Trinity XIII - 08.30.2026

Go And Do Likewise

 Luke 10:23-37

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Do people today ask, or even think about the topic brought up by the question asked by the lawyer in today's text? Do many people think about eternal life? I am not sure!

So many in our world do not even consider the question of what comes after this life – if anything.

Many Christians do think along those lines, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” As we have talked in the past, this is a form of “works righteousness”, thinking what we do helps improve our standing before God – especially in regard to eternal life.

Jesus has the lawyer answer his own question, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”

“You shall 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 your neighbor as yourself.”

To this Jesus responds, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

Jesus’ point in answering His question,  granting the lawyer’s false assumption, is very purposeful. Jesus wants to show the impossibility of his thinking. To merit eternal life, you must keep God's Law – perfectly. 

To keep Torah Law perfectly means you love God with everything you are – and you love your neighbor, even your enemy, as your very self. Show mercy to everyone, even to those whom you hate. Do this and live – fail and you die; you do not inherit eternal life. 

Of course, the lawyer had indeed failed to do these things, just like you and I have failed to do these things. So where is there hope for eternal life?

He had asked, “What shall I do to inherit?” What does anyone DO to inherit anything? An inheritance does NOT come to you because you do, but because someone chose you to receive it.

Inheritance happens when someone dies and you are named in the last will and testament. You DO nothing! The testator chooses you and places you into a relationship with him so that when he dies, you receive the inheritance.

Does this change when the inheritance is eternal life? NO! God is the testator; you are the heir. You DO nothing to inherit eternal life.

Rather, God has chosen you to be His heir! God named you in His last will and testament to receive the inheritance of eternal life. God placed you into a relationship with Himself, a relationship you try to destroy by your sinfulness. God restores that relationship! He dies; you receive the inheritance. 

God died on the cross, thereby confirming His testament to you. Once a testament is confirmed, no one can annul it or add to it [Gal 3:15]. He has transferred His estate to you, and you possess eternal life. You do nothing to inherit eternal life! God has done everything necessary, even the dying, to freely bequeath eternal life to you.

Then why didn't Jesus answer the question by saying, “You ask the wrong question! You can do nothing to inherit eternal life. Rather, God freely bequeaths eternal life to you, through the death of His Christ.”? That is the Gospel answer to the lawyer's question. Instead, Jesus directs the lawyer to the Law, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” [v. 26]

Jesus, true God, knew the man needed to be convicted of his own sin before he would be ready to hear the Gospel. He was a self‑righteous sinner! He thought he was good enough. He asked his question to prove to this new teacher, just how good he was.

Those wanting to justify themselves by the Law need to be convinced that it is impossible. God's Law needs to come crashing into their lives in all its severity, it must destroy all the self-supports that people like to build. God’s Law says, “You cannot justify yourself before God.” Through the Law, God has confined all under sin.

It must happen this way so that the promise of the Gospel might be given, and received by faith in Christ Jesus to those who believe.

Jesus points this man to the Law to prepare him for the Gospel. He needed to be convicted and condemned under sin before he could be freed to life by the Gospel.

Most miss this crucial distinction. Many well‑meaning Christians point to this text, “See, Jesus gives us the answer to, `What shall I do to inherit eternal life?'. He says we should love God and our neighbor.

Our lawyer knows he has not done this perfectly, but want to justify himself,  “And who is my neighbor?” He wants to make sure that the neighbor he MUST love is the neighbor he WANTS to love.

My neighbor is not the one ruining my reputation by spreading half-truths about me, is it? It is not the cop who stopped me for speeding as he let the one who passed me slide? It is not the guy who stole my high school sweetheart, is it?

God says you must be merciful even to those who hate you. He says to go and be like the good Samaritan. This is what you must do to inherit eternal life. Do this and you will live. You want to go to heaven? Go and do likewise. 

