You Shall Not Murder

Trinity 13| Luke 10:21-37| Pastor James Preus| Trinity Lutheran Church| September 14, 2025

The Fifth Commandment is:You shall not murder.What does this mean?We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need. The Fifth Commandment is the primary commandment Jesus’ story about the Good Samaritan teaches us. The Fifth Commandment is the perfect example of the Law being good. Yes, the Law condemns us for our sin. But we cannot say the Law is bad because of that. How can we find anything wrong with this beautiful commandment? You shall not murder. It is a command that should be carved into every school building, posted on the wall of every home. Every father should sit down with his wife and children every day and recite with them the Fifth Commandment along with the other nine. (Deuteronomy 5:4-9) It is a commandment that seeks good for everyone and harm for none. If everyone would follow the Fifth Commandment, our lives would be filled with so much less sadness.

The internet was abuzz this past week, because a video was released of a young lady being stabbed to death in a train. Her name was Iryna Zarutzka. She was from Ukraine and came to America to escape the violence of the war. Before the video of her murder was released, few knew who she was, but everyone who saw the video or heard of it was wracked with grief. Many lashed out in anger that no one else on the train seemed to come to her aid or protection. Then, on Wednesday afternoon, a famous young political activist named Charlie Kirk was assassinated by a sniper in front of a crowd of college students in Utah. His wife, and little children were in the front row. Again, millions of people have seen the video of his assassination online. Now, perhaps you didn’t know who Charlie Kirk was or perhaps you disagree with some of his political views, and that’s fine. Charlie made a name for himself by going to college campuses and engaging students and professors in civil discourse about politics, culture, and religion. Many disagreed with many of his political views. But, because a certain person disagreed with him, a wife has lost her husband. A little girl will never be held by her daddy again. A little boy will have no memories with his father. A person loved by many is dead.

And as is so common today, this dead man has been demonized for his political beliefs, so that many have rejoiced in his death. Yet, you Christians should know some of the good this man has done. He went to college campuses, where students are frequently taught only an anti-Christian worldview, and he challenged them in civil debate. He was a warrior for the pro-life movement, opening the eyes of young people not to see unborn babies as mere clumps of cells, but as real living humans made in the image of God. And he frequently and vocally confessed his Christian faith to everyone. He told young people in college that they should go to church. He told them that getting married and having a family and raising their children to be Christians was more important than having a career. He was doing the work so many pastors and Christian parents had hoped would be done, as so many children go off to college and abandon the faith for worldly living. He made clear to everyone that he was a sinner and that Jesus was his Savior, who died for His sins. When asked what he wanted to be remembered for, he did not speak of his political accomplishments, but of his faith in Jesus Christ. In fact, some of the last words he spoke before the assassin’s bullet pierced his neck was a defense of the historical resurrection and divinity of Jesus. His courageous defense of the Christian faith, which ultimately got him killed, has inspired many young people to be bold confessors of Jesus, when previously youths that age were timidly walking away from the Church. Because of his confession of Christ Jesus, I am certain that Charlie is in heaven today.

Yet, because many disagree with some of his political views, they think he deserved to die or they are embarrassed to mourn his death. And this connects well to our Gospel lesson. A man goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and gets attacked by robbers and left half-dead. Yet, that is only the beginning of the story. A priest comes along, but he passes the man by on the other side, refusing to help. Then a Levite comes by, and he too passes by on the other side, offering no help. Finally, a Samaritan, who is supposed to be the enemy of Jews, comes and helps the man. And this shows that it is not only the robbers who beat up the man, who broke the Fifth Commandment, but also the priest and the Levite who refused to help. It is not just those who hurt or harm their neighbor in his body who are guilty of breaking the Fifth Commandment, but also those who fail to help and support him in every physical need.

And this teaches us something about the Fifth Commandment. Most people today think that the Fifth Commandment teaches bodily autonomy. Do you children know what bodily autonomy is? Bodily autonomy is the notion that you own your own body. So, all your rights and freedoms stem from the idea that you are the master of your body. So, they conclude that it is wrong to murder, because murder violates someone else’s bodily autonomy. Yet, they also use bodily autonomy to justify getting drunk or high, committing fornication and other acts of sexual immorality, removing parts of their bodies in attempts to become different from what God made them, and even committing suicide. But the Fifth Commandment does not teach bodily autonomy.

