First Lutheran Church of Little Rock

5th Sunday after Pentecost

Text: Luke 15:1–3, 11–32

Theme: What Is God the Father Like?

1. In the Name of the Father…Amen.

1. The text for this morning begins with verses 1–2 of Luke 15:
– “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear
him [Jesus]. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying,
‘This man
receives [welcomes] sinners and eats with them.’ ” This is the Word
of God.

1. Grace, mercy, and peace from God our heavenly Father and from our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

1. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray:

612 As Rebels, Lord, Who Foolishly Have Wandered

1

As rebels, Lord, who foolishly have wandered

Far from Your love—unfed, unclean, unclothed—

Dare we recall Your wealth so rashly squandered,

Dare hope to glean that bounty which we loathed?

2

Still we return, our contrite words rehearsing,

Speech, that within Your warm embrace soon dies;

All of our guilt, our shame, our pain reversing

As tears of joy and welcome fill Your eyes.

Introduction

1. What Is God the Father Like?

1. Unfortunately, our experience with our earthly fathers, good or bad,
has clouded our vision of God the Father as shown to us by Jesus.

1. We need Jesus to tell us what the Father is really like.

I. He’s humiliated.

1. When you’re a dad and your little kids are asleep, you go in and kiss
them and nuzzle your nose in and smell their hair.
1. And then you pray that God will make you a better father.
2. Life is about them now.
3. And you don’t regret the overtime and the love and the worrying
and protecting, not if it’s for your child.
4. You’re their father.

1. Jesus said:
1. “There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to
his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property [estate] that
is coming
to me’ ” (verses 11–12a).
1. Been punched in the stomach lately, Dad?
2. Can you see the face you’ve always loved, the kid who rode on your
shoulders, cold and distant and with dry eyes and a steel smile, telling
you the relationship is over, just like that?
3. “I can’t wait forever for you to die, Pops.
4. Just fork over my share so I can get out of here.”
5. Can you feel your heart beating in your neck, and your face
stinging?
6. Can you spell T-R-A-U-M-A?
7. Why?
8. And there’s no answer. It stinks!
1. “And he divided his property between them” (verse 12b).

1. Feel the story back then; it’s not like Dad just sat down and wrote
out a check.
1. The boy can’t take herds of cattle with him on the love boat!
2. This knife would twist awhile.
3. Even if it’s a matter of taking ten cents on the dollar for his
father’s valuables and heirlooms, all that’s at stake is his
father’s good
name.
4. That was a public scandal in those days.
5. There was even a ceremony, get-sat-sah (“cutting off”), for when a
father was insulted like this.
6. What father would let himself be humiliated like that?
7. Our Father who art in heaven, that’s who.

1. What is God the Father like?
1. He’s humiliated—by every prodigal son or daughter who lives on his
earth, breathes his air, eats his food, and doesn’t want to know him.
2. God is publicly humiliated by every prodigal who utters the divine
name just for fun, a hundred times a day, to remind God that he’s getting
as far away from him as possible.
3. It’s like Jesus was narrating the whole sordid tale of the Genesis
3 story of original sin all over again:
1. “I don’t want this luxury garden home you’ve given me.
2. I wanna be out on my own!”
4. What kind of father would let himself be humiliated like that?
5. A father whose love for his son soars high above his own dignity.

1. The narrative from Luke 15 continues:
1. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took
a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in
reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe
famine arose in
that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired
himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his
fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the
pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
2. But when he came to himself, he said, “How many of my father’s
hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here
with hunger!
I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have
sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called
your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.’ ” (verses 13–19)

1. The text says:
1. “He came to himself.”
1. Ding! He turned back toward his father’s house.
2. That’s exactly what repentance is, regardless of the motivation,
which, in this case was good old-fashioned starving to death.
3. It’s not like he still had tons of money but just couldn’t live
with himself after what he did to his father.
4. His repentance was just like ours.
5. Self-serving.
6. He just wanted to survive, so he went home to where the food was,
where there was someone who cared about him.
7. Didn’t we?
8. His confession of sin even had a deal worked into it.
9. A toolbox, “three squares,” and a time card seemed like a plan.
10. Far be it from you or me to beat up on the kid.
11. He just didn’t know.
12. He had no idea the size of the love and the grace that was
waiting.
13. Neither did I. Did you?

II. He’s brokenhearted.

1. “But while he was still a long way off,” his father spotted him
(verse 20).
1. He was waiting up for him.
2. Ever been there?
3. I think we all have.
4. Did you care why your child came home?
5. Some do, some don’t.
6. If that happens in bad men like us, what happens inside a Father
who is truly good?

