Proverbs 25:6-14; Ephesians 4:1-6; St Luke 14:1-11
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Dear people loved by God, recall the narrative history of the creation of the heavens and the earth recorded by Moses in Genesis 1 and 2. How is the start and finish of each literal, 24hour day signified? There was evening and there was morning. Day 1. Day 2. Day 3. And so on. For the Hebrew, from the time of creation, the day began the night before. Thus the Sabbath, which is celebrated on Saturday, the seventh day, the day on which the Lord our God rested from all His work of creation, began after sundown on Friday.
So it is that Jesus is partaking in the Sabbath evening Seder one Friday at the house of the ruler of the Pharisees. He isn’t merely “dining,” as our English translation renders it. He went to eat bread. This is the way St Luke often speaks. It is intentional. It is a catechetical inclusion. “To eat bread” refers back to the eating of unleavened bread at the first Passover in Egypt, the Lamb and its blood on the doorpost, the Angel of Death and the Exodus.
But to eat bread also points forward to the fulfilling of all those Passovers and Old Testament feasts in the Sacrament of the Altar and the Feast of the Lamb in His kingdom which has no end. What our crucified and risen Lord Jesus does with two disciples on the road to Emmaus, He is already doing here around the table with the Pharisees. As St Luke is at pains to point out and what the Six Chief Parts summarize, is that God has always worked in the same way since the beginning. This is how He teaches. This is how we learn.
But rather than hearing His words as they broken bread together, rather than listen to Jesus’ catechesis, the Pharisees were watching Him carefully. They are looking for a way to catch Him, ensnare Him, trap Him in some violation of the Sabbath. How wicked their motives to be near Jesus, to use Him for their own ends and put themselves forward in the king’s presence. May God in His mercy not allow us to use Jesus to our own ends! Protect us, dear Father, from abusing Your compassion and charity and taking advantage of Your mercy while we boast and brag of our righteousness.
Is it a trap, then? Did they plant this poor fellow with dropsy? Though our text does not indicate, make no mistake that those who use God to their own ends will not be concerned with using a fellow human being. And often vice versa.
Whether it is a trap or not, Jesus will not remain silent and distant when a child of our heavenly Father, who is already ensnared by the devil in sickness and shame, is also being used as the bait and manipulative of self-righteous aggrandizers. So He masterfully springs their trap, heals the man, sends him away, and, to top it all, manages to catch the Pharisees and lawyers in their own duplicity!
For which one of them would not immediately retrieve a beast which has fallen into a pit on the Sabbath?! Let alone a child? This man with dropsy is a child of our Father in heaven and he had fallen into the waterless pit of illness, uncleanness, despair and sorrow. Jesus, by His Word, with compassion and love, pulls him out. It is as we heard on Thursday morning from the Gospel reading for the Feast of St Matthew, Jesus says to the Pharisees who grumble that He is eating with tax collectors and sinners, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners (Mt 9:13).
Those who consider themselves righteous and wise before the Lord, who put themselves forward in the kings presence and assume the seats of honor, are like clouds and wind without rain. All hot air and blowhards, but lacking the refreshing showers of mercy and compassion.
Which brings us to the second half of our text. Jesus who has been watched carefully by these Pharisees is doing a little people watching of His own. He is an astute observer of human nature and knows what is in man; that is, He knows our tendency to think more highly of ourselves than we ought, our habit of seeking attention and collecting praise. He knows we are narcissists at heart. Such is the effect of Adam’s fall. All his children are intolerably selfish. We are like two-year olds demanding their toys. We just get better at hiding as we get older or passing it off as virtue rather than vice.
Jesus is about to deliver to them a lesson in end-times table etiquette; He will give them a word fitly spoken, like apples of gold in a setting of silver. He will speak proverbially. Well here is another fitting proverb: pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall (Prov 16:18). It is pride that killed the cat, not curiosity. It was pride that brought down Lucifer. It was pride that blinded the eyes and stopped the ears of Adam and Eve. It is in pride that those invited to the Sabbath Seder chose the places of honor.
And it is pride that causes us to think highly of ourselves, to place ourselves above others, to take the seats of honor and to dismiss the humanity of those in front of us who need mercy. This is what the disciples did in the Upper Room the night of Jesus’ betrayal. They argued about which of them was the greatest (Lk 22:24-27)! Before we pass judgment, consider, are we really any different?
Repentance is needed. The Great Reversal - everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted - is a call to repentance, to turn away from our self-aggrandizement and boasting, to despair of our works and our accomplishments. It is a call to be a completely different person in heart and mind. To approach not only the throne of the Father, but also one another, in humility, as St Paul writes to the Ephesians.
With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirt in the bond of peace.
For the Great Reversal - the lowering of those self-exulted and the raising of the humble - is seen ultimately not in your actions and good works, but in the salvific action and the great work of our Lord Jesus Christ for our justification.
As St Paul writes to the Philippians, Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:5-11).
Consider this, beloved, it was at the final Passover in which Jesus, laying aside His outer garment, wrapped Himself in the apron, and washed the feet of the disciples. He is the greatest at the Table, yet He took the place of the lowest servant. For this is what our Lord has done and continues to do, always, since before the foundation of the world. He serves in infinite love and mercy. Even on the Sabbath!
For it is at the same meal - the Last Supper, the Lord’s Supper - at which Jesus calls His disciples friends. No longer servants, not just disciples, but friends.
