Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
July 13, 2025
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
Pentecost 5
Jesus The Good Samaritan
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There are several possible interpretations of this famous parable of the Good Samaritan.
THE FIRST INTERPRETATION is that we are the man who fell among robbers who stripped us, beat us and left us half dead on the road. The explanation goes on to say that it is the devil who did this to us. Who stripped us of our original righteousness by introducing chaos into the world, and that by his minions he has further robbed us of faith, hope, love, joy and sense of well-being.
Moreover it is the devil’s only joy – if one can ascribe joy the Evil One – to keep us in this terrible position. To keep us away from Jesus who is the Good Samaritan at all costs. And to keep us away from the inn of the parable which is the church, and the innkeeper of the parable which are His ministers of Word and Sacrament wherein they treat us with the only cure that there is for otherwise incurable wounds. All other sources of refuge but magical thinking and shared hallucination.
To be a bleeding heart is not the same as being a Good Samaritan. Good Samaritans don’t only do what they do free of charge, but they bear the expenses from their own pocket. Bleeding hearts on the other hand enrich and empower themselves pretending to be good. They are never willing to open their own doors, or their own purses for the cause, but more than willing to open yours.
But the church is no less guilty who, in this late day of unbelief, no longer imparts the Lord God of Heaven and Earth to the souls of men. But now deals in entertainment gospels, social gospels, political gospels and self-affirmation gospels which are no gospels at all! These are the priests and Levites who have crossed to the other side of the road, as the world lay long “in sin and error pining.”
THERE IS ANOTHER INTERPRETATION that some have offered about this parable. Namely that Jesus is the Man who fell among robbers. As St. John famously says, “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.”
Instead they took all that He had to give, and then arrested Him, beat Him, spit on His glorious face, crowned His sacred head with thorns, laid stripes on Him (by which we are healed) and then finished the job on the cross. But unlike the man on the road Jesus was not “half dead” but graveyard dead! A death decreed necessary by God to destroy death and put an end to the Devil once and for all.
A death our Lord gladly accepted for the joy that was at the other end: namely us. We are that joy! Imagine! Sinners, scoffers, rebels, mutineers covered with sores, percolating with stink from the hot sun, wretched, naked, poor, deaf, dumb and blind. This is who Jesus came to redeem, to recreate, to transform into His radiant Bride “without spot or wrinkle but Holy and without blemish.” (Eph. 5:27) This is the greatest miracle of all!
And so bumper sticker versions of Jesus will never do. Nor will drive by theology as found on church signs. Nor will emoji’s or memes. Once you remove Jesus from the full context of Who He IS you have nothing. In 2 Cor 11:4 Saint Paul calls this “another Jesus.” Or to state the matter in another way: To consider Jesus apart from the church and her Holy worship – even to say “Jesus died for you,” means little if anything at all.
He did much more than die! He offered Himself as the Perfect Sacrifice, the Perfect Liturgy for the sins of the world. He is not simply a man who went afoul of the law. But a Lamb! God’s Lamb! Who donated His divine life for the life of the world. You are that world. And so be charry of church website whose front page is covered dozens of laughing, smiling young people just having happy moments with Jesus.
Emoji Jesus is not the church. But by God’s Mercy we can confidently affirm that this is the church. Where Jesus the divine Lamb of God is here present in Flesh and Blood that He now distributes to sinners; to purify us from the radiation poisoning of sin. Balloons and emoji’s will not help you at the “Judgment Seat of Christ.” But only the Judge into whom you are baptized will
Of course probably THE HIGHEST AND BEST INTERPRETATION of this parable is that Jesus Himself is the Good Samaritan. To make a very long story very short Jews and Samaritans hated each other with “perfect hatred.” This is who they were and what they did for centuries. “We hate them and they hate us.” End of sentence.
In that respect humanity hates the Real Jesus. We all know what happened. He came to redeem us because we were not just “broken” or “flawed” or “nobody is perfect,” and we could not be “fixed.” Humanity’s addiction to sin was instant and a done deal when Woman decided to take the drugs, so to speak, that the Serpent offered.
The Jews of His day called Jesus a Samaritan, and accused Him of demonic possession (Jn 8:48): even if the demons did flee as fast and as far as they could at His mention of his Name – and still do! And so you can always do good in any situation, however tragic by praying: “Jesus Lamb of God have mercy.” And He will.
He is the Eternal Word who intentionally came from heaven to earth to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8) and to pour the wine of His Blood and the Oil of the Holy Spirit on our wounds. By Whom He “seals us unto the Day of Redemption.” (Eph 1:14) In the meantime He places us in care. In hospital. Where His appointed ministers continue treatment.
There is no wrong that you have perpetrated, however terrible, that cannot be treated here. Think about that as you cringe with guilt and shame. And so come! Take eat! Take drink! That you may kept in the one, true faith day by happy day, unto the ages of ages. Amen.