[Machine transcription]
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Well, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our Lord Jesus has, I think, at least two things that he wants to teach us this morning.
The first, we hear about compassion in this miracle of healing a man on the Sabbath. And then, in the second, in this parable of the wedding feast, we hear about humility. I think we want to especially think about the parable this morning, about humility itself. Indeed, all the lessons we have this morning mention that, humility. But I do want to make a stop real quick on the first part of that gospel before we get there, and then, bonus, we’ll even talk about some of the things St. Paul tells us at the end, especially about unity in the church.
But first, we want to hear about this, that Jesus is invited to dine at the house of a Pharisee, and this might be kind of shocking to us or odd to us, given that we know there’s this distrust and even sometimes dislike that the Pharisees have for Jesus. So we too might be distrustful, a little bit suspicious about what’s going on here from the start. But Jesus isn’t because he knows all and he knows what he’s there to do. He’s there as always to teach. He’s there also as always to bring the gospel, literally the gospel itself, to those who are at this dinner.
But I think we might get a little bit of a clue about the intention of the Pharisees when we hear St. Luke write, they were watching him carefully. And they weren’t watching Christ because they were amazed by him or because they were enthralled by him. No, they want to know his behavior. They want to find something to complain about. They want to actually find some kind of charge to level that. So sure enough, I mean, it wouldn’t be wrong for us to maybe think that this trap is set for him.
Luke writes this, Behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. Now, we’ve got to talk about what dropsy is. Nobody knows what that means. That is basically edema, that you’ve got this swelling in your body, you’re retaining water. Now, we don’t really know how this poor man came to be there. He probably didn’t just wander in off the street, but he wasn’t probably invited, at least not in an official manner.
But it was the Sabbath after all, and this man is there, and technically he’s probably unclean by the ceremonial law standards. And more so, the Pharisees would probably have considered him a great sinner because he probably had this affliction because of his great sin. And so really, they would not have any reason to be anywhere near this man unless they had a use of him and something to gain by doing so. So, as I said, it seems a little suspicious. And I think maybe we can infer how the man actually came to be there. And perhaps if we read further into Luke, we get that, right?
Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees. Now, Luke doesn’t tell us if something was said. We don’t hear anything said. said, that’s because Jesus knows what they’ve done. And he knows more so what they expect out of him. And so he really is given this response to something that hasn’t been said, to this test that they’ve put before him. They’ve cruelly brought this man in there to test Jesus. And so they are going to see if Jesus does the right thing, which means that he will do nothing. I mean, that’s what the law demands isn’t it that no work and nothing is done on the sabbath we hear how jesus turns their kind of interpretation of the commandment on its head how he asked them hypothetically would you not rescue your own son your own ox from danger if it was required especially and even on the sabbath but really he doesn’t expect them to answer because they can’t answer honestly if they do. And so for them, this becomes less than not about the law, but about compassion, about how we are to treat those who are in need of mercy, and especially those who need the mercy of the Lord, those who need the forgiveness of sins, which it turns out is every one of us. And so, lest they, the Pharisees, or we think too highly of ourselves, then Jesus wants that come along with this parable about humility.
Now, when I hear about humility, I can’t help but think of a song written by that great poet and philosopher, the country and western singer Mack Davis. Now, I said this may go down as one of the worst sermon examples in the history of the church. You’ll have to be the judge of that, I guess. But this song is from, okay, so it’s from 1980, so a lot of you are not gonna get this. But you can feel free, as Pastor Smith is going to do, to go put it on your Spotify playlist later. The song is, Oh Lord, It’s Hard to Be Humble. And it goes like this. The refrain goes like this. Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble when you’re perfect in every way. I can’t wait to look in the mirror because I get better looking each day. To know me is to love me. I must be a heck of a man.
Here’s the catch. Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble, but I’m doing the best I can. Now, it’s funny, and the humor of it makes it a great song, makes it a hit, but unfortunately, sometimes I think that’s not too far from reality for us, that we tend to brag even about how gracious we are. Because, after all, it’s our sinful nature, and we don’t really need any help being prideful, but yet the world comes along and tries to help us with this, to help us be, or think at least, that we’re more than we ought to be.
you know kind of like all these programs we belong to that have these tiers or levels of membership oh well you’re not a platinum member no well you’re missing out on something you don’t get all the perks i think especially about this and i know you’ve seen this right at the airport when you’re ready to get into line and everybody wants to rush to be the first on the plane or get up to be the first off the plane and it’s all silly and it’s a silly example to use but it’s true, and it’s still in itself, and yet we just can’t help ourselves because we just don’t want that other guy to get something over on us. We want others to think that we’re somebody, that we’re more important than we really are.
And so this is something then that Jesus notices about these Pharisees at this dinner, how they stride right up to the best seats in the house, expecting that they deserve them. They might have even elbowed and muscled each other out of the way getting there and we understand this because we often share the same kind of attitude about things have you ever been to one of those banquets or a dinner where they have the seating chart posted and you walk up there looking for your name and of course you instinctively look towards the front right because that’s where they’re going to put you is up towards the front but if you’re like me most of the time you’re actually back by the back doors but that doesn’t stop us it doesn’t stop us from wanting to be noticed and it doesn’t stop us from hoping that somehow we have made it up to the front and so this is the way that the pharisees are acting and that’s why jesus tells this parable because it goes against their nature to defer to others to be even happy that someone has the better seat but jesus says if they think it’s humiliating to not have the best seat to be seated away from the places of honor they should think about the disgrace that comes with assuming they were supposed to be seated there and then being told maybe asked to move down that rather they should could be content initially with this lower place and then be invited to move up.
