Curved Inward: How Paganism Blinds Us To Our Neighbor
Text: Luke 10:23-37 In the name of Jesus. Amen. Picture the scene: a man beaten, stripped, and left half-dead on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. He is helpless. He cannot save himself. He is in desperate need of mercy. And then comes a temple priest — a religious man, one who should have known the Law of God. He sees the half-dead man, but instead of drawing near to help, he distances himself. He passes by on the other side. Next comes a Levite — a temple servant. He, too, looks and then deliberately avoids the man in the ditch. In other words, both the priest and the Levite fail to see the wounded man as a neighbor. They fail to see him as a fellow human in need. Instead, they turn inward. They walk away. Now, dear friends, this is not just a story about two men in ancient robes. This is a story about you and me. The priest and Levite represent what happens when sin curves us inward. As Luther once put it, homo incurvatus in se — man curved in on himself. You see, when...
