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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Will you pray with me?
You see my sin, yet seat me at your table. Lord, as a guest, I surely am the least, unclean, unfit of worthy deeds unable. My heart, prepare for this most holy feast. My heart, prepare for this most holy feast. Amen. O Lamb of God, my faithful, loving Savior, you I embrace in faith and holy love. Grant me the strength to show by my behavior a life now hidden in your reign above. A life now hidden in your reign above. In the name of Jesus, amen.
The text for this morning comes from the Gospel reading. You may be seated. Something that we take for granted as believers in Jesus Christ is this: we tend to think that things are obviously seen by unbelievers because they’re obviously seen by us as believers. God has revealed things to us in his Holy Scripture that unbelievers can never grasp until the Holy Spirit grants them faith. But for you and I who are believers, the things in the Scriptures are revealed to us.
But for the moment, let’s consider some things about what has been revealed to you and to me and to the world about God and what has not. In general, take away your faith and my faith. There are things that have been revealed—that there is a deity who created this world. It’s seen in the sunrise and the sunset, the seasons, the clouds, the weather, everything. You and I and all of creation, all of humanity, whether this language or some other part of the world, all know that there is a deity.
But what hasn’t been revealed, unless by the Holy Spirit, is this: Is this deity loving toward us, or is this deity not loving toward us? When you look at the birth of a child or the miracle of birth in general, for there are many people who are not blessed with that gift, the gift of life. Whether it is yours or given to you through birth, it is a miraculous gift that causes us to think there is a deity out there. But without the Holy Spirit and without faith, you and I do not know whether that deity is loving and gracious toward us or not.
For it’s very easy for one couple who have no children to say, God has cursed us because of something we’ve done or something in our past. And it is very easy for our pride to say we must be pleasing to God; that’s why he blessed us with these children. Or consider your own health—God has given me difficult health because I must be cursed for something that I said or did in the past, and God is keeping it back upon me. And for those who do not struggle with health issues, we think God must love us tremendously because we don’t struggle like those others do.
But you and I cannot find that in the Scriptures as believers in Jesus Christ. So there are many things that are revealed to us about God, and many things that are hidden to us about God. Your creator is loving and gracious towards you, whether you have health issues or struggle with health, whether you have life given to you in children or whether you don’t, whether you have blessings in retirement or whether you struggle in retirement. God is loving and gracious to you because that has been revealed to you. But only to you as a believer in Jesus Christ.
The rest of the world does not see God that way because they do not see Jesus Christ as the center of God’s great love toward you. But what you and I struggle with are the things that, even though we have much revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures, there are many things that God does not explain to you or to me as believers in Jesus Christ. God does not explain to you why your life is the way it is or isn’t the way you think it ought to be. God does not explain that to you. You are God’s. You are not your own. You have been bought with a price—the substitutionary death of Christ Jesus in your stead.
So there are many things in this life that God does not reveal, but God makes it very clear to you as a believer in Jesus Christ, in spite of what you experience, what you come into contact with, and even what’s done to you. In spite of what’s done to you, God is loving and gracious, and you know that not because of logic or reason, but because of faith in Christ Jesus alone.
Now in this text, there is something hidden. The thing in this text that’s hidden is this concept: the humble shall be exalted, and the exalted shall be humbled. Now to exalt the humble—that fits an American view of underdog theology. It’s not biblical. It’s the old moralistic statement: good things come to those who wait. That may be death; that may be more suffering. In other words, there is this logic in our minds that here’s what Jesus is saying, and we turn it into moralism.
We think that if I do something to humble myself, I’ll get my just desserts in this life, and I can thumb my nose at those who suffer or made me suffer. And that is not from God; that truth is from Satan. But the same words are used: those who are humbled shall be exalted. Yes, but that’s not what God has revealed, is it? There are many people who have humbled themselves and continue to suffer oppression and many other things. They will never see their exaltation in this life.
What God has revealed in this text is that there will be a reward at the resurrection of the just. It’s at the very end of this morning’s text. That has been revealed. Therefore, you know, only as a believer, and only you as a believer know, you will be given eternal life because God is loving to you. Even if you never see it revealed in this world, even if you never get what you say you deserve and are supposed to receive by your estimation, God has never promised that. God has promised you eternal life. God has promised you grace and mercy. And God continually promises you and gives you forgiveness. And you can count on that.
But as we prayed in the opening collect, our life is hidden away. As we prayed in that hymn, our life is hidden in God above. The other that’s also hidden in this text is that God will humble the exalted.
Now in this egalitarian country in which we live, we all have a form of egalitarianism—this equality—and it’s all based upon who knows what. This is what I deserve; this is what I am entitled; this is what they get. They should be punished because they are this way or that. The exalted will be humbled. Well, there are a lot of people who will never see that happen, including you and me, where those who are proud and pompous and the unjust of this world will never be humbled in this world.
We cannot turn what Jesus said: if you humble yourselves, you shall be exalted; and if you exalt yourself, you shall be humbled. We cannot fall to the temptation of turning Jesus’ words into moralism. And moralism says, if you do this, this is what’s going to occur to you. If you follow thus and so, this will be what you are entitled to get and will receive in this life. That’s moralism. And that’s not what God is preaching to you through Christ Jesus.
And the poster boy for why this is not revealed to you or to me is Christ Jesus himself. He who should have been exalted above all humbled himself before all. He who should have never been unjustly accused, who should have never been cursed, who should have never been murdered as a common criminal, was so that you who don’t deserve to be exalted would be exalted as his children. That’s not moralism; that’s called substitutionary atonement. Meaning someone else in your place takes your licking and gives you the reward in the resurrection of the just, as the text says.
See, we operate with a difficult struggle living as a believer in this life. Simply because you and I live as a believer in this life and simply because we’ve had these miracles and this mystery revealed to us—that Christ Jesus stood in our stead, died, and rose again—that we may have resurrection of the just, even though we’re not just without Christ. We struggle with moralism because we wish to turn this into rules to live by. If you humble yourself, you will be exalted. But if you exalt yourself, you’re going to be humbled.
That sometimes happens, doesn’t it? Absolutely. You’ve experienced it. You’ve experienced being humbled when you know your pride has got out of line. And you and I lick our wounds for a few days after. You and I have also experienced when we’ve humbled ourselves that God has given us exaltation that we look at and marvel. You and I have experienced this.
But this is not that which we live and die in, for that leads to hell because that takes Christ out of the equation. You don’t deserve to be exalted, even if you humble yourself according to your estimation because only one person deserves to be exalted, and that’s the one who humbled himself for you.
So that anything you experience in this life, especially when it’s not according to reason—this is where Satan loves to get you to think God is a hypocrite—it’s not working out. God said if I humbled myself, I would be exalted, but I tend to find myself more humbled and more oppressed as time goes on. Because your faith says, in spite of what I’m experiencing in my person, God loves me.
Because of your baptism, God claims you, and you can claim God as your God—not their God, your God alone. He has allowed himself to be obtained by you through baptism, where he says, I am your God. You can trust that everything that happens to you will not be a determining factor of my love or the lack thereof.
But isn’t that interesting what he said to the man who had invited the guests? He said, don’t invite those who can invite you back. Don’t play God’s games according to man’s rules. Invite the crippled, invite the lame, the blind, who can never pay you back.
So the question is: can you pay God back? Because if you can’t, then you are the crippled and the lame and the blind whom God has invited to his feast. Not because you can pay him back, but because he’s God, and you are his children.
In the name of Jesus, amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