Jesus answers this way to show you, that you can do nothing to inherit eternal life. You will always fail to attain the required perfection. He gave this answer so that you would despair of your own works and trust only the work of Christ to save you. 

Anybody who points to this text, or any other preaching of the Law, as the means of salvation, is wrong - dead wrong – damningly wrong. Your attempts to live up to God's law will always come up far short of the mark. The Scripture has confined all under sin [Gal 3:22].

“You go, and do likewise,” seems simple enough. Perhaps if you tried really hard you could show some mercy to an enemy? Possibly you would give of your wealth to show compassion on someone who hates you. But who is like this good Samaritan? What does it really mean to show mercy like the Samaritan showed mercy?

Christ IS the good Samaritan. You are the half dead man! We ask, “I will love my neighbor as myself, just tell me, which neighbor?”

Jesus answers, “Everybody is your neighbor. You do not get to pick and choose. You must love all. But you cannot love, for you are dying. You need someone to love you, show mercy to you, heal you, pay for your ongoing care, give you lodging, revive you to life.”

Jesus says, “I am the one who fulfills the Law. I am the one who shows the mercy and compassion of God and brings it to you. I am neighbor to you. I give you the gifts of mercy, compassion, healing, and life. As I have died (and yet I live), you shall inherit eternal life.

Now I live in you. You have eternal life and show mercy – not motivated by the Law, but made alive by My love, compassion, and mercy in you.” [adapted from Just's commentary, pg. 454]

This idea of God finding you half dead, lying in a pool of your own blood on the side of the road was not new to Jesus’ original audience, nor should it be to you. Jesus words reflect the picture of our merciful God from Ezekiel. Consider these vivid words:

“No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out into the open field. . . .  And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I made you thrive like a plant in the field . . . I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness. . . . Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, and I anointed you with oil. I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of badger skin; I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk.” [Ezekiel 16:5‑10]

Jesus Christ is the great and only “Good Samaritan.” You are the one upon whom He has shown mercy.

He found you writhing in the blood of your sin, physically alive, but spiritually dead.

He bandaged your wounds and covered your sin with the clean, white linen of His own righteousness.

He washed you in water by His Word in holy Baptism, anointing you with the healing oil of the Holy Spirit.

He pours out wine for you in His Holy Supper, to kill with His own antiseptic blood the cancerous infection of your sin.

Upon His departure to the right hand of His Father, He left you in the care of His chosen innkeeper – your pastor, having brought you into the safety of the inn, His Church.

He will come again, to take you to Himself, granting you the inheritance He has bequeathed to you in His blood of the New Testament.

Your inheritance is eternal life in the merciful, compassionate, blessed presence of God.

Can you now go and do likewise? Honestly?

Who can show mercy as Christ shows mercy?

Who can have compassion as Christ has compassion?

No one but Christ!

Can you then, by keeping the law, earn eternal life for yourself? “Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law.” [Gal 3:21] 

BUT…Christ lives in you, therefore you DO show mercy as Christ shows mercy. Christ in you, shows mercy through you.

You DO have compassion as Christ has compassion, for Christ in you, has compassion through you.

Christ does this in you! It is the result of the eternal life Christ lives in you.

Through the eternal life which you have inherited through your Lord's death on the cross – you have compassion.

What the Law demands as a command, the Gospel credits to you as a fact: you DO go and do likewise, for it is Christ Jesus who does it ALL in you and through you.

“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.” [v. 23‑4] These words of Jesus immediately precede His encounter with the lawyer, and are words which the lawyer heard.

The lawyer obviously missed this Gospel answer to his question. It is why he asked, “What shall I DO?”

Jesus had already told him, “You are blessed, because, by God's grace, you have seen His Christ. Your ears hear His Word.”

Dear friends, this Christ and His Word make you to be His Blessed Ones.

Nothing you have done or said has blessed you with the inheritance!

Christ – with His Gospel Word has blessed you even unto life eternal.

Thanks be to God!

In the name of Jesus. Amen.