1. This is the Holy of Holies, brothers and sisters in Christ.
1. Right here in verse 20.
2. It all comes down to one Greek word.
3. It’s this word that’s going to make us live forever:
1. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and
esplagchnisthe”—literally, “his guts fell out,” “his heart broke.”
4. The boy was justified—that is, he was pronounced innocent—not in
his confession (he hasn’t said anything yet!), but outside of himself,
across the field in the breaking of the father’s heart.
5. Broken—like some sort of priceless alabaster box and poured over
the boy as some sort of liquid innocence.
6. This is what God is like: brokenhearted.
7. He’s “Our Father,” and by these words, he would tenderly invite us
to believe that he is our true Father and we are his true children.
8. And the “red carpet” of welcome waiting for every sinner is God’s
exposed, crushed heart rolled out.

1. He ran to his son, fell on his neck, and kissed him fervently.
1. Where have we read this before?
1. Remember how Jacob cheated his brother Esau?
2. He thought Esau would kill him if they ever saw each other
again.
3. They had both made their fortunes and had their families.
4. And when Jacob realized that he would meet up with Esau—and his
army—he sent parades of gifts ahead of him, in the hopes that if he
groveled enough, his offended brother might spare his life.
2. But what happened?:
1. “Then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him, and fell on his
neck and kissed him, and they wept” (Genesis 33:4).
2. There is so much of Jesus in the Old Testament!

1. “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and
before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father
said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and
put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf
and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is
alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate”
(verses 21–24).

1. Does anybody know what’s wrong with this picture?
1. Surely the get-sat-sah, the cutting off ceremony, that obviously
hadn’t happened before, would happen now, since the son blew the
inheritance!
2. But did it?
3. What happened to justice?
4. Justice happened when the father’s heart was rent asunder.
5. What a picture!
6. One minute the father was clothed in dignity and the son stood in
the distance humiliated.
7. Who has the dignity now?
8. Not the father!
9. In a pitiful display, robes flying, he’s half exposed himself
running to his son, happy to be his last resort, despising the shame!
10. The son’s sin was covered, atoned for, by the humiliation of the
father . . . that he caused!
11. Who does this sound like?

1. Can’t the father hear the townsfolk saying he’s easy and calling him
a sucker?
1. Apparently not.
2. Hearts that big break too loudly to hear background noise.

1. Instead, witness the blessed exchange of dignity and honor from the
father to the prodigal son.
1. The son robed.
2. The father disrobed.
3. The son honored with the ring and shoes.
4. The father dishonored with his running and cleaving like Esau as
if he were the repentant sinner.
5. The son was restored completely in the public spectacle of the
father’s broken heart.
6. Even that was not public enough for the father.

1. Perhaps an “open house” is public enough?
1. Can you see the father all winded and sweaty and delighted,
rounding up anyone and everyone?
2. “Great news! You remember when my son treated me for dead and
hawked his inheritance—my livelihood—so he could get as far away
from me as
possible?
3. He blew the money partying!
4. He had to come home!
5. He had no choice! Isn’t that great?!!
6. Hurry up!
7. The band is playing!
8. We’re having veal marsala!
9. Bring your appetite and put on your dancing shoes!
10. It’s time to celebrate!”

III. He’s unfair.

1. The story continues:
1. Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near
to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of
the servants
and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, “Your brother has
come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he
has received
him back safe and sound.” But he was angry and refused to go in.
His father
came out and entreated [pleaded with] him. (verses 25–28)

1. You’d think a good son would be glad just to see his father happy
again at any cost.
1. Besides, it was the duty of the older son to be the intermediary
between his father and his brother, since he loved both.
2. But this son loved neither.
3. You could almost imagine a faithful son pleading with his father:
1. “Father, I cannot celebrate this! I can’t watch you do this to
yourself.
2. I watched you waste away since your good for nothing son pulled
that rotten stunt, and now that he’s broke he’s back to sap
you dry and
slap you in the face all over again.
3. I’m sorry, but I can’t just schmooze with a cheese tray like
everything’s okay.”
4. If he’d said that, you’d think you were listening to an otherwise
decent guy who just missed the point on the father’s joy.
5. But that’s not what he said.
6. Remember Jesus’ audience.

1. But he [the older son] answered his father, “Look, these many years I
have served [slaved for] you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you
never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But
when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property [estate] with
prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!” And he said to him,
“Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting
[necessary] to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and
is alive; he was lost, and is found.” (vv 29–32)

1. In modern language the older son is saying to the father:
1. “You are so unfair!
2. What about me?
3. I’ve slaved for you.
4. Wasn’t that my inheritance he just wasted?
5. I’ve never disobeyed you (’til now).
6. You never gave me a goat so that I could party with my friends.
7. I agree with the neighbors: you’re a fool.”

1. The guests standing there with their wine glasses must have been
skeptical and awestruck, to say the least!
1. How many times has this father been dragged through the mud?
2. Both of his sons have read him the riot act in public.
3. They are the same.
4. Coiled in on themselves.
5. All the humiliated, brokenhearted father has done with both sons
is run after them, plead with them, and give to them, yet he’s unfair?

