He Desired to Justify Himself

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St.

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Luke, chapter 10, verses 25 through 37. And behold, a lawyer stood up to put

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Jesus to the test, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

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He said to him, What's written in the law? How do you read it? He answered, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

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And he said to him, You've answered correctly. Do this and you will live. But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor?

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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.

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Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

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So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place, and saw him pass by on the other side.

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But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.

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He went to him, bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, and then he set him on his own animal, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

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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,

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I will repay you when I come back. Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?

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And he said, The one who showed him mercy. And Jesus said to him,

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You go and do likewise. This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus, beloved saints, holy ones in the

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Lord, I have been looking forward to preaching this text since before I became a pastor.

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And the reason why is because I've suffered under really bad preaching on this text.

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The standard way in which this is preached in some churches kind of goes like this.

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You are the good Samaritan. Go find your neighbor in need and go help him. And get busy, get cracking, get going.

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That's kind of to miss the whole point. What we learn from Jesus when Jesus first begins teaching in parables in the gospel of Matthew is that, well, parables are coded stories, if you would.

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You're looking for God. You're looking for us. You're looking for making sure you've got the right characters under the right masks, if you would.

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And I would say making us the good Samaritan is, well, the equivalent of making us

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Jesus. And that's a grave error, an exegetical one, an exegetical error that leads to all kinds of, well, lack of comfort, if you would.

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So we're going to work our way back through our text today, and we'll see if we can straighten some things out.

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Here's how it begins. Behold, a lawyer, got to tell you, anytime a story begins with the words, behold, a lawyer, you know that what's coming is going to be rather interesting.

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So behold, a lawyer stood up to put Jesus to the test.

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So you can tell already we've got some problems. He's going to put Jesus to the test. What does this tell you about him?

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Does he really have faith in Jesus? No. He's a smart fella. He knows the law really well.

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He's decided to step up to the plate to see if he can give Jesus a black eye, see if he can catch him in his words.

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That's his motivation. So he asked this question, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

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Now generally we have a rule here, and that is, especially during Sunday school, that there are no dumb questions.

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Okay. However, this is one of those. This is a really dumb question.

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Because an inheritance is a gift, is it not? When somebody bequeaths you an inheritance, writes you into their will, is it because you have earned that or because they are gifting you?

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So already the question shows that, well, this guy probably didn't go to a good law school. So teacher, what shall

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I do to inherit eternal life? And all the Jewish guys went, oy vey, this is not going to turn out well.

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So Jesus said to him, and watch what Jesus does here. Jesus, by the way, knows law and gospel very well, and he knows the purpose of the law.

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The purpose of the law is not to save us. Purpose of the law, especially to somebody who is arrogant, is to show them their sin.

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You preach the law to the proud. You preach grace in the gospel to those who are humbled by the law.

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So this guy is going to get the law. Watch what happens. So Jesus said to him, well, what's written in the law?

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How do you read it? And he answered, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind.

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That's a lot of alls, by the way. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. So let me ask you a question.

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How are y 'all doing on the alls there? How's the love the Lord your God with all, all, all, and all?

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Yeah. Right. Oh, and love your neighbor perfectly as yourself. So that's the guy's answer.

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And Jesus says to him, all right, you've answered correctly. Do this and you will live. Do you think he's doing it?

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No. No. And how do we know he's not doing it? Well, other passages of scripture will help us here.

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Romans chapter three, nine through 18 will help us. Oh, and by the way, the fact that he's trying to trip

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Jesus up, that tells us he's not loving his neighbor as himself already, right? Because Jesus is not only his neighbor,

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Jesus is his God. Okay? Should tell you something about what's going on inside this guy's heart.

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Romans chapter three, verses nine through 18 reads, what then? Are we Jews any better off?

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Well, no, not at all. We've already charged that all. You know what all means there, by the way? All. Tricky question.

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All. All. Both Jews and Greeks. That's everybody are under sin. As it is written, none is righteous.

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No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside together.

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They have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive.

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The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, and in their paths are ruin and misery.

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In the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

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That's describing all of humanity. That's me. That's you. So Jesus says, do this and you will live, except for here's a problem.

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He's not doing it. Right? The purpose of the law is to show him sin. And then comes an amazingly awful and blind statement.

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The text says, but he desiring to justify himself. Desiring to justify himself?

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Now I'm not a mechanic. In fact, I'm quite impressed with people who can actually look under the hood and know what any of those things do.

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Right? If I were stuck on the side of the road, well, I'm calling roadside assistance. Okay? But it always amazes me, the guy who can actually like open up the hood of a car, pull out his flashlight, look around and go, oh, there's your problem right there.

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You know, very impressive to me, by the way. All right. So let me point this out. The fact that it says he desiring to justify himself.

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Trust me as a theologian, I'm going, there's your problem right there. Okay. This tells me a lot.

