Today's parable ends with these words, "Go and do likewise." Now, this is good advice. "Go and do as the Good Samaritan, who did this very noble gesture," is good for all of us to live by. But I have more than a sneaking suspicion most people miss the real point of this parable. They think this is all. They think it's just Law and miss the rich Gospel in it. They miss the very Gospel that gives them what they need to follow this law message, "Go and do likewise."

Now, remember, when I say "Law" I'm not talking about the word which comes from God which automatically brings this feeling of condemnation. Rather, I'm talking about the message from God that tells us what to do. "Go and do likewise." "Love your neighbor as yourself," even, "Love the Lord your God with all your strength and with all your mind." These statements tell us what to do. That's God's Law.

It's the message our flesh loves to hear. Our flesh doesn't want to hear it is condemned. The Law does that too. But it loves it when the Law is presented in a beautiful way like this. It says, "God wants me to do this. If I do this, then I'm obeying God. If I'm obeying God, then God will be happy with me." They even think it's Gospel.

Many think this is what a sermon should be about. "Tell us what we need to do, Pastor." What they are looking for is Law. They are looking for God to tell them what they should be doing. When they do it, they can say, "See, we're doing God's will." What's really strange is that they think this is Gospel. It's not. It's Law. And the message of the Law has a backside to it, one that kills. If we take the law to its logical conclusion--even Jesus' words, "Go and do likewise," we will easily see it. We will in a bit.

You will notice the theme is "Gracious Replays." Now that football season is just about here, we think replays when we watch the play the moment before or watch a play over and over from different angles to see if the call made on the field will still stand. That is a replay. That's not what I mean.

Andrew and I went out on his 16th birthday this Wednesday and saw G.I. Joe. The opening scene was set in Scotland in about 1640 where a man is being tried for selling arms to his king and to his enemies. He warns them they may punish him, but his sons and his son's sons and so on will do the same. The next scene is a Scottish man, in the not-too-distant future from now, describing some weaponry he had designed and you realize this is his descendant and the old scene is being played out again.

That's what I'm talking about in replays. When you see this scene happening in the Old Testament, like we do today, you realize this is going to happen again. It's telling us there's something important here. And just like we know, the Bible is all about the message of the cross and God's plan of salvation, even this story and the parable is more Jesus than just some nameless man and men from Samaria.

Like I said, our first text is from the last verse of II Chronicles. Let me create some setting. It's around 720 B.C. The boom is about to come down on the Northern tribe of Israel. The prophets had been warning them, but they were deaf to the voice of the Lord, perhaps not all that unlike us. They warned that Assyria will be God's instrument of judgment on his people up north who have turned their backs on Him.

Still, the king of Israel leads his men into battle--against their own countrymen, of all people. They gain a spectacular victory and then they bring back captives--relatives of the dead men, including the women, sons and daughters and some of the other spoils of war. The Lord, who had given them the victory because He was trying to wake up the Southern kingdom to their unfaithfulness, is not pleased. He leads certain men to cry out, "Aren't we in enough trouble now? The Lord is just about to turn the lights off on us, and you go down and attack our own people! Are you nuts?" The captors feel kind of sheepish for what they have done, and allow these men to take care of these prisoners and send them home.

Now, notice what they did. They clothed them, fed them, anointed them and even put the weak ones on donkeys. What does the good Samaritan do? He anoints the man with oil, and pours wine on his wounds as an antiseptic. He puts him on his donkey, and then pays the innkeeper to take care of his other needs like food and clothing. Coincidence?

Wait until we look at the last details. The captives are taken back home to where? Jericho--the place where this victim was heading. And then the captors go back home, to where? Samaria. This makes them...the Good Samaritans. Since Jesus is the Good Samaritan in the parable, we are given a picture of Jesus in this gracious act in the Old Testament.

Consider this account, then, because it is talking to you. Jesus provides for his enemies' needs, and we are His enemy. This is the way we are born. We are enemies of God until He makes us His children in baptism. The Bible couldn't be clearer about it.

Then we have the actual parable. A man is on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho. He is attacked and left for dead. Two men pass by but do nothing to help. The only one who helps is his sworn enemy--a Samaritan. The men who should help, the Levite and the priest, do nothing--which is exactly the case for the people of God by this point. The priests and the Levites had nothing for God's people. They play their little games about ritual holiness, but forget what's the point of all of it. They fear if they were to help this man, they could become unclean and taint their worship. That they do their worship right, the way they think it should be, is so important to them, they have no desire to help one of the worshipers.

We see this happening today. There are those who are so concerned about worshiping the proper liturgical way, they don't care if people get it, as long as it done right. They lose the point that worship is where God gives His gifts to His people. On the other hand--and many more of these--there are those who are so eager to give the people what they want, that they don't give them what they need. Both extremes can be about as useful as the Priest and the Levite.

