discussions on topics of law and morality and faith.
And in Jesus' case, this was often done in the form of parables, which we're going to see today.
Now, in the West, we're conditioned from a very early age that when someone asks us a question,
we should respond with the best answer possible.
However, as you look at the Jewish model of teaching, that wasn't the case.
Your understanding of a topic wasn't based on the answer you would give.
Rather, it was often determined based on the question you would ask about the question you had been asked.
So, being foreign to us, let's take a look.
We'll just dive right into our text in Luke chapter 10 that Alex just read for us.
And we'll see an example of this right off the bat.
It says, on one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.
Teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
What is written in the law, he replied.
How do you read it?
So, right here, you can see Jesus doesn't just come right out and answer his question.
He asks him a question about his question.
And if you follow through scripture, you're going to see that over and over again,
especially in conversations with Jesus.
We obviously know that we are going to be working through this passage in Luke,
this very well-known parable.
Now, the thing about parables is that if you go through and teach about them,
you can make a parable say a whole bunch of things that it was never really intended to say.
The idea behind a parable is to connect with this teaching style,
is to connect with the people that you're talking to,
which is why Jesus would use this form of teaching so often.
So today, we're going to spend some time understanding the context of what's going on,
understand the setting of the story and the people that are involved in it,
so that we can get a better understanding of what they might have been thinking
as they would have heard this.
And I think as we do this, it'll shed some new light on this amazing story.
One of the interesting things we see about this passage
is that while it's often taught as a parable,
many scholars would actually say that this was probably an actual occurrence.
Whether or not it did, whether or not it was,
won't really affect the outcome of the story.
But the nature of the story suggests that it probably did happen
because if Jesus were to have told a story like this about a Samaritan to a Jewish audience,
they wouldn't have given it any credence because they didn't like the Samaritans.
And they probably would have just dismissed it as outrageous had it not actually been true.
So, the story takes place on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.
Jerusalem to Jericho.
So this is a stretch of road that traverses a patch of land that's about 17 miles down this road,
and it actually travels down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
You descend about 3,400 feet in elevation as you go down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
So, it's a very rocky stretch of road,
and it's changed very little in the years since Jesus would have told this story.
To give you an idea, it takes about eight hours to travel down by foot on this path of road.
So, if we go to the next slide,
you can start to see it travels down the side of that road,
and it really winds down and descends down all this elevation.
And if you go to the next slide,
you can see there's not a whole lot out there.
It's very barren.
It's very rocky.
If you're traveling down,
you would have been able to see for miles and miles ahead
because it would have kind of wound down.
And so you could see what was going on on the road in front of you.
Well, it was a very heavily traveled road,
and during Jesus' time, it was known also as the Way of Blood.
Because it wound down through these craggy hills,
there were several places along the road that made for a good ambush spot.
So, robbers and thieves would commonly hide out,
and as they were traveling along this road,
they would ambush people and steal their things.
And that's the backdrop for this story.
In fact, roughly halfway down,
there's still a massive boulder to this day
along a narrow pass in this road,
and it's very possible that that was the actual setting for this story.
Now, the last thing to note about this location
are the cities that lie on either end of it.
So, obviously, Jerusalem was the site of the temple.
That was the place where the Jews would flock to worship.
And Jericho, at this time,
was kind of a bedroom community to Jerusalem.
There were thousands of temple workers
that served on a regular basis in the temple,
and many of them lived in Jericho.
So, it was very common for them to travel up and down this road
in their service in the temple.
So, now that we have a better idea of where the story transpired,
let's dig into the various people mentioned in the story.
Now, the reason I want to talk
and spend some time on the background of this,
that with a story like this,
it's very easy to just kind of read it
and say, well, yes, of course, as I read this,
I understand that I'm supposed to love my neighbor.
But as we better understand who the people in the story are
and where it's taking place,
all of a sudden there are nuances to this
that bring depth and meaning to the motivation behind what's happening.
And I personally believe that God cares more about why we do things
than he necessarily does about the particular things that we do,
and I think that's very much at the heart of this story.
So, if we open back up to Luke chapter 10 and verse 25,
the first thing we're going to see is that Jesus is speaking to an expert in the law.
Now, so the NIV calls him an expert in the law.
Other translations would simply call him a lawyer.
So, obviously, he is well-versed in the Old Testament law, the Jewish law,
and he would have been learning this his entire life.
