Homily For The Thirteen Sunday after Trinity 2026
We return to the theme of mercy in today’s Gospel which is found in the 10th Chapter of St. Luke. Last week, we prayed in our collect, “Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy.” The week before that we were reminded that God declares his almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity. This week, we have the story of the Good Samaritan - the quintessential illustration of mercy to one in need.
Our parable begins with the question of a lawyer to Jesus, an insincere question at that. St. Luke tells us that the lawyer called Jesus “Master” but his desire was to tempt, to trap our Lord in his own words. With this motive, the lawyer asks our Lord “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus resorts to the Holy Scriptures to deal with those desiring to tempt Him.
He did so in the Wilderness with a consistent deferral to the Old Testament saying, “it is written, it is written”. Here, he asks the disingenuous lawyer what the Law has to say about eternal life. The lawyer quotes the summary of the Law related to one’s duties to God - love him with all your heart, soul, strength and mind… and love your neighbor as yourself.” In the lawyer’s answer, he shows that he understands the elements of the Law for he brings together two separate passages in Deuteronomy 6:5 with Leviticus 19:18; This is very similar to the summary of the Law that Jesus gave in the latter part of St. Matthew’s Gospel. It is clear that the lawyer can distill the facts but doesn’t understand the implications of this truth. Jesus confirms the truth of his statement and tells him to live as though it were true. Our Lord says “This do and thou shalt live.”
It would seem at first blush that Jesus is giving the lawyer a pathway to salvation by works - “this do” but Jesus is not proposing a new type of legalism and self-righteousness. The emphasis here is on the “this” - the full spectrum of love of God and completely loving one’s neighbor. Our Lord puts his finger on the pressure point of the question. He gets at the issue that St. Paul addresses in our Epistle - he writes to the Galatians: “for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.” Our Lord is pointing out that he has not loved God and his neighbor as he should. The lawyer takes too lightly the full requirements of the law - he cannot “do anything” to inherit eternal life.
St. Luke tells us that the lawyer did not accept Our Lord’s statements outright; he wanted to get the last word. Our Gospel tells us “but he, willing to justify himself said… ‘and who is my neighbor?’” He wants to put the burden of defining neighbor back on Jesus because he knows the Jews understood being a neighbor by a very narrow definition in which they exclude Samaritans and Gentiles.
Jesus answers the lawyer with a story. Our Lord moves beyond bantering about propositions and gives the richest picture of loving one’s neighbor in this parable. He tells the story of a man who is robbed, beaten severely, stripped of his clothes and left for dead on the treacherous road between Jerusalem and Jericho. Our Lord then tells of the actions of three men who passed by - a priest, a Levite and a Samaritan. St. Luke tells us that “by chance there came down a certain priest.” “By chance” introduces the idea of hope that maybe fortune had smiled on the injured man.
Yet, instead of offering help, we read that the priest looked upon the man but then crossed the road to avoid contact. Priests must avoid impurity, particularly that coming from touching a corpse; In fact, the Pharisees believed that one would be deemed unclean if one’s shadow touched the corpse. He would be bound by the law to show mercy if the man were clearly alive but the injured was nearer to death and the priest decided to err on the side of caution. He crossed the road and continued on. Our next character, the Levite, found the injured on the road. Levites had fewer rules related to ritual cleanliness but he refused to act as well. Both the priest and the Levite were returning from service at the Temple to their home in Jericho. Both noticed the need, both may have felt pity for the man but neither acted to alleviate his suffering.
Their inaction, judged by the demands of the Law of Moses, condemned them for they did not love the man as themselves and they preferred the letter of the law related to ritual purity to the spirit of the Law which was to show mercy.
Jesus then introduces the Samaritan who would have been the most unlikely person, in their mind, to be capable of loving one’s neighbor. We should remember that the Samaritans were notorious sinners, they were considered half-breeds because they were the product of intermarriage between Jews and pagan tribes after the Assyrian conquest. When the faithful Jews returned from Exile, the Samaritans opposed the rebuilding of the Temple and Jerusalem. They built their own place of worship on Mount Gerizim. They were “ceremonially unclean, socially outcast, and religiously a heretic.”
They were the exact opposite of the priests and Levites. Yet, it is the Samaritan who takes action; he shows what it means to love one’s neighbor.
Jesus tells us that the Samaritan when he saw the man, that he was moved by compassion. He wasn't’ content to feel sorry that the man was injured. He turns aside, bandaging his wounds after cleaning the wounds with the alcohol that was in the wine and applying oil to ease the pain. As the man is too weak to walk, the Samaritan puts him on his own animal and takes him to an inn where the Samaritan attended to the injured. Moreover, after extending care, the Samaritan leaves two denarii - the equivalent of two days wages for the average worker. The going rate was about 1/12 a denarius per day for room and board. So, it was probable that the Samaritan paid upfront for almost a month of care with assurances that he would pay more if necessary.
What more could the Samaritan have done for a complete stranger? While the Levite and the Priest may have sent thoughts and prayers, the Samaritan gave of his time and goods to the service of another. In using this example of someone who would have been despised by the Jews, Our Lord wanted his hearers to know precisely, in a measured fashion, what it meant to love one’s neighbor. Many of the early Church Fathers believed that Jesus is the Good Samaritan in this story. As one commentator so ably summarized, Jesus “presents himself as a Samaritan in this parable because like that race, he was an outcast among the Jewish people. The journey upon which the Samaritan has embarked is the Incarnation: the Son of God leaving his Father’s side, coming to earth in order to help mankind, and then returning to his Father, until, as the Creed teaches, ‘he shall come again.’ The poor man the Samaritan pulls out of the ditch represents the human race, set upon by robbers, that is to say the forces of evil,
who have stripped mankind of its righteousness and inflicted the wounds of sin. The Priest and the Levite who pass by represent the attempts of Old Testament religion to help mankind.”
We have identified the main characters with the exception of the innkeeper. The Church Fathers understood the Inn to be the Church. Chrysostom said it this way “For the Inn is the Church, which receives travellers, who are tired with their journey through the world, and oppressed with the load of their sins; where the wearied traveller casting down the burden of his sins is relieved, and after being refreshed is restored with wholesome food. And this is what is here said, and took care of him. For without is every thing that is conflicting, hurtful and evil, while within the Inn is contained all rest and health.
As Our Lord concludes the parable, he asks a simple question of the lawyer. He asks “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? Notice that the lawyer cannot bring himself to say “the Samaritan.” Instead, he responds to the Lord by describing his character. The lawyer responds - the one who had mercy on him.
Our Lord as the Good Samaritan took upon himself the fullest effort to redeem us who were left for dead. In our circumstances, we were not merely half-dead; we were truly dead in our trespasses and sins. Through his redemptive suffering and resurrection, he brings new life to those who were spiritually dead. New life in Christ implies new priorities and new objectives. As we have received mercy freely, we are to be indiscriminate in how we extend it. We should be willing to be wronged so that we are merciful.
Our Lord is calling us as his people who have been saved by his mercy and healed within the Inn of His Church to simply be a neighbor to those we come in contact with. Be willing to see what is happening around us and respond with the means that God has given. Let the teaching of today’s Gospel sink in. As we have received mercy, let it define our interaction in the real, day-to-day matters here in Alpine. As we have received mercy, let us be like our Lord the truly Good Samaritan who gave to the utmost to bring new life to those who put their trust in Him.
