Let's look at the Ten Commandments briefly. God delivered them in a way they could be broken up into two tables. The first table has to do with the first three commandments. These talk about our relationship with God, particularly His person, His name and His Word. If you were to draw a simple picture for this table, it would be just a line, a straight, vertical line. It shows God's relationship with us, and particularly how we relate to Him, us to Him...that we fear, love and trust in the Triune God alone, that we use His name properly, that we cherish His Word. It can be summed up by the passage from Deuteronomy 6, which the expert in God's law quoted in our reading today, "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." O.K. that's the first table.

The second table would also be a line--this time, a horizontal one. This covers the remaining seven commandments, summed up by the passage from Leviticus, also quoted by the expert in the law in today's reading, "and your neighbor as yourself," that is, "love your neighbor as much as you love yourself;" your neighbor. It is horizontal. Everyone on the same level.

Now, let me get off track for just a little bit. You may not think everyone is on the same level. Actually, people aren't. The 4th commandment makes that very clear because it talks about authority. To keep order in the world, some have to have authority over others; there has to be some kind of hierarchy. But when compared to the level we have with God, then everyone is basically at the same level, and a horizontal line is a good picture. Notice again, I said everyone, everybody.

That's a critical point. It includes a whole lot more people than we would ordinarily think. That's what that expert in the Law found out. He had a very narrow picture of what was meant by his neighbor. He had heard and taught himself, "Love your neighbor and hate your enemy." Neighbors were the people it was natural to love, to care about, but He was sure Jesus had more to say than just what he had been saying.

Actually, he was hoping to trick Jesus. He had already asked one question, but he didn't really want the answer; he just wanted to hear what Jesus would say. It was a cheap shot and Jesus saw it coming, expertly sidestepping it. Then came the second question, "Who's my neighbor?"

Jesus answer. It's--wow. What can I say? It's masterful. I had not realized all it was until I was working on this sermon. It's truly fantastic. What makes it so awesome, is that it covers both questions. Believe it or not, Jesus was answering the first question at the same time as He answers the second. His own story answers the question.

But, we lose sight that this parable tells His story and ours. Jesus even said to the disciples near the beginning, "You are blessed to hear and see what you see. You are getting a lot more than everyone else. These parables say more than most people think." Most miss it." So do we. So, I'll say it again: Jesus and our story is what this is first. This story primarily answers the first question, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?"

And then we must learn the answer: Nothing. Nothing at all. The answer to the question "What must I do to be saved is simply be served, be served by the one who has compassion on us. That's the answer, but the expert in the Law didn't realize that was his answer, and quite often neither do we.

Let me slow this train down a little bit. There are two main characters in this story, the Jew and the Samaritan; the guy who is big time need of help, and the guy who helps. We are the one in big time need of help; Jesus is the one who helps. It's that simple.

Now, if we don't get that, then we are likely to think Jesus is only answering the second question, the one that asks, "Who is my neighbor?"

But let's look at that question. Now, after you hear this story, who do you think is your neighbor? I'm sure you will say "everyone" because you heard me say earlier and you have heard it for years, it's everyone, but I would bet you would think it is someone who needs your special help, a help that goes beyond ordinary. Your neighbor would be the person you help, whether it is your best friend, your worst enemy or a complete stranger. It's funny, but in our minds, it's always the guy on the side of the road with car problems. "Ah hah. There's my neighbor. I don't know what that is. It may be someone I wouldn't even like, but that's the person Jesus was talking about." Unfortunately, now, we're even afraid to help them because we don't know if it's a set-up or not.

Now, look inside the bulletin. It takes the same direction. It talks about stewardship. Serve the young; serve the sick. Good. These are good things, very good things, but is this what it means to serve your neighbor? Do you have to lead a group of scouts or volunteer as a teachers aid or visit the hospitalized and shut-ins to be helping your neighbor, and if you don't, you're not? That's the impression you get from something like this. These are great suggestions, but aren't we already inclined to say this is how I serve my neighbor? I need to look for special ways and opportunities to help people?

Are these your neighbor? Of course, but you don't have to go out of your way looking for your neighbor. Who needs your help? Is it just those people out there? Who needs you to serve them? Aren't there people God has plopped down right in the middle of your life? I'm not talking about the person who you happen to see on the side of the road. I'm talking about your children, your spouse, your parents, your brother, your sister, your friend, your fellow congregation members, your fellow citizens, your clients, your boss, your company's clients.

