(Antiphon) O God, behold our shield, And look upon the face of Your anointed.
For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand.
How lovely is Your tabernacle, O LORD of hosts!
My soul longs, yes, even faints For the courts of the LORD;
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
COLLECT
Keep, we beseech You, O Lord, Your Church with Your perpetual mercy; and because the frailty of man without You cannot but fall, keep us ever by Your help from all things hurtful and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
OLD TESTAMENT READING Jer. 17:13-14
13 O Lord, the hope of Israel,
All who forsake You shall be ashamed.
“Those who depart from Me
Shall be written in the earth,
Because they have forsaken the Lord,
The fountain of living waters.”
14 Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;
Save me, and I shall be saved,
For You are my praise. (NKJV)
GRADUAL Ps. 92:1-2
It is good to give thanks to the LORD, And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;
To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, And Your faithfulness every night,
EPISTLE READING Gal. 5:16-24
16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (NKJV)
VERSE Ps. 65:1
Alleluia. Alleluia. Praise is awaiting You, O God, in Zion; And to You the vow shall be performed. Alleluia.
HOLY GOSPEL Luke 17:11-19
11 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. 13 And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
14 So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.
15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.
17 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? 18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.” (NKJV)
Leviticus 18:1-5 + Galatians 3:15-22 + Luke 10:23-37
The parable before us today, the Good Samaritan, is one of the most misunderstood parables in all of Scripture. Most people, when they hear about a “good Samaritan,” think of someone who helps a stranger in need, as the Samaritan did for the wounded man in Jesus’ parable. People think of an extraordinary act of kindness by which a person is supposed to earn extra brownie points with God—maybe even enough brownie points to inherit the kingdom of God.
But here’s how you should understand the Good Samaritan: as the minimum, every-day requirement of God’s Law, for everyone, in every situation, and as the impossible standard of perfection by which all men are judged in the courtroom of God’s justice.
As usual, you have to pay attention to the context in order to understand Jesus’ parable. The context is that Jesus was rejoicing. He had sent out 70 chosen disciples to go out ahead of him into the cities and villages of Israel, healing the sick and preaching to people that they should be good people and do good works of extraordinary kindness in order to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Wait. No, that wasn’t the message Jesus gave them to preach. He told them to proclaim that the kingdom of heaven was near. Christ was coming to them! As St. Matthew tells us, the message of Christ was, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” And many people believed their message. So the Seventy returned and reported to Jesus, and He rejoiced and gave thanks to His Father for bringing these people to faith—for revealing Himself to little children and for hiding Himself from the wise and the learned. As He says privately to His disciples, Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see; for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it.
But then came along one of those wise and learned people, a lawyer, who did not “labor” and was not “heavy laden” and didn’t come to Jesus for rest. He came to Jesus to test Him. Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He didn’t want to receive eternal life from Jesus as a gift, as Jesus had been offering it. No, he wanted to “do something.”
Well, then. It all hinges on God’s Law. Jesus examines the man based on God’s Law. How do you read it?
Ah, that’s easy, he thinks. I can summarize the Law perfectly. (He was a lawyer, after all.) “Love the Lord your God…and your neighbor…”
Exactly. You have answered rightly, Jesus says. Do this and you will live. Literally, He says, “Continually do this. Do this, not just once, but as a continual, uninterrupted way of life.”
The lawyer thought he had already done everything necessary to inherit eternal life. Or, he was hoping for some “thing” to do and be done with it. But Jesus tells him, no, this command to love God and love your neighbor is a constant, every-day command that must be fulfilled perfectly until the day you die, if you wish to fulfill God’s Law and be justified by it.
The lawyer tries to “justify himself” (always a bad idea) and asks. “Well, then, who is my neighbor?”
