WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.225 --> 00:00:04.925 Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God 2 00:00:04.925 --> 00:00:08.325 our Father and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 3 00:00:08.925 --> 00:00:09.425 Amen. 4 00:00:11.525 --> 00:00:14.425 The fifth commandment says, you shall not murder. 5 00:00:15.525 --> 00:00:19.625 It's the first commandment that really takes us out of our homes and 6 00:00:19.625 --> 00:00:24.425 out of our personal relationships with God and into the world, and how 7 00:00:24.425 --> 00:00:27.725 we should treat the people that we will interact with on a daily 8 00:00:27.725 --> 00:00:28.325 basis. 9 00:00:29.425 --> 00:00:33.625 And it's one of my favorite Commandments to teach in confirmation 10 00:00:33.625 --> 00:00:35.525 class for a couple of reasons. 11 00:00:36.225 --> 00:00:37.025 First off. 12 00:00:37.225 --> 00:00:40.325 It's the first first commandment that we come across 13 00:00:41.025 --> 00:00:45.725 that we actually believe that we have kept. Think about it with me for 14 00:00:45.725 --> 00:00:46.225 a minute. 15 00:00:46.625 --> 00:00:50.625 So you have the first commandment, you shall have no other gods. 16 00:00:51.825 --> 00:00:55.925 Well, the Bible already tells me that I don't follow this one all the 17 00:00:55.925 --> 00:00:56.325 time. 18 00:00:57.025 --> 00:00:59.225 So let's just move on to the next one. 19 00:01:00.025 --> 00:01:01.025 The second commandment. 20 00:01:01.225 --> 00:01:04.025 You shall not misuse the name of the Lord, your God. 21 00:01:05.425 --> 00:01:07.525 The saying Jesus count? 22 00:01:09.725 --> 00:01:13.225 The third commandment remember the Sabbath day by keeping it. 23 00:01:13.225 --> 00:01:13.725 Holy. 24 00:01:14.825 --> 00:01:18.125 Well, I did miss church a few weeks ago. 25 00:01:18.825 --> 00:01:22.725 So let's just go to the fourth one. The fourth Commandment. Honor your 26 00:01:22.725 --> 00:01:24.525 father, and your mother. 27 00:01:26.225 --> 00:01:28.525 All the time or just part of the time? 28 00:01:30.425 --> 00:01:30.725 Alright 29 00:01:30.725 --> 00:01:31.425 what's next? 30 00:01:32.225 --> 00:01:32.625 The fifth 31 00:01:32.625 --> 00:01:33.325 Commandment. 32 00:01:33.725 --> 00:01:35.125 You shall not murder. 33 00:01:35.625 --> 00:01:36.225 Alright 34 00:01:36.225 --> 00:01:37.025 finally 35 00:01:37.525 --> 00:01:38.225 I have one. 36 00:01:38.825 --> 00:01:40.025 I haven't killed anyone. 37 00:01:41.925 --> 00:01:43.325 And we truly believe that. 38 00:01:44.525 --> 00:01:47.925 We truly believe that we have kept this Commandment that is, until we 39 00:01:47.925 --> 00:01:51.225 hear the meaning of this commandment. 40 00:01:51.625 --> 00:01:54.625 The meaning of the fifth commandment, which we just read, says we 41 00:01:54.625 --> 00:01:58.525 should fear and love God, so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor 42 00:01:58.825 --> 00:02:04.425 in his body, but help and support him in every physical need. 43 00:02:07.025 --> 00:02:11.125 All of a sudden once we hear the meaning of the Commandment the 44 00:02:11.125 --> 00:02:15.125 Commandments, not so simple anymore and our thoughts start to swirl on 45 00:02:15.125 --> 00:02:16.025 our heads. 46 00:02:16.525 --> 00:02:21.225 And we finally erase that check mark, that we have saying that we have 47 00:02:21.225 --> 00:02:21.825 kept it. 48 00:02:23.225 --> 00:02:26.125 And that brings me to the second reason why I love teaching this 49 00:02:26.125 --> 00:02:26.825 commandment. 50 00:02:27.625 --> 00:02:29.925 That's because I get to ask the confirmands, 51 00:02:30.825 --> 00:02:36.425 Does God hate Satan? To which most of them immediately thinking they 52 00:02:36.425 --> 00:02:38.925 know the answer answer with an emphatic. 53 00:02:39.125 --> 00:02:39.825 Yes. 54 00:02:40.825 --> 00:02:46.525 After all satan is God's adversary and the one who ruined his perfect 55 00:02:46.525 --> 00:02:51.225 creation and continues to wreak havoc on his creation. 