The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity AD 2024

Today’s Epistle speaks of the promise and the Law. God promised Abraham that his Seed would bring blessing to all nations. This promise has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who is the descendant of Abraham according to the flesh, Abraham’s Seed. Nothing can disannul the promise that God made to Abraham and through him to all mankind.

This promise was not abrogated even by God’s covenant with Israel, which He concluded through Moses and based on which Israel was convinced that only they were God’s people and only they could partake of the previous promises and blessings. St. Paul shows us that the meaning of the Law given through Moses was something else: God showed Israel and everyone else that if they want to be heirs of God’s promises and live as His blessed ones, then only by God’s grace, not by relying on their own works or merits. The task of the law is to show that all are transgressors, all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.

Today’s Gospel is an excellent illustration of this. A certain lawyer asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus answers that for this it is necessary to live according to God’s Law in all respects, especially the commandment to love God with all one’s being and love one’s neighbor as oneself. The lawyer agrees, but starts looking for excuses and an easier way. Then Jesus tells a parable about a man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. He did not receive help from either a priest or a Levite, but was saved only by the mercy of an outsider.

This is the story of all mankind: we all are victims of evil and sin, and neither the Law nor pious rituals can save us, but only the mercy and love of Him who came, took on our human nature, became like us in everything except sin, and redeemed us with His death on the cross. In Him, the Seed of Abraham, our transgressions are forgiven and we share in God’s wonderful promises and blessings.