Trinity 17 – September 30th,
2012 – Luke 14:1-11
In the Name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
I had said in last week’s sermon that if you wanted to
understand why Jesus does what He does, why He heals, why He preaches how He
preaches, that you should understand that everywhere He goes He sees sin, sees
death – and that He wishes to fight against that sin, against that death. If I preach something, it should hold true –
so, what we will do today is consider this text, our Gospel lesson with this
idea of Jesus facing down sin and death in the back of our minds, and we will
see our Lord fighting for us in this text today. Let’s dive in.
“One Sabbath, when He went to dine at the house of a ruler of the
Pharisees, they were watching Him carefully.” Now, here’s something that is interesting to
note. There you have Jesus, and He is a
guest at a Sabbath diner. Remember, if
you are a good Jew, you don’t do work on the Sabbath, you don’t cook,
everything had to be prepared before hand – so it was a fine and good thing to
invite people to rest at your house and be served. Don’t do work – yet, what’s going on? What are the Pharisees doing? They were “watching Him carefully” – this
isn’t paying attention to see if He will teach, this isn’t gladly hearing
preaching the Word of God and holding it sacred. No – this is referring to examining Jesus,
checking Him over for any mistakes that He might make, for any reason that they
could then say, “A ha! He is a fraud,
ignore Him!” So, ironically, the
Pharisees themselves are working this Sabbath day – in their self-righteousness
they are working hard, getting ready to kill Christ’s reputation, to put the
worst construction on everything, to explain nothing in the kindest way. Again, sin and death are at work – gone is
simple love and service – in its place is scheming and contempt.
This is further shown as the plan unfolds. “And behold, there was a man before Him who
had dropsy.” And lookie here,
there’s a sick man. And here’s something
to note about this man – there’s no reason for him to be there. He’s not a Pharisee, he’s not a man of
note. He sticks out like a sore thumb –
this sick man is nothing but a test. Ah,
those Pharisees are working hard with their plots and their traps – what will
you do, Jesus? Will you heal on the
Sabbath – will you dare to do work on the Sabbath in front of us… because then
we will go to work point the finger at You and shouting how horrible You are! It’s a neat little trap. Two deaths are laid before Christ – on the
one hand, there is this ill man, who has a horrible, painful debilitating
disease – that’s death. And so the
Pharisees set up another death – if you heal him, Jesus, we will kill your
reputation! We will slay Your
popularity, we will turn the people against you!
So now there are two problems, two pitfalls before
Christ. And He will deal with them
both. “And Jesus responded to the
lawyers and Pharisees saying, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or
not?’ But they remained silent.” Jesus deals with the lesser death, the lesser
threat first. You Pharisees, you lawyers
think to trap me, to slay my reputation – alright, with the measure you use, so
it shall be measured back to you. What
should I do – how would you act in the trap you have set for Me? And they cannot answer. Why?
If someone says “heal the man” – then he would be open to attack and
being lambasted for ignoring the Sabbath.
If someone says, “No, you cannot heal”, then again they would be open to
attack and being lambasted for not loving the neighbor. Jesus calls them on their little game – He
says, ‘Your petty game is foolishness and harmful, and I am putting an end to
it by turning it around upon you – now you will be silent, and none of you will
kill anyone with your hurtful words.”
The attempted character assassination, the planned death is put to an
end. And with that out of the way, Jesus
can move on.
“Then He took him and healed him and sent him away.” Again, seeing illness, seeing
creeping death in this man – Jesus deals with it simply. The man is healed and gets to go home. You don’t need to hang out here where you
aren’t really welcome, you don’t need to stay here with these accusing eyes all
around. Be healed, and go home, rejoice
with your friends and family – rejoice with those who want to see life, rather
than death. And that’s what Jesus then
points out to the Pharisees. “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?’ I’m in the
business of life – if I see life threatened by death – if I see pain and
suffering, I will fix it. Indeed, the
point of the Sabbath is so that you can rest from the weariness of fighting
death, so that you might have life spoken to you once again in God’s Word and
that you might be ready to show forth life and love in the coming week – the
point is life, life over and against sin and death. The point is care and service and fighting
against sin and death.
But these people are trapped in sin, trapped in
self-righteousness, trapped in death. “And
they could not reply to these things.”