1. But he is.
1. Completely unfair.
2. He “tenderly invites” his older son, saying, “Hell’s bells to our
dignity, son. Let our hearts break and bring on the humiliations.
3. We have to celebrate; he’s your brother, and he’s back from the
dead!
4. Who cares about fair?”

1. The story ends with Jesus staring at the Pharisees and the scribes,
and all of us ninety-nine who don’t need to repent, who resent the fact
that heaven puts on a feast for the one who does, as if their atonement
cost us anything.
1. He gave them a chance to finish the story, to answer the Father’s
pleading, to repent and take on the Father’s heart, and to let
their hearts
break over their lost brothers.
2. But no “older brother” was found to finish that story.

1. Or was there?

1. Oh, it was finished all right, in Jerusalem, and it wasn’t a parable.
1. See how unfairly the older Son gave his share to pay his brother’s
debt.
2. See how unfairly the older Son was publicly humiliated to cover
his brother’s sin.
3. See the older Son crucified to buy his brother back with his own
broken heart.
1. “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my
heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast” (Psalm 22:14).
1. See, from his head, his hands, his feet
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!

Conclusion

1. When you’ve seen Jesus, you’ve seen the Father.
1. He’s not just fair.
2. He’s wonderful!

1. And when Jesus, nailed up, saw the work of his heart in the
distance—you, little brother, little sister—he was satisfied!
1. His unfair heart of love grew too large, and broke, and was thrust
open, like some sort of celebration piñata raining down a
fountain of water
to wash his little brothers and sisters clean for your Father and blood
into the chalice to keep you strong so you never stray again.

1. What is God the Father really like?
1. He’s humiliated, so we can come home to our Father.
2. He’s brokenhearted, so we can run to our Father.
3. He’s unfair, so we can feast in our Father’s house. Amen.

1. Let us pray:

3

A feast of love for us You are preparing;

We who were lost, You give an honored place!

“Come, eat; come, drink, and be no more despairing—

Here taste again the treasures of My grace.”

Text: © 1992 Stephen P. Starke, admin. Concordia Publishing House. Used by
permission: LSB Hymn License no. 110000247

1. The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, guard your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

1. In the Name of the Father…Amen.

4th Sunday after Pentecost

Text: Luke 12:13–21

Theme: A hostile takeover

1. In the Name of the Father…Amen.

1. The sermon text for this morning comes from the gospel of Luke
12:13-21, which reads as follows:

(13) Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to
divide the inheritance with me.”

(14) But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over
you?”

(15) And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all
covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his
possessions.”

(16) And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man
produced plentifully,

(17) and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to
store my crops?’

(18) And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build
larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.

(19) And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for
many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’

(20) But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of
you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’

(21) So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich
toward God.”

1. This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

1. Grace, mercy, and peace from God our heavenly Father and from our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

1. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray:

782 Gracious God, You Send Great Blessings

1

Gracious God, You send great blessings

New each morning all our days.

For Your mercies never ending,

For Your love we offer praise. Refrain

ref

Lord, we pray that we, Your people

Who Your gifts unnumbered claim,

Through the sharing of Your blessings

May bring glory to Your name.

Introduction

1. The man in the crowd didn’t know it, but he was praying about money.
1. We do plenty of that in these uncertain times.
2. “Lord, will I hold on to my job?”
3. And that’s for reasons that may have nothing to do with your
performance.
4. It’s hardball at high levels behind closed doors that have
nothing to do with you.
5. It doesn’t matter how good you are at your job, or how much
your boss loves you.
6. If the company you work for collides with a company that’s
higher up on the food chain, guess what?
7. Gulp! You and your boss are cleaning out your desk, and are
told to “Hit the road, Jack, but don’t take it personally.”
8. Corporate mergers, foreign acquisitions, hostile takeovers,
macroeconomic speed bumps—we hear about them every day, but
for the one who
built his or her life around that job, it’s always a hostile takeover.
9. What does all that have to do with this text? Everything!

1. Remember what was said at the transfiguration of our lord?
1. The voice came from the cloud:
1. “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!”
2. Then, as soon as Jesus and the disciples come down from the
mountain, the Gospel shifts gears:
1. “He set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51).
3. We are to Listen to this Jesus as he travels to Jerusalem.

1. (Oops) “Who made me a judge over you?” doesn’t sound like
something Jesus would say.

1. “Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to
divide the inheritance with me.’ ”

1. This fellow sounds like a typical heckler in the crowd, trying to get
Jesus off message.

1. Jesus’ initial reply almost sounds as if he were silencing a heckler:
“Man, who made me judge or arbitrator over you?”

1. The reasons it sounds to us as if Jesus is dismissing the guy out of
hand are two:
1. first, because I would have answered a fool like a fool, and
rolled my eyes.

1. The second reason is because, at first glance, this doesn’t sound
like something Jesus would say, at least according to popular theology.

