Trinity 13

 

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +

    What shall I do to inherit eternal life? That's the question that Jesus gets confronted with today. What shall I do? What's the sort of stuff I need to be doing to get myself to heaven, what do I need to be doing to prove that I'm better than everyone else? Because that's the way sinful man tends to read the bible. That's the way sinful man reacts when there's talk about judgment. Well, what do I have to do? How do I make sure I get myself out of trouble? Who's palms do I have to grease to get this thing done? What shall I do to inherit eternal life?

    To be a sinful human being means that, in your gut, in your base reaction, you will misunderstand the Law of God and why it was given. Well, that's not earth shattering there Pastor – of course we break God's Law, we're sinners! Wait, wait, wait – I'm not talking about “breaking” the Law here, I'm talking about completely misunderstanding what the point of God's Law is. Consider the question again – what shall I do to inherit eternal life? There's an order implied – I act, and then God is happy and gives me stuff. And the hinge is assumed to be on my action. If I do X, God gives me stuff; if I do Y instead, God gets mad. So tell me, teacher, what X to do to make God like me and what Y not to do. That's what this lawyer, this “expert” in the Law thinks the Law is for. The Law for this lawyer is simply a guide for getting himself out of trouble, a guide for making God like him more. Now, humanly speaking, this is the way a lot of laws or rules work in this world. Lawyers today specialize in the bizarre rules and regulations of the legal system and how to navigate them – lawyer, what shall I do to not get sent to jail for 5-7 years? Or just staying out of trouble - if I want to do some project, what government regulations do I have to pay attention to and how do I jump through them? Or even more basic - if I want my cake that I'm baking to come out, I better follow the recipe, and by the by, what's the best cake recipe out there? These are all good, fine, important things. But, they aren't the point of God's Law.

    See, those examples I gave hinge upon my action; they presume that there's something I do to bring about some sort of positive outcome. I can make this cake. I can wade through government red tape. My lawyer that I hire can find a loophole. But God's law isn't focused on what you can do. It isn't about what you need to do to get to a happy ending. Listen to Paul from Galatians: Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the Offspring should come to Whom the promise had been made. Why was the Law given? Because we were transgressing, because we were going all over the place, ignoring the Promised Savior, ignoring the promises of God's salvation – and so the Law was given to hem us in. The law was given to be a fence, a curb, a baby gate. My backyard fence isn't there to teach my dogs how to get more treats from me, it's to keep them from running off down the street. That's what God's law is – it's designed to slow our crazy sinfulness down. It sets limits for our own safety because in our sinful stupidity we hurt ourselves. And often we growl at those limits, and bark at them, and sometimes try to weasel through them or dig under them.

    Like this lawyer is trying to do. Jesus knows this lawyer wants to do stuff. Well, if we are going to look at the law not as a fence, a curb, and instead look at it for what we should be doing, what do the Scriptures say you should be doing? 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. Alright, understand, this is a basic answer – this is something you'd expect a 6 year old to be able to answer. And it's right – this is what we are supposed to do. And [Jesus] said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” Well, you want to know what you have to do to live – there it is. Good luck with that. Be sinless, and you will live. Live without sin, and you will actually live.

    This is the second great misunderstanding of God's Law. We forget that for us sinners God's law is always impossible for us to do, to fulfill. God's law is not merely giving us a check list of good actions and bad actions, or stages of progression. It's not the instruction manual for an IKEA table where if you just follow the steps you'll have a lovely end table in no time. God's law is impossible, and it is meant to be impossible for you, O sinner! The purpose of the law is to show you the utter impossibility of earning life, of making or forcing God to love you, because you don't get to make or force God do anything, because He's God and you're not. Of course, that's really want the essence of sin is – not wanting God to be God. I want to be the one “in charge” - and everyone will do things my way – including God, and God will sit when I tell Him to sit and He will give me treats when I tell Him to give me treats.