They couldn’t reply to His question.
Jesus has taught them, shown them that the life and forgiveness and
salvation is the key – and yet, they are so wrapped up in death – looking to
kill another to elevate themselves, worried that someone else might kill their
reputation to get ahead, than even when presented with life, they can say
nothing.
This is shown in the next part of our Gospel lesson – the
musical chairs scene. “Now
He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noticed how they chose the
places of honor…” Again, what is
Christ seeing? He’s seeing death. Instead of people there simply to enjoy God’s
good gifts of food and friends and community and joy – what do you have? You have people striving and fighting after
honor – after their own elevation at another’s expense. That seat is too good for you, move down and
let me take it – die a little bit in everyone’s eyes, scum, for I am better
than you. It’s cruelty, it’s domination,
it’s terrible. And so Jesus tells a
parable – and really, it’s nothing new to these folks – Jesus is just playing
off of what King Solomon had taught in Proverbs, in our Old Testament
lesson.
“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.” You guys have it backwards. If you seek to take honor for yourself, what
good is that? All you will do is step on
another, all you will do is assert dominance in the middle of a terrible social
scrap – and chances are you’ll be humiliated as well. Death and pain is your way. But no, instead, be humble, and then let
someone else come to you and give you life – receive respect and honor as a
gift – not as something you have to scramble and fight for – “For
everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be
exalted.” If you are playing the
honor game, if you are exalting yourself… that’s just the way of death. That’s the way that leaves you unfulfilled
and empty, it’s the way of sin and death to where you don’t even recognize a
good thing when it’s right in front of you.
There Jesus had healed a man of a terrible disease, and they weren’t
sure how to react because they were worried about exalting themselves. What a terrible life! No joy, no real honor, no real respect – just
simply waiting and hoping to knock someone else down a peg, all the while
worrying that someone is going to knock you out. No, against that Christ preaches humility –
be a servant, be lowly, and then, when you are exulted by the host, then you
will have joy, then you will enjoy the blessing and honor that is given you –
then you will have life instead of death.
So then, let’s consider what we should learn from what
Christ teaches us today in this text.
Let us not think like the Pharisees – let us abandon the social dance of
death where we try to place ourselves above our neighbor. That’s just death – it robs us of our joy,
our delight, our contentment. It makes
us miserable when we play that comparison game, when we nitpick each other and
live in fear of being nitpicked in return.
No, that is not good for you, that’s death, that kills joy, kills
blessings. No – rather this. Know that your God loves you. Know that Christ Jesus has humble Himself for
you, humbled Himself even to the point of death upon a cross – and why? So that He would be raised from the dead, so
that He would be exulted – and that as He is exulted, you are exulted as
well. His resurrection is your
resurrection, His life is your life. And
so He calls to you today, He calls you away from death and worry and despair,
and He says to you, I will give you forgiveness and joy and peace – I will give
you life instead of a dog eat dog death.
Sin, fear, this world of death – they call out to us, try
to entrap us, make us miserable. Sin and
Satan will try to get you to elevate yourself, to try and make you place
yourself above others, to fill your life with fretting and worrying. Over and against that, Christ Jesus has said
this – you are forgiven for His sake.
Even if the world sees you as dirty and wrinkled, He has declared you to
be His bride without spot or wrinkle or blemish – you are clean and holy,
washed in the waters of Holy Baptism – He has elevated you to His side, and
there ain’t nothing that anyone can say to you or about you that will change
that fact. He has said that you don’t
need to sit back in the corner, no, come to the head table, to His table – take
and eat, this is My Body, take and drink, this is My Blood, shed for you for
the forgiveness of your sins, shed for you that you might have life, and have
it abundantly.
This week, my friends, you will see sin and death, and sin
and death will be tugging at you, trying to make your life one of fear and
worry and social scrambling. And
sometimes that sin will hit you hard.
But over and against the ravings of sin, its attempts to kill you and
your joy – remember this. You belong to Christ, you are His, He is
yours, and He has given you life, He has made you to know His life – He has
given you His Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, and nothing this world
throws at you can change that. Be at
peace in Christ and His love for you, for you are baptized into Christ and have
His life always. In the Name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
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