56 00:02:52.625 --> 00:02:55.225 So, the answer has to be yes, right? 57 00:02:56.525 --> 00:03:00.025 But when I just stand there and I don't immediately respond back to 58 00:03:00.025 --> 00:03:00.225 them 59 00:03:00.225 --> 00:03:04.325 affirming the answer that they have just given. They all of a sudden 60 00:03:04.325 --> 00:03:08.525 start to backtrack and they want to change their answer or they think 61 00:03:08.525 --> 00:03:09.825 they want to change their answer. 62 00:03:10.225 --> 00:03:11.325 They're not really sure. 63 00:03:13.225 --> 00:03:15.925 I tell you these things to illustrate for you 64 00:03:15.925 --> 00:03:19.625 just how hard it is to keep the fifth commandment. 65 00:03:20.225 --> 00:03:24.025 While also showing you two ways that we as people use the fifth 66 00:03:24.025 --> 00:03:29.125 commandment to justify to try and justify ourselves and how we want to 67 00:03:29.125 --> 00:03:30.625 live our lives. 68 00:03:31.725 --> 00:03:36.125 If the commandant is only literal, then all we have to do is not 69 00:03:36.125 --> 00:03:40.025 murder anyone, and we have kept this commandment. 70 00:03:41.725 --> 00:03:47.325 Or if God hates Satan for the evil things that he's done. 71 00:03:48.625 --> 00:03:53.625 Then I'm justified in hating my neighbor for the evil things that my 72 00:03:53.625 --> 00:03:55.725 neighbor has done to me. 73 00:03:57.625 --> 00:04:01.525 But both of these ways of thinking are wrong and completely miss the 74 00:04:01.525 --> 00:04:06.425 mark. After all, where did Martin Luther get his meaning for the fifth 75 00:04:06.425 --> 00:04:11.225 commandment other than in the Beatitudes, in Matthew Chapter 5. Where 76 00:04:11.225 --> 00:04:16.325 Jesus teaches that this commandment is more than just literal. 77 00:04:17.725 --> 00:04:21.725 Jesus says, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. 78 00:04:22.725 --> 00:04:26.225 But I say to you love your enemies and pray 79 00:04:26.225 --> 00:04:27.625 for those who persecute you. 80 00:04:28.325 --> 00:04:33.025 For, if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? 81 00:04:33.725 --> 00:04:35.925 Do you not do not even the tax collectors 82 00:04:35.925 --> 00:04:36.725 do the same? 83 00:04:37.125 --> 00:04:41.125 And if you greet only your brother's what more are you doing than 84 00:04:41.125 --> 00:04:41.725 others? 85 00:04:41.825 --> 00:04:43.825 Do not even the Gentiles 86 00:04:44.725 --> 00:04:45.525 do the same? 87 00:04:48.025 --> 00:04:49.425 And then what about the second question? 88 00:04:50.225 --> 00:04:51.525 Does God hate Satan? 89 00:04:52.825 --> 00:04:57.925 God doesn't hate Satan. Yes he hates what Satan did because he hates 90 00:04:57.925 --> 00:05:04.625 sin, but God doesn't hate, Satan, God desires that Satan would repent 91 00:05:04.625 --> 00:05:08.425 of his sins and return back to him. 92 00:05:10.325 --> 00:05:13.825 And then we have our text for today, which is often called the parable 93 00:05:14.025 --> 00:05:16.825 of the Good Samaritan. In our text 94 00:05:17.525 --> 00:05:23.425 we have a lawyer, a lawyer who stands up to Jesus, to put Jesus to the 95 00:05:23.425 --> 00:05:24.025 test. 96 00:05:25.125 --> 00:05:29.725 Just those words alone, the beginning of our text help us know that 97 00:05:29.725 --> 00:05:34.325 something important and probably also fun is about to happen in our 98 00:05:34.325 --> 00:05:34.925 text. 99 00:05:36.225 --> 00:05:41.525 So the lawyer says to Jesus, teacher what shall I do to inherit 100 00:05:42.125 --> 00:05:43.025 eternal life? 101 00:05:44.425 --> 00:05:44.725 Alright 102 00:05:44.725 --> 00:05:46.325 well no need to build up here. 103 00:05:46.325 --> 00:05:49.425 We'll just hit him with the most important question, right out of the 104 00:05:49.425 --> 00:05:50.025 gate. 105 00:05:50.325 --> 00:05:52.725 What must I do to inherit eternal life? 106 00:05:54.425 --> 00:05:57.425 Jesus responds with what is written in the law. 107 00:05:58.625 --> 00:06:00.625 And I love the next part 108 00:06:01.625 --> 00:06:04.425 because he then says, how do you read it? 109 00:06:05.825 --> 00:06:06.225 Immediately 110 00:06:06.225 --> 00:06:10.825 Jesus sets it up to show the man to show that the man has something 111 00:06:11.025 --> 00:06:11.725 wrong. 