Trinity
17 – October 7th and 8th, 2017 – Luke
14:1-11
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
So in
today's Gospel, we get two stories, two times when people watch each
other, look them over. We start with the Pharisees watching Jesus,
and then Jesus watching the Pharisees. And the thing to note, my
friends, is how these are two radically different approaches to life
– they form a striking contrast – one that we should learn from,
one that we should benefit from. So, let's work our way through our
text and see what we see, shall we?
One
Sabbath, when [Jesus] went to dine at the house of a ruler of the
Pharisees, they were watching Him carefully. And behold, there was a
man before Him who had dropsy.
Alright, so do you see what's going on? Jesus gets an invite to
come to Sabbath dinner – which was an honor. And being a good Jew
you didn't work on the Sabbath – everything had to be prepared
beforehand, and at dinner you didn't really do much. You sat and
talked about the Word of God together. That's the way it's supposed
to go. Yet this time, this big-wig Pharisee invites Jesus to his
house for the Sabbath meal – but he does so with false pretenses.
They are going to be hard at work on the Sabbath examining Jesus,
seeing if He will mess up some how. And to make it more likely that
Jesus “messes up” - oh look, here's a fellow with dropsy. Drospy
was basically what they called any nasty swelling disease, where
there's massive fluid retention and things like that. And the fellow
with dropsy isn't a Pharisee – he doesn't belong there, this isn't
his crowd. He just happens to be there, right in front of Jesus.
And the Pharisees are all side-eyeing Jesus – so what are you going
to do there Jesus? Are you going to work on Sabbath – because then
we can complain about how you worked – naughty naughty naughty. Or
will you ignore the fellow – then we can complain about how you are
a lousy healer. It's a trap.
Well,
Jesus isn't one for just taking a trap – He likes to flip them
around. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and
Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”
Jesus knows it's a trap – that's why he “responds” to the
lawyers and the Pharisees. I see your trap – so I'll throw the
ball back in to your court. How do you folks want to play this –
do you want me to heal or not to heal? “But
they remained silent.”
Of course they do – because they are worried, terrified that Jesus
will get on their case no matter what they do. Do you see their fear
– they think Jesus is just as petty and mean as they are, and they
are worried that He'll get the high ground in all their petty games.
They can't spin it to their advantage. So they have to be silent.
Then
we get one of the most matter of fact accounts of a healing ever.
Then Jesus took him and healed him and sent him
away.
Go on home, you don't want to be here – go rejoice with your
family. Now let me get back to these Pharisees here. 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?” Jesus
brings up a simple question – emergency acts were allowed on the
Sabbath. You didn't plan work – but if crazy stuff came up, you
take care of it. But here's the thing – And
they could not reply to these things.
The Pharisees were the super-Jews of the day – they went above and
beyond the Law, just to make sure that they never came close to
“breaking it”. They had a ton of extra, man-made rules about the
Sabbath to try to stay out of that situation. So if they agree with
Jesus that emergencies can be tended to on the Sabbath – they admit
that their rules go beyond what God has said. And if they disagree,
they show themselves to be loveless and hateful. Their plan to
eyeball Jesus has ended in abject failure. They can't say anything –
they are silenced.
Well,
mostly silenced. The Pharisees do what most groups do when an
uncomfortable truth is spoken – they ignore Jesus and go back to
their meal. We'll just leave Jesus there and carry on as normal.
Now He told a parable to those who were invited,
when He noticed how they chose the places of honor...
They ignore Jesus and go back to normal – which means there is
all sorts of jockeying for places of honor and prestige – I want to
move in closer to the most popular person there, who can I squeeze in
between and the like. We see this all the time whenever someone
popular or powerful shows up – people start swirling around trying
to get into better position. And the Pharisees had left Jesus alone
– which is a dangerous thing to do – and Jesus sees all this
flittering and fluttering around, and suddenly He starts to talk.
And imagine every head suddenly swinging toward Him – cause they
had forgotten He was there. 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.' 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. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and
he who humbles himself will be exalted.
Oh,
this is fantastic on many, many levels. What does Jesus do when He
ends up watching the Pharisees? First, and on the simplest level –
He just puts them back on track. I hope you noticed that Jesus did
not just invent this idea, this parable on the spot. He's riffing
off of, He's expanding on Proverbs 25 – our Old Testament lesson.
