Trinity 17 – September 22nd,
2013 – Luke 14:1-11
In the Name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Ghost +
Of all the healings that our Lord does, this one seems the
most disturbing when you think about it.
It’s the most… bothersome. There
is just something about this healing that doesn’t sit right, that doesn’t rest
well. With the other healings we see in
Scripture, there’s rejoicing and merriment.
There’s love and devotion – a Centurion pleading for his servant, a mother
for her child, friends carrying a paralyzed man. And there’s even the rejoicing of the healed,
the shouts of praise to God that go up even when He asks them to be quiet. But not with this healing. No, this one is different, sits differently,
feels off. Listen again.
One Sabbath, when He went to dine at the house of a ruler of the
Pharisees, they were watching Him closely.
I hope you can hear the tension in that verse. So there Jesus is, and He has been invited
over to some important fellow’s house for the Sabbath meal – a meal that was to
be a time of rest, of relaxation, of pondering God’s Word and God’s love for
us. It should be Jesus in His element –
He loves eating with people and teaching and preaching to them, proclaiming the
love of God to them. He’ll even make the
food if there’s no food there – that’s how much Jesus loves these teaching
dinners. But that’s not what we see
today. No, instead of people like Zaccheus
or Mary hanging on His Words and paying attention to Him, we have the Pharisees
watching Him closely. Observing
Him. Looking to judge and critique and
find something to complain about.
Instead of eating with sinners who wish to see their Savior, Jesus is
eating with the smug and self-righteous who want to find fault with Him. It would have to be slightly awkward to say
the least.
And it gets more so.
“And behold, there was a man before Him who had dropsy.” And suddenly, there’s a sick man there,
someone with a horrible, swelling disease.
That “and behold” is Luke’s way of laying this on thick. There is no reason for this man to be there –
he doesn’t belong. The Pharisees would
never dine with his ilk – it’s like walking into the Country Club and seeing a
dirty, smelly bum. He doesn’t belong…
but then, there he is. And note, Jesus
doesn’t address the man first, instead we hear, “And Jesus responded to the
Pharisees, saying, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?’” I know what you Pharisees are doing – you are
just using this poor man and his misery to set a trap for Me. You’ll complain no matter what. If I heal, I break Sabbath, if I do nothing,
what a pathetic, loser of a healer am I.
Utter trap. Think about how sick
and twisted this is – people are setting a trap to complain about Jesus, using
a sick and suffering man as the bait. And
Jesus calls the Pharisees on it – puts the ball into their court. So, Pharisees, you think you should sit in
judgment of Me, you think you should tell Me what to do – alright, do it. Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or
not. “But they remained silent.” And they can’t say anything in response to
Jesus. Their hamfisted ploy has been
exposed, and now they are in a no win situation.
It’s interesting.
Whenever I read this text, I get really, really annoyed with the
Pharisees, and I want Jesus to just lambaste them here – lay into them. Read them the riot act and peel the paint off
of them. And this is the problem. This is what we sinful men like to do. Just as the Pharisees were watching Jesus
closely to complain about him, the temptation for me is to watch the Pharisees
closely to complain about them. And then
I can feel smug and secure – see, I’m better than these wicked Pharisees. *I* would never do something like that –
while I’m doing the exact same thing in my own head as I think about them. And I doubt I am alone in this
temptation. Well, okay, maybe not
everyone here gets agitated with folks in the Bible, but let me ask the
question. How many of you spent some
time this week looking at your neighbor with a critical eye – not to help them,
not to care for them, but to be ready to complain, to pounce, to tear down, to
destroy? The temptation for us is to
fall into the rat race, to go all dog eat dog.
Maybe it’s a co-worker who makes life harder for us, a neighbor who annoys
us, that family member who’s a bit of a black sheep and an embarrassment. Whomever – there is that temptation to watch
through a sneer and look down upon them and just wait with baited breath for
them to get their comeuppance.
And so back to the text, Jesus turns around and just levels
the Pharisees, right? Goes on a long
spiel about how terrible they are!
No. “Then He took him and healed him
and sent him away.” The very
first thing Jesus does is tend to that poor man with dropsy. You are hurt, you are in pain, you don’t even
want to be here. Be healed. Go home.
See you family and rejoice – and get out of this awkward place. Jesus’ first thought is compassion. But then, surely, He’ll turn and lay into the
Pharisees and read them the riot act now!
No. “And He said to them, ‘Which of
you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day will
not immediately pull him out?’” How
gentle. There’s no recrimination. Jesus doesn’t even mention their plotting and
planning, their cruelty. He ignores that
– and then rather explains His actions.
