Sermon 7-13–25

Pastor Ray Lorthioir

Trinity Lutheran Church

W. Hempstead, NY

Based on texts for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, Leviticus (18:1-5), 19:9-18

and Luke 10:25-37

No Craters

I’m starting this morning with an optional reading for today. It’s Leviticus 18:1-5, “1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 ‘Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the LORD your God. 3 You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. 4 You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the LORD your God. 5 You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.’”

There are only two ways of living on this earth. Either we live in step with our Creator and His righteousness or we live by some other way. Yahweh has permitted this ever since Adam and Eve were deceived into Original Sin. Now, in this passage from Leviticus, Yahweh called on Israel to give up all the other available ways of living and settle on His ways alone. Elsewhere in Torah Yahweh gave Israel a very good reason for doing so, namely the Exodus Yahweh had performed to deliver Israel from slavery in Egypt by His powerful hand demonstrated in the Ten Plagues and the drowning of the Egyptian army in the Red Sea.

But for a thousand years after the Exodus Israel struggled to remain loyal to Yahweh, being tempted by the idolatry of the nations around them. Thus, in the time of the Babylonian captivity, Yahweh told Israel through the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 11:11-12, “11. . . ‘I will judge you at the border of Israel, 12 and you shall know that I am the LORD. For you have not walked in my statutes, nor obeyed my rules, but have acted according to the rules of the nations that are around you.’” And so Israel was destroyed and a remnant of its people spent 70 years captive in Babylon. However, captive in that pagan city full of idols, Yahweh worked a miracle for the survivors. They forsook the false gods of the nations and clung to Yahweh alone. Thus, the Judaism that Jesus was born into was established. It was the mighty action of Yahweh delivering Israel from both Egypt and Babylon that backed up Yahweh’s right to command Israel’s obedience to His statutes.

Here, let’s stop a minute and ask, what gives Yahweh the right to command His Church? What action has He taken? We could point to many verses, but let’s take this familiar one. John 3:16 “For  God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” God gave His Son unto death for the forgiveness of our sins and raised Him from the dead in real time for our sake. That’s the reason Christians follow Yahweh’s commands.

Since both the Exodus and the Resurrection of Jesus are the events in real time upon which Yahweh’s authority to command us rests, it’s no surprise that skeptics and enemies of Yahweh constantly try to disprove the historicity of both those events. Disprove those historical events and you can preach whatever gods, devils or atheism you want.

So, as we saw, in Leviticus 18, Yahweh draws a sharp distinction between Himself and the other gods. He draws a sharp distinction between His Law and the commands of these other gods.

Again, let’s briefly put forward Michael Heiser’s thesis on who these other gods are. He postulates both from Scripture and the apocryphal book of First Enoch that the gods of Egypt, Canaan and the rest of the world are a specie of spiritual being that Yahweh created, called in Scripture the Sons of God. Scripture applies the generic Hebrew term “elohim” to these creatures. Scripture uses the same term for their Creator, Yahweh. Elohim is the word that can be translated God or gods. Based on the version of Deuteronomy 32:8 found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Heiser postulates that at the Tower of Babel Yahweh put the new nations He had formed by confusing human language under the control of the Sons of God. And based on Psalm 82, Heiser postulates that the Sons of God rebelled against Yahweh and caused the nations to worship them as gods instead of Yahweh, the sole Creator God.

As we’ve seen in Isaiah 49, it was prophesied that once Messiah appeared, He would win many from the nations back to the worship of Yahweh. And that’s why all of us of Gentile background are here, caught up in this Jewish Messiah named Jesus. Through Jesus, Yahweh has commanded even Gentiles concerning His Law of righteousness. And through the New Birth in Jesus, Gentiles are made willing to enter into Yahweh’s righteousness. And this is true of Jews also. Through the New Birth in Jesus both Jew and Gentile are not only made willing to enter into Yahweh’s righteousness but enabled to do so by Lord Holy Spirit.

As we’ve said before, Yahweh’s moral Law describes Yahweh’s righteousness to us. It describes righteous behavior for a righteous people before their righteous God. Now, as we look into the text from Leviticus found in today’s bulletin reading, we see that it starts with one of the Ten Commandments — you shall not steal. Thievery is all over the place these days, from scams that originate overseas to the local hood where shoplifting and looting go unpunished. We’re no longer a nation under God. We’re a nation under the gods

Then there’s dealing falsely. That’s just another way to steal something or someone. These days it seems that one of the hot spots where people disobey this command most is in the dating game.

The command about not lying runs the full gamut of human behavior and interaction. Social media seems to be so infected with lying that people commit suicide because of the lies told about them.