    That's not the way it works. We are not God. We are not sinless. And we can't make ourselves sinless. And we yammer and make excuses and complain and wail, and all of it does no good. And here is where the Law of God comes in to show us our sin, and why? Paul in Romans says, “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.” God's law is given so that you would just be quiet, that you would stop with your excuses, with your self-justifying plans, and rather listen to God. Because you need God.

    But what if you keep talking? What if you still want to justify yourself? We get an example. But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” This guy knows he's caught, but he won't shut his trap. So let's dance around the issue – who is my neighbor. Note how he deftly avoided all that loving God talk, that with all your heart and soul and mind stuff. Just, who is my neighbor. Who do I actually have to love as well as I love myself. Later on in Romans Paul says, “Now the law came in to increase the trespass.” The law spells it out in detail so that you see clearly your own sinfulness. And that's what Jesus does with the story of the Good Samaritan. So bub, you think you're going to earn God's favor somehow? You think you'll impress God and make God give you goodies He's been holding back apparently? Alright – there's the story, and the only guy who cares for that beaten man isn't the priest, isn't the levite, and it's not a lawyer – it's a Samaritan. And the Samaritans were hated, despised. It would be like a Packer fan today, or the person who watches that other news channel that you don't like, or whatever other stupid reason you want to blithely hate and dismiss someone. And this disdained Samaritan, he goes all in. He doesn't just help the guy, he puts his life at risk, he spends his own money, writes a open check to the innkeeper – this is just top of the top. This is better than that lawyer's ever treated anyone in his life, and certainly better than how he's ever treated someone guy who hated him. How are your actions, how's your attempt to strut your stuff about your good works looking now, pal?

    That, my friends, is what God's Law is designed to do. It's designed to keep you from running around all over the place, it's designed to keep you from running your gibs about how awesome you are, it's designed to pin the tail of sin right on the donkey, and you're the donkey. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin. That's it's job. And we hate that job. And we constantly try to water down God's law, we try to avoid it – we desperately try to find some way to aggrandize ourselves, praise ourselves, make ourselves out to be better than the other guy. And the law says, “Nope – even with all that, you're still just a sinner, beaten, broken, and doomed to die, and there's not a thing you can do about it.” You have as much agency, as much power as the beaten guy in the story. Hey, what's the guy who got robbed and beaten got to do to inherit eternal life? What's he going to do, bleed?

    Now, if the sermon ended there, it would be a right depressing sermon, wouldn't it? And something to remember is that for people apart from Christ, people without faith, that's where they are left. Either in delusion about how they can fix everything (and then it doesn't work and they get crushed) or they become utterly embittered and angry at the world. But remember how Jesus started the whole Gospel lesson off: Turning to the disciples [Jesus] said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!” You guys get to see – you see Jesus! There is One who is without sin – Jesus! And there is One who not only loves the Father, but who loves you, His Neighbor, completely and fully – Jesus! And yes, Jesus was despised and looked down upon, but He finds you, beaten, broken, unable to earn life, unable to live rightly now, and Jesus rescues you. Jesus dives on in and goes to the Cross to pull you out of the powers of sin and death, He brings you to His Church where He continually washes you and tends you, He sets up Pastors and says to them, “Take care of him – here's My Word, there's more than enough.” And what shall you do to inherit eternal life – you don't do anything; but Jesus does. He dies, and He gives you eternal life as your inheritance – take and drink, this is the new Testament, the last will and testament in My blood. Jesus has died, and thus you inherit forgiveness and life and salvation. Paul again in Romans:  Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,  so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Or Paul from Ephesians 2 - But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.

    That's the point, that's the story. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And we earn nothing, but we are given everything by Christ simply because God loves us. But your sinful flesh will forget this, will try to run off from this, and the world will distract you from this, and on and on and on. So God, with His Word of Law, will check you, will slow you down on your runs into trouble, and He will show you your sinfulness so you remember your need for Him. But then, God shows you Jesus, the Holy Spirit puts your eyes on Jesus and gives you life, gives you faith, works this through the Word of God, so that you know what you inherit. You inherit eternal life because Jesus has done it all for you already. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +