So here is the question for today. Where does your righteousness come from? Where does your salvation, the fact that you are a Christian come from? Is it because you are a good person, or is it from God? Are you righteous because of what you do or because of what God does? Are you a Christian because you are good little person, or are you a Christian because of what Christ has done for you? I say that this is the question for today because this is actually the matter in doubt in our text. The Pharisees are there, watching Jesus. They think they know what makes a person righteous – and they assume it is obedience to the law – if I do good then I really am a good little boy. Jesus disabuses them of this notion, and corrects them and us today as well, if those thoughts had been creeping into our head. Let us look at our text and ponder again the love the Jesus shows us.
One Sabbath, when He 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. So here’s the situation. It’s a Sabbath – the day of rest, the day where no work was to be done. And Jesus is over at a Pharisee’s house – and it just so happens that there is a man there who has dropsy. And this man doesn’t belong there – he’s not a Pharisee, he doesn’t live in the house. In fact, Jesus is going to send him away after He’s done healing him. It’s all just a test. The Pharisees are watching Jesus closely, waiting to see what He will do.
We know that you aren’t supposed to test God. We see what the Pharisees have done, how they have set up Jesus, and we think, “That’s kind of rotten.” Yet, do we often put God to the test? Do we often make demands of God, even just in our minds, in our thoughts. When we pray, do we pray “Thy Will Be Done” or do we grouse about what we haven’t gotten and think, “Lord, why don’t You do this? Why do I deserve these things in my life?” That’s putting the Lord to the test. That’s telling God how He should be God. It can creep into our lives on occasion, so do be wary of this attitude. Anyway, let us continue in the text.
And Jesus responded to the Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” But they remained silent. Then He took him and healed him and sent him away. Is it lawful? Is it okay? If I do this healing, if I show love to this man right now that you have set before me, will you think I am evil? This is the question that Jesus asks of the Pharisees. What makes you a “good” person? Is it the fact that you follow the law? Is that why you think you are good people, oh Pharisees? But they say nothing. Nothing in response. And Jesus does what Jesus always does – He gives healing. This shouldn’t surprise us, and it shouldn’t have surprised the Pharisees either. Jesus is not focused on proving Himself to be good, but rather on showing love. And this He does to this man. Jesus speaks and he is healed, relieved of His suffering, relieved of His affliction.
Dear friends – never fall into the trap of thinking that what you do makes you a good person. Those ideas are simply the whispers of Satan hanging around you. The Law will never make you righteous. Why? First, it is too late for that. You’ve already sinned. You can’t fulfill the law. You were even born in iniquity. In sin my mother bore me, as the old hymns goes. No good that any of us does will remove our sin. The law doesn’t make us righteous. Second – the law is simply what we are supposed to do anyway. Why would doing it make us “good”? If I simply do the things that I am supposed to do, why would that be praise worthy? When I was young, one of my chores was the fill the ice cube trays. If I filled the ice cube trays – which I often actually failed to do – did that make me good? No. I simply did what was asked of me. In fact, quite a few of you who grew up on the farm probably thought – “Filling the ice cube trays was a chore? What kind of chore was that? Where’s the milking or feeding the animals – those are chores.” All of our works, all the things that we do are actually quite small before God and simply what we are supposed to do anyway. They don’t earn us any brownie points with God.
And the thing is, we don’t need to earn Brownie points with God. 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?” And they could not reply to these things. There’s the description of you. You are a little kid that has wandered off and fallen into a well – you are a dumb old ox that has gotten where it shouldn’t be. That’s a pretty good description of our sinful life, isn’t it? Us getting into trouble over and over again. But this is our comfort. That Christ Jesus is not content to leave us in peril or distress, but rescues us from all sin and from all evil. And how? You know the answer – I’m going to be pointing to the Cross. Jesus’ death rescues us from sin. But how does it do so? Here is how. We, you and I, are sinners. Plain and simple. This means we lack righteousness – we are not righteous of ourselves. If you aren’t righteous, you can’t be with God. God is Just. God must punish sin. Plain and simple, that’s the way that it is. If you are unrighteous, punishment must be made. This is what happened on the Cross. Jesus took the punishment for your sin. God is Just and sin is punished. Your sin has already been punished, the penalty has been paid for what you have done. In fact, every sin has been paid for, every sin of every person in all times, paid for by Christ.
That’s a great thing, a truly good thing. That’s why we call it Good Friday. But that’s not the end. It’s not just a matter of the fact that some 2000 years ago God did something. Through His Word and Sacraments, Christ comes to you. He not only takes the penalty for your sin – but He gives you His own righteousness – He unites you to Himself in Him so that you can stand in the presence of God for all eternity. It’s not that Jesus simply wipes the slate clean on the Cross – no God does more than that. Jesus takes from you your sin and in return He gives to you His righteousness. Are you holy and righteous right now? Yes. Perfectly and completely – and why? Not because of what you do, but because of what Christ has done and what He gives you. When God looks at you, He sees Jesus. Hear what Paul says in Ephesians. There is One Body and One Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all through all and in all. You were brought into Christ’s life – you were united to Him by your Baptism. He has called you unto Himself, and He gives you all that He is. That is your righteousness. We have a taste of this now – we see it dimly – for we are still in the world full of sin, we are still bound to our sinful flesh. We can only look forward to the day of the resurrection of the dead when our bodies will be perfected and glorified like His – but we know and we see that this is coming. This is our hope, this is the faith which we believe – that Christ has not only died for our sins but lives to make us His Holy, Righteous children.
Jesus further explains this idea to those Pharisees and us by means of a parable. When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the place of honor; lest someone more deserving 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.’ This is what God does for you. Your place, your standing with God isn’t something you have to claim by your works, by what you do. Your spot at the feast in heaven doesn’t come on account of what you have done. Rather this – God raises the lowly and places them in the heights of heaven. Christ Jesus has seen you, and He has declared you to be His friend. More than that – in Baptism Jesus declared you to be family – His brother, His sister, His co-heir of His kingdom. Why are you downcast, O forgiven child of God – the kingdom of God and eternal life are yours! Why? Not because of what you do, not because of your own “honor” - because we all know that can fail. You are here not because of your own honor, but because Christ has honored you. You are here not because of your own works, but because Christ has worked for you and declared that His works are in fact your works. Over and over, Christ Jesus forgives you; His death and resurrection are applied to you. You are called to His own table even this day, because His feast of Victory is a feast for you and a Victory won for you. What is there for you to do to earn any of this when Christ has done it all already?
Dear friends in Christ – trust not in your own works. Look not to your own works. There is no life there. We cannot make God respect us more or value us more by what we do. Rather this – look to Christ, for He has called you in Baptism, and has given you life and righteousness in Himself. Christ Jesus has seen you, lowly as you are, and He has called you His own friend, and more than just a friend, He took on flesh, became your brother, and went to the Cross so that having shed His blood for you He might call you to sit at His side for eternity at the heavenly feast. This is our hope, this is our joy, this is the truth we cling to all of our days. Amen. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
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