+ 12thSunday after Pentecost – September 1, 2019 +
Beautiful Savior Lutheran, Milton
Series C: Proverbs 25”2-10;
Hebrews 13:1-7; Luke 14:1-14
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
At first glance, hearing today’s Gospel reading feels a bit like staring at an IKEA instruction booklet. Like St. Luke tossed a bunch of random parts of Jesus’ teaching into Luke 14.
Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath Day. Jesus tells a parable about a wedding feast. Jesus teaches the host of the dinner party (and all who hear) that humility, not exaltation, is the way of the Messiah, and his followers. How do all these pieces fit together?
Remember the setting. It’s the Sabbath Day. There’s a meal; table fellowship is going on. The host is a ruler of the Pharisees, who’re watching Jesus carefully. Now, the very fact that Jesus accepted the invitation tells us something about God. He’s impartial. So is Jesus. He eats with sinners and tax collectors, and the Pharisees. This is the entire story of redemption. In Jesus, God came to a world entirely opposed to him. He came to seek and save the lost, and to save his enemies.
So, like a master craftsman, St. Luke takes these seemingly unrelated events (Jesus’ healing, parables, and table etiquette in the kingdom of God) and dovetails them into one finished piece. Everything hinges on these words of Jesus:
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
This is the key to the whole chapter. To Luke’s Gospel. To Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. In Jesus, we who exalt ourselves are humbled, so that by his humiliation on the cross, we are exalted.
This theme of humility is a constant for Jesus. He was born of humble virgin in a manger in Bethlehem. Mary sings that in Jesus, “God has brought down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of humble estate.” And Simeon declares, “this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel.”
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
Jesus’ words are both stinging, crushing Law. And comforting, restoring Gospel. To the man healed, and to us, Jesus’ words bring good news. Jesus humbled himself on the Sabbath. Like that man we were lost, sick, poor, ashamed, and dead. Jesus rescues. Heals. Feeds. Enlivens. And justifies you.
To the Pharisees, however, Jesus’ words are straight up, 200 proof Law. Jesus’ words condemn them, for they have exalted themselves. Always concerned about their keeping of their self-made Sabbath Laws: 613 dos and don’ts. 32 kinds of work you could not do on the Sabbath. Always looking out for their social and spiritual standing before God and man. Always self-justifying.
It’s easy to point our fingers at the Pharisees. But the truth is, there’s a little Pharisee in each of us as well. Our sinful flesh is always looking for the place of honor. Always thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to. Always looking at our stuff, our status, and our spirituality as a measure of confidence before God, and if we’re honest, before others too. This is the opposite of humility. This is pride. This is idolatry.
No wonder the Pharisees were so upset with Jesus. Jesus’ words were the opposite of everything the Pharisees found important. These words completely dethrone our false idols too.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
In Jesus, we who exalt ourselves are humbled, so that by his humiliation on the cross, we are exalted. Jesus sends us His Law to humble us, and his Gospel to exalt us. And in both cases, he’s the one doing the humbling, and doing the exalting.
Jesus saves us, not by our keeping of the Law, but by keeping the Law perfectly in our place. Not by our social (political, economic, or any) status, but by the name and identity given you in the Name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in your Baptism. Not by our exaltation, nor even by our humility, but by him who was humbled even to death on the cross to exalt you in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. In the kingdom of Jesus crucified, the weak are strong. The sick are healed. The poor, lame, and beggars are invited to the wedding feast. And the humble are exalted.
This is why Jesus heals the man on the Sabbath. Not because he kept the Sabbath Law perfectly, but because he was sick and in need of the Great Physician. This is why Jesus tells the parable of the wedding banquet. Not to give us lessons on table etiquette (though there’s good wisdom there), but to teach us that the kingdom of God is found in Jesus’ crucified and risen for you. This is why Jesus tells the host at this Sabbath Day dinner to invite the poor, the sick, the lame, and the blind…because they cannot repay you.
On the one hand, Jesus is teaching us what our lives in Him are like. We ask for nothing for ourselves but simply acknowledge that before God we are only sinners and deserve nothing but the wrath of God. That we are all beggars. Therefore, as Hebrews instructs us, let brotherly love continue. To be hospitable. Remember the prisoner, the sick, the widowed, the suffering, the least, lonely, last, and lost ones – for God in Christ has found, rescued, redeemed, healed, and saved you.
And yet, there’s a deeper meaning in Jesus’ words. These words are about our Lord Jesus Christ himself who took the low seat of the cross and grave for you. Who throws a feast of forgiveness in his body and blood knowing full well that we cannot repay him.
…Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
That’s what happens here every Sunday. We enter the doors in the back of the church as poor, miserable sinners. We confess our sins of thought, word, and deed, that we are by nature sinful and unclean. And Christ forgives us and says to us, “Friend, come up to a higher place. There is a place reserved for you at my table.”
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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