1. He told those two brothers, “That’s your problem,”

1. and I say, “What?”

1. He said, “That’s not part of my job description,”

1. and we say, “Whoa! What a minute, Jesus! I thought . . .”

2. (Ugh) We’re surrounded by a huge sector of Christen­dom that really
believes that is Jesus’ job description.

1. Because we’re surrounded by a huge sector of Christendom that really
thinks that this is Jesus’ job description.

1. I’m living the American dream, making a better life, trying to turn a
buck.

1. When things don’t shake out the way I want, I am, after all, a
Christian.

1. What’s the point of being a Christian in the land of opportunity if I
can’t rub the lamp and make a wish?

1. Jesus, out of love for this guy, told him the truth:
1. “I’m not your genie, and this isn’t small-claims court. You
have a problem.”
2. This man had the ear of God in a body, and this is all he could
come up with?
3. Get my money?
4. And when I receive, when you receive, the key to heaven, the
divine name, and we have the ear of the King, do we ask for important
things, or have we taken his name in vain?

1. Pop theology teaches us that as a Christian I have the right to more
stuff.
1. Is “more stuff” what it all boils down to?
2. Trust me when I tell you more stuff doesn’t make for happiness.
3. It makes for sore muscles!
4. And talk about settling cheap.
5. But that’s easy to fix.
6. The more subtle and more serious malfunction is if we think
that we already know the right questions to ask,
7. and Jesus’ only job is to pony up the answer we expect.
8. If God would only give me what I ask, that would be my happy
ending!
1. Money?
2. Stuff?
3. That is a wrongheaded illusion.
4. Jesus knew it (he always knows!) and told the man, “Take
care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for
one’s life does
not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (verse 15).

1. You want to know how it turns out if you get what you want?
1. A rich man’s land produced a bumper crop. And he began to say
to himself, “What shall I do? ” (cf verses16b–17a).
2. The farmer consults with . . . himself.
3. Mirror, mirror on the wall. . . . It’s so easy to tell lies
when it’s just you!
4. And it’s so much easier to mug your conscience when there are
no witnesses.
5. “I have no place to store my surplus. What to do?”
6. Like he even had to ask himself. Gotta love it.

1. “What shall I do? I have no place to store my surplus. Here’s what
I’ll do, I’ll tear down my barns and I’ll build huge barns and gather
all my grain and my goods.”
1. My surplus.
2. My grain.
3. My goods.
4. I’ll bet he called himself a “self-made millionaire” too.
5. What exactly is that?
6. Someone who gives himself a brain that’s clever with money?

1. The rich farmer never once questioned whether the bumper crop was for
him to keep.
1. That would be thinking outside the box for him.
2. No, this spells early retirement.
1. “Relax, eat, drink, be merry” (verse 19c).
1. Isn’t it obvious?
1. “And I will say to my soul” (verse 19a).
1. Was that his to keep, either?
2. Folks all just assume their souls are theirs to keep.
3. “To keep” is the operative phrase here.
4. For this man, “to keep” was everything!
5. Greed is a downward spiral.
6. “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a
snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge
people into ruin
and destruction” (1 Timothy 6:9).
7. Look at him plunging.
1. “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years” (verse 19b).
1. Many good things—to keep…many good years—my years.

1. “But God said to him, ‘Fool!’ ” (verse 20a).
1. Who told you they were your things?
2. Thou fool! Who told you they were your years?
3. And who told you it was your soul?
4. “Fool! This night your soul is required of [demanded back from]
you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”
(verse 20).
“What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and
forfeits his
soul?” (Matthew 16:26a).
5. For that man, death was a hostile takeover.
6. But man, despite his riches, “will not remain; he is like the
beasts that perish” (Psalm 49:12).
7. For sinners, the reign of death, hell, and grave is a hostile
takeover.
8. It swallows you up even while you go about your business—even
if you’re good at your business.
9. It Makes no difference.
10. That’s why it’s a hostile takeover.
11. You’re out.
12. Empty your desk.
13. It’s heartbreaking.

1. The punch line is even more heartbreaking:
1. “So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich
toward God” (verse 21).
1. He had to lay up for himself, right?
2. Because you only go around once, right?
3. He thought he had good things, but he had no idea how good
things could be.
4. He wasn’t “rich toward God.”
5. He thought he had many years more.
6. What, ten, twenty, thirty?
7. Thirty years goes by in a second!
8. He had no concept of “many”!
9. “My ship has come in. I won’t have to work, and I’ll have
plenty of stuff ’til I die!” Hey! This is what I call livin’!
10. That’s all there is to life when you’re made in the image of
God?
11. Hoarding and hiding?
12. That’s what they mean by “be merry”? So much for desire.

