The Gospel reading for today includes the parable of the “Good Samaritan” as most people call it. Most people just look at it as a morality tale told to say, “people should be compassionate and have mercy on those in need”. That’s it. And then they move on. There is much more to it than that.

I will make the case today, that this parable which has many things to teach us, also teaches us about desire. Yes, “Desire”. As in what do you desire? What would you like to have, to receive, to experience? What is it that you desire, that you “will” to do or have done for you in this life?

Suggestion is very powerful in directing our desires. A person may not desire to eat cookies until somebody says the words: “fresh baked chocolate chip cookies” and then suddenly you realize that you want some. Sorry about that if I made you hungry. You didn’t know that you were in the mood for cake until you saw it. You didn’t know that you wanted pizza until you smelled it.

For many people “desire” as a concept sounds like something carnal, that is of the flesh. And quite often it is. In many ways that is how the sin of coveting leads to a whole host of other sins. You may not even know that you want or desire something until you see somebody else enjoying it. You see what somebody else has and you “desire” it. You desire to claim it, consume it, master it, and make it yours. It could be wealth, specific possessions, status, or even people for friendship or 6th commandment breaking.

Desire can have a non-sinful spin. You desire to be helpful. You wish to be kind. You want to grow in your faith. If you ask a person if they want to go to heaven. They will say, of course! But how do you get to be saved? Can you do it on your own? Do you need help? Or are you helpless? How much do you desire it? It is funny how so often it takes failure or desperation to realize what we truly should need and truly desire.

A person thinks “I am going to build this new shed” and someone else asks: “Do you need help?” And they answer: ” No thanks, I’ve got it!” Fast forward a couple of hours when the walls are falling on top of that person, and suddenly, they realize, “I really want; I really need and desire some help now”. Or how about a student who thinks that they understand a subject, but then they take the test and looks nothing like what they thought it would be and they fail. Then they realize that they don’t have it together. You and I are so much like that. All humanity is at some time or another.

Sometimes it takes us to be brought down low to realize how much we need; to finally desire to receive that which is truly important which we cannot achieve ourselves: mercy, salvation, and rescue.
In today’s Gospel lesson an “expert in the Law” desired to put Jesus to the test regarding the way to achieve salvation. The word inherit is used, but when Jesus turns the question around on him, it is clear, that the expert in the Law thought salvation could be achieved by His own works. When Jesus told Him, “yes, do the Law and you will live”, the man desired to justify himself. Did you catch that? When people think that they can fulfill the Law they “desire to justify themselves”. When people are caught in a sin that they refuse to repent of, they “desire to justify themselves”. Two sides of the same coin. What the expert in the Law should have desired was what the ancients had desired. What is that?

Jesus turning to the disciples had said in verse 23-24, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

This expert in the Law, (the Word of the Old Testament) should have been looking for the blessed age and time of the Messiah! The “right then at that moment Messianic time”, the Messiah who was right in front of Him. This Jesus, the Christ, was the One promised to come to show mercy, to rescue, to bring salvation, forgiveness, and healing.

But this lawyer couldn’t and didn’t see his need for a Savior. The man in the parable didn’t know how much he should desire a savior until he needed one. He just took it for granted that he would be safe on his trip. He took it for granted that he could take care of himself. He could travel through life, offer up a few sacrifices and offerings to the Lord in Jerusalem and he would have a smooth life, an unchallenged life, and some day end up in heaven. He didn’t have any pressing desire for salvation until he needed it. He didn’t desire companionship or protection until he realized that he had none. When he realized what happens in this life if you have no spiritual protection against the evil that surrounds then it was too late to defend.

Then when that traveling man was waylaid and almost killed, he realized what he should have desired all along: a Savior. Suddenly he knew the vulnerability he had had. How trusting in himself, his pride, and his own strength was a great and terrible mistake. So there he lay, perhaps groaning and moaning, and two religious authorities passed by. Two experts in the Law, yet there was no help within them, because they wanted only to justify and protect themselves. If they paused to help, they might also be waylaid. These were men of duty to God, but faith was far from their hearts.

Finally, from the most unlikely, the least looked for place, a man of a despised background, came the much desired and needed salvation and rescue. This Samaritan stooped low to the ground, to bind the man’s wounds, anoint and cleanse them, then he lifted the mostly dead man onto his own beast of burden taking him to a place of constant attention and aid, paying for all his food, his shelter, the care of this man’s life until he would return.

This Samaritan is pointing to Jesus. The prophets, kings, and believers of the past who lived the Old Testament, who wrote the Old Testament longed for and yearned to see the day of Jesus. The day of His visitation. They had seen in their own lives how they had needed God for life, for hope, for forgiveness. They desired to see in life with their own eyes the Savior who would ultimately deliver them, but they did not.

The lawyer, did not yet desire what he needed to desire, though He saw the instrument of his salvation before him. So often people do not realize how much they have always needed God and the message of Jesus Christ until it is almost too late, but it is not too late as long as there is life and breath. There is time to see that we cannot justify our sin, and we cannot justify ourselves by our works. We are helpless and as dead men and women spiritually. The Law has shown us our sin, let us repent before the world, the devil, or our flesh bring us to the gates of eternal death.

Let us desire what we need: a Savior: Jesus Christ. Then let us see how much we need to hear His voice in His word and His absolution as often as we can. How much we long to hear the voice of Jesus who was considered low and rejected by so many. Jesus became as the Samaritan to take our sins and our burdens upon Himself. Lifting us onto Himself, and paying the cost for our life and our care by His blood shed upon the cross.

He has bound you up and brought you here this day to the inn. So that as His called and ordained innkeeper, I can wrap your wounds with the bandages of God’s Word, washing and changing your wounds and bandages, cleansing the infectious sin from week to week, and feeding you the food which Christ has paid for, so that you may live now and for eternity.

What a privilege. We are able to receive and see with our own eyes and hear the message which the ancients longed to see and hear: the time of promise fulfilled in Christ crucified and raised. Here He comes to us in bread and wine with His body and blood, His word of promise and mercy has been fulfilled. We should desire to be here and receive as often as we can. After receiving the gifts, we sing with Simeon, that our own eyes have beheld in this blessed meal, the salvation which God has prepared for all people. A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of the people Israel.

Let us who admit that they are weak, weary, and heavy laden put our cares upon Christ crucified. Pray and know He hears and answers. As you desire His strength, power, and wisdom to live by faith, He fulfills those desires, and He promises to take care of your other needs too. See that the desire of God is for your salvation, for us to be free of our sin, and the empty desires of this world. He alone justifies you and declares you righteous for Christ’s sake. Receive His grace and rejoice in Him until He comes once more to bring us with Him to eternal life, In Jesus Christ’s name. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas