The Collect for the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity
Almighty and Merciful God, of Whose gift only it comes that Your faithful people do unto You true and praiseworthy service; Grant, we ask You, that, we may so faithfully serve You in this life, that we do not fail to finally obtain Your Heavenly promises; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Epistle Galatians 3:16-22
16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed” meaning one person, who is Christ. 17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.
19 Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. 20 A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one.
21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22 But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.
The Holy Gospel of St Luke 10:23-37
23 Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. 24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘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, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.
31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
33 But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.
35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
Bishop Ian’s Thoughts
Today’s Epistle Reading is taken from St Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians Chapter 3, Verses 16-22.
The opening verse of today’s Epistle Reading (Verse 16) is one of the most important verses in the Holy Bible. It is the link that unites the Old Testament and the New Testament into a seamless, progressively unfolding, revelation of God’s relationship with His people, starting with ancient Israel's Patriarch Abram (later renamed Abraham) and then flowing on to all nations:
“16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed” meaning one person, who is Christ.”
This verse is also the key to understanding God’s work of salvation which has been unveiled throughout human history beginning with His promise to Abraham and brought to glorious completion by the Life, Death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is vital that the supreme importance of Verse 16 be fully understood by any person seeking to understand the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
St Paul declares to us that salvation is the precious gift of God, that was promised to Abraham and to his Seed (The Lord Jesus). The promise was not to Abraham’s “seeds” (plural) but to his "Seed" (singular).
This promise was God’s Solemn Word that salvation was guaranteed to Abraham and his Seed as a free and gracious gift, not dependent on any action of men.
St Paul goes on to inform us that the Law, given to Moses on Mount Sinai 430 years after God’s promise to Abraham, does not cancel or replace the promise. The Law of Moses was given to deal with sin:
“17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.”
The Law of Moses specified obligations and prohibitions, which enabled the nation of Israel to deal with sin, albeit temporarily, and live as God’s chosen people until the Seed of Abraham (the Messiah – the Lord Jesus) came, some 1,490 years later to deal, once and for all time, with the sins of God’s people:
“19 Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. 20 A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one.”
St Paul goes on to explain that the law was not opposed to the promises of God, and was the means that God gave His people so that they could live righteous lives as His Chosen People, set aside from the world around them:
"21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law."
The Law, good as it was as a guide, could not impart life to its adherents, The Law has now become obsolete and has given way to the far more effective New Covenant, based on the Perfect Life, the Atoning Death, and the Glorious Resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
These benefits, of the New Covenant, are promised, by God, to all believers.
Sin is the great barrier between God and man, and St Paul describes this as "everything" in scripture being "locked up" by sin:
"22 But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe."
The Seed of Abraham, the Lord Jesus, through His Sinless Life, Sacrificial Death on the Cross, Mighty Resurrection, and Glorious Ascension into Heaven, has opened the gates of Heaven to not only Jewish believers, but all people, including us today, who believe in the Holy Gospel Of the Lord Jesus.
Faith in the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus unlocks the Blessings of God as it removes all sin forever.
This Mighty Work of the Lord Jesus, The Holy Gospel, mightily fulfilled the promise of God to Abraham, far beyond what Abraham could have imagined.
The Lord Jesus was born without inherited sin (sin inherited from the first man, Adam) and He lived a sinless life, so He alone was able to offer Himself for the sins of all God’s people past, present and future.
The Law was not opposed to the Holy Gospel but was the background that gave the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus, Glory, Radiance, and Wonder, as the great Miracle of God’s Salvation.
Let us always give thanks to God for His Wonderful Gift of Salvation through the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus, and that He will give us strength and courage to boldly proclaim the news of God's Great Gift of Salvation, to all people that we meet. Amen.
Today’s Holy Gospel Reading is taken from the Holy Gospel of St Luke Chapter 10, Verses 23-37.
St Luke opens this passage of his Holy Gospel with the Lord Jesus telling His Disciples that they were especially blessed to be seeing and hearing the things that accompanied the Ministry of the Lord Jesus.
“23 Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. 24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”
These blessed events were the very Miracles of healing, casting out demons, and the preaching of the Good Tidings of God’s Salvation from sin and death, that would accompany the coming of the Messiah.
The Disciples were told that many great Prophets and Kings longed to see and hear what the Disciples were seeing and hearing, but did not see or hear them.