1. One could assume that the rich fool laid up for himself and as a
result wasn’t rich toward God.
1. But that’s not quite right.
2. The truth is, he wasn’t rich toward God, and as a result he
couldn’t afford not to lay up for himself.
3. Giving a real offering to God doesn’t make you rich toward God.
4. It means you already are.
5. Already rich enough and merry enough to lay up thank-you
presents in heaven by taking care of people here.

3. (Aha) When the man asked Jesus to get him his money, Jesus was not
saying, “You’re asking too much!”

1. Wake Up! Wake Up! You’re Asking Too Little!

1. But what about this poor guy in the crowd?

1. What does a wrong question and a stiff warning and a sad parable
change?

1. The man in the crowd now knows that he’s not rich toward God.

1. He’s going to lose his soul, and Jesus is headed for Jerusalem.

1. When the man asked Jesus to get him his money, Jesus was not saying,
“No can do! You’re asking too much!” Instead, He was saying:
1. “Wake Up! Wake Up! You’re Asking Too Little!”
2. Ask me what I mean by “rich toward God.”
3. Ask me where I’m going and why.
4. Ask me why it matters to you.
5. Say to your soul, “Soul, you’re not rich toward God. You
haven’t any good things, and you haven’t many years, but
death will spring
on you like a trap, and there’s not a thing you can do about it.”

1. None of our good deeds could ever make us rich toward God, and every
sin put us deeper in the red.

1. And death picks people off and hell gulps people down even while they
go about their business, because death knows and hell knows
there’s no one
big enough to stand up against them.

1. Or so they thought.

4. (Wow) You’re out. Clean out your desk. This is not a negotiation!
This is a Hostile Takeover! Jesus is in.

1. There’s a new kid in town.
1. They call him Immanuel.
2. He’s not a consultant, and he’s not interested in a merger when
it comes time to pay for your sin.
3. He looks at you and me and every sinner and says:
1. “What goes around comes around.
2. I know you planned on facing death, hell, and the grave when
the wrath of God falls, but you know something? You’re out.
3. Clean out your desk. This is not a negotiation! This is a
Hostile Takeover!

1. That’s why Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem—so they could slap it.
1. He aimed his feet to where the nails were waiting.
2. He reached his goal and things got hostile.
3. They crucified him.
4. The sky turned black, and it was Jesus’ turn to ask the
question:
1. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
1. What did I do to deserve this?
5. The voice in the parable answered:
1. “Fool!”
6. But this time it was no parable.
7. This was the real voice of God the Father aimed right at Jesus!:
1. “Fool! Their souls are required of you this night.”
1. He became sin for us.
2. This is the Hostile Takeover of what we had coming.
3. The Hostile Takeover of our judgment:
4. “Not rich toward God.”
5. The notice of accusations against us that hung over our
heads was ripped from us and was now hanging over his head
on the cross.

1. “And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”
1. And the things he had prepared,
2. the life so devoted,
3. such a bumper crop of good deeds of love, righteousness, and
innocence that he had to build bigger storehouses for it all!
4. Whose will they be?
5. Whose?!! Yours.

1. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was
rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you by his poverty might
become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

1. It was all for you.
1. With every good work and every act of love in his sinless life,
Jesus laid up many good things for you for many years.
2. Because of Jesus, You are rich in God.

5.(Yeah) At this altar, you will show what it really means to eat,
drink, and be merry!

1. At this altar, you will show what it really means to eat, drink, and
be merry!
1. You can afford anything, especially if it means good news to
those who have been slaves to the giant corporation of sin,
death, hell,
and the grave.

Conclusion

1. While you give yourselves away, announce that hostile takeover!

1. all power is given to Jesus in heaven and in earth:
1. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, teaching
them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I
am with you
always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20).
2. New products and services: the forgiveness of sins, the
resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
3. New Owner.
4. No worries.
5. Amen.

1. Let us pray:

D

4

Heav’nly Father, may our caring

Bear the imprint of Your grace;

With the Son and Holy Spirit,

Praise be Yours in ev’ry place! Refrain

ref

Lord, we pray that we, Your people

Who Your gifts unnumbered claim,

Through the sharing of Your blessings

May bring glory to Your name.

Text: © 2004 Gregory J. Wismar. Used by permission: LSB Hymn License no.
110000247

1. The peace of God, that transcends all understanding, guard your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

1. In the Name of the Father…Amen.

Theme: The Good Samaritan

Text: Luke 10:25–37

1. In the Name of the Father…Amen.

1. The Gospel of Luke, chapter 10, verses 25 to 37 serves as our sermon
text for this morning, which reads as follows:

(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.”

1. This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

1. Grace, mercy, and peace from God our heavenly Father and from our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

1. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray:

852 O God of Mercy, God of Might

1

O God of mercy, God of might,

In love and pity infinite,

Teach us, as ever in Thy sight,

To live our lives in Thee.

3

Teach us the lesson Thou hast taught:

To feel for those Thy blood hath bought,

That ev’ry word and deed and thought

May work a work for Thee.