Rather, the Fifth Commandment teaches you that God is the creator of your body and He has a rightful claim to it. The robbers did not sin because they violated the man’s bodily autonomy. They sinned, because they harmed what God created in His own image, and which God values and seeks to be protected. And that is why the priest and the Levite also sinned when they passed by on the other side, although they did not violate the man’s bodily autonomy at all. But because this man was created in God’s image and God valued him, the Fifth Commandment also obliged these men to help and support the body of this man loved by God.

God has given us the Fifth Commandment, because He loves us. God loves your body, and He does not want any harm to come to it. He created you in His own image. And when you look at another human being, you see a person created in God’s image, whom God values. And so, when you recognize this, you see that we cannot separate the Second Table of the Law from the First Table of the Law.

The First Table of the Law is, as the lawyer correctly recited, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your strength.” The Second Table of the Law is, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” These two commandments summarize the Ten Commandments and are what you must do perfectly if you are to gain eternal life by your works. But when Jesus tells the lawyer, “Do this and you will live,” the lawyer seeks to justify himself by asking the question, “And who is my neighbor.” Now, this question betrays two things about the lawyer. First, he does not love his neighbor. That is why he is asking who his neighbor is! There are those whom he does not want to love, so he wants Jesus to tell him that his neighbor is only his family and friends whom he already loves. Second, this question shows that the lawyer thinks that he has already fulfilled the First Table of the Law by loving God with all his heart, soul, and strength. Yet, if the man does not love his neighbor, which his question already proves he doesn’t, then neither can he love God! St. John writes, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” (1 John 4:20-21)

The man thinks he already has loving God in the bag. That’s what the priest and the Levite thought too, as they walked by him whom God loved on the side of the road. But you cannot love God, while you hate him whom God loves. The Fifth Commandment teaches us not only not to hurt or harm our brother, not just to help him in physical need, but the Fifth Commandment commands us to love our brother! Love him from the heart! Because the Fifth Commandment can only be kept if you first fear and love God, who created your brother.

You are not bodily autonomous. You were created by God for His special purpose. And although you have failed in that purpose, because of your sin, God has redeemed your body back for Himself with a great price. Like that man going down to Jericho from Jerusalem, so you have left the protection of the city of God to live in the worldly city of Jericho. And in your worldly pursuits, you have fallen among robbers: the devil, the world, and your own sinful flesh. These thugs have left you wallowing in your own sin and filth, as St. Paul writes in Ephesians 2, “You were all dead in your trespasses.” The priest and the Levite, who symbolize the Law of God, walked by, but they did not help. All the Law can do is tell you to do. Love God with your whole heart. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love even your brother who hates you! Easy for the Law to say. Impossible for your sinful flesh to accomplish.

But then comes your Good Samaritan. Although you were his enemy, He died for you. He took on your burden of sin, even as the Good Samaritan placed the beaten-up man on his own animal. Christ paid the price of our guilt, even as the Good Samaritan paid the cost of the man’s stay in the inn. Our Lord Jesus washes our sins away in His blood, even as the Good Samaritan washed the man’s wounds with oil and wine. And our Savior Jesus has given a blank check to His Holy Christian Church, to forgive sins, however many we have, to cleans us and bandage us up, as beaten up and filthy as we make ourselves, just as the Good Samaritan promised to pay back whatever cost the beaten-up man accrued when he got back.

Jesus is our Good Samaritan. That means that Jesus is our God and our brother. He shows us the link between the First and Second Tables of the Law, not simply by commanding us to keep them, but by fulfilling them for us. God gave us the Fifth Commandment, because He created your neighbor’s body and values it, and so He wants you to value it too. And so, the Fifth Commandment hints at the Gospel. Because, out of love for your neighbor’s body and for your body, God sent His Son Jesus Christ to redeem your bodies by laying down His body unto death. Christ paid for our failures to keep the Fifth Commandment, not with a couple denarii, but with His own precious blood and His bitter sufferings and death. And having risen from the dead and ascended into heaven, He will return to take possession of what He has redeemed when He raises every body from the dead and grants eternal life to all who believe in Him. That is what it means that Jesus is our Good Samaritan.

Go, and do likewise, Jesus says. Be a good neighbor. Obey the Fifth Commandment. Love your brother. Yet, we can only begin to do this if we recognize that Jesus is our brother, our neighbor, our Good Samaritan, who has redeemed our bodies and our neighbor’s bodies, so that we may know the great value He places on them. Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us love one another, as God has loved us in Christ Jesus. Amen.