St Luke then tells us of a question that was posed by an “expert in the Law” (more than likely a Pharisee) to test the Lord Jesus:
"25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
The Lord Jesus answered the man’s question:
“26 What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
“27 He answered, “‘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, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
The expert in the law was probably a sincere man who not only knew the core of the law’s requirements but was keenly seeking to forensically examine every point of the Lord Jesus’ answer, so he seeks clarification of His reply:
"29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”
The Lord Jesus then uses the parable (an earthly story used to illustrate a spiritual point) of the Good Samaritan to clarify His answer to the "expert in the law:"
“30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.”
“31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.”
“33 But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.”
“35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.”
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The parable revolves around a man who is set upon by robbers (who plagued travellers on the Jericho to Jerusalem road) as he travels by foot from Jericho to Jerusalem, a journey of 25 km. The man is badly beaten, stripped of his clothes and possessions and left to die in the hot desert sun.
The parable contrasts the action of three men, two religious figures, a Priest and a Levite (an assistant to the priests in the Temple), and the third, a Samaritan traveller.
Both the Priest and the Levite ignore the man and pass around him by going to the opposite side of the road, but Samaritan stopped and gave the man first aid using oil and wine to salve his wounds and then applied bandages.
Them Samaritan then hoisted the wounded man up on his own donkey and took him to an inn where he rented a room for the man to rest and recover.
Having done all this, the Samaritan, the next day, pays the innkeeper to care for the wounded man while the Samaritan completes his journey and business, with the promise to reimburse the innkeeper on his return journey, for any additional expense incurred caring for the man.
This parable is well known to many people. Many believe that the Priest and the Levite were religious snobs who cared little for the lower classes, and so could not be bothered helping the wounded man, whereas the Samaritan was a good man who was willing to help others.
This interpretation of the parable, while containing some truth, does not bring out the deeper meaning that the Lord Jesus intended to convey to the “expert in the law.”
To fully understand the deeper meaning of the Lord Jesus’ parable we must briefly examine the history of Israel.
The Israelites entered into the land of Canaan in about 1,500 BC and by 1,100 BC they had established the nation of Israel, with Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city.
Around 1095 BC the people of Israel asked God for a King. This request is recorded in the Old Testament First Book of Samuel Chapter 8, Verses 1-22:
“8 When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as Israel’s leaders. 2 The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba. 3 But his sons did not follow his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.
4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”
“6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. 9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.”
10 Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. 11 He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 16 Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle[c] and donkeys he will take for his own use. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”
“19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. 20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”
“21 When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the Lord. 22 The Lord answered, “Listen to them and give them a king.”
Then Samuel said to the Israelites, “Everyone go back to your own town.”
In obedience to God's command, the Prophet Samuel anointed Saul as King of Israel. Saul reigned as King of Israel for forty years.
Saul was succeeded by King David who also reigned for forty years.
After King David’s death the Kingdom of Israel was ruled by King Solomon (1,015 BC to 975 BC). During Solomon’s reign the first Jewish Temple was constructed at Jerusalem.
Around 975 BC the nation of Israel split into two separate kingdoms, North and South, as a result of protracted and bitter political and economic issues. This event is known as “The Great Schism”.
The Northern Kingdom retained the name Israel and had the city of Samaria as its capital. The people of the Northern Kingdom consisted of ten of the twelve tribes of ancient Israel: Rueben, Simeon, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Ephraim, and Manasseh.
The people of the Kingdom of Israel worshipped and sacrificed to God at their Temple situated on Mount Gerizim.
The Kings of Israel were not descended from King David. They were wicked kings who worshipped pagan gods and led their people astray from the Law of Moses.
The Southern Kingdom became the Kingdom of Judah, and consisted of the Tribes of Judah and Benjamin. They retained the city of Jerusalem as their capital.
The Kings of Judah were descended from King David.
The people of the Kingdom of Judah worshipped God at the first Jewish Temple built by King Solomon on Mount Moriah (the Temple Mount) in Jerusalem.
The Northern Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrians in 724-712 BC and many of the people were, taken into captivity in Assyria. The conquest of Israel is recorded in the Old Testament Second Book of the Kings Chapter 17, Verses 5-17:
“5 The king of Assyria invaded the entire land, marched against Samaria and laid siege to it for three years. 6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in the towns of the Medes.
7 All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods 8 and followed the practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced. 9 The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that were not right. From watchtower to fortified city they built themselves high places in all their towns. 10 They set up sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. 11 At every high place they burned incense, as the nations whom the Lord had driven out before them had done. They did wicked things that aroused the Lord’s anger. 12 They worshiped idols, though the Lord had said, “You shall not do this.” 13 The Lord warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers: “Turn from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees, in accordance with the entire Law that I commanded your ancestors to obey and that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets.”
