Luke 14:1-11; Ephesians
4:1-6; Proverbs 25:6-14
In the Name of the Father and of the
+ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
“Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it
holy.” That is the Third Commandment. That is why we are here today. No, it’s
not Saturday. It doesn’t really matter what day it is, but we gather on this
day because it is the Lord’s Day, the day of Jesus’ resurrection. Sabbath doesn’t mean Saturday. Sabbath means rest. The
Sabbath Day is a day to rest in the
Lord. Yes, it is true that the LORD commanded His people, and you, to not work.
There is even an account of a man who was caught gathering sticks on a Sabbath
who was put to death for His contempt. That is why some sects of Judaism are
prohibited to even flip on a light switch or to punch digits into a microwave
oven on a Sabbath. To perform any labor, regardless of how menial, is thought
to be a violation of the Sabbath law. Therefore, you can plainly see why Jesus fell
so quickly out of favor with the Pharisees. Jesus regularly helped and healed
people in need on the Sabbath. He encouraged His disciples to pluck grain and
eat on the Sabbath. But, should we therefore conclude that Jesus had contempt
for the Sabbath? Did Jesus have contempt for the LORD? No, of course not. But,
once again, we see that the Pharisees believed that they practiced the letter
of the law, which they truly didn’t, while they knew nothing of the spirit of
the law, which is love. Love is the fulfilling of the law. Doing the loving
thing is always the lawful thing.
The man who was executed for gathering
sticks on the Sabbath was doing so, not out of loving service, but out of
contempt for the Sabbath and for the LORD. Those who willfully neglect taking
rest in the LORD, time to hear His Word and receive His gifts and return to Him
thanks and praise do the same. Thus, Luther explains the Third Commandment in
His Small Catechism saying, “We should fear and love God so that we do not
despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn
it.” You see, there is absolutely nothing in this commandment about not
working, not serving, not doing what needs to be done to care for yourself and
others, but the Third Commandment is all about receiving – about setting aside
sacred time to rest in God’s Word and Gifts, to thank and to praise Him. If
your ox falls into a well on the Sabbath, by all means, help the poor beast and
pull him out! And, if anyone has need and you have the means and opportunity to
help them, even on a Sabbath, not only are you not prohibited by the Third
Commandment, but you are actually commanded to do the loving thing, to do the
lawful thing, and to help that person. As Jesus taught, “Just do it!” J
And so it was that Jesus was dining with
the Pharisees in the home of a Pharisee on a Sabbath day. You can be certain
that some goy (Gentile) prepared the meal, lit the lamps, and even opened the
door for the guests. The Pharisees were watching Jesus carefully. That is to
say that they were hoping to catch Him in some transgression of the law that
they could accuse Him and condemn Him. It was a trap. “And behold, there was a
man before Him who had dropsy.” Dropsy would be called edema today, a swelling
of the limbs due to excess water. One who suffered from dropsy in the first
century would have been considered to be especially unclean, both due to the
disfigurement it caused and due to the assumption that dropsy was a result of
immoral behavior. St. Luke introduces the man with dropsy saying “And behold!”
It almost sounds as if he miraculously appeared before Jesus; and maybe he did.
The Pharisees would not have permitted him in because of his uncleanness.
Perhaps Jesus saw him outside the window or passed him on his way in. However
he appeared there, the man with dropsy became an object lesson by which Jesus
would catch the Pharisees in His own trap.
When the man with dropsy appeared before
Him, Jesus turned to the lawyers and Pharisees and He asked them, “Is it lawful
to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” They could not answer Him a word, so they
remained silent. Though they wanted to say, “No, it is not lawful to heal on
the Sabbath,” they could not, for the law that was written on their hearts and
in their conscience convicted them. They knew that the spirit of the law was to
love, that love is always lawful. This was an opportunity for the lawyers and
Pharisees to repent, to be changed in their hearts and minds, and to be
cleansed, healed, and restored from their sin-sickness-unto-death. And, over
the course of Jesus’ ministry several did including Nicodemus and Saul.
However, most did not, but they hardened their hearts against Jesus and against
God’s law, against God Himself. In the end, they stood in firm opposition to
the LORD, even though they knew in their hearts that He was right and true and
innocent. They condemned Him and sent Him to the cross and murdered Him rather
than risk losing their power, wealth, and influence among the people.
Jesus did not hesitate. He was not ruled
by fear and coercion under the law, but was free in the spirit of the Law and
the grace of the Gospel that He embodied and which He was proclaiming to all
who felt the burden of their sins and uncleanness and cried out for mercy in
humility and repentance. “He took him and healed him and sent him away.” Then
Jesus pointed out the hypocrisy of the lawyers and Pharisees by reminding them
how they would without hesitation help their son or daughter or a beast of
burden that was in distress on a Sabbath, but they would not lift a finger to
help the man with dropsy, claiming obedience to the law of God as an excuse for
their lack of love, mercy, and compassion. Once again they had nothing to answer.
