A sermon for the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity, by Fr. Josh Leigeber.
“We love because He first loved us.” So what does it mean for God to make us love what He has commanded? That is what we prayed for in the Collect yesterday.
In the Gospel, a lawyer asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus responds not with a checklist, but with the familiar parable of the Good Samaritan. But the ancient Church heard in this parable something far deeper than a lesson about being kind to our neighbors. What if the wounded man in the ditch is not primarily someone we are being told to help, but a picture of us?
The man has been beaten, robbed, and left half dead. He cannot save himself. Then the Samaritan comes to him, binds his wounds, pours on oil and wine, and carries him to an inn. The Church has long recognized in this a beautiful picture of Christ’s work for sinners—and of the Church as the place where Christ continues to care for those He has rescued.
But if we are the wounded man, what does that mean for the Church, for the pastors Christ has entrusted with His wounded people, and for the Word and Sacraments by which He continues to heal us?
And what does all of this have to do with our prayer that God would “make us to love that which Thou dost command”?
Listen to the full homily below.