Life’s Cost

The Rev. Joseph Winston

July 15, 2007

Sermon

Grace and peace are gifts for you from God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.1
At one time in your life or another, you have been keenly aware of your finan-
cial limits. This might first happen when you turned sixteen and wanted a shiny
new car to go along with your brand new driver’s license. As you looked at pay-
ments, insurance, and fuel costs you soon came to the harsh realization that your
minimum wage job summer job in construction would never pay for that new
sport’s car you really wanted. That sinking feeling in your stomach clearly told
you that you would enter your junior year of high school with that old hand me
down from a deceased great aunt. Maybe this realization came two years later as
you prepared to go off to college. As you went through the calculations, you soon
saw that room and board along with books and tuition left very little money for
1
Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians
1:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, Philemon 1:3

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your planned beer budget. Parties were out of the question because you could not
afford them. As time went on you, were really thankful that everyone else on the
floor was in the same situation because this lack of cash gave you something in
common with all the other freshmen The most sobering time that shows how little
you are really worth comes when you participate in that great American ritual of
buying your first house. You have dreams of a nice four-bedroom house with a
large yard in a respectable neighborhood. It seems like you have enough money
for the payments since you have been saving a bit of your paycheck every month.
After sitting down with the realtor, you soon see what you can really afford: a
fixer upper with a tiny yard in an area of town that has seen its better days. Fi-
nally, you find that one house and you know that you want to own it. But before
you can make this house your home you have to have your loan approved. The
banker patiently tells you that in addition to closing points and transaction fees
you must deposit one month’s mortgage with the bank to cover expenses if you
happen to default on the loan. You scrape together all of your spare cash and write
that check. This unexpected cost means that you and your spouse will have franks
and beans for the next month and any repairs will have to wait until next year.
At its heart, today’s well-loved Gospel lesson is a study in economic. How
much is one life really worth?
The financial discussion first starts when the lawyer asks Jesus, “What must
I do to inherit eternal life?” On the surface, this question from the lawyer might
seem to be nothing more than asking for a list of things that must be done. Go
to temple. Check. Love the Lord. Check. Follow the commandments. Check. No

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matter how attractive this idea that doing something earns your way into heaven,
it completely forgets a key concept known by both Jews and Christians. An in-
heritance is given from the parents to the child. This transfer from one generation
to the next does not occur because the children forced their parents to bear them.
Rather, children receive life as a gift. This is also true with inheritance. Parents
scrimp and save so that their heirs have something. The lawyer is trying to find
out what prevents him from entering heaven. This cost is enormous because it
means that you do not have life with God.
Upon hearing this first question, Jesus knows that the lawyer is looking for
the minimum investment needed to be still known as a Jew. You know the type
because they still are with us today. They are the ones who come to church twice
a year on Christmass and Easter and call themselves Christians. The fundamental
flaw with this approach back in Christ’s time and in our day is that one fixes their
focus on doing the smallest amount of work needed. And in doing so, they miss
the big picture that everyone is called to invest in their neighbor. Jesus tries to alert
the lawyer to this fact and asks him what does the Bible specifically says about
this topic and to give him his interpretation of what he finds there.
In an absolutely brilliant summary of the Old and New Testament, the lawyer
states that one must completely love God with your entire existence and you need
to take care of your neighbor just as you do yourself. Instead of arguing about this
correct conclusion, Jesus surprises the lawyer when He tells the lawyer to go and
do it. As soon as these words are spoken, the lawyer realizes the fatal flaw in his
arguments. The cost of being a follower is enormous since we give everything to