Even you, Pharisees, know that in an emergency, you act on the
Sabbath. You rescue, you care for
people. Now, if you will do that, how
can God not care for His people, for those who are hurting? Yes, I will rescue people. That is how God shows love. It’s astonishing. Even as they plot against Him, even as they
conspire to do Him harm, Christ Jesus points to His love for them. “And they could not reply to these things.” And their judging stops. It’s cut off in its tracks.
You realize this is the depiction of how Christ treats
you? Consider. When you are deep in your sins, when you are
feeling the aches and pains of guilt and remorse – Jesus heals you. He forgives you. Doesn’t make a big deal of it – first things
first, you are forgiven, now go your way.
Just like the man with dropsy didn’t need to jump through hoops or
anything that – you are forgiven. Head
back to your home, rejoice, delight in forgiveness. Or even when there are those times where you
are going stubbornly astray, when you are acting like the Pharisees, where you
are doing that familiar, self-justifying sin that you do repeatedly, what does
Christ do? He doesn’t seek to lambaste
you – no, He will once again point you to His own love and His own mercy. He is gentle and lowly, and full of
love. And that is a great thing.
Our text continues, and it does show us another thing about
Jesus. “Now He told a parable to those
who were invited, when He noticed how they chose the places of honor…” Here’s the set up. Yes, Jesus is going to comment on what the
Pharisees are doing, but did you hear the difference? The Pharisees, they were watching Him
closely, looking for flaws and faults whereby to criticize him. Jesus, He just notices something. He’s there, but something just stands out,
and then he’ll bring it to their attention.
Do you get the difference in feel there, in approach, how much more
gentle Christ is? And so Jesus speaks. “When you are invited by someone to a
wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more
distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come
and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with
shame to take the lowest place. But when
you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes
he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’
Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with
you.” So what – does Jesus
suddenly turn into Miss Manners or Dear Abby?
Is this just practical advice or party tips time? No, Jesus is making a point, and in fact,
it’s a point all these people should have known. Do not seek your own glory, don’t elevate
yourselves, avoid the temptation of pride.
In fact, Jesus isn’t doing anything new when He says this – He had first
had it spoken long ago in His Word through Solomon in Proverbs. No, Christ sees their actions, and he warns
against pride… because pride does bad things to you. It makes you focused on elevating yourself,
stepping over and upon your neighbors, rather than being a servant who shows
love and care. It makes you forget the
lessons and truths that you learned from the Scriptures.
And Jesus ties this up with a nice little bow – “For
everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be
exulted.” So what, is Jesus just
going to end with a moral platitude? A
nice little folk saying while wagging the finger? No, not our Lord full of compassion. He teaches with patience and gentleness. Here is the point of what Christ is
saying. Everyone, all sinful folks exalt
themselves, strive to elevate themselves.
We’ll even hear this verse and say, “Oh, well, maybe if I just act
lowly, I’ll get exulted”. No, we sinners
who have exulted ourselves will be laid low.
The wages of sin is death. Simple
as that. But note, everyone who exalts…
but there is one who humbles himself – and He who humbles Himself will be
exulted. And that is what Christ Jesus
did. There is Jesus – He is God, He is
holy, He is righteous, He is above and beyond us. Yet what does He do? He humbles Himself to be born of a
Virgin. He humbles Himself to hunger and
thirst and to be beaten and mocked and scorned.
He humbles Himself upon the Cross and dies. He takes up our humiliation, the humbling that
we deserve for our false exultation. And
then He is raised, and now He is exulted over all things. Jesus is pointing us to Himself here again,
He is proclaiming that He is the suffering servant who will save His
people. But not just that. He is also the Master of the great feast, the
master of the eternal wedding feast of the life of the world to come… and as He
has been exulted, so too He looks to you, and He invites you to life
everlasting, and He does not expect you to exalt yourself. He doesn’t expect you to earn a place of
honor – in fact, He warns you against all those vainglorious attempts. Instead, He sees you in laid low by sin and
temptation and death, and He reaches out His hand of love and forgiveness to
you, and He says friend, move up higher, come, be with Me for all eternity.
Today’s text, dear friends, does sit odd. It’s not your typical healing – and it’s not
meant to be. Today Christ reminds us of
His gentle and kind love that He has for you… love that is not based on how
great or wonderful you are, love that is not stopped even by your pride and
disdain. No, Christ has humbled Himself,
He has suffered and died and risen again, all so that you might be with Him in
His exultation for all eternity. This is His great and gentle love for
you. In the Name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Ghost +
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