Sermon for Trinity 17, September 26, 2021
To him who loves us and has
freed us from our sins by his own blood and made us a kingdom and priests to
God his Father—to him be the glory and the power forever. Amen.
Luke 14:1-11 One Sabbath day, when Jesus went into the
house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat bread, they were watching him
closely. 2Right in front of
him was a man who was suffering from swelling of his body. 3Jesus addressed the legal experts
and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” 4But they were silent. So he took hold of the man, healed him, and
let him go. 5He said to them,
“Which of you, if your son or an ox would fall into a well on a Sabbath day,
would not immediately pull him out?” 6And
they could not reply to these things. 7When
he noticed how they were selecting the places of honor, he told the invited
guests a parable. 8“When you
are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline in the place of
honor, or perhaps someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by
him. 9The one who invited
both of you may come and tell you, ‘Give this man your place.’ Then you will begin, with shame, to take the
lowest place. 10“But when you
are invited, go and recline in the lowest place, so that when the one who
invited you comes, he will tell you, ‘Friend, move up to a higher place.’ Then you will have honor in the presence of
all who are reclining at the table with you.
11“Yes, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and
whoever humbles himself will be exalted. (EHV)
The
Lord will exalt the humble.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
There was
a sickness in the room that day Jesus dined at a ruling Pharisee’s house, but
it wasn’t the most obvious one in our text.
Oh yes, a man with dropsy was seated in front of Jesus, but the more
lethal illness was something far more insidious, something with which we all
must struggle.
The first part of our text seems like it is
told to show Jesus’ power to heal and to challenge His enemies. To be honest, however, this healing merely
sets the stage for the important diagnosis Jesus had to give that day. The Pharisees were mortally stricken with the
disease of pride and Jesus is the only cure.
This account teaches us that in the end, The Lord will exalt the
humble.
Sinful pride or spiritual arrogance can be seen
in many forms. Here, we see it, first, in
the Pharisees putting Jesus on display, more or less challenging Him to defy
their policing of the Sabbath Day. The
legalists of Judea had implemented numerous rules concerning the Sabbath that
primarily made themselves feel superior to others. The Pharisees knew Jesus had previously healed
on the Sabbath, so they placed this suffering individual in front of the Lord
hoping that either Jesus would submit Himself to their rules, or preferably, that
they would have evidence to accuse Him of violating the Sabbath laws. Consider the arrogance of sinful men seeking
to judge Jesus guilty of sin while imagining themselves more righteous than the
Son of God.
When we see their actions in this light, it is
easy for us to marvel at the arrogance of such men, but wouldn’t that mean we
are doing the same thing? If we look
down on other sinners assuming we would never fall so low, does not that mean
we are elevating ourselves? This is a
dangerous trap for everyone. No matter
where you look today, whether on social media, the news, or just at the
neighbors down the street, you will find people presuming themselves much more
righteous than others. One person judges
his neighbor guilty of hurting everyone else if he refuses to get
vaccinated. Another considers the person
getting vaccinated to be making a noble gesture, or perhaps a foolish one. Is either right or wrong? It is hard to judge without holding oneself superior
to someone else.
The Pharisees rejected Jesus as unfit to be the
promised Messiah. That sounds
tremendously arrogant. Yet, how often
don’t people just like you and me judge God guilty of being inattentive to our
needs? How often do we question whether
God knows what He is doing when He sends down rain in great volume, or doesn’t
send enough to suit us? Who among us
hasn’t struggled with worry or anger when things don’t go as we would choose? Who among us hasn’t cried out why, God? Why?
In all these ways, we exalt ourselves over the Lord.
Because we all are afflicted with a sinful
nature, we all find it easy to want to be God.
We want to decide what is best for us.
We want to point out the sins of others.
We want the accolades of our neighbors no matter how small the gesture
we make. Everyone wants to be a winner,
and losing comes hard to even the best sportsman. Selfish arrogance makes us all hate to have
our faults brought to light, and most people would rather direct the blame at
someone other than themselves.
Jesus observed those people at the dinner,
noticing their attempts to get in a good position to watch Him, and judge
Him. He also noticed how they wanted to
be seated next to the more prominent men among them. Jesus gave this advice: “When you are
invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline in the place of honor,
or perhaps someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him. The one who invited both of you may come and
tell you, ‘Give this man your place.’