He's talking about and expanding upon Scripture – which was the
point of the Sabbath meal. Folks, we aren't here for posturing, or
putting folks up or putting folks down – we were here to enjoy good
food while we delight in God's Word. So let's talk about the Word,
folks! Jesus calls them away from themselves and their own pride,
and rather He focuses them upon the Word.
However,
the super neat thing Jesus does is He shows how He is the Messiah.
Now – wait a minute, how in tarnation is Jesus teaching that He is
the Messiah here with this parable. Remember, Jesus is playing off
of Proverbs 25 – this is a famous Proverb – the Pharisees would
be expected to make the connection – they knew their Old Testament
much better than we do. Proverbs 25:6 begins “Do
not put yourself forward in the king's presence...” The
King. A Proverb written by Solomon – the Son of David. And yet,
Jesus shifts it – when you are invited to a wedding feast. Over
and over, both in the Old Testament and in the New – the Kingdom of
God is likened to a wedding feast. The classic depiction of God's
relationship to Israel was of a husband and wife – so Jesus is
basically saying “I'm the King, the wedding feast is coming – I'm
the Messiah”. This is textbook Messianic preaching. I'm the
Messiah, and I am here, and you guys shouldn't bother trying to
posture and strut in front of me – you should be humble, you should
repent as John the Baptist had preached.
But
it's better than that. This parable is all about Jesus – and we
can tell by the last sentence – For EVERYONE
who exalts himself will be humbled, and HE who humbles himself will
be exalted.”
Did you catch it? If you're doing a simple contrast about life, you
use the same subject in both parts of the sentence. You do this or
you do that. Everyone who does X and everyone who does Y. But
that's not what Jesus does. It's a contrast between everyone who
exalts themselves and the One, the singular One, the only One, who
truly humbles Himself. Yes, Jesus is the Messiah – and you know
what the Messiah does? He doesn't come to put everyone in their
place, He doesn't come to strut His stuff. He doesn't come to be the
giant Queen Bee that makes everyone buzz around Him. Nope – His
goal, His job, His delight is to bring in the wedding feast of the
Lamb, to look at fallen sinners and call them into the eternal feast
that has no end, and in order to do that – He has to take away your
sin. And so Jesus is the One who will humble Himself by going to the
cross and who will be exalted on the third day when He is raised from
the dead.
Do
you get the difference in approach? The Pharisees are utterly
self-centered – watching Jesus just so that they can try to one-up
Him in the pecking order. And they can't, so then they start to
ignore Him. Then Jesus is watching the Pharisees – and if He
wanted to read them the riot act, He could. Jesus could have laid
into them and made them feel two inches tall. But that's not what He
does. When Jesus looks upon these Pharisees, these folks who have
specifically invited Him there just to hurt Him – He points them to
the Word, He points them to Himself as the Messiah who longs to
invite them up higher, to call them to be with Him forever.
So
here's the thing. The world loves to look for weakness, but it does
so for a very evil reason. When the world sees weakness or tragedy,
it casts blame, makes political speeches, laments how other people
are ruining the world. The world will use your weakness against you –
and if we are honest, we too are tempted to use other peoples'
weakness and flaws against them. But that's not what Jesus does. To
be sure, Jesus sees you. He even sees you with all your warts –
all of them. He sees you with with all your sin and wickedness, even
the ones you try to ignore, even the ones that leave you speechless.
But here's the twist. Jesus isn't seeking to crush you – no, He
sees your sin to take it from you and place it upon Himself. That's
what He did at your baptism – that was a promise to you that every
drop of sin had been washed off of you and washed onto Christ Jesus –
who would take it to the Cross for you. Jesus rescues you from the
well of sin and death. He dives right on into your sin and goes to
the Cross. Then, He rises from the dead and He calls you to His
Supper to strengthen your faith and help you to show love to your
neighbor. While the world is full of people watching everyone in
order to place blame, to get political advantage, all that sort of
junk – that's not a game Jesus is interested in playing at all.
His goal, His focus is being your Savior no matter what happens in
the world. And that He is. Simple. Period. Jesus sees you not to
cast blame upon you, but to take way your sin, to say to you,
“Friend, come up higher with Me for all eternity.” In the Name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
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