Jesus might as well have said to them, humble yourself or be humbled. And really he does that. He does that with his last words here. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Maybe we know this is like this great theme in Luke, the gospel of Luke.
It’s called the great reversal, how the high and mighty are going to be brought down and made low and how the lowly and the meek are going to be brought up. We hear this especially with Mary and her Magnificat, this prayer of rejoicing to the Lord as she praises him, the one who has cast the mighty down from their thrones and has exalted the lowly.
And so this parable, as with all the parables actually, and especially I think with this imagery of the wedding feast, it is this picture of the kingdom of God. So the parable is then being taught and preached to those who have placed their own ambitions and pride before the concern for others because this is not how it is in the kingdom and it can’t be either for the church here on earth and so we ought to be happy indeed even joyful when others are called up higher and so in humility we are to place ourselves before others and so we are to be as Paul speaks about today in unity with one another and so that unity of the pursuit of unity that’s something that we strive to act and speak as one about Saint Paul writes to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace and I think the starting point for that is to remember that in our confession we already have unity in one thing we have unity of doctrine we have unity of the truth and it is that then that must lead us for this desire for friendship and harmony and love inside the church that it would then bring us to those virtues that Paul speaks about this morning and notice the first one he speaks of humility and then he adds gentleness and patience for bearing and we look at that list and we’re like that’s not that hard but we know otherwise but we also don’t have a choice we don’t have a choice about whether or not we’re going to love one another in the church and if we’re going to be united in spirit and Paul reminds us about this and he reminds us of the things that do actually unite us again in our confession he lists them there one body of all these people all you people joined together all of us one spirit living within the body one hope of eternal salvation one Lord Jesus Christ in which we have one faith for salvation one baptism into death in which we are joined to Christ and live a new life one God and father of all who created us and through whom Christ creates and claims us as as dear children.
It almost sounds like something we would put in a creed. Thankfully, we do have a way to unite with one another, and we are uniting with each other just today in this divine service, that we do as we did earlier. We examine ourselves, and we confess to God and one another that we are unworthy, and that we are unable to free ourselves from our condition. And we plead for forgiveness for the wrong that we have done before God, and that we have done to others. And then we receive the assurance of that forgiveness.
And then we join in the confession of the doctrine and the creed. And then we join in the Lord’s Supper. And as we prepare to go our way, then we have extended to us the peace of God, that peace which he reconciles himself to us with. That is the peace that is shared with us and that we share with one another and that we take out those doors to share with everyone else.
And so we already have a model of humility, and it is Christ. Now, our own humility all these things all these values all these characteristics they won’t be perfect this side of heaven but we should be joyful in thinking about what perfection will look like and i know we always talk about this right like we continue to stress even now we stress and worry about what it’s going to be like in heaven am i going to be better off than this other person because we’ve heard about that we wonder if one’s going to be greater than another we have to know that this is going to be better than anything we’ve ever experienced or anything that we could ever imagine because we have the assurance of Christ with the words he says in my father’s house are many rooms if I were not so would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you so we are going to be overjoyed with whatever room we’re given whether it’s large or small and guess what we’re also going to be overjoyed about what others have whether it’s great or small because we have the promise that we are going to dwell in the kingdom of heaven forever and we already have a promise that we have a place at the table at this marriage supper the lamb and so when those doors to that banquet regardless of what the seating chart says when those doors are open to that banquet we are going to have the best seat in the house now the pharisees thought that by keeping god’s law at least whatever their version of it was they could please him and they could gain their own salvation but jesus tells us he’s the lord of the sabbath and he fulfilled the law that we aren’t at your keep. And in this parable this morning, this parable of the wedding feast, we really put ourselves in the place of the guest. Have we been, like the Pharisees, have we been proud and expected that we deserve special treatment and honor, not just for fancy dinners, but for all the things of life, for everyday daily life, just because of who we are or something we’ve done? Have we wrongly appropriated honor to ourselves because of our own name or what we think of our good works?
No, Christ says everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. And Christ knows this because he was and is the perfect example of humility. So we must, too, also humble ourselves before God and know that by taking the lowest place, we will someday be exalted.
Now, real quick, I want to go back to that song I mentioned. Remember the beginning of the refrain, oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble when you’re perfect in every way. Well, you know, we’re not perfect in any way. In fact, we are greatly flawed. We are marred by sin. We are distorted by sin.
But guess what? Jesus has invited us to the dinner. He’s invited us to dine with him in spite of our imperfection. Because he perfects that about us which needs to be perfected. And that is our faith because he is the founder and perfecter of our faith. And though we might be doing the best we can, it’s not going to save us. And so we look to the one who did save us and who is saving us, the one who came in all humility.
If you look behind me to my right, that panel on the right, on your left, is the humiliation of Christ panel. And you can see it here. He is the one who came in the humility. He is the one who was born of a woman, of a virgin. He is the one who humbled himself to submit to the baptism of John, not for a washing away of sin on himself, but so that he might take on the sin of the whole world. And he is the one who humbled himself to be obedient to the point of death, death on a cross. So today and always, we humble ourselves before one another in Christian love and unity.
And may we humble ourselves before the Lord in the presence of our King who bids us now to his altar, saying, Friend, move up higher. Amen. Now may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Please stand.