As far as swearing falsely by the name of God, I was a kid the last time I heard anyone say, “I swear to God.” And if I’m not mistaken it’s no longer necessary to swear by God to tell the truth in court. So this command has sort of become irrelevant in today’s society. However, there is a place it remains relevant — in the Church. For wherever there are false prophets and false teachers declaring in the Name of the Lord what the Lord has not spoken to them, there we find people swearing falsely by the Name of the Lord that what they’re saying is true.

There are various ways to oppress people. Robbery is spoken of in the text as one way. But there are many other ways like lawfare, blackmail, extortion, discrimination, threats of violence and more. Yahweh says unequivocally that oppression should never happen. Period.

Fortunately it’s illegal in the U.S. to withhold worker’s wages. We still remember this command in our society. But then there’s China where this practice abounds and the authorities do nothing about it.

I have long marveled at the next command. Leviticus 19:14, “You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the LORD.” Of course, a deaf person can’t hear you cursing at them, but others can. And so, a deaf person can be made an object of fun for the amusement of others. And putting a stumbling block in the way of a blind person so they can publicly fall over it for the amusement of others? Both these things are plain, simple cruelty. The fact that such cruelty has to be mentioned at all in Yahweh’s Law tells us just how corrupt and evil we humans can be. In effect, we’ve got an eleventh commandment here: you shall not be cruel.

Next we go to court. And judges are commanded to show no partiality to either the poor or the rich, the great or the small. Each case needs to stand on its own merits. This is also commanded for those charged with prosecuting law breakers. It’s also commanded for those who serve on a jury.

However, in our land a Marxist frenzy has gripped law enforcement in certain places. For its own purpose of gaining and maintaining power, Marxism always divides society into classes and pits those classes against one another in the format of oppressed and oppressor. Therefore, wherever Marxism has taken hold, a favorable partiality in law is being shown to certain classes of people that Marxism has designated oppressed. And an unfavorable partiality is being shown to classes of people that Marxism has designated oppressors. Marxists consider this to be righteousness. But, in this way, Marxists show their allegiance to the evil one and their rebellion against righteous Yahweh who calls for impartiality and judgements in court based on His righteousness alone.

In verse 16, we’re back to the issue of slander — making up falsehoods about others. And in this verse Yahweh warns all those who make up lies that endanger their neighbor through false conviction in court. This is evil and it shall not be done.

Next in verses 17 and 18 Yahweh commands us concerning hatred and vengeance. Such emotions in the heart are vile in Yahweh’s sight, especially when directed toward those in the community of the faithful. In these verses Yahweh commands us to work out differences, even with frank and painful discussions. 

Jesus expanded on these verses when He taught in Matthew 18:15-17, “15 ‘If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.’” Just a quick note about the end of the teaching. Didn’t Jesus strive to win Gentiles and tax collectors into the Kingdom of God? He commands us to do the same. So, this person is not to be despised, but to be seen as someone outside the true fellowship of the saints who needs to be won over to Jesus if possible.

Finally, we come to this little statement tucked away in Leviticus 19:18, “. . . you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” As we saw in this morning’s Gospel lesson, Jesus used these words in a spectacular way when probed by a lawyer concerning eternal life. Let’s hear it again. Luke 10:25-28, “25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ 26 He said to him, ‘What is written in the Law? How do you read it?’ 27 And he answered, ‘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, and your neighbor as yourself.’ 28 And he said to him, ‘You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.’”

Because Jesus recognized that this lawyer was putting Him to what was initially an unfriendly test, Jesus turned the question back on him. You’re a lawyer skilled in God’s Law. Answer your own question.

Matthew has a different version of an event where a lawyer similarly put Jesus to the test with a question about eternal life. In Matthew, it’s Jesus who says in Matthew 22:37-40 “37 . . . ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.’”

Comparing Matthew and Luke, it looks like it was common knowledge that the way into eternal life was through the commandments. And it was common knowledge that the commandments could be summarized by stringing what is called the Shemiah, from Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “4 ‘Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” — and stringing it together with Leviticus 19:18, “. . . you shall love your neighbor as yourself. . . .” For Jesus said in Matthew that all the Law — and the Prophets — can be summarized in these two commandments. This is an important point in itself. However, we’re going to return to the incident in Luke for an important point Jesus made there: namely, that if we obey these commandments, we will have eternal life.

Jesus’ statement to the lawyer shows us two things. First, those who actually attain eternal righteous life with Yahweh will be given Yahweh’s righteousness so that they will be able to love Yahweh unreservedly and will be able to love their fellow human creatures unreservedly. This will be the bliss of eternal righteous life in Yahweh. No arguments. No nonsense. No lies. No theft. No injury. No grudges, hatred and war. All of that stuff will be found eternally in hell. But, the righteous will be free from it forever.