14 But they would not listen and were as stiff-necked as their ancestors, who did not trust in the Lord their God. 15 They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors and the statutes he had warned them to keep. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the Lord had ordered them, “Do not do as they do.”
16 They forsook all the commands of the Lord their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshiped Baal. 17 They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sought omens and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger.”
In accordance with Assyrian conquest practices, the local people who were exiled were replaced by people from other foreign, conquered lands. These relocated people brought their false gods and pagan religions with them.
Those Israelites, who had remained in the conquered kingdom, inter-married with the peoples who came into the land after the conquest, and eventually became known as Samaritans.
With the destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel the ten tribes of ancient Israel, mentioned earlier, who had constituted the Kingdom, were dispersed and lost. They would never again be a nation.
Because of past differences and disputes over worship and other points of economic and political disagreement, the Jews and the Samaritans, of the Lord Jesus’ time, hated each other.
When the Lord Jesus travelled through Samaritan territory, He spoke, at length, with a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. The old enmity between the two kingdoms was evident in their conversation recorded in the Holy Gospel of St John Chapter 4:1-26:
“1 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.”
“4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.”
“7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)”
“9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)”
“10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
“11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
“13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
“15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
“19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
“21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
“25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
“26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
From the Lord Jesus’ conversation, with the Samaritan woman, we see that the idea of a Samaritan coming to the aid of a wounded traveller, who was most probably a Jew, was almost unthinkable.
In the Lord Jesus’ parable, the Priest and the Levite may have been snobs, however the real reason they passed by on the other side of the road was that if the wounded man was, in fact, dead, and they had touched him, then they both would have been ritually unclean and therefore forbidden to conduct, assist, or participate in the Temple worship for a period of seven days. This direction regarding ritual uncleaness is recorded in Old Testament Book of Numbers Chapter 19, Verses 11-22:
“11 Whoever touches a human corpse will be unclean for seven days. 12 They must purify themselves with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then they will be clean. But if they do not purify themselves on the third and seventh days, they will not be clean. 13 If they fail to purify themselves after touching a human corpse, they defile the Lord’s tabernacle. They must be cut off from Israel. Because the water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on them, they are unclean; their uncleanness remains on them.”
“14 This is the law that applies when a person dies in a tent: Anyone who enters the tent and anyone who is in it will be unclean for seven days, 15 and every open container without a lid fastened on it will be unclean.”
“16 Anyone out in the open who touches someone who has been killed with a sword or someone who has died a natural death, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.”
“17 For the unclean person, put some ashes from the burned purification offering into a jar and pour fresh water over them. 18 Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to take some hyssop, dip it in the water and sprinkle the tent and all the furnishings and the people who were there. He must also sprinkle anyone who has touched a human bone or a grave or anyone who has been killed or anyone who has died a natural death. 19 The man who is clean is to sprinkle those who are unclean on the third and seventh days, and on the seventh day he is to purify them. Those who are being cleansed must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and that evening they will be clean. 20 But if those who are unclean do not purify themselves, they must be cut off from the community, because they have defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. The water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on them, and they are unclean. 21 This is a lasting ordinance for them.”
“The man who sprinkles the water of cleansing must also wash his clothes, and anyone who touches the water of cleansing will be unclean till evening. 22 Anything that an unclean person touches becomes unclean, and anyone who touches it becomes unclean till evening.”
The “expert in the law” must have been gobsmacked to hear the Lord Jesus’ response to his question “and who is my neighbour” and the Lord Jesus' command on how to apply it in his daily life.
The simple answer was to follow the example of the Good Samaritan:
“37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
The real tragedy of the Lord Jesus’ parable is that the Priest's and the Levite's desire to be ritually clean, so as to worship God, was exalted over God’s very command to show mercy to others, and to love your neighbour as yourself.
It is also sad to see that by the Lord Jesus’ time the Jewish Religion and its adherents placed ritual cleanness, and many other practices, above God’s commandments, one of the chief being to love one’s neighbours, no matter who the neighbours are.
May God Bless these Readings to us and give us courage to love our neighbours as ourselves, no matter what that love may cost us. And let us never forget that the Lord Jesus laid down his Life for us while we were sinners and separated from Him by our sin.
Let us also thank God that no matter who we are, or what our background is, we are made acceptable to God, and become His Adopted Children being clothed in the Holy Righteousness of the Lord Jesus, through Faith in His Holy Gospel. Amen.
Bishop Ian