So, at this point in Jesus' life,
he's come into regular opposition with the Pharisees.
So, this lawyer was probably a part of the religious sect called the Pharisees
that were part of the Sanhedrin, the larger Jewish governing body,
and they were not real happy with Jesus.
They were becoming increasingly upset with him
because of the things he was teaching.
For example, if we turn to Matthew chapter 5.
I'm going to just turn back a little bit.
Now, Jesus has been teaching.
By the time we get to this point where he's talking about the story we're going to read today,
he's been teaching for some time now,
and he's stirred up a very emotional response,
and you're going to see why.
If we look at chapter 5,
and we're just going to come in, let's see,
we'll come in at verse 21.
So, Jesus has been talking to a group of assembled believers here,
and he says,
You have heard that it was said that
to the people long ago,
do not murder,
and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.
But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother
will be subject to judgment.
Verse 27,
You have heard that it was said that.
Verse 28,
But I tell you that.
Verse 31,
It has been said.
Verse 32,
But I tell you.
Verse 33,
You have heard that it said that.
34,
But I tell you that.
38,
You have heard that it was said that.
39,
But I tell you.
And he keeps hammering this point home
to the audience,
and the Pharisees are hearing this,
and he's saying,
All this time,
for millennia,
you have been hearing these things.
You have been taught these things.
You have been told these things.
But what you have been hearing is incomplete.
Listen to what this really says.
But I tell you that.
And you can imagine how these teachers
and the experts in the law
might have started responding to this,
that they'd been teaching it wrong all these times,
and the people who had taught them,
and the people who had taught them
had been wrong all this time.
It had been incomplete.
But the thing that really gets them
is what he says in verse 17.
Do not think that I have come
to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have not come to abolish them,
but to fulfill them.
Now the fact that he says
that he's come to fulfill them,
to fulfill the law,
is blasphemy to the Pharisees.
But he goes even further
in verse 20.
He says,
Now you see,
the Jews largely believed
that the kingdom of theirs
was theirs alone by their birthright,
simply because they were Jewish.
They were born into that.
And they've been living their whole lives
under the assumption
that if they simply follow the rules,
they'll be in.
But now,
Jesus,
this blasphemer in their eyes,
comes onto the scene
and says that he is
the fulfillment of the law
and that no amount of clean living
is going to get them into heaven.
Well, again,
you start to see
why he's probably not
real well liked by the Pharisees.
So as we think about
that mindset,
that's kind of the backdrop
of what this lawyer,
this expert in the law,
would have already been thinking
as he comes into this conversation
with Jesus.
So let's turn back
to Luke chapter 10 now.
Sorry, you're going to have to
flip around a little bit with me,
so stay with me here.
So back to Luke 10, 25.
The lawyer stands up
to test Jesus,
which is never really a good idea.
And he says,
teacher,
which I can imagine
he was just kind of
scoffing this word teacher.
You know,
I don't think he really believed
that Jesus was a teacher.
What must I do
to inherit eternal life?
Well,
if you remember
what we talked about before,
Jesus isn't going to come right out
and give him an answer.
He responds with a question.
Well,
what is written in the law?
How do you read it?
And the lawyer answers
in the way you would expect.
He quotes the law.
He cites Deuteronomy chapter 6
and verse 5
and Leviticus 19, 18.
And he says,
love the Lord your God
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind,
and all your strength,
and love your neighbor
as yourself.
He was clearly
a very good Hebrew school student.
He knew the exact two verses
he should cite.
It was the right answer.
In fact,
if you read later
in Matthew chapter 22
and there's a passage
where they try
and trap Jesus again
and they ask him
what the two greatest commandments are,
these are the two
that Jesus would answer.
He clearly got the answer right.
But he didn't stop there.
And this is what's really interesting
about this passage.
If you remember back to me
saying that God is more concerned
about why we do things
or another way,
he's concerned about your motivation,
he's concerned about your heart.
Jesus says to the Pharisee,
yep, you got it right.
Do that and you're going to live.
But the lawyer then,
and this is a really pivotal verse here,
says he wanted to justify himself.
He wanted to justify himself.
This is at the very heart
of the problem
for the lawyer
and for the Pharisees
and for much of the Jewish generation
at this time.
They'd become so wrapped up
in what they did
and how they did it.
