Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity
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Luke 14:1-11
Luke 14:1-11
My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, while Jesus walked the earth, he was doing battle not only with the devil to throw him down, but also was confronting forces that sought to destroy him for they hated what it was that He taught and what He was doing.
In our gospel lesson today, Jesus is invited to a house of a ruler of the pharisees, and when he arrives there, there is another man who has been invited that has an ailment known as dropsy or edema, which in the book of Leviticus is considered an unclean disease. Now the Pharisees wouldn’t even eat with a gentile as they thought someone who was not a jew was unclean, and so this man was really here because the Pharisees had set a trap to see if Jesus would heal him on the Sabbath, which they considered work and then claim He disobeyed God’s command to rest on the sabbath was no prophet but a sinner.
Inviting this man also served as a way to mock Jesus because Jesus ate with sinners and tax collectors, those who are unclean. So what did they provide at the meal? An unclean man so Jesus has someone to associate with. So even if they can’t condemn, this is at least a cheapshot against Him. Which is why they stay silent, when Jesus challenges them on what they are doing, He highlights their shameful behavior.
Now why does Jesus send him away after healing him? Because Leviticus says that He must present himself to the priests for evaluation if he is clean, and must be examined 7 days later before he is considered clean. If Jesus had Him stay without fulfilling the laws for cleanliness then they will condemn Jesus for violating the Laws of cleanliness. But he walked through this minefield to take a seat at their table.
This is not the first time that Jesus and the pharisees had gone at it, he had already told them that they focused on the wrong things and thought that as long as they were shiny and clean on the outside that they would be ok. But if you only clean the outside of the cup, is the cup clean? No! But this is what they are doing, trying to show to the world that they are acceptable in God’s sight, while inside they are full of all manner sin and wickedness.
Now I say all of this because it should make a bit more sense, why Jesus goes on the offensive here, that is important to remember for there is this parable and the parable that come after it, where Jesus condemns not only the guests for their behavior, but also the one who invited them to the feast. Jesus condemns the sin that is known as Pride, and condemns all of those who think of themselves quite highly. Instead of realizing that all of us come from and God and the only things we have come from Him.
Now pride can take many forms, but it is still a deadly sin because at the heart of pride goes back to our sin that we can be like god, and we try to replace God. If you look through the Scriptures you will find many places where pride is condemned, and even the ancient pagans recognized pride as a deadly flaw within its heroes.
The form that pride took here with the Pharisees was the belief that they were keeping God’s Law and that they were doing it better than everyone else. Indeed on the outside you would be hard pressed to find people who, at least on the outside, kept God’s Old Testament covenant and cleanliness laws. When it came to their tithe, they even weighed out the spices from their garden to give the appropriate amount, they never missed a sabbath, they only ate specific food, they never worked on the Sabbath. These works by themselves there was nothing wrong with, the problem was in their heart, that they looked at it and that they looked down on their neighbors. Because of how great they were at keeping the Law.
Now we are studying Law and Gospel, what do you think is meant for these men? Law to show them their sinfulness. If you remember last week the Law is meant for secure sinners who live comfortably in their sin and are unwilling to quit a particular sin. This is why Jesus says what He says and hits them quite hard with the Law for they are entrenched in the sin of Pride, but he does this, not because he hates, them, quite the contrary. He sat down at that table because He loves them.
If you were to ask most people they would think that Jesus only loved the man that he healed, the one the pharisees had brought before him to use as a test, but Jesus stayed at this banquet for a purpose to save sinners even like the pharisees. He did that by showing them their sin, and showing them that they had more ugliness inside of their hearts, than the man with dropsy had on the outside. He could have just left the pharisees in their sins and walked away from, just like he could have walked away from the man with dropsy, but Jesus didn’t.
He earnestly desired their salvation and that is why Christ humbled Himself for their sake. Can you imagine staying at a feast where you have gone because the people are there to catch you in doing something wrong, that they talk about you behind your back, and before the meal even started pulled someone in to trip you up. Would you stay where you are not welcome?
But Jesus humbled himself for their sake, and brought to them the truth that they might repent. This may surprise us but look there at the Cross. For what does the Bible say in Philippians? Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
He so loved mankind, not only the man that he healed but also the pharisees that desired his death, but He humbled himself for our sake. Consider that what it means that Jesus is God in the flesh, that He is the one through whom all things were made, the one was there at Creation, and through Him were the stars, the moon, the earth created. That legions of angels sing his praises, and then He lowers Himself and sets aside his divine majesty and power and might to become a servant, indeed a slave, to bear our sins, and suffer to save us. That is who is there at the feast, with the Pharisees mocking him. How great is His love for us that he would lower himself for our sake.
Now you, my dear Christian, you are also called to set aside your pride, and lay it down, not because being humble will save you, for Christ has already done that for you. But because we understand who we are as sinners, that we have nothing to be proud of. You have not kept the law of God as you should, you have failed, and no matter how clean you might look on the outside inside you are still a sinner, some just hide it better than others.
What can any of us boast about when everything we have came from God. We have received everything from God’s hand. Even our faith, our salvation those are gifts that God has given to us. Rather let us see the great mercy that God has had on us not while we were good or righteous but while we were yet sinners. This will humble our hearts and make us realize that we have nothing to claim on our own but everything we have received is a gift that comes from God above. If you ever looked down your nose at your neighbor, because of their sin, you are the pharisee in this lesson.
But that is why God washed you, not just on the outside but in baptism It was a lavish washing away of sins by the power of the holy spirit not just on the outside but on the inside as well. That you might have a new heart, another gift from God, that you were brought from death to life.
This helps us resist the sin of pride, and lay it to the side. For when you look at your neighbor who is in need, be it the man whose uncleanness was readily apparent not only to you but to him as well. You can show Love to him for how different is he from you? When you run into the Pharisee that proud soul, you also understand that temptation as well for who amongst us hasn’t worshipped the idol of ourselves that we will take care of things all on our own, and seen someone else as being weak or foolish. To those we speak Christ’s Word of Law, reminding them that lest their shame be public it is better to think lowly of oneself and to be raised up by others. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. But both of these things must be motivated by Love, not the love that the world has for each other, but the Love that is found there on the Cross that flowed down to you.
For we are only able to Love because God first loved us, and that means we will at times be uncomfortable, we will be subject to insults, hardships, mockery, and the list goes on, for that is what happened to Christ. But we want what Christ wants for all people to be saved, and to that end we are willing to lay aside our pride to help others.
Now my brothers and sisters in Christ, this is hard, for our world does hold up pride, and teaches us to scorn and hate those that don’t agree with us, think like us, or behave like us. But see what Jesus has done for you how He did not shrink back, but went forward to save sinners like the man he healed, and the Pharisees, and even a poor miserable sinner like you. Then you will appreciate His love, and that love will overflow to your neighbors and help them in their hour need just as Christ helped you. In Jesus name. Amen.