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It should tell you a lot. And here's the reason why. Law was not given for this purpose so that you can justify yourself.

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Several passages will bear this out via cross -reference Romans chapter three, 19 through 20 reads.

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Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God for by works of the law, no human being, no, not one will be justified in God's sight since through the law comes the knowledge of sin

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Romans chapter three, 19 through 20 explicitly states that the primary function of the law here is to expose our sinful condition.

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It also has a secondary function and that is to get you to let me put this impolitely zip it to shut you up.

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You know, when your kids, they're just prattling on and on, you go, right? That's what the law is telling us to do, right?

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Be quiet. You're guilty. But, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, but, but, but, but, but, but, right?

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Because what happens when we do the, but, but, but, but, but, but we usually say something really stupid like, but I meant well, my heart was good.

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No, it really wasn't because if your heart was good, you wouldn't have sinned. Don't sit there and say, but my intentions were right.

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That's not going to help here. So the purpose of the law is to get you to be quiet.

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You're guilty and it's good that you'd be quiet because God has something comforting to say to you and that's the gospel.

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Other passages, Galatians five, 15 through 16 says this. We ourselves who are Jews by birth and not

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Gentile sinners, yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law through, but through faith in Jesus Christ.

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So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ, not by works of the law, because by works of the law, no one, not even one person will be justified.

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Justified there is a very important word and it means to be declared righteous, found not guilty.

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No one is going to be justified before God by works of the law. You see this lawyer went to a really bad law school, thinks he's going to be able to justify himself.

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Galatians three, 10 through 14 also says all who rely on works of the law while they're under a curse for it's written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law and continue to do them continuously.

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That's my translation of what's going on in the present tense verbs there. So now it's evident that no one is justified before God by the law for the righteous shall live by faith, but the law is not of faith, rather the one who lives, who does them shall live by them.

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Christ, he has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us for it's written.

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Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree so that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the

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Gentiles so that we might receive the promise spirit through faith.

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Parting shot in our cross references, Galatians two, 20 through 21, I have been crucified with Christ.

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The apostle Paul writes, it's no longer I who live, it is Christ who lives in me and the life

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I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

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I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

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You see, he desiring to justify himself has missed the whole point of the law, right?

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And unfortunately there are many today who are attempting this same feat. You might as well try swimming to Hawaii.

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You ain't going to make it, right? Going back to our text, he desiring to justify himself, that's his motivation for saying what he's saying now, said to Jesus, who's my neighbor?

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And you can almost kind of see the swagger in the question, who's my neighbor, right? And this is where it gets really interesting.

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So Jesus decides to whip out one of his parables and this is a zinger. We're going to unpack this, but first let's read the parable itself and then we'll work our way back through it.

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Jesus replied, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. He fell among robbers who stripped him, beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.

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Now by chance a priest was going down that road and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

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So likewise, a Levite, when he came to that place, saw him pass by on the other side.

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But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was and when he saw him, he had compassion.

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He went to him, bound up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on him. Then he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn and took care of him.

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And the next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper saying, take care of him and whatever more you spend,

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I will repay you when I come back. So there's our story. Now let's work our way through it.

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A little bit of geography here. I've never been to the Holy Land, but I've traveled there often via the internet and looked at places using other people's vacation photos.

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It's a very inexpensive way to take a vacation, just want to let you know that. And I know from other people's vacation photos and from Google Earth and what

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I know of the Holy Land that Jericho is, well, not at the same elevation as Jerusalem.

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Jerusalem is quite higher up in elevation than Jericho itself. And the road from Jerusalem to Jericho historically is known to be a treacherous road and you journey down.

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So Jerusalem's up here, Jericho's down here. And that road, lots of winding curves and switchbacks and things like that.

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And if you've ever seen video of people on a tour in the Holy Land in a bus while they're on that road, they note the fact that the absolute feeling of terror while they look outside of their bus window and they can't see any road, all they see is ravine and cliff, right?

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Okay. So keep this in mind. The going down part's important. So a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho.

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He fell among robbers, which was common back then, who stripped him, beat him, departing, leaving him half dead.

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Now by chance, a priest was going down that road. Which direction was the priest heading?

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He was heading to Jericho from Jerusalem, which means he's probably finishing up his priestly duties there in Jerusalem and heading home.

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Well, that being the case, keep this in mind. The law can always accuse you, but the law will never help you obey it.

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The law will never lift a finger to help you at all. So here the law, the man visibly representing the law, sees there in the road a guy stripped naked, a little bit of garment theology going there, half dead, bleeding, maybe he's dead, you know, can't tell from the distance, right?

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And what does the law do? Nothing. Keep in mind, you know, the law very specifically says that if you touch a dead body, you're unclean and there's a whole cleaning ritual that you have to go through, right?