They remained silent, convicted by the truth and righteousness of the Word of
the LORD.
However, this incident wasn’t about the
law at all, at least, not for Jesus, but it was about the Gospel. That is why
Jesus quickly turns to teach about humility. Jesus knew the hearts of the
lawyers and Pharisees. They were filled with pride and self-righteousness.
Their reading of the law permitted them to judge and condemn others and to
justify themselves. They believed that they kept the law exceedingly well, and they
did in some respects, but, in truth, they had lowered the bar of the law in
order to make it more do-able, and yet kept that bar high enough that most
others fell short. It’s rather easy to keep the Sabbath if all it means is to
sit on your butt and not lift a finger to do anything or help anyone. However,
that is NOT what the Third Commandment commands. The Third Commandment, like
all the Commandments, commands love for God first and, consequently, love for
the neighbor – for all neighbors, at all times, without exception or
discrimination, even on a Sabbath, perhaps especially on a Sabbath.
Jesus knew that the lawyers and
Pharisees enjoyed and coveted the honor and prestige they had among the people.
Therefore He told them a parable about not seeking the highest places of honor
when invited to a feast or a banquet. Jesus instructed them to take the lowest
place that they might, perchance, be invited by the master of the feast to move
up higher, and then be honored in the presence of others since that means so
much to them. Jesus doesn’t care about the honor of men, but He knew that the
Pharisees did. Still, there was a barb in Jesus’ parable, for the entire
situation placed the Pharisees in a passive and receptive position: They were
invited to a feast. They might be invited to move up to a higher place. This
was not the way the lawyers and Pharisees imagined themselves. They were proud.
They assumed that they merited and deserved the invitation, that they merited
and deserved the place of honor. Their pride blinded them. They couldn’t grasp
the concept that, before the LORD, they were no more worthy, meritorious, or
deserving of honor than were notorious sinners – tax collectors and prostitutes
– or the unclean – lepers, Samaritans, Gentiles, the woman with the flow of
blood, or even the man with dropsy whom Jesus had just cleansed and healed
before them on a Sabbath. Indeed, that man was not invited to the feast by the
lawyers and Pharisees, but he was welcomed and honored by Jesus in their
presence and given the highest place – the love, mercy, compassion,
forgiveness, healing, and cleansing of Jesus, the Word of God made flesh, the
fulfillment of the Law of God, the Lord of the Sabbath and of us all.
“Everyone who exalts himself will be
humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” I suppose this is a law
statement to those whose hearts are proud and hard like the lawyers and the
Pharisees, but to those who are humble and broken, to those who confess and
acknowledge their sinful weakness and unworthiness before the LORD, it is pure,
beautiful, glorious, and liberating Gospel. And, that is what the invitation is
in Jesus’ parable – Gospel. You do not get into the Wedding Banquet of King
Jesus by your merit and worth, but you are invited by grace – grace alone,
received through faith alone, in the Word of God Jesus Christ alone. And,
though you do not merit a place of honor, you are honored with a place – a
place Jesus has prepared for you in His Father’s House, to which He will come
and raise you from death to reside forever with Him on the day of His return in
glory.
It is said that the cause of Lucifer’s
fall from grace was his pride, hence the phrase, “Pride goeth before the fall.”
I suspect that there was more to it than that, but there is no doubt that pride
was a significant part of his fall. However, pride takes many forms:
Self-righteousness, self-importance, selfishness, arrogance, rudeness,
insensitivity and lack of compassion and mercy, impatience, lack of
self-control, wrath, intolerance, lovelessness. Therefore St. Paul exhorts you
to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with
all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” This begins in
your home with your husband, wife, and children, and in the church, your family
of faith in Christ. Here is where you are given to love and endure and forgive,
so that you may be a light, leaven, and salt when you leave this place and
witness to Christ and the glory of the LORD in the world. Right here, in this
place and in your homes, more than anywhere else, you must humble yourself and
serve your brother and sister in Christ so that you may be equipped to love and
show mercy, compassion, and forgiveness to your neighbor in the world, be he
friend or foe. For, “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 and through all and in all.” The man
with dropsy, the lawyer and the Pharisee, the tax collector and the prostitute,
the homosexual, the tax cheat, the liar, the divorcee and the adulterer, the
petty thief, the gossip and the backbiter, the fearful and the hateful, the
unforgiving, and, yes, even you, are invited to the Wedding Feast. However, do
not come with your prideful and arrogant expectations of self-worth and
self-importance, but come in humility, in broken-heartedness, contrition, and
repentance and you will be honored. You will be honored with forgiveness and
healing and restoration and life that never ends with God the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. For, all are one in the LORD, “there is no distinction: For all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace
as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward
as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This is His gracious
invitation to you. As you have received, so must you also share, for this is
the fruit of repentance and love to the glory of God.
In
the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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