a question:‌

Am I my brother’s keeper?‌

Although this question was certainly a pathetic attempt to divert attention, the answer may not be entirely obvious. Was it Cain's responsibility to guard his brother Abel? Let us keep this question in mind for a moment. Before answering it, let us look at the Gospel text.

The good Samaritan

Much, much later in history, a lawyer comes to Jesus and asks him how he may gain eternal life.

Jesus then asks him if God's covenant with the nation of Israel, i.e. the law of Moses, has something to say about the matter. Yes, indeed, this lawyer well knows. He obviously knows his Bible well, and gives this as an answer:

‌Luk 10:27

Luke 10:27 ESV

27 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.”

Good answer! This is the essence of the whole law. Jesus says it himself in the 22nd chapter of Matthew, when another lawyer asks him what the highest commandment is. All the law and the prophets rest on these two commandments, that we should love God and our neighbor.

Not only that, but this is something we can understand: We should treat God and people with love. Can't it just be that simple? What then are all the other commandments, and all other rules. Is there any need for it? The modern man, who constantly repeats phrases like "love is love", likes such a simplification. The only problem is that the statement is so universal that on its own, without further defining love, it means nothing at all.‌

The Scriptures command that you should love God with all your heart, soul and strength! But how do you actually do that? What does this consist in?

The scriptures say you are to love your neighbor as yourself! But who exactly is this neighbor, and what exactly does it mean to love him?

‌Perhaps this lawyer could have answered to some extent. He obviously knew the Scriptures, and therefore must have thought about these things before.‌

In fact, as Jesus' parable shows us, whoever God puts in our way is our neighbor whom we should love as ourselves. And the circumstances dictate how we should do it. All those, whom the beaten man got in the way of, therefore had a duty to show him love in action, by stopping, examining the man, and doing what was in their power to save him. Here the circumstances are so obvious that there is no need to ask what the Levite and the priest should have done.

But of course it's not always that simple. If everyone who crosses our path is our neighbor, then it is obvious that the neighbor does not always need first aid. How are we supposed to know what to do then?

To guide us, God has given us His law, in its simplest form in the Ten Commandments. The first three commandments tell us how to love God: You shall have no other gods. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, and you shall keep the Sabbath day holy.‌

The other seven commandments tell us how to love our neighbor. Here it immediately appears that that love is shaped by who the neighbor is. The fourth commandment, Honor your father and mother, teaches us that children of all ages should love their parents in such a way that they honor and obey them. The sixth commandment, Thou shalt not commit adultery, teaches us that married couples should love each other. A husband should furthermore love his wife in a different way than he loves e.g. the postman, even if they are both his neighbour. A mother should love her children in a different way than she loves her neighbor's children. It wouldn't be good if she took the whole group on a trip to the mediterranian, without asking anyone.‌

However, many of the commandments apply to everyone: The fifth commandment: You shall not kill a man. Seventh Commandment: You shall not steal. The Eighth Commandment: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. And that means not only that we should not lie against other people, but also that we should not slander and speak ill of our neighbour, or take his word in anything but the best sense.

The scriptures thus teach us, not only to love God and our neighbor, but also what love is, and how we act out of love in different situations. Keeping God's commandments is love in action, as Jesus himself says.

John 14:15 ESV

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Cain’s question

So, when Cain asks if he should be his brother’s keeper, it is of course a misleading question, as Cain well kew. Of course, he wasn't supposed to be a babysitter for his brother, who was a grown man. But, on the other hand, he was to love his brother as himself, and take care of him. And with that: Yes! To be his keeper, and help him when needed.

Instead, he envied Abel, and the envy then turned into hatred, and the hatred into death.‌

The ninth commandment teaches us: You shall not covet your neighbor's house, and the tenth commandment: You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, servant, maidservant, livestock, or anything that your neighbor has.

The ninth and tenth commandments teach us not to envy our neighbor, and not to covet what belongs to him. For although the consequences are rarely so dire as in this case, coveting at least never leads to anything good.

That is the answer to Cain's question: You shall love your neighbor (and therefore your brother) as yourself.

Final words

Have we now received an answer to the Lawyer’s question? Well, it was slightly different, for what he asked was this:

Luke 10:25 ESV

25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus had the Lawyer himself quote the twofold commandment of love as a summary of the whole Law. Then he adds:

Luke 10:28 ESV

28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

The victory of being right was not very pleasant. Because the consequence was that now the lawyer had to live according to these words. And anyone who truly, and without prejudice, examines himself, must realize that it is impossible to keep such a commandment. No one but God alone can love without limit.

And since unlimited love, according to the word of Christ, is a prerequisite for gaining eternal life, then we are in trouble. Just as bad, and actually much worse, than the man in the parable who fell into the hands of the robbers. And he is probably the one we should identify with. God's law, which should have helped us, has instead hurt us, and shown us our weakness. We are alive, yet dying.

Various travellers pass us by. Priests and Levites cannot save us by teaching us the difference between right and wrong. For what does it help us to know what is good and right if we cannot do it? What does it help us to know what love is if we cannot love unconditionally, as the double commandment of love demands of us? Wouldn't it have been better to be blissfully ignorant?

But where we lie dead in our sins, the Good Samaritan comes walking. This is none other than Christ himself, who stops, looks down and has compassion with us. He descends from heaven and becomes a man in order to bind up the wounds of sin. He lifts us up on His own shoulders and carries us through life and death. And although we live for a while with the hosts of the church, it's just a stop on the way. For he will return, and will take us home.‌

The Good Samaritan in Christ's parable is a perfect example of what we should do, and indeed we should follow that example. But even more than that, he is a picture of Christ, the perfect Good Samaritan, who pays all our debts, who binds up our wounds, and who saves us from death.‌

Our great hope is not to have the Good Samaritan as an example, but rather the Good Samaritan himself, Jesus Christ, our Lord.‌

Glory be to God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, it is and will be for ever and ever. Amen.

Let's confess our faith together.