So Jesus answers with the parable of the Good Samaritan. Very briefly, a man is beaten up and robbed along the road, and left for dead. A priest and a Levite each walk by and do nothing to help him. But a Samaritan—one of the despised half-blood Jews—sees the wounded man, takes pity on him, bandages his wounds, pours oil and wine on them, puts him up on his own animal, takes him to an inn, cares for him there, and then pays the innkeeper to care for him some more until the Samaritan returns. Now that’s compassion! That’s commitment and devotion and self-sacrifice and love!
That’s what it means to have a neighbor, to be a neighbor, and to love your neighbor. And it doesn’t have to be stranger on the side of the road. It’s also the neighbor who lives with you in your house, who works beside you at your job, who sits beside you in your church, who lives close to you in your community. To love each one of them continually, tirelessly and self-sacrificially, from the heart—that is what the good Law of God requires. Anything less is sin, and no sinner can be justified in the courtroom of God’s divine justice.
If you labor at that long enough, if you’re honest, then what you will see in the mirror is a sinner who does not love either God or neighbor from a good heart. The Samaritan is good. But you, according to the flesh, are not. And yet, God’s requirement does not change just because your flesh is weak. He does not lower His requirements just because you can’t fulfill them. They are what they are. So the Law crushes and the Law convicts, and the one who relies on the Law to inherit the kingdom of heaven can only be heavy laden, all the time.
Those who labor and are heavy laden under the weight of God’s Law are ready to hear of another way to inherit the kingdom of heaven, an alternate courtroom that God has opened up, a totally different and separate way to be justified, and that is by faith in Christ.
Christ is the Good Samaritan, who loves continually, tirelessly, self-sacrificially and from the heart. He has fulfilled what God’s Law requires. He saw us beaten and robbed by the devil. He saw the priest and the Levite—the preachers of the Law—unwilling and unable to help. So He helped. He came to us. He became man. And He ministered to us while He lived here on this earth, even giving His own life on the cross out of compassion for sinners, to pay for our sins, and has now entrusted us to the care of the innkeeper, the office of the Holy Ministry, to keep caring for us until He returns.
Christ has been good for us. Christ has earned righteousness for us, and now calls us away from the courtroom of God’s divine justice, calls us away from relying on our goodness and our works, and calls us to flee to Him in faith. He is the Throne of Grace who came to us heal us of our sinful status before God and to continually heal us also of the sin that lives with us and in us until He returns to heal us completely in His heavenly kingdom.
“Go and do likewise,” Jesus told the lawyer. Not, “Go and do some extraordinary act of kindness to earn yourself a place in heaven.” But, “Go and learn what it means to keep God’s Law with perfect love and compassion. Go and learn that the Law of God is not your defense attorney in God’s courtroom, but rather, it is the evidence against you. And when you have learned that, then come to Me, you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Christ is the end of the Law for all who believe. That doesn’t mean the Law no longer requires you to be kind and compassionate to your neighbor. What it means is that the Law no longer requires it for your salvation. Instead, the Law of God requires love and compassion for your neighbor because you are born again of water and the Spirit, born and made new in the image of Christ. And just as He is the Good Samaritan who has come and rescued you from sin, death and the devil, so you are now free to love your neighbor in your life, in your vocation, because you who trust in Jesus are those who have been helped by Christ. Amen.
Isaiah 29:18-19 + 2 Corinthians 3:4-11 + Mark 7:31-37
Our Gospel today teaches a very simple lesson of faith and love. There’s nothing difficult about it. It’s easy to understand. Jesus heals a deaf man and gives him his hearing and his speech. It’s easy to understand, but it’s also worth our time to consider it further, because it teaches us who this Jesus is in whom we trust for eternal life, and it teaches us how He helps, and whom.
Some people there in the region of Galilee had a friend who couldn’t hear and couldn’t speak. They loved their friend and wanted to see him healed, but there was no healing for deafness and speech impediments. Nowhere on earth could this man be healed…except where Jesus was.