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God.
Hoping to find something that might be excluded from this sweeping con-
clusion, the lawyer quickly asks, “Well then, who is my neighbor?” Rather than
directly answering the question, Jesus explains God’s position using a story.
A man takes the dangerous trip from Jerusalem to Jericho. Before he safely
arrives, he is roughed up by a group of robbers and left to die. A priest sees this
wounded individual in dire need of help and passes him by. A Levite does the
exact same thing. Both of these men know the law that requires them to stop and
help if a life can be saved but they calculate the cost to be too great.2 Next on
the scene is a despised outsider who plays by the same rules as the priest and the
Levite. If he touches a dead body, he will be unclean for seven days. Despite all
the risks, takes out from his traveling bags the same items used in the temple: oil
and wine.3 He this pores these expensive items in the wound, gives his emergency
medical supplies to the injured man, and takes him to a hospital. There he gives
them enough money for one or two weeks of care.4 And he also offers to pay any
other expenses that might be incurred.
Now that He had finished the story, Jesus once again turns the table on the
lawyer. Tell me, He says, which one of the three men was acting like a neighbor.
The lawyer, well versed on the use of language, immediately realizes what Jesus
had done. He has changed the original question from one of identifying specific
2
Arland J. Hultgren, Chap. Parables of Exemplary Behavior In ‘The Parables of Jesus: A Com-
mentary’, (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000), p. 97.
3
Ibid., p. 99.
4
Ibid.

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individuals as possible neighbors to a much more costly question on the behavior
expected by a neighbor.5
The lawyer wisely answers, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus replies
to him, “Go and do likewise.”
Even though two thousand years separate us from the lawyer, our concern is
just like his. We want to know the minimum that we can do and still be called
Christian.
Our basic assertion in this church is that we welcome everyone. How can we
make this outrageous claim when we do not even know what they need? What do
the tattooed and pierced twenty somethings working at the Subway down the road
need from us? What do the single teenage mothers attending our schools need
from us? What do the under and unemployed all around us need from us?
We, along with the priest and the Levite, see what need to be done but we
do not want to get our hands dirty. We do not want to stop and find out what
these people need. The Samaritan does something completely different. At a great
personal cost, he gets involved with the injured man. This is exactly what Jesus
calls us to do. We are expected to take care of everyone without taking into account
economics, race, or religion.6 This only can happen when we ask these people
what they need and then give it to them.
Will this work be painful? Will this service be costly? Will it cost us our lives?
The answer to all of these questions is yes. These encounters will hurt us. These
5
Hultgren, ‘The Parables of Jesus’, p. 99.
6
Ibid., p. 100.

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interactions with the people all around us will take precious resources from us.
The calling to save others might even kill us. All of this happened to Jesus.7
Why do we expect it to be any different for us?
All of us have failed miserably in the task that Jesus has set before us. We have
all calculated the cost of Christianity and found that it is too expensive.
Inspite of this horrific action on our part, Jesus has come to each of us so that
He can heal us. He has carefully cleaned every one of our wounds. He bandaged
each of them and found a place that would take care of us. Finally, when we came
to our senses, He tells us, “I completely forgive you for what you have failed to
do. I love you and I have given you a second chance. This freedom cost me my
life. Go and honor me be doing the same thing. Completely give yourself away so
that others may live.”
Unlike the world’s economy, which would throw us into prison for this kind
of deficit spending, Christ calls each of us to go beyond our finical limits and to
see what will happen.
What will the future hold for us? I do not know. But I do know one thing.
Even with all of our shortcomings, even with all of our failures, two Christians
wish to join us on our journey into the unknown. Stephanie and Doug Larrison
have decided to become members of this church. Their act of faith shows us the
same kind of selfless giving modeled by the Samaritan in today’s Gospel lesson.
Take their witness of a God who risks everything on people like you and me
7
Arthur C. McGill; Lindell Sawyers and Ray T. Woods, editors, Suffering: A Test of Theologi-
cal Method, (Philadelphia, PA: The Geneva Press, 1968), p. 47.

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to those half dead people living all around us.
“The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus.”8

References

Hultgren, Arland J., Chap. Parables of Exemplary Behavior In ‘The Parables of

Jesus: A Commentary’, (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000),
pp. 92–128.

McGill, Arthur C.; Sawyers, Lindell and Woods, Ray T., editors, Suffering: A Test
of Theological Method, (Philadelphia, PA: The Geneva Press, 1968).

8
Philippians 4:7.