When we define neighbor, we always seem to miss these folks. They seem too close...or maybe too distant. Whatever they are, they are not the special cases, the occasional person who comes into our life for a brief moment, or for a short time and then goes out. That list I gave are always there. It doesn't seem like they need our help. They aren't in a bad way. That's just ordinary life. There's nothing extraordinary about helping these people or being nice to them. Yet, this is also what is meant by "neighbor." In fact, they are even more our neighbor because they are the ones around the most, and most need us to be thinking of them. They need us to love them more than we love ourselves. They need us to think, "What can I do to serve them?"

You know as well as I do, that's why we're still alive. If we were not to serve these people, look to see they get what they need, see what we can do for them, then God would have taken us out of this life a long time ago. As soon as we would have been baptized, God would have said, "Alright. Now you are my child. I'm taking you to be with me." But He didn't, and that is proof that we are here to serve, not just the person who is desperate or special need, but the person who God has put into our daily, mundane, humdrum work a day world.

But do we think that way. Do we ask, "How can I serve my neighbor?" Do we ask that question when we go to work? "How can I be serving my neighbor by what I am doing?"

I would think we are more inclined to say, "How can I make it through this day? How can I get paid more? How can I get the most recognition? How can I keep from killing my co-workers?" Our attitude is so different from what it ought to be.

In our families, we don't ask "How can I serve," but more "What can I do so I get what I need?"

To tell you the truth, what I'm talking about sounds really idealistic. I mean, in an ideal, imaginary world, this would be nice, but were sure we've got to get our heads out of the clouds and recognize we live in a real world. But I am serious. This is what it means to love our neighbor as ourselves.

It's so counter to the way we actually think, it's so unnatural. In fact, it would be considered kind of uncool. Yet, maybe we do work at trying to serve our neighbor. Maybe we don't approach our neighbor, the same way as everyone else. That's great. Maybe people think you are kind and considerate.

But even so, it doesn't do anything for how you stand before God. Before God, which should be our greater concern because it is His opinion that matters, we are beat up and battered. Adam and Eve were naked before God. It wasn't a pretty picture. Naked, beaten, whatever or however we want to describe it, we don't stand before God in a way we would want to. And that's the problem. In front of everyone else, we may be fine. We may be thought to be really caring and considerate, but before God, it's bad.

In fact, the way we treat our neighbor shows just how bad off we are. We might be nice and thoughtful some of the time, or even most of the time, but it's always with mixed motives. We can't get away from it. Our sinful state is unmistakable. We lie before God as a crumpled mess, just like the guy on the side of the road in Jesus' parable.

And now, we're back to the parable. There he is on the side of the road. Along comes a priest and Levite. Not only did they do nothing for him, they wouldn't have been able even if they tried. These are the religious leaders of the day. Their religion would have made things worse. They would have been loaded with helpful advice, like "Get up." "Change your attitude." "Heal yourself." "Make yourself better." "Work harder." These attempts to help are worthless, just as a person telling another to work harder at loving their neighbor and God. "Try harder." "Follow these commandments." "Follow these tips which will help you keep these commandments." They are worthless for improving our position with God.

The only one who can help is God Himself. The problem is, we are not only bruised and bloody, a crumpled mess before God; we are His enemy. That's why Jesus used the classic Jewish/Samaritan rivalry. For us, that rivalry is ancient Bible history, but for them, this was really radical, to talk about a Samaritan being nice to, and helping, a Jew.

So man's sworn enemy, God Himself, becomes a man so He can help the dying man. What does He do? He anoints the man with the Holy Spirit as He does in baptism, and gives Him wine by which He gives His own blood.

That's what He has done for you and for me. That's what the good Samaritan does for the man so desperate for help. He binds up our wounds, giving us healing in Baptism and in the Supper. Then He shows His full commitment to the man's healing by saying, "Whatever the man needs, give it to him, and I'll pay the price."

Isn't that indeed what Jesus has done for us? Isn't that what He says? "I'll pay the price. Spare no expense. I'll take on everything they owe, Father. They will be paid in full, because I will pay it." That's what our Lord did on the cross.

So, as you can see the bigger story in this passage is the Gospel message of what Christ has done for sinners, for you and for me. The question again, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" is answered by Christ's story by what He has done for sinners, as told in the story.

Only after the story is done, can we look back and see not only does He answer the first and second question, but He provides the very means so that we can love our neighbor, serve our neighbor, think more highly of our neighbor than ourselves.

It is the Gospel. That is the transforming power to make us different from everyone else. It is in the weekly binding of our wounds, the weekly pouring in of oil and wine, that we are healed. It is in the healing that we become something different, a new creation. It is in that healing we become the people who come to genuinely care about our neighbor.

AMEN