112 00:06:13.325 --> 00:06:17.025 And so the lawyer responds, you shall love the Lord, your God with all 113 00:06:17.025 --> 00:06:21.125 your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and 114 00:06:21.125 --> 00:06:22.125 with all your mind 115 00:06:23.125 --> 00:06:25.525 and your neighbor as yourself. 116 00:06:26.525 --> 00:06:30.825 And Jesus says you have answered correctly, do this 117 00:06:31.325 --> 00:06:32.225 and you will live. 118 00:06:34.325 --> 00:06:39.325 Now it's about here in our story and the text that Jesus that the 119 00:06:39.325 --> 00:06:44.925 lawyer probably should have just re-evaluated the situation kind of 120 00:06:44.925 --> 00:06:47.925 picked up his ball and probably gone home at this point. 121 00:06:49.825 --> 00:06:57.225 But he couldn't because like all of us, he needed Jesus to justify his 122 00:06:57.225 --> 00:06:59.325 interpretation of the law. 123 00:07:00.925 --> 00:07:06.025 He needed justification for how he lived his daily life, how he 124 00:07:06.025 --> 00:07:07.525 practiced the law. 125 00:07:08.425 --> 00:07:08.825 He needed 126 00:07:08.825 --> 00:07:15.525 Jesus to tell him, it was okay to treat his fellow Jews one way, and 127 00:07:15.525 --> 00:07:18.725 to treat everyone else another way. 128 00:07:20.125 --> 00:07:21.425 And so the lawyer asks. 129 00:07:22.825 --> 00:07:24.025 Who is my neighbor? 130 00:07:25.825 --> 00:07:26.725 I like to imagine that 131 00:07:26.725 --> 00:07:30.325 the lawyer was probably getting pretty snarky at this point when he 132 00:07:30.325 --> 00:07:31.425 asked this question. 133 00:07:32.225 --> 00:07:37.925 And so Jesus responds to the man, to the lawyer, with a story one that 134 00:07:37.925 --> 00:07:39.725 we're all pretty familiar with. 135 00:07:39.925 --> 00:07:42.425 There's a man could be any, man 136 00:07:43.025 --> 00:07:43.725 anybody at all. 137 00:07:44.425 --> 00:07:48.025 Who is lying in the street beaten and left half dead. 138 00:07:48.825 --> 00:07:49.825 A priest comes by 139 00:07:50.825 --> 00:07:54.225 sees the man and passes on the other side of the road. 140 00:07:54.625 --> 00:07:58.725 A levite also comes by and does the same exact thing that the priest 141 00:07:58.725 --> 00:08:02.125 did and passes by on the other side. Two 142 00:08:02.925 --> 00:08:07.525 not one, two high class citizens in Israel. 143 00:08:08.425 --> 00:08:15.625 Just saw a beaten half-dead, man and walked right by him and just left 144 00:08:15.625 --> 00:08:17.025 him there to die. 145 00:08:19.925 --> 00:08:20.725 When all of a sudden a 146 00:08:21.825 --> 00:08:25.525 Samaritan shows up on the scene and you can just imagine what's going 147 00:08:25.525 --> 00:08:30.025 through the lawyers head at this point when he hears that a Samaritan 148 00:08:30.125 --> 00:08:31.125 has shown up. 149 00:08:32.825 --> 00:08:38.525 He like the rest of the Jews, hates the Samaritans and looks down upon 150 00:08:38.525 --> 00:08:38.925 them. 151 00:08:40.525 --> 00:08:41.825 But what does Jesus say happens? 152 00:08:42.625 --> 00:08:46.425 Well, Jesus tells him that the Samaritan saw the half dead, man. 153 00:08:47.525 --> 00:08:51.725 And he stops and he took care of his needs and he treated him not as a 154 00:08:51.725 --> 00:08:52.625 stranger 155 00:08:53.725 --> 00:08:56.125 but as someone who was one of his own. 156 00:08:58.625 --> 00:09:00.825 The lawyer at this point was probably fuming. 157 00:09:02.725 --> 00:09:05.825 And Jesus asks him asks him a question. 158 00:09:06.625 --> 00:09:07.525 Which of these three 159 00:09:08.325 --> 00:09:13.225 do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the 160 00:09:13.225 --> 00:09:13.825 robbers? 