The deaf man couldn’t hear, but his friends could hear. And his friends heard that Jesus was coming through town. They had heard of His kindness and mercy and His ability to heal all kinds of diseases. And so, what did they do? They went to Him. They took their deaf friend to Him for help.
Now, stop and think about that for a minute, because these people did something that a whole lot of people don’t do today. People all over town will tell you they believe in God, or believe in Jesus, but the same people don’t go to church. That’s funny. If you believe in this Jesus, why wouldn’t you go to a church that preaches Him? Either because you don’t think you—or anyone you know—needs His help, or because you think you don’t need to go where His Word is preached to receive His help.
The first reason is a real problem. Most people are unwilling to admit that they need help from Jesus. And most people are wrong. They may not be deaf or dumb. But deafness and the inability to speak are just symptoms of the disease that lives in every person—that disease called sin that always spreads and always kills. It has a 100% mortality rate. And even people think they are living a pretty decent life, they are fooling themselves, because God’s wrath is coming against every sin and every sinner. So everyone needs help, and Jesus is the only one who can help.
The second reason why someone wouldn’t go to church is also a real problem. The devil has duped people—even Christians—into thinking that Jesus “lives in your heart” or something, or that if you just pray at home, that’s just as good—no, it’s even better than going to church. You’ll get all the help you need from Jesus at home.
And yet, what did the men in our Gospel do? What did everyone who wanted help from Jesus do? They went to Him where He was, because He had come close to them, to a place where they could find Him.
The same is true today. Jesus has come close to us to help us. During His ministry, He could be found in one place on earth. But now He has located Himself and all His help in the preaching of His Word, so that wherever His Word is rightly proclaimed on earth, there Jesus is. So tell your friends who want to “worship” Jesus in their own way that you know a better way, that you know a place on earth where Jesus can be found—here in your church, where the Gospel of Jesus is preached.
Now, the miracle itself in our Gospel. The deaf man’s friends bring him to Jesus, and what does Jesus do? He hurries to help and He communicates with the deaf man in a very simple, very meaningful way. He takes the man aside, away from the crowd. See how He cares about each individual who comes to Him for help. He sticks His fingers in the man’s ears. This is no distant God who doesn’t want to get to close to us sinful human beings. He’s right there. And He will heal this man’s ears. Jesus spits and touches the man’s tongue. The only healing that exists is the healing that comes from the body of Jesus—literally. His saliva—the water that comes forth from His body. The actual words that come from His mouth. His body. His blood. To be eaten and drunk. Then Jesus looks up to heaven and teaches the deaf man that His help comes from the Lord. But that Lord has come down from heaven to earth to help poor sinners in their need. Then Jesus sighs—a very visible sigh. I would interpret that sigh as a sigh of the relief that Jesus is about to give to this deaf man. And finally, one word comes forth from Jesus mouth, “Ephphatha! Be opened!” And the deaf man was healed immediately, able to hear and speak.
Jesus’ love for that man is Jesus’ love for everyone. His salvation for that man is His salvation for everyone who comes to Him for mercy. But the mercy He has promised us is not the mercy of immediate bodily healing. He may or may not grant that. He has never promised it. What He has promised us is the mercy of the forgiveness of sins, of a clean slate with God. It is the mercy of a Father’s love, channeled directly through the Person of Jesus Christ—the only one, the only place where God’s love is to be found. It is the mercy of a future bodily healing that surpasses the healing of the ears or the tongue—the healing of the whole body and soul at the resurrection of the dead, and a new and glorious and eternal life with Him in a new heaven and a new earth.
Jesus does for us what He did for that deaf man, but to a far greater degree. By nature, we are deaf to God’s Word. People don’t listen to God by nature. Since Adam and Eve, human beings have permitted the voice of the devil to drown out the voice of God, and people would sooner believe in Santa Claus than in the true God of Holy Scripture.