They'd completely lost sight
of why they were doing it
and who they were doing it for.
Let's go forward a little bit
to Romans chapter 3.
We're going to start in verse 9,
or actually verse 19.
Now we know that whatever the law says,
it says to those who are under the law,
so that every mouth may be silenced
and the whole world held accountable to God.
Therefore, no one will be declared righteous
in his sight by observing the law.
Rather, through the law,
we become conscious of sin.
So as he would personally say,
the author of this passage, Paul,
was one of the most pious Pharisees
prior to his conversion to Christ.
And he knew the law intimately.
But it wasn't until his eyes were opened
to the gospel that he finally got a hold
of the reality that
no one will be declared righteous
in his sight by observing the law.
Rather, it's through the law
that we become conscious of sin.
There's absolutely a purpose for the law,
but it is not,
however, the means of justification.
So after this,
after Paul tells us this,
he spends the next few chapters
outlining the true source of justification.
If you look at the very next verse in verse 21,
it says,
But now righteousness apart from,
a righteousness from God,
apart from the law,
has been made known,
to which the law and the prophets testify.
This righteousness from God
comes through faith in Jesus Christ
to all who believe.
There's no difference,
for all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God,
and are justified freely by his grace
through the redemption
that came by Jesus Christ.
Now in verse 26,
we find out that justification
comes through a person,
not actions.
He did it to demonstrate his justice
at the present time
so as to be the one
who justifies those
who have faith in Jesus.
And in verse 28,
this is really the heart
of the matter in this story.
For we maintain that a man
is justified by faith
apart from observing the law.
Well, now we begin to really see
why Jesus is sharing this story
with the lawyer.
I think on the surface,
it's a great example of a story
that talks about helping others in need.
But at a much deeper level,
it's a story about the source of life
and salvation
and shows the huge gulf
that exists between our ability
to find justification on our own
and our opportunity
to find it in Christ.
So let's keep going.
Paul turns right around
in chapter 4 and verse 1
and he says,
What then shall we say
that Abraham, our forefather,
discovered in this matter?
If in fact Abraham
was justified by works,
he had something to boast about,
but not before God.
What does scripture say?
Abraham believed God
and it was credited
to him as righteousness.
So now he's using
their own patriarchs
as examples
for someone who had lived
as their justification
was not by their works,
but it was in God.
It wasn't Abraham's doing,
it was God's doing.
And if you look at chapter 4
and verse 25,
it says,
He was delivered over to death
for our sins
and was raised to life
for our justification.
Paul just keeps on going back
to this message
over and over again.
Chapter 5, verse 1,
Therefore, since we have been justified
through faith,
we have peace in God
through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now we see the outcome
of this justification
is peace and joy.
And in verse 9,
since we now have been justified
by his blood,
verse 16, verse 18,
he keeps going back
to this message
and back to this message
because he knew
it was central
to the heart problem
that these people were having.
So now we see
that Jesus has very acutely
identified the source
of this expert's problem
and more generally
the problem of the people
of this time.
And then he proceeds
to tell the story
in Luke chapter 10.
I bet when I stood up,
you didn't think
we would spend this much time
talking about the context
before we actually told the story,
but we're going to get on to it.
In verse 30,
the expert has just replied,
and who is my neighbor?
When replied,
Jesus said,
a man was going down
from Jerusalem to Jericho
when he fell into the hands
of robbers.
They stripped him
of his clothes,
beat him,
and went away,
leaving him half dead.
Well, now that we have
a better understanding
of this road
that he's traveling,
we understand that this was
a common occurrence
for someone to be robbed
along this stretch of road.
The point I want to make here
is that not only was he robbed,
but he was stripped
of his clothes,
and it seems like this
is kind of an odd detail
to include.
But the thing to keep in mind
is that during this time,
the way you dressed
had a connection
to your cultural heritage.
And we don't see this much today
in this culture,
but in some of my trips
to Kenya,
I've seen this.
There are several distinct
tribes of people
that live there,
and especially in the more
rural areas,
it's very easy to identify
which tribe of people
somebody belongs to
based on the clothing
they wear,
especially the Maasai tribe.
It would be very easy
to pick them out.
Well, in Jesus' time,
this would have been
much more prevalent.
And this is important
to note,
because if you can identify
someone's cultural identity,
we might be much more inclined
to help that person.