But the Samaritan does what needs to be done. He sees the man in his condition and helps Him. He binds up his wounds and pours wine as antiseptic on the wounds and oil as a healing agent. He pays for any needs the man has and promises to pay more.

This is Jesus. There can be no question this is Him. He is the Good Samaritan. He provides what is needed. Meanwhile, the religious establishment was no longer doing what they were supposed to do. Jesus comes and heals through the Sacraments. He gives you wine in His Supper, and anoints with oil, a regular feature of baptism in the days of the early church.

Now, don't feel badly if you didn't realize Jesus was the Good Samaritan, or still find it a little hard to believe, because you are so used to hearing this parable in terms of Law. Jesus may have told it to this expert in Divine Law once, but it has been told--more than that--He has expounded on it through His Holy Spirit many times since then, and He expects that people will not recognize Him in it immediately. Tragically, some never do. But a parable is more than just a clever story; it is an invitation to meditate on the grace and mercy of our God which is rich in this story.

Now, to the next replay--which is really the main one. All the others point to this one. It wouldn't be long after Jesus tells this parable, and the real meaning of this story was going to played out. Jesus had come to earth for this purpose. He had become a man so He could be the Good Samaritan. His enemy, us sinners, were in a desperate place. We were lost without Jesus' help. We could do nothing. We were as good as lying there on the side of the road, beat up not just by sin and its effects, but even more by the expectations of trying to keep the Law.

As if sin and its effects are not bad enough, Satan whispers in our ears, "You can't be saved. You don't deserve it. Say you are forgiven, go ahead, but when judgment day comes, you are going to have to answer for your sin. And you know when it gets down to it, not even Jesus' forgiveness will be enough. You have squandered His grace. I wouldn't be so smug about being forgiven if I were you."

So Jesus goes to the cross. By this He has grabbed Satan, the accuser, by the throat and thrown him down, saying, "Enough of your lies. My righteousness is satisfactory. You will not touch my people. Even though they don't deserve it, I give them my righteousness by Grace. I have kept the Law and I have suffered for their failures. Now, nothing can separate them from my Father and I. Through this He triumphed over Satan and our enemies, rising from the dead, giving us the assurance that we too will live forever.

And then with the oil of baptism and the wine of communion He brings His righteousness and the promise of eternal life to us. Furthermore, He makes a promise to keep taking care of us until He comes back and indeed does as the wine continues to be given to us that we might receive His blood and therefore His life.

But it might seem like I have been ignoring the line I have kept repeating. "Go and do likewise." Jesus is very clear. That's what He wanted this expert in the Law to do. And as I said earlier, this is what our flesh wants to hear.

But consider how challenging this is. We're not talking about merely forgiving our enemy; we're talking about pouring ourselves out in service to him. Create in your mind a picture of someone you are struggling to forgive, and see yourself going out of the way--way out of the way--to help him.

The expert in the Law probably walked away shaking his head saying, "If this is my neighbor, then I could never love my neighbor the way I should. I don't love my neighbor as I love myself, even though that's what I said I must do to inherit eternal life." And perhaps he went on further to say, "Lord, have mercy on me a sinner. I can't do this." We don't know.

But we do know our flesh likes hearing the phrase, "Go and do likewise" until it realizes it can't do likewise. The Law it wanted to hear, actually kills it.

Does this mean then we can ignore Jesus' statement at the end, since we can't do it? No. Jesus gave the expert in the Law the way to do it and He gives it to us. It's in the parable. It's not the model of Jesus. That's just more Law, like saying, "Be like Jesus. Do what Jesus would do."

No. The power to do it, to love our neighbor as ourselves, to go out of the way and help an enemy, is in the Good Samaritan Himself. It's in the Gospel message: "He has done it for you." Because He has, because He has loved perfectly, the pressure is off. You are no longer coerced into helping other people. You no longer need to feel like you have to have to fulfill the commandments, which is to love perfectly, in order to be saved. As a new creation in your baptism, as a hearer of the absolution, as a worshipper receiving the body and blood of Christ, you are given life and salvation, the very power to live as a Christian.

Now, the story of the Good Samaritan can be replayed in yet another way--in your life. Yes, as we look at it, we can see the impossibility of doing what Jesus said. "Go and do likewise," kills us. Therefore confessing our weakness, confessing our lack of desire to actually help someone like this, confessing our desire to help them so we can feel good, for our own benefit and not for the person in need, we recognize in yet another way how we are sinners. Crying out, "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner," we become weak, so He can become strong. We step out of the way in our own lives, so Christ will live in us and without realizing it, we will serve our neighbor. We will do what we know we should, and not even stop to take note. As you do, people will see the Good Samaritan has done something for you, and the story of the Good Samaritan will be replayed multiple times all to His glory.

AMEN