Introduction

1. In an illustration titled “EVER BEEN BOTHERED BY PEOPLE?”, Pastor
John Hermann writes:

1. Sometimes church and worship can keep us from the living water people
need and that we need.
1. People can actually hide behind church, the machinery of church
and worship.

1. Recently I attended a Wednesday Lenten service with my wife in my
former church.
1. A stranger – a shabby and homeless man, walked in from the cold
and driving rain, smelling of feces and urine, but not alcohol,
and took a
seat way, way in the back.
2. I found it most annoying.
3. The smell drifted a third of a way into the large sanctuary.
4. Meanwhile the service just went on as usual; formal, classically
difficult Lenten Lutheran hymns, readings back and forth and so on.
5. The usual “let’s shorten this up a bit” kind of service.
6. Not wanting to visit much after the service, since we’d been
earlier to the soup supper, my wife and I left right away at the end.
7. But I couldn’t get the homeless man out of my mind.

1. Arriving home, I called the usher and asked what happened to the man,
but it went into voice mail.
1. An hour later, not because I was the pastor there, but because I
was compulsive, I returned to the church with some of the left over soup
I’d earlier made, wondering if the man might still be there somehow.
2. Sure enough, there he was, sleeping in his sleeping bag on the
concrete walkway right next to the side door we’d left from.
3. He smiled as I offered him the soup, though he’d been earlier
given a cup by the ushers, along with an umbrella when he was
first spotted
in church.
4. I asked if there were anything else.
5. He said something about needing some gloves and some socks.
6. I drove the two miles home in the dark returning with those, as
well as a banana and a breakfast bar and a long piece of foam I
had laying
around for him to sleep on.
7. Keep it, I said.

1. No, he shouldn’t have been there, but what are you going to do?
1. I found out the next morning, the church administrator had called
the sheriff to have him removed since the church had their Christian
elementary and pre-school right there on campus, and “you just can’t have
these kind of people around.”
2. He’d gone to church to hear the Gospel, even if it was just to get
out of the weather, and now he got the Law.
3. I immediately felt guilty I hadn’t spared the secretary, the cops,
and the man himself the trouble by not arriving an hour earlier before
anyone got there and take him to a shelter a dozen miles away,
in spite of
the smell.
4. I sort of felt like the Good Samaritan who didn’t quite finish the
job.
5. At the same time, I felt annoyed there were people like this guy
in this world disturbing my own comfortable world and my time in God’s
house.
6. Part of me wished I’d not even gone to church that night and I
wouldn’t have had to deal with my obsessive-compulsive side and
to have so
much to think about and bother with.

1. But aren’t we supposed to be “bothered” with people?
1. Isn’t that in the end what church and worship is?
2. Should we be surprised if God sometimes upsets the little patterns
we fall into — even that pattern of church as we know it?
3. Isn’t it about the living water that we and a tired and thirsty
world needs?
4. Isn’t it that as Jesus was “bothered” about this woman and
“bothered” to visit with her, so he bothered to come to this earth as a
human being, for the moment, letting go of his divine position in the
universe, and join us, offering us through his life, death and
resurrection
true soul refreshment?

1. From <
www.sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/78440/unconditional-love-by-john-herrmann>

1. (Oops) Yes, I do try to justify myself.

1. Ah, the stunts lawyers pull!
1. Right out of the gate, he’s sinning.
2. Jesus told Satan in the wilderness, “Don’t put God to the test.”
3. And even though the lawyer didn’t know he was talking to God in
person, the Second Person of the Trinity to be exact, he was
still putting
God to the test by looking for a loophole in the Law.

1. Jesus asked: “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” (verse
26).
1. If you always love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all
your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your
neighbor as yourself, you will live.
2. “And [Jesus] said to him, ‘You have answered correctly; do this,
and you will live’ ” (verse 28).
3. It’s all true.
4. The Law promises eternal life.
5. All you have to do is keep it.
6. Jesus held that mirror up to the lawyer.
7. The lawyer should have looked in that mirror long and hard.

1. But he didn’t want to look in that mirror, not really.
1. He didn’t want to ask:
1. How could he be loving the Lord with all of his heart and not
know in his heart he whom he was testing?
2. How could an expert in the Law love God with all his soul and
think that there was anything he could do to inherit eternal life?
3. How could he love the Lord with all his strength and resist the
Lord with all his strength at the same time?
4. How could he be loving God with all his mind and play mind
games with God’s commands?
2. How could he quote Deuteronomy 6:5 in order to test God and ignore
Deuteronomy 6:16, which says “Don’t test God,” at the same time?

1. Some test God by teaching “self-esteem” from “love your neighbor as
yourself”
1. They say: “You can’t love anyone else unless you first love
yourself,”
2. Talk about mind games.
3. Too bad the word love before yourself is not an imperative.
4. Jesus means to love others as if they were your dearest love,
yourself.
5. Make believe your neighbor is you, then do your magic.
6. But people were looking for a proof text to justify their
self-centered existence and self-centered theology.
7. Yes, I do that.
8. You do that as well.