We tend to like people
that are like us.
I'm in sales,
and at work,
we have a saying that
says people buy
from people they like,
and people tend to like
people that are more
like them.
And so as salespeople,
we try to adapt
to the people we talk
to on the phone.
Well, here,
this guy has been stripped
of his clothes,
so essentially his cultural
identity has been removed.
And we're going to come back
to that in just a minute
to see why that is,
why that's going to be important.
So,
they beat him
and went away,
leaving him half dead.
So from that,
we can infer that
the guy's in pretty bad shape.
He's probably beating,
bleeding badly,
he's possibly unconscious,
and he's clearly not
in a position
to help himself.
Well, in verse 31,
it says,
a priest happened
to be going down
the same road,
and when he saw the man,
he passed by
on the other side.
Well,
if this is the first time
you've read this story,
or you think back
to the first time
you heard this story,
this is the point
at which you start
scratching your head.
You think,
why would the priest
pass by on the other side
and not stop to help?
Well,
does he just have
a callous heart?
Does he not care?
What's going on here?
Well,
I think there are
a number of factors
that are at work.
Some of these
are very practical,
and some are more
religious in nature.
So,
let's take a look
at practical.
Well,
as we discussed before,
this was a common route
for workers in the temple
to take as they go down,
and again,
it was known
for its violence.
Well,
the priest,
as he's traveling down
and he sees this guy
laying beaten
on the side of the road,
could very rightly
have been concerned
for his own safety.
If he stops
to help the man,
the robbers could be hiding
right around the other side
of that boulder
and come and lay upon him
and beat him
and take his things as well.
So,
he could be thinking,
well,
I need to keep going
or else the same thing
could happen to me.
You know,
and maybe
the guy is in such bad shape
that the priest
thinks he's already dead.
Well,
if he thinks he's already dead,
what would the implication
of that be?
Shouldn't he just
check on the guy
to make sure,
to see if there is
anything he could do?
Well,
this gets us to some
of the religious factors
at work.
Now,
you have to remember
that the Jews
were ultra strict
about keeping the law.
So,
if we turn back
to Leviticus,
chapter 21,
we'll get a little insight
into what he might
have been thinking.
Leviticus 21,
verses 1 through 4,
the Lord said to Moses,
speak to the priests,
the sons of Aaron,
and say to them,
a priest must not
make himself ceremonially
unclean
for any of his people
who die,
except for a close relative,
such as his mother
or father,
his son or daughter,
his brother,
or an unmarried sister
who is dependent on him
since she has no husband,
for he may make
himself unclean.
He must not
make himself unclean
for people related
to him by marriage,
and so defile himself.
Well,
that's a new wrinkle.
Now,
do you see why
the cultural identity
of the man
could have been important?
And you might imagine
the thoughts
that are going
through the priest's head.
First,
he sees the man
lying there badly injured,
and then he realizes
that the guy is naked,
so he can't even identify
if he's possibly
related to the guy,
but then his legalism
kicks in,
and he immediately knows
that he can't
even pass near the man,
or else he would have
been made ceremonially unclean.
Why does that matter?
Well,
one,
in the priest's mind,
he is commanded
not to do it.
And then there's even
a more practical side to it.
So let's turn to Numbers,
chapter 19,
verses 11 to 13.
Whoever touches
the dead body
of anyone
will be unclean
for seven days.
He must purify himself
with the water
on the third day
and on the seventh day,
then he will be clean.
But if he does not
purify himself
on the third
and seventh days,
he will not be clean.
Whoever touches
the dead body
of anyone
and fails to purify himself
defiles the Lord's tabernacle.
That person
must be cut off
from Israel
because the water
of cleansing
has not been sprinkled
on him.
He is unclean.
His uncleanliness
remains on him.
Well,
now it becomes
even more complicated.
If he does walk over
to the dead man
and touches him
and he turns out
to be dead,
then he's got to go
through the purification
exercise again.
That means he'd have
to turn around
and walk the four
or so hours
back up the road
to Jerusalem
and begin the purification
ritual all over again
that would take
another seven days.
So not only would he
have broken the rules
that he was expressly
thinking he was
supposed to follow,
but he'd spend
the next week
having to go through
the purification ritual
to become clean again.
And he's probably
also thinking
maybe he's got
other commitments
down in Jericho
and the synagogue there
and all of these
other things going on.
