When we are not drinking brews with Andrewes and discussing his sermons, we are often preaching ourselves. Here is Fr. Allen’s sermon from Trinity XIII 2022

"When Law and Sacrifice Don't Help"

September 11, 2022

     We have contained here in this well known, and well-beloved, parable of The Good Samaritan, a picture of nearly the whole story of the Bible, which is not only super convenient because very few of us today make time to read the whole story of the Bible, but also because, let’s face it, we are all visual learners, and we all love a good story.

    So, in our text today when this expert in Biblical law comes and asks Jesus about living the eternal kind of life, Jesus could have told Him to go reread Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus, but no, He says let met paint a picture for you (and we are all forever grateful).

    There was a man who once dwelt in the city of peace, but then one day he fell into the hands of one who came to steal, kill, and destroy, and was left for dead in his fallen condition. The first sign of hope for him was when the Law (symbolized by the pharisee) was given, but then it was unable to restore him to life (Gal.3:21). The next chance for help came when the Levitical priesthood (symbolized by the Levite) was established, but alas as we know the blood of bulls and goats could not restore man from the condition he had fallen into (Heb.9:13-10:18). Yet then, when it seemed that all hope was lost, salvation came for the man in a form least expected (symbolized by the Samaritan) – who moved with compassion, bound his wounds for healing, carried him into a caring community, and left the resources necessary for man’s full restoration until He returns. Are you beginning to see the answer?

    In this short story, Jesus gives us the perfect answer for how we can receive and live the eternal kind of life (not just a lawful, religious kind of one) by retelling the story of man’s fall, the law’s inability to help man out of his fallen condition, and the insufficiency of the Levitical priesthood to restore man from his fallen condition. He then shows that humanity’s only hope of salvation, rests in the saving mercy and care of a despised and dismissed Savior.

    But, the story doesn’t end there. We can’t simply pray a prayer for Him to get us out of our spiritual ditch and then go about our business like before. Unlike the law and the Levitical priesthood, Jesus doesn’t leave us where and how we were before He found us.

    We see this in our parable because it not only gives us a survey of salvation history, but also a clearer picture of how Jesus’ salvation both restores us to life and then enables us to live it by helping others who have fallen victim to the world, the flesh, and the devil.

    First, He binds up the man’s wounds wounds. The reason Jesus can do what the law and Levitical system could not, is because He became what the law and Levitical system could not. He took on flesh to condemn our lawlessness in the flesh (Rom.8:3), so that by His wounds we could be healed (Is.53:5). And in offering His own blood, as compared to that of goats and bulls he secured for us eternal life with God, not just annual life that had to be renewed by more sacrifices (Heb.9:11-14). Furthermore, in being put to death he was able to destroy the one who has the power of death, who used that power to steal, kill, and destroy, enslaving people to the ditches he left them for dead in (Heb.2:14-15; Wisd.2:24).

    Then He brings him to an inn to care for him. He carries those He saves to the house He stays at when He visits to find healing and recovery. And in the story, the Samaritan leaves two denarii for further care until His return, but the recourses Jesus leaves to provide for our full recovery with His Church – His Holy Ghost, His Sacraments, and, of course, His instructions (the Bible), and this is where He brings those whom He saves.

    Here in His house, we are spiritually strengthened and renewed. This is why we are about to receive the Eucharist: “Unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (Jhn.6:53). And then in experiencing the fresh influx of His life we will find the strength to “go and do likewise.” The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the father seeketh such to worship him.