2. (Ugh) We’re all lawyers in that sense—and the Law shames our hollow
attempts to justify ourselves.

1. Just like this lawyer: “But he, desiring to justify himself . . .”
(verse 29a).
1. He’s a lawyer in the infamous sense of the word, too.
2. This conversation should have ended when Jesus said, “Do this, and
you will live,” but the lawyer wants a continuance.
3. He was hunting for a proof text.
4. He wanted just enough of God’s Law to justify his conduct.
5. We’re all lawyers in that sense.

1. Except that as Lutherans we don’t generally pull stunts with the Law.
1. We fear God’s Law because we’ve been taught that we can’t keep it.
2. So we awkwardly walk right past Mount Sinai and let the Law
thunder away.
3. We save our stunts for Mount Calvary, where there is only welcome
and no thunder, at least none aimed at us.
4. We wait for the Tender Mystery Crucified to unfold like a flower
in front of our eyes.
5. Then we say:
1. “I won’t be in church, because that would take all my strength,
and am I not saved by grace alone?
2. I won’t learn your Word, because that would take all my mind,
and don’t I live by faith alone?”
6. And we actually use the Gospel to justify our stone-cold hearts.
7. We lawyers got Jesus on a technicality.
8. Or so we think.

1. This lawyer thought he’d try his luck with the Law, so he said to
Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (verse 29b).
1. He was looking for a proof text to justify his definition of
“neighbor.”
2. What was that?
3. Well, has anyone here ever planned a wedding?
4. No doubt you’ve learned, maybe the hard way, that when you send
out invitations, no matter what size the party, you have to tear paper
towels on the lines.
5. You can’t invite some close friends and not others, some immediate
family and not others, some extended relatives and not others, some
acquaintances, etcetera.
6. Unless you want to make a statement . . . and you’d better know
they’ll hear it!
7. You’d better know you can live with the consequences!
8. Well, for lawyers, for Pharisee types, every day was like planning
a wedding.
9. Think of a “who do I have to love” dartboard with a bull’s-eye,
the inner circle, and then another, and another, until the outer circles,
and the outcasts.
10. Anybody got darts they want to throw?

1. Now as you might have guessed, other lawyers were the bull’s-eye.
1. Then, working from the center outward, Pharisees, Levites, scribes
populated the next ring.
2. Just outside of them, of course, other Jews.
3. Next, Gentile God-fearers, like the Roman centurion who built them
a synagogue.
4. Next, other Gentile undesirables, like you and me.
5. Then, further out, “tax collectors and sinners,” traitors and
prostitutes to be exact.
6. Still further, out on the edge, the lepers, and thank goodness for
plenty of stones to throw.
7. Finally, off the dartboard entirely, the complete outcasts: Jesus’
enemies said, “Are we not right in saying that you are a
Samaritan and have
a demon?” (John 8:48).
8. That was the worst insult they could come up with.
9. As the woman at the well said, the Jews had no dealings with
Samaritans.

1. Think of today’s Israelis and Palestinians, and you get the picture.
1. The northern ten tribes went into exile by the Assyrians first,
and they intermarried with the foreigners the Assyrians shipped in and
repopulated the region of Samaria as half-Jews.
2. Therefore not real Jews.
3. So it had been a hate-fest for centuries, and Jesus knew it.
1. “Now, teacher, who do I have to love?”

1. Jesus could have said:
1. “You say you love the Lord and your neighbor as yourself, so have
you not read the next few verses of what you quoted?”
1. “You shall treat the stranger who sojourns [resides] with you as the
native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, you were strangers
[aliens] in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:34).
1. But the lawyer didn’t lack information.

1. So Jesus engaged him and said:
1. “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.
Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he
passed by on the other side” (verses 30–31).
1. He blew it off.
2. Didn’t want to get involved.
3. No reason except the obvious: he didn’t love his neighbor as
himself.
1. “Likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by
on the other side” (verse 32).

1. Now the punch line: Who will be the hero of the story?
1. The priest and the Levite came up empty.
2. Perhaps a “lawyer,” one of us?
3. Yeah, it has to be one of us.
1. “But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was” (verse 33).
1. Is this a joke? Worse.
2. Jesus made him admit who the hero of the story was.
3. Can you see the lawyer boiling in his own jealous rage against an
imaginary Samaritan?
4. Jesus leans into him:
1. “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to
the man who fell among the robbers?” (verse 36).
5. The lawyer couldn’t even say the word: “The Samaritan.”
6. He just said, “The one who showed him mercy.”
7. He has the answer to his question, “Who do I have to love?”
8. Of all people, the Samaritan.
9. When you ask your Lord, “Who do I have to love?” just begin with,
“Of all people,” and you’ll have your answer.