161 00:09:15.625 --> 00:09:18.925 Of course, the lawyer at this point, despite what he was thinking had 162 00:09:18.925 --> 00:09:20.025 no choice 163 00:09:21.025 --> 00:09:26.325 but to respond with the one who showed him Mercy. Like bile, were the 164 00:09:26.325 --> 00:09:29.525 words that came from the lawyers mouth. 165 00:09:32.525 --> 00:09:33.525 Jesus response. 166 00:09:34.625 --> 00:09:37.025 You go and do likewise. 167 00:09:40.225 --> 00:09:42.425 The fifth commandment is hard. 168 00:09:43.425 --> 00:09:45.925 We try to use it to justify ourselves. 169 00:09:46.525 --> 00:09:48.125 But the more we do 170 00:09:49.225 --> 00:09:54.425 the further we fall because that's ultimately what the law does 171 00:09:54.425 --> 00:09:54.925 to us. 172 00:09:55.425 --> 00:09:57.825 It breaks, down our self-justification. 173 00:09:57.925 --> 00:09:59.425 It shows us our sin. 174 00:09:59.625 --> 00:10:07.125 It beats us over the head and it leaves us on the ground half-dead. 175 00:10:07.125 --> 00:10:11.125 Waiting for someone to stop and save us. 176 00:10:13.625 --> 00:10:17.625 Brothers and Sisters in Christ, don't miss 177 00:10:17.625 --> 00:10:19.225 what this lawyer missed. 178 00:10:19.625 --> 00:10:20.525 Don't miss 179 00:10:20.525 --> 00:10:21.925 what is right in front of you. 180 00:10:22.025 --> 00:10:24.825 Don't miss your savior. 181 00:10:26.425 --> 00:10:32.425 Inheriting eternal life is not about your ability to keep the law. 182 00:10:33.125 --> 00:10:36.825 It's not about your ability to self justify. 183 00:10:38.725 --> 00:10:42.825 But it is about the justification that has been given to you by your 184 00:10:42.825 --> 00:10:49.525 lord and savior, who fulfilled the law for you on your behalf so that 185 00:10:49.525 --> 00:10:55.425 you would be justified not by yourself, but by his works so that you 186 00:10:55.425 --> 00:10:57.425 would have eternal life. 187 00:10:58.825 --> 00:11:02.025 And it is because you have been Justified because you have been 188 00:11:02.025 --> 00:11:06.125 forgiven and you have been given the gift of eternal life. 189 00:11:07.325 --> 00:11:10.325 That when it comes to the fifth commandment and it comes to its 190 00:11:10.325 --> 00:11:10.725 meaning 191 00:11:12.225 --> 00:11:15.325 you can live differently than the world around you. 192 00:11:16.525 --> 00:11:17.425 The world around you 193 00:11:18.725 --> 00:11:25.025 wants to hate and wants to revile people, anyone that does anything 194 00:11:25.025 --> 00:11:25.525 bad to them. 195 00:11:25.525 --> 00:11:28.825 They want to hate and they want to revile, they only want to show love 196 00:11:28.925 --> 00:11:32.925 to those who do good to them or those that are similar to them. 197 00:11:34.825 --> 00:11:35.525 But you, 198 00:11:37.325 --> 00:11:42.125 you've been called to a different life, a life full of patience, 199 00:11:42.725 --> 00:11:49.125 kindness and goodness and gentleness toward your neighbor. A life 200 00:11:49.625 --> 00:11:54.925 where you can have mercy on your neighbor because your God has shown 201 00:11:54.925 --> 00:11:56.825 mercy to you. 202 00:11:58.025 --> 00:11:58.925 And a life 203 00:11:59.825 --> 00:12:01.025 where you can love 204 00:12:02.225 --> 00:12:04.725 more than those who just love you back. 205 00:12:04.725 --> 00:12:07.425 You can even love those who hate you. 206 00:12:07.525 --> 00:12:10.125 Those who are your enemies. 207 00:12:11.325 --> 00:12:16.925 Because the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans chapter 5, God shows his 208 00:12:16.925 --> 00:12:23.725 love for you and that while you were still a sinner Christ died for 209 00:12:23.825 --> 00:12:24.425 you. 210 00:12:25.725 --> 00:12:29.825 These are the gifts that you have been given and these are the gifts 211 00:12:30.225 --> 00:12:34.525 that you have been called to share with your neighbor. 212 00:12:35.725 --> 00:12:37.925 In Jesus name. Amen.