We have no way
to know some of that.
So you see,
purity was very important
especially for the priests
and the Levites
that were serving
in the temple.
I read this about
purity this week.
Purity qualified one
to participate in worship,
an activity central
to the life
of ancient Israel.
breaking that purity
was a serious matter.
Blood related
to the mysterious
power of life
and any loss of blood
called for purification.
Ritual impurity
also came as a result
of contact with a corpse
since death
was the enemy of God.
Well, as we begin
to think about
what the priest
was thinking,
hopefully you're
beginning to see
that not only did he
probably not feel bad,
not feel guilty
about not stopping
to help the man,
but it's possible
that he even felt good
about the fact
that he was keeping
the law the way
that he was supposed
to in passing on by.
Now this starts
to feel a whole lot
like he's being justified
by his works.
Now if we flash back
to what the lawyer
was thinking
as he's hearing
all of this,
what do you think
is going through
his mind?
He's probably thinking
through the same laws
and rules
that the priest
was thinking through
in the story
and going through
that same process
of rationalization.
At this point
he's probably still
a little bit bored
with this story
that Jesus is telling him
and hoping that he's
going to get to the point
soon.
Little did that lawyer
know that the ultimate
purification for our sins
was the one that was
speaking to him
at that very moment.
Well then back
to our story,
along comes a Levite.
So to a Levite,
when he came to the place
and saw him,
passed by on the other side.
Now if you remember
the topography of the road
as it winds down,
if you're traveling
down this road
for several hours
on foot,
you would easily see
the people that were
traveling in front of you.
Well the Levite says
people who served
in the temple
would have recognized
the priest and he would
have known that this guy
was in front of him.
So as he comes upon
this man who is lying dead,
there are a number of things
that go through his head.
First, he would have
recognized that the priest
had kept on going
because the priest
was not their stop
to help the man.
Then his religious
and legalistic side
kicks in as well
and he starts going
through the rules and laws
and decides that the best
thing to do is pass by.
And with that additional
piece of information
that the priest
had already done it,
it wiped out any doubt
in his mind
that he should just
keep right on going,
that that was the right
thing to do.
Because when all else fails,
you do what the priest does.
So now we get to the part
in our story
where we actually come
to the Samaritan.
Verse 33.
But a Samaritan,
as he traveled,
came where the man was
and when he saw him,
he took pity on him.
He went to him
and bandaged his wounds,
pouring on oil and wine.
Then he put the man
on his own donkey,
took him to an inn
and took care of him.
The next day,
he took out two silver coins
and gave them
to the innkeeper.
Look after him,
he said,
and when I return,
I will reimburse you
for any extra expense
you may have.
So, this is the part
of the story
we will be very familiar with.
So, the Samaritan comes
and finds the guy
and he helps him.
He bandages his wounds,
he spends his own money
to have the man
taken care of.
And you could preach
an entire sermon
simply on the morality
of an action like this.
But I think that this
could have been
any person
and this story
would have still been
effective on so many levels.
However,
the fact that it's
a Samaritan
just has to grate
on the lawyer
even more.
You see,
the Jews
considered the Samaritans
inferior
as they were
a race of people
who were of mixed
Jewish and Gentile heritage.
Just to give you
a bit of insight
into the Jews'
feelings for Samaritans,
if we look back
at chapter 9,
just before this,
chapter 9,
verses 51 and 56,
we'll get an idea of this.
And if we go back
to our slide,
yep,
one more forward.
Nope,
other way.
Nope,
other way.
That one.
So,
as you can see,
if you're here in Judea
and you're in
Bethlehem
or Jerusalem
or Jericho
or any of these ways
and you need to go
to Galilee,
which was a common
passage for people,
they had to go
through Samaria.
That was the most
direct route.
But the Jews,
most of the time,
wouldn't even travel
through Samaria.
They didn't even want
to defile themselves
by going through Samaria,
so they would take
a much longer way
to go around Samaria
to get to Galilee.
So they wouldn't even
travel through this land.
And if we look
in chapter 9
and verse 51,
it says,
as the time approached
for him to be taken
up to heaven,
Jesus resolutely
set out for Jerusalem.
And he sent messengers
on ahead
who went into
a Samaritan village
to get things ready
for him.
But the people there
did not welcome him
because he was heading
for Jerusalem.
