The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity
This past week, while studying what is often called The Parable of the Good Samaritan, we heard the lawyer confess that the Samaritan, the one who showed mercy, was the one who was a neighbor to the man who was robbed on the way to Jericho.
I’m reminded of Isaiah 30:18 which says, “Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.†That phrase, “He exalts himself to show mercy to you,” sticks in my mind as I think of the connection from last Sunday to this Sunday. It is God who shows mercy. It is Christ who is perfectly merciful. This theme of the mercy of Christ continues this week, the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity.
~Pastor Schultz
Explanation of the Week
The ten lepers cried out from a distance, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” (Luke 17:11-19). Their condition cut them off from God and others. So also do the works of the flesh cut us off from God and others. “Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal 5:16-24). Thus we cry out with the lepers, “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy,” eagerly seeking His good gifts. Jesus said to the lepers, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. So too, we walk by faith and not by sight, being confident of Jesus’ help before we see any evidence of it, trusting that Jesus’ cleansing words of forgiveness will restore us to wholeness in the resurrection. Let us be as the one leper who returned to the true High Priest to give Him thanks and glory. For Jesus bore our infirmities in His sacrifice at Calvary. His words are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh (Prov 4:10-23).
Explanation of the week is from www.sanctus.org