sermon 7.11

So, how many of you have heard this story? What do we usually call it? Who do you want to be in this story? Who do we tell the children to be?


Tell me what you know of the characters, the Levite, the priest, the Samaritan.

That all seems entirely too simple to me. I’m going to propose to you that who you really are is the man on the ground. But first let’s go to the rest of the story.

Here we have a man – we don’t know anything about this man. We don’t know if he is young or old, righteous or not, good or bad, businessman or farmer, Jewish, Gentile, Samaritan, Ethiopian, …

We only know he went down to Jericho from Jerusalem. Now, I would imagine a road. Maybe you do too. Here are some paintings:

They happen to show someone who has passed by the man, and they insinuate a road, narrow, but real.

Jesus knows that the listeners actually know the setting he has put this story in. They know what going down from Jerusalem to Jericho means. Here is the map I showed you last week

where you can see Jerusalem to Jericho and what the map makes it look like – not very hospitable. It's about 30 miles as the crow flies - you just can't get there as the crow flies.

In reality, the Romans had built a road – a real road, paved and wide from Jerusalem to Jericho complete with soldiers to keep away bandits and toll booths so you could pay for that privilege.

Most continued to go down to Jericho the old way, this is where they went. This trail is known as the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Why – there is the very real possibility of losing your way, not finding water, being attacked by bandits or animals. There are no trees - though you will and did find Bedouins with herds of goats or sheep that eat anything that sprouts green. This is the Judean desert.

The Valley of the Shadow of Death. That is where this man, this no name, no tribe man went down and was attacked and left for dead. He was stripped of his valuables, stripped of his clothes, stripped of his identity and left as a sinner on the side of the path. All who passed him could see that he was a sinner and they could see nothing redeeming about him.

This man did not know that today was the day he was to trust in the Lord, that he needed to be ready and call on him, that he should have been walking in the paths of righteousness or this would not have happened! The Levite and the priest – well they knew. It was obvious that the man was a sinner – and he got his just desserts! How could this man expect any mercy, any compassion, any grace from them!

This man must not have listened on Sunday to the Word as it was preached. He must have skipped Bible class and surely had lapsed in his devotional time each day. Why, he probably had even quit praying, quit talking to God. And maybe his intention in going to Jericho was to go partying or to gamble or to do some shady dealings. He just didn’t pay attention and had slipped into the easy life of sin, metaphorically into the valley of the shadow of death.

Our God is not like the gods that others hold dear. Our god doesn’t look down on us as we wallow in our sin and then walk on by. When we are in our deepest and darkest place, when we are in the valley of the shadow of death and are attacked on all sides, whether we deserve the attack or not – our God does not walk by. Our God bends down to earth, comes down to earth as a person, a person others don’t pay attention to, a person no one wants on their team, a person others either ignore, rant against, or hate and pours the wine of forgiveness on our wounds washing us clean. Then he pours the oil of anointment over us claiming us as his own.

Then, amazingly our God picks us up and takes us to a house where the community of God can care for us. Of his own wealth God gives what is needed for our life. His wealth including his own son who came here and gave his blood that with the wine you receive today you might receive the forgiveness of God once more.

The grace that comes from God is as unearned, as unexpected, as abundant as the grace you see coming from the Samaritan. And it is all done without our seeing and maybe without our even being able to thank.

We are you see the man on the road, naked, nothing of value, no identity until God comes to us. If we don’t realize that, in truth, we are that man in the valley of the shadow of death needing the grace of God, then we are truly lost.

But if we do realize it, if we do give thanks to God that we have been redeemed by the body and blood of our Lord Jesus the Christ, if we do – then we have the opportunity to be the hands, the feet, the body of that Samaritan, of our Lord.

Paul said in 2 Corinthians 9:7 Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.



Imagine, just for a moment, imagine what that could look like in this church. Imagine, if our hands reached, our feet went, our tongues talked, our backs bent. Imagine. Shalom!