1. Jesus used the Law on this man with what we call the “second use.”
1. The lawyer’s cold, hollow theories of love were shamed by the
Samaritan’s real love.
2. There were no boundaries, no limits, but:
1. “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”—that’s
two days’
wages—“and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and
whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back’ ”
(verses 34–35).
3. He didn’t “do his part.”
4. He did everything.
5. He wasn’t keeping commands; he was fulfilling the Law with love.

1. Real love forgets that the victim, a Jew, would rather die than
accept his, a Samaritan’s, help.
1. Real love forgets that he could get mugged and beaten too.
2. He forgets himself.
3. The Gospel says a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came upon him,
and—literally in the Greek—his heart broke.
4. The original Greek is esplagchnisthe.
5. It means his guts fell out, or, in more polite language: “his
heart broke:” . . . and that sounds awfully familiar.
6. St. Luke used it to describe Jesus when he saw the widow of Nain
burying her only-begotten son and to tell what happened to the
father when
he saw the prodigal son coming home: his heart broke . . .

3. (Aha) But Jesus didn’t tell the story with the Samaritan as victim and
the lawyer walking by on the other side.

1. . . . the way Jesus’ heart broke over this lawyer.

1. When Jesus began the parable, you saw him holding a mirror up to the
lawyer’s face to reflect his own hypocrisy, but he could have made the
Samaritan the victim in the story and let the lawyer walk by on the other
side.

1. That certainly would have accomplished that mirror of the second use
of the Law too.

1. But that’s not how Jesus told the story.
1. The Greek text suggests that “a certain lawyer stood up putting
him to the test,” and the story begins, “a certain man went down from
Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves,” the lawyer wasn’t the hero
in the story; he was the victim!
2. And when the story ends, you see Jesus heartbroken and holding the
mirror to a certain lawyer’s mouth to see if he was even breathing.
3. The lawyer was beaten and left for dead.

1. Not by Jesus.
1. Robbers, thieves did that.
2. Thieves stole his soul and told him he could keep God’s Holy Law
with his sin nature.
3. But when his own sin beat down his strength, those thieves
wouldn’t lift a finger to help carry the load; they walked by on
the other
side.
4. Jesus’ parable showed the lawyer his own condition:
1. stripped of his pride,
2. sore with mortal wounds—heart, soul, strength, and mind
3. left for dead,
4. and desperately in need . . . of a neighbor.

4. (Wow) Jesus ignores that the lawyer, as the real victim, would rather
die than accept his help.

1. Jesus ignores that the lawyer would rather die than accept his help.
1. He ignores that he could get mugged and beaten too.
2. He forgets himself.
3. He set his face on a dangerous road.
4. Nobody on that road to Jerusalem came from his inner circle.
5. In the very center is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
6. And outside are nothing but thieves and outcasts!
7. No widening circles of family, friendship, and acquaintances.
1. “There is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God” (Romans 3:22c–23),
2. “by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3),
3. enemies of God who have tested him since Adam and Eve.
4. The only neighbors God had . . . were enemies.

1. But that didn’t stop Christ from being our neighbor.

1. God Loved His Outcast Neighbors by Becoming a Human Outcast.

1. When Jesus saw this lawyer mugged by a code of hypocrisy and his own
sin, he engaged him.
1. And the closer he got to Jerusalem, the closer a neighbor he
became.
2. And when he reached his goal, to get mugged:
1. crucified and left dead
2. even a thief on a cross had a neighbor close by, a blood
neighbor!
3. Jesus Christ was willing to be an outcast from his own inner
circle:
1. forsaken by his Father,
2. handing over the Spirit,
3. in order to be our neighbor.

5. (Yeah) What must you do to inherit eternal life? Just inherit.

1. You must take charity from Christ.
1. You must let this Neighbor pay the price for the Law you couldn’t
keep.
2. This Neighbor will take care of everything.

1. Jesus tells the famous parable of the Good Samaritan to clarify that
He expects His followers to do good to ALL people.
1. However, His concluding exhortation, “Go and do likewise,” reminds
us just how far away we are from the loving, self-sacrificing
behaviors the
Lord expects of us.
2. So it was that Jesus became the Good Samaritan for us:
1. He laid down his life,
2. befriended us while we were yet His enemies.
3. He promises us full restoration and life everlasting.

Conclusion

1. What about “Go and do likewise”?

1. You’ll have your chance, once the oil and the wine have done their
work,
1. “strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for
all endurance and patience with joy” (Colossians 1:11) . . . here at the
inn. Amen.

1. Let us pray:

5

In sickness, sorrow, want, or care,

May we each other’s burdens share;

May we, where help is needed, there

Give help as unto Thee!

6

And may Thy Holy Spirit move

All those who live to live in love

Till Thou shalt greet in heav’n above

All those who live in Thee.

Text: Public domain

1. The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, guard your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

1. In the Name of the Father…Amen.