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And well, back then, Jews might be willing to become unclean for their cousin's shlomo, but they may not be willing to become unclean for a perfect stranger.

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So what does the law do? Walks over to the other side of the road and passes by at a safe distance in order to not become unclean.

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A Levite, when he came to the place, we'll just imagine he's heading up to Jerusalem, saw him for the same reasons, passes by on the other side.

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All those bound by the law are incapable of showing mercy, are they not? So now the story gets really interesting.

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But a Samaritan, the text says, let me help you out here. I don't know if you've noticed, but on the news, racial tensions in the

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United States seem to be, well, boiling over again. I haven't seen stuff like this since I was a kid in the days when they had forced busing and forced desegregation in the schools.

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I remember that when I was a kid and the racial tensions were high. Well, they're running high again right now.

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And you've got people who are white hating black people. You have black people now racially hating and showing prejudice towards white people.

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So let me kind of give you an example of what the words, but a Samaritan mean in the context of somebody talking

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Jew to Jew at this time, all right? This would be the equivalent of, well, Jesus tells a story, there was a white cop and he's telling this story to somebody who's into the black lives matter, right?

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Or you can say, well, but a, and then you can say African American, and it's in the context of talking to guys who are in the

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KKK. That's what we're talking about here. This is salacious. And who is this

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Samaritan by the way? The Samaritan is Jesus. Jesus is hiding in the mask of the

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Samaritan in this story. And the details make that perfectly clear. So Jesus in the story covers himself well, in a hated racial character, a

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Samaritan and that's important. The Samaritan is not bound by the Mosaic covenant.

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He's free to help. So a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was.

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And when he saw him, I know your text says he had compassion. I think a better way to render the

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Greek where there is his guts were wrenched coming around the bend.

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He sees what looks like a corpse. You can just see him.

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It's like he drops everything and he immediately runs to him, checks to see if he has a pulse, looks him over to find out where he's bleeding and what's going wrong, right?

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He says this. He binds him up, binds up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine and he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.

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A little bit of note here. There's just wisps, hints of the incarnation here because, you know, over and again at Christmastime we have pictures of Jesus, you know, in his mother's tummy, riding into Bethlehem and going to the inn and there's no room for them at the inn, right?

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Kind of a wisp here of the incarnation. Went and bound up his wounds, brought him, took care of him, took him to an inn to take care of him.

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Next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper saying, take care of him and whatever more you spend

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I will repay you when I come back. This begs the question, who is this guy lying, beaten, half dead, naked, having everything taken from him on the road to Jericho?

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Who is it? It's you. It's me. This is how

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Jesus finds us. And the reason for this is simple, because this goes all the way back to Adam and Eve in the garden and the deception of the devil.

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The robbers are, well, it's the devil and his demons. All of humanity was in Adam when humanity fell and disobeyed

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God. And this is our state before God. Bloodied, beaten, robbed, naked, right, totally helpless, totally unconscious.

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And what does Jesus do? He finds us in this state. And what does he have on us?

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Mercy, grace, compassion. He picks us up. And he brings us to the inn.

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And where is this inn? It's right here. This is the inn.

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Who is the innkeeper? It's me, your pastor. And every faithful pastor who preaches the

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Gospel. And I can tell you this, as the innkeeper, that two denarii that Christ has given me, that's

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His Word, His body and blood, the waters of baptism. It's more than enough to bind up your wounds.

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It's more than enough for me to be able to care for you and nurse you back to health. What a merciful, kind and gracious Savior we have.

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And notice here, He says, And when I come back, even alluding to Jesus' second return, when

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I come back, I'll repay you. See, this story isn't primarily about you doing anything first.

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This is about what Christ has done for you. And the wonderful thing about this is because we are saved by substitution,

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Christ becomes our substitute, dies in our place. When Jesus goes to the cross,

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Jesus allows Himself to be handled by the robbers who strip

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Him naked, beat Him senseless, nail Him to a cross, and there

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He dies for you and for me. It's an amazing story when you think about it.

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It's all about grace, mercy, compassion, true love.

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And notice how love springs into action. It's one thing to say, well,

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I love you, I care about you. It's a whole other thing to show it with action. And God demonstrates

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His love for us in that while we were yet bruised, bloodied, beaten, unconscious sinners,

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Christ dies for us. So then Jesus asked this question,

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Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?

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And the attorney can't even say the word Samaritan. You can almost see

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Him answering with gritted teeth. The one who showed him mercy, mercy.

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And then Jesus says to him, You go and you do likewise.

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And this fits perfectly with Jesus's new command of the new covenant.

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As I have loved you, love one another. How has

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Christ loved you? By having mercy on you, by forgiving you, by binding up your wounds, by not retaliating eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, but instead taking all the blows so that He can serve and love.

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And so as Christ has loved us, so we are called here by this text to go and do likewise and love everyone else.

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In the name of Jesus. Amen. 470th

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