Second, the only way to enter eternal righteous life with Yahweh is to love Yahweh with all ones heart, soul, strength and mind and one’s neighbor as one’s self. And this must be done perfectly without flaw as it will be done in eternal righteous life. There’s only one problem. Those crippled by Original Sin cannot perform the law flawlessly. And this was pointed out when the lawyer pressed Jesus with the question, “And who is my neighbor?” For we’re told that the lawyer was trying to justify himself.

What does that very important word, “justify” mean? When you have to “justify” something that you’ve done, you have to defend your actions against any and all accusations of impropriety. So, by asking the question, “Who is my neighbor?”, the lawyer wanted to defend and justify before God his behavior toward others.

“Who is my neighbor” is one of the great questions of all time. And it arises from the way Leviticus 19:18 reads. Leviticus 19:18, “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.’” Here Israelites are commanded not to bear grudges against fellow Israelites. So the lawyer was asking, “am I justified in bearing a grudge against non-Israelites?” You know, how far does this non-grudge and loving your neighbor thing go?

In response, Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan. In order to understand the parable, we’ve got to do a little background. In the time of Jesus, Jews and Samaritans had already had about 700 years of unhappy history with each other. It all stemmed from a policy of the ancient Assyrian Empire. When that empire conquered a land, it prevented the conquered people from ever rebelling against the empire by emptying the conquered land of its people and forcibly relocating them throughout other parts of the empire. It then forcibly relocated people from other parts of the empire into the conquered land. This is what happened to the northern kingdom of Israel when Assyria conquered it in 721B.C.

The Bible tells us that the people imported into Israel who became known as Samaritans needed to know the ways of the God of the land they had entered. So an Israelite priest was sent back to teach them. Thus, in the time of Jesus, Samaritans worshipped the Lord based on the Torah — the five books of Moses. But Samaritans and Jews were in great disagreement with each other over many things, especially whether the temple in Jerusalem was the only place to worship Yahweh. Therefore, there was real hatred between the two communities. Geographically, Samaria lies between Galilee and Jerusalem. In Jesus’ time, Jews traveling back and forth from Galilee to Jerusalem purposely took a long detour around Samaria.

So, in Jesus’ parable a Jewish man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho was waylaid by robbers, beaten and left half dead. Both a priest and a Levite, both possibly traveling home from religious duties at the Jerusalem temple, pass the man by. The Torah makes it clear that anyone touching a dead body becomes ceremonially unclean for a period of time. Perhaps it was for that reason — potentially touching a dead body — that both passed the man by. But they were Jews and left a fellow Jew on the side of the road. One point of Jesus’ parable was that two men who had an obligation to love one of their own did not.

Instead, in Jesus’ story a Samaritan came along and fulfilled the Law by going beyond the strict sense of the Law. He loved someone outside of his own people, and more importantly — a hated outsider. This was a shocking, unexpected feature of the parable.

Having set up the story, Jesus then questioned the lawyer in Luke 10:36-37, “36 ‘Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?’ 37 He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘You go, and do likewise.’”

In response to Jesus’ question, the lawyer nailed it. The principle on which the Samaritan acted was mercy. Mercy is one of the great principles of the Bible because it is one of the great characteristics of our Creator.

So what do we learn here? First, in this world anyone we come into contact with anywhere in any situation — no matter how temporary — immediately becomes a neighbor. Usually our closest neighbors are our families. And how do we get along with them? Second, we learn that what is called love is really commitment. So, Leviticus teaches both Jews and Christians to be committed to others in the same way we are committed to ourselves. Third, there is mercy. Mercy is when you have the power and perhaps even the right to hurt or injure another, but you don’t. A chief characteristic of our Creator is that He is merciful to sinners and disobedient ones. Otherwise, there would now be a crater where you and I just were.

In conclusion, at the beginning of the sermon we heard Yahweh’s command in Leviticus 18:5, “‘You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.’” And we just heard Jesus expand the rule of loving your neighbor dramatically and then tell the lawyer and us to go and do likewise.

Now, if you and I were not subject to Original Sin, we would need no commands. Yahweh’s righteousness would just flow out of us in any and every situation. We would not have to be told that obeying Yahweh’s commands are the way of life. We would just be living righteous life in Yahweh without any fear of His punishment and hell. We would never need to justify ourselves. For, pure righteousness never comes into question. We would be living before our Creator in His pure love and commitment. 

But because of Original Sin none of this is possible for any human this side of death. Therefore, Yahweh has made a way for us sinners. We confess every Sunday that we have not loved Yahweh with our whole heart and our neighbors as ourselves. We truly deserve Yahweh’s eternal punishment. But Yahweh has had mercy on us. He gave us His only begotten Son to die for all sin so that if we confess our sins, He can forgive all our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He has also given us His Holy Spirit by whom we can truly begin to love our neighbors as ourselves. May Yahweh be praised forever for His mercy to us. There are no craters in here. Amen.

All Bible quotes are from the ESV.