But someone brought you to Jesus for help. Maybe it was your parents when you were just a little baby. Maybe it was a Christian friend or a pastor. Maybe it’s today for the first time. Jesus has put His own Spirit into His Word so that, when it reaches your ears, it’s His fingers being placed there. He has made His Word visible for you, just as He did for the deaf man. We make the sign of the holy cross because on the cross, the love of God was made visible as He punished His Son for the sins of the world so that the world might be saved through Him. He has poured His lifeblood into the waters of Holy Baptism which has cleansed, not only your tongue, but your whole body and soul, so that you are clean before God. He has attached the body that was hung on the cross to the bread of the Sacrament, and the blood that He spilled on the cross He has given with the wine—not just symbolically, but really and truly. Here is the body and blood of Jesus to make you well. Here is the visible Word of Jesus, communicating to you the very same healing that Jesus communicated to the deaf man in our Gospel.
As you hear again today of the love of Jesus and see the visible Word of His love, both in how He dealt with the deaf man, and in how He gives Himself to you in the visible Word of the Sacraments, may your ears be opened and your tongue loosed! Repent and believe the Gospel! And when you see a crucifix or make the sign of the cross (+), when you see the baptismal font or the Altar prepared for the Eucharist, rejoice in the love of Jesus, and know that this is where you can always find Him on earth to help you in every need. Amen.
(Antiphon) Have respect to the covenant, O Lord; Oh, do not let the oppressed return ashamed! Arise, O God, plead Your own cause; Do not forget the voice of Your enemies;
O God, why have You cast us off forever? Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture?
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
COLLECT
Almighty and Everlasting God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity, and that we may obtain what You promise, make us to love what You command; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
OLD TESTAMENT READING Lev. 18:1-5
1 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘I am the LORD your God. 3 According to the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do; and according to the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do; nor shall you walk in their ordinances. 4 You shall observe My judgments and keep My ordinances, to walk in them: I am the LORD your God. 5 You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.’” (NKJV)
GRADUAL Ps. 74:20a,21a,22a,23a
Have respect to the covenant, O Lord; Oh, do not let the oppressed return ashamed!
Arise, O God, plead Your own cause; Do not forget the voice of Your enemies;
EPISTLE READING Gal. 3:15-22
15 Brethren, I speak in the manner of men: Though it is only a man’s covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it. 16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ. 17 And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. 18 For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
19 What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. 20 Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one.
21 Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. 22 But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. (NKJV)
VERSE Ps. 88:1
Alleluia. Alleluia. O LORD, God of my salvation, I have cried out day and night before You. Alleluia.
HOLY GOSPEL Luke 10:23-37
23 Then He turned to His disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see; 24 for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it.”
25 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?”
27 So he answered and said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’”
28 And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”
29 But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. 33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ 36 So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?”
37 And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” (NKJV)
(Antiphon) Make haste, O God, to deliver me! Make haste to help me, O LORD! Let them be ashamed and confounded Who seek my life;
Let them be turned back and confused Who desire my hurt.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
COLLECT
Almighty and Merciful God, by Whose gift alone do Your faithful people render unto You true and laudable service, grant, we beseech You, that we may so faithfully serve You in this life that we fail not finally to attain Your heavenly promises; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
OLD TESTAMENT READING Is. 29:18-19
18 In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book,
And the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. 19 The humble also shall increase their joy in the Lord,
And the poor among men shall rejoice
In the Holy One of Israel. (NKJV)
GRADUAL Ps. 34:1-2
I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul shall make its boast in the LORD; The humble shall hear of it and be glad.
EPISTLE READING 2 Cor. 3:4-11
4 And we have such trust through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
7 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. 10 For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. 11 For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious. (NKJV)
VERSE Ps. 81:1
Alleluia. Alleluia. Sing aloud to God our strength; Make a joyful shout to the God of Jacob. Alleluia.
HOLY GOSPEL Mark 7:31-37
31 Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee. 32 Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him. 33 And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue. 34 Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”
35 Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly. 36 Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it. 37 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.” (NKJV)