When the disciples,
James and John,
saw this,
they asked,
Lord,
do you want us
to call down fire
from heaven
and destroy them?
But Jesus turned
to rebuke them
and they went
to another village.
So,
these are Jesus'
own disciples
asking if they want
to,
if they want,
Jesus wants them
to call down fire
from heaven
and destroy
this Samaritan village.
So clearly,
they were not good friends.
So,
this is where
there's a school
of thought
that suggests
this was an actual
occurrence,
this story,
because had Jesus
made this up
and taught it
as a parable,
as I mentioned,
people would have
given no credibility
to the story
where it had
a Samaritan
doing the right thing.
However,
had this been
a well-known occurrence,
something that people
would have known
through the local news,
then he would have been able,
they would not have been able
to refute it.
So,
Jesus finishes the story
and at this point
in the story,
he knows full well
that the lawyer
has been now trapped
in terms of standing up
and trying to test him
and now he's kind of
caught in a snare
because Jesus
has told this story.
And he simply asks him,
which one of these three
was a neighbor to the man?
I can only imagine
what's going on
with the lawyer's
non-verbal stuff now.
Because he's kind of
standing there.
By nature of the fact
that it says he stood up
to ask this question,
it suggests that there was
a gathered group of people
that were around
and he was going to try
and be the smart guy
and stump Jesus.
So,
he's standing up
and he had kind of
puffed out of his chest
at first
and now Jesus
has him trapped
and the guy's stuck
and he's standing there
and he's probably
starting to sweat
a little bit
and his face is getting red
and a little bit of steam
is starting to come
out of his ears.
And all he can do,
his response,
is he says,
the one who had mercy on him.
And I'm just sure
this response came
through gritted teeth
because he was just
so unhappy about this.
He couldn't even say,
he loathed the Samaritan
so much
that he couldn't even say
the Samaritan helped him.
He said,
the one who had mercy on him.
And Jesus simply says,
go and do likewise.
So,
what do we take away from this?
Well,
hopefully,
we've unraveled
this fascinating story
enough to see
that it's more
than a simple tale
of morality.
It'd be easy enough
to walk away from this
with just kind of
a feel-good message
about helping people
in need.
But there's so much
more here.
You see,
every time Jesus spoke,
he challenged
everything his audience knew.
He turned everything
that they had been taught
and they had learned
their entire lives
on its head.
And that's the very essence
of repentance.
It's not a slight deviation
from the course you're on.
It's a 180 degree turn
toward something else.
That's what Jesus was doing
over and over and over again
as he taught.
This could have very easily
been taught
with the Sermon on the Mount
where we looked at
all those passages
that says,
you have heard
that it was said,
but I tell you that.
This is what you've learned
before,
but this is the way
it really is now.
Jesus is trying
to help them see
that it's not possible
for them to find
justification
through their own actions.
It's only through faith
in Christ
that we can find
our ultimate justification.
We see clearly
in Ephesians
that it says,
it is by grace
we are saved
through faith
and this not of ourselves.
It is the gift of God
so that no man can boast.
We can't do it on our own,
but fortunately,
we don't have to.
Jesus died
so that we could be
fully justified in him.
And as we read Romans,
chapter 3,
verses 23 and 24,
we looked at those before.
It says,
for all have sinned
and fall short
of the glory of God
and are freely justified
by his grace
through the redemption
that came
through Jesus Christ.
Let's pray.
Father God,
you are almighty
and magnificent
in every way.
Father,
we thank you
that you came
into a lost
and dying world
and provided
the ultimate justification
for us all.
That you brought
that amazing act of love
into the world
in the person
of your son,
Jesus Christ.
And through relationship
with him,
we can be reconciled
to you.
We can be brought
into a right relationship
finally with the author
and perfecter
of our faith,
with the God
of the universe.
And Father,
it's just,
it's miraculous
that you even
offer that to us.
It's amazing
that we can come
before you
and speak to you
and we have someone
that will speak
on our behalf
in the form of your son.
And Father,
we thank you
for this story,
for the truth
that's contained in it,
for the idea
that we can't do it
on our own,
that we need help,
that we need someone
to step in
in our place
and do what we
could never do.
We thank you
for the death of Christ
and the resurrection
that means we can come
into that perfect
relationship with you.
And it's in Jesus'
perfect and mighty name
we pray.
Amen.