Remember, It's Still All about Jesus :: Luke 10:23-37

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[Introduction]

I don’t know if you noticed, but last week I finally changed the message on the wayside pulpit ... you know ... that sign out front on the corner. 

It now reads: Remember, It’s still all about Jesus. 

I chose that message because too many people have forgotten that truth. Our whole life together at Trinity is all about Jesus. Too many have forgotten that Bible study is all about Jesus. ... They stopped coming. ... They forgot that the Divine Service is all about Jesus. ... They stopped worshiping. ... They forgot the sermon is all about Jesus ... They stopped listening. ... They forgot the hymns are all about Jesus. ... They stopped singing. ... And they forgot the sacraments are all about Jesus. ... They stopped receiving. 

Too many people want Sunday worship to be about us, about what we are doing and feeling. 

BUT REMEMBER, IT’S STILL ALL ABOUT JESUS

1.

What we are experiencing here at Trinity isn’t a new phenomenon; although you might think it is new to you. Forty-five percent of Missouri Synod congregations today have as many people in weekly worship as we do. To be sure, we all remember the days when we all had twice as many people coming to church. But then too many people wanted a new experience, something more exciting than another good news about Jesus.

That is what happened in our Gospel reading today when a law expert stood up to test Jesus.

‘Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ... the law expert asked our Lord. 

Jesus, knowing the man knew the answer to the question, responded, [Well,] what’s been written in the Law? How do you read it?’ So the law expert replied the only way he knew how ... He quoted Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18: ‘You will love the Lord your God out of your whole heart and in your whole soul and in your whole strength and in your whole mind, and your neighbor as yourself.’ 

So Jesus said to him, You [got that right]. Do this and you’ll live (vv 25-28).

Of course, Jesus knew the lawyer could not actually do any of that. He knows none of us are able to do that. As I heard you yourselves confess a little while ago, you have not loved the Lord with your whole heart. And you have walked past your neighbor, ignoring him. 

How are any of us able to love the Lord our God if we only think we know who he is? And how can any of us love our neighbor when we simply refuse to recognize and acknowledge their presence? As Saint John reminds us from his first epistle: If you don’t love your brother and sister, whom you have seen, how can you love God, whom you have not seen? (1 Jn 4:20).

2.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, repent! Let he who has eyes see. Let he who has ears hear.

It is not enough to know the Bible is the Word of God. It is not enough to have chunks of the Bible memorized with chapter and verse. It is not enough to know that the Bible is inerrant and infallible in all it teaches. It is not EVEN enough to SAY Jesus is Lord ... or to SAY you believe he died on the cross for your sins, and that he rose from the dead on the Third Day. You’d be surprised how many people who call themselves Christians have a different definition of the title Lord and who Jesus really is. 

Unless we know why the Bible was written, we won’t be able to understand it correctly. 

The Bible was written to lead us to Christ, who is the Lord God Almighty. It’s all about Jesus. From the beginning, the Old Testament teaches us about Christ and his sacrificial death and resurrection. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are about Jesus. So too are the historical books: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther. And let’s not forget the Psalms and the Prophets, as well as the other wisdom books. The Old Testament is ALL about life, death, and resurrection of Jesus ... entirely ... completely ... just like our Lord told us. 

In John 5:46 for instance, Jesus said, if you believed Moses, you would believe in me, for he wrote about me. And in Luke 24:27, as Jesus walked with two of his disciples on Easter Sunday, he interpreted for them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself, beginning with Moses and all the Prophets. 

But too many people, like the experts in the Law, want to make scripture about themselves and what they do. Too many people read scripture only on a surface level. They hear about creation and the flood, the Exodus and the Passover, the rise and fall of the judges and kings as simple historical facts, but they forget it’s about Jesus. They treat the 66 books of the Bible separately. They think, all too often, that the Bible is written simply as the acronym Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. But it’s all about our Lord Jesus.

3. 

And that is exactly the problem the lawyer had in our reading. He thought it was about what he needed to do to save himself ... the decisions he needed to make to save himself ... the dedication and the form of worship he inherited from the tradition of the elders so that he could inherit eternal life. He forgot the Divine Service is about Jesus.

We know that to be the case because before he even asked his question, he outed himself first by calling Jesus, “Teacher” ... even as everyone around him called Jesus the “Lord.” 

Recognizing the deity of Christ is a fundamental doctrine of all scripture. Jesus is not just a good teacher with a good word about good living. Jesus is God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten not made. Jesus is not just a man. He is God incarnate ... God with body and blood, True God and True Man, who lives and dies and rises again. 

And a whole bunch of people standing with the Lawyer all were beginning to recognize this. 

Today’s reading comes on the heels of the return of seventy two disciples to Jesus. This is noteworthy because those seventy two disciples were blessed when Jesus sent them out to see with their own eyes and hear with their own ears what the word of Jesus accomplishes. 

What they learned is that the word is all about Jesus. Thus, they started calling him Lord.

Not only did they see the fruit of sharing peace with one another, the fruit of enjoying fellowship with one another, and the fruit of healing of the sick among us ... loving your neighbor as yourself ... they became acutely aware that only God could make this happen. 

Lord, they proclaimed to Jesus, even the demons were subject to us in your name. 

This should have been an Aha moment for the lawyer. 

4.

But it wasn’t. The Law expert forgot it’s all about Jesus ... the God who is with us.

So, wanting to justify himself ... because who wants to be called a sinner? ... the Lawyer asked Jesus the worst question in the New Testament: And who is my neighbor? 

By posing this question, he didn’t necessarily mean the guy next door. The word he uses for neighbor is not the normal word for neighbor. He means, Who is the guy closest to me? 

The answer to that question comes through the Parable of the Compassionate Samaritan, which ... you should know by now ... is all about who? ... Yes, Jesus! 

Jesus is the man who was on a journey from heaven above to earth below. He is the one who came to where we are. And when he saw that we had been robbed, stripped naked, beaten, and left half dead ... Jesus was moved to compassion. 

So instead of doing everything he could to avoid contact with his neighbor, he came to us, and bound up our trauma. He anointed us with oil. He gave us his wine. He lifted us up and gave us rest on his own animal. He carried us to the inn he knew about, which we must note is not like some motel, or bed and breakfast. It is literally the receiver of all (πανδοχεῖον) ... which we can call the church, the place where we remember that it’s all about Jesus. This is where God receives us and serves us when we are broken. This is where he cares for us today and tomorrow. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, our Lord Jesus has done all of this and more ... by living and dying on a cross and rising on the dead ... by washing us in baptism and nourishing our faith with the Lord’s Supper. And before he ascended, just like the Samaritan, he gave us a new promise. Our Risen Lord is coming again! Hallelujah! 

Now we too know how to answer the question Jesus asked the Lawyer: Which of the three ... the priest, the Levite, or the Samaritan ... who saw us beaten and bloodied on the side of the road ... proved to be one closest to us? (v 36) 

Yes, it is the one who actually is merciful (v 37).

[Conclusion]

So when you drive past the wayside pulpit this week, let it remind you ... not that you must try harder to earn what the Lawyer wanted, but that your Lord has already done all the work to give you eternal life. The Holy Spirit has called you by the Gospel here, enlightened you here with his gifts, sanctified you here, and keeps you in the one true faith that declares ... It’s all about Jesus. 

And because he first had mercy on y’all, you are now free to go and do likewise ... in Jesus’ name.

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