Then you will begin, with shame, to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and recline in
the lowest place, so that when the one who invited you comes, he will tell you,
‘Friend, move up to a higher place.’
Then you will have honor in the presence of all who are reclining at the
table with you.” Now, be warned, the
sinful nature within would take this advice and assume a way to receive
recognition for our humility. Just make
ourselves as humble as possible, and we will be rewarded with elevation to a
better place. Yet, do we really suppose
Jesus is teaching us to seek honor for ourselves with feigned humility?
The answer comes at the end of our text:
“Yes, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself
will be exalted.” Jesus used the
scenario of this dinner as a living parable for all of us. The point is not to teach us how to be
exalted on our own. The point is to show
us what we need from Him.
To be humble is something we all struggle
with. To be truly humble is to submit
ourselves with total trust to whatever God has in store for us. To be truly humble is to serve God without
question and to serve our neighbor to the best of our abilities regardless of
how kindly, or unkindly, we are treated in return. To be truly humble is to recognize the
complete lack of holiness in ourselves.
To be truly humble is to confess before God continually along with the
tax collector of another parable, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke
18:13) Because, even when we find
ourselves completely humbled, it is often to our shame.
True humility gladly accepts God’s plan for our
lives while striving to live our best life in His service without seeking
reward or praise. True humility isn’t
something that can be played. It is a
product of holy love.
There is one, however, who truly did humble
Himself for all mankind. Jesus came down
to serve His Father in heaven, but the goal was to serve in our place so that
you and I might be saved from our self-promoting, self-righteous delusions.
On our behalf, the Son of God, perfectly holy
and righteous, owner of all things, with the full authority of God, came down
to earth to humble Himself through an infant birth, an ordinary human
upbringing under the authority of human parents, with all the trials, pain,
poverty, suffering, and sorrows of ordinary life, in order that He might live
perfectly according to the law and His heavenly Father’s will, then bear the
full punishment for the sins of the world so that those He loved unselfishly
might believe in Him and be saved.
This perfect Son of God in human flesh is the
Jesus we see in this account. He entered
that enemy house seeking only to help those therein to see the promises of God
fulfilled so that they too could be saved.
Yet, those therein sought only His death. To this too, Jesus would humbly submit
Himself, because it is through His humiliating, shameful, sacrificial death on
a cross that you and I are reconciled with the Father above. Instead of directing guilt away from Himself
as we are so often inclined to do, Jesus received the shame of the whole world
in His humiliated state. St. Paul
testified, “God made him, who did not know sin, to become sin for us, so
that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) The righteous Son of God, the Lamb of God
without blemish or fault, became the Scapegoat taking on the rebellious acts of
all the sinners ever, bearing punishment He never deserved for those who have
nothing good to offer.
Before the unholy crowd that day, Jesus said, “Yes,
everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will
be exalted.” The One who truly
humbled Himself was Jesus. Natural man
seeks his own glory—always has—always will.
Thanks be to Jesus, God didn’t leave us to the fate we deserved. Instead, the Father credits Jesus’ humility,
kindness, holiness, and obedience to sinners like you and me who He has chosen
to believe, who the Spirit has led to repentance. We could never get low enough to cover the faults
and arrogance we have already lived. Nor
do we have to, for God has covered us with the righteousness of His Son, and
when we come before Him in humble repentance, Jesus doesn’t shame us but exalts
us to His side in the glory of God’s heavenly wedding banquet.
Dear friends, through baptism and the preaching
of His Gospel, God made a transformation in us that qualifies us to stand
before His throne in humility so that He might raise us up to everlasting glory. His Word put living faith in hearts that once
were dead. His Word cut the arrogance
away that once rejected the Son as our Savior.
God’s Word is our hope and our joy, because God’s Word has granted glory
to all those in whom He has worked humble faith.
Anyone who rightly examines his life will see
that none of us has ever lived in perfect humility. Yet, for lowly sinners like you and me, the
Ruler of heaven and earth took a stand.
Not a stand of self-promotion, but an offering of His own holy, humble life
in place of ours so that His Father in heaven will receive us with joy as
children won for Him by the sacrifice of His own beloved Son, Jesus. Someday soon, whether while we still walk the
earth or after God has called us out of this life, The Lord will exalt the
humble, lifting all who have trusted in Jesus to glory and life
everlasting. Amen.
May the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all
times and in every way. The Lord be with
you all. Amen.
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