So does He also do for you! He has pulled you up from the pit like a helpless ox. He has pulled you up from the grave and has made you a son. He has washed you, as He did the feet of the Twelve, when He cleansed you in body and soul in Holy Baptism. And raising you up in Himself, by His Incarnation, by His death and resurrection and ascension, He exalts you in Himself and gives you a seat the heavenly banquet, saying, Friend, move up higher.
Move up from the lowest place to the place of honor. And not just any place of honor at a Sabbath Seder. No. The place of honor - where? - Jesus says, When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast. Where is the place of honor at a wedding? But at the head table of course! You, dear Christians, the one body and one Spirit of and in Christ, are His Church, His Bride, radiant and splendid, washed and sanctified, justified and set free, and you are given the seat of honor right next to our heavenly Bridegroom, Jesus Christ.
For He not only loves you, He likes you too. As He was not ashamed to take this man wth dropsy and heal him, so He is not ashamed of you. He heals you of your sin and iniquities and gives you to partake of the feast.
For Christ Jesus is your true Sabbath. He is your Rest and Hope and Life and Light. He invites you to His Table, to partake with great honor, of His Body and Blood. Not that you are worthy in yourself, nor trust in your righteous deeds, but you believe His word, Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. That which you receive here in faith, namely the true Body and precious Blood of Christ, not only strengthens saving faith, but likewise engenders love and good works toward your neighbor in need, so that we hear and learn again from Jesus our Catechist, how to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called; that is, to delight in the Law of the Lord and mediate on it day and night, seeing just how blessed it is for the good of my neighbor.
Indeed it is lawful and meet, right, and salutary, that our Lord Jesus heal us, again and again, on the Sabbath. As He does here, when you are invited to His House to eat bread that is His Body and partake of the Cup of Salvation.
For this is how He has always acted and how He shall likewise do at the last when He shall raise you up from your graves and seat you with Himself in the marriage feast of the Lamb in His kingdom which shall have no end.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Dear people loved by God, recall the narrative history of the creation of the heavens and the earth recorded by Moses in Genesis 1 and 2. How is the start and finish of each literal, 24hour day signified? There was evening and there was morning. Day 1. Day 2. Day 3. And so on. For the Hebrew, from the time of creation, the day began the night before. Thus the Sabbath, which is celebrated on Saturday, the seventh day, the day on which the Lord our God rested from all His work of creation, began after sundown on Friday.
So it is that Jesus is partaking in the Sabbath evening Seder one Friday at the house of the ruler of the Pharisees. He isn’t merely “dining,” as our English translation renders it. He went to eat bread. This is the way St Luke often speaks. It is intentional. It is a catechetical inclusion. “To eat bread” refers back to the eating of unleavened bread at the first Passover in Egypt, the Lamb and its blood on the doorpost, the Angel of Death and the Exodus.
But to eat bread also points forward to the fulfilling of all those Passovers and Old Testament feasts in the Sacrament of the Altar and the Feast of the Lamb in His kingdom which has no end. What our crucified and risen Lord Jesus does with two disciples on the road to Emmaus, He is already doing here around the table with the Pharisees. As St Luke is at pains to point out and what the Six Chief Parts summarize, is that God has always worked in the same way since the beginning. This is how He teaches. This is how we learn.
But rather than hearing His words as they broken bread together, rather than listen to Jesus’ catechesis, the Pharisees were watching Him carefully. They are looking for a way to catch Him, ensnare Him, trap Him in some violation of the Sabbath. How wicked their motives to be near Jesus, to use Him for their own ends and put themselves forward in the king’s presence. May God in His mercy not allow us to use Jesus to our own ends! Protect us, dear Father, from abusing Your compassion and charity and taking advantage of Your mercy while we boast and brag of our righteousness.
Is it a trap, then? Did they plant this poor fellow with dropsy? Though our text does not indicate, make no mistake that those who use God to their own ends will not be concerned with using a fellow human being. And often vice versa.
Whether it is a trap or not, Jesus will not remain silent and distant when a child of our heavenly Father, who is already ensnared by the devil in sickness and shame, is also being used as the bait and manipulative of self-righteous aggrandizers. So He masterfully springs their trap, heals the man, sends him away, and, to top it all, manages to catch the Pharisees and lawyers in their own duplicity!
For which one of them would not immediately retrieve a beast which has fallen into a pit on the Sabbath?! Let alone a child? This man with dropsy is a child of our Father in heaven and he had fallen into the waterless pit of illness, uncleanness, despair and sorrow. Jesus, by His Word, with compassion and love, pulls him out. It is as we heard on Thursday morning from the Gospel reading for the Feast of St Matthew, Jesus says to the Pharisees who grumble that He is eating with tax collectors and sinners, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners (Mt 9:13).
Those who consider themselves righteous and wise before the Lord, who put themselves forward in the kings presence and assume the seats of honor, are like clouds and wind without rain. All hot air and blowhards, but lacking the refreshing showers of mercy and compassion.
Which brings us to the second half of our text. Jesus who has been watched carefully by these Pharisees is doing a little people watching of His own. He is an astute observer of human nature and knows what is in man; that is, He knows our tendency to think more highly of ourselves than we ought, our habit of seeking attention and collecting praise. He knows we are narcissists at heart. Such is the effect of Adam’s fall. All his children are intolerably selfish. We are like two-year olds demanding their toys. We just get better at hiding as we get older or passing it off as virtue rather than vice.
Jesus is about to deliver to them a lesson in end-times table etiquette; He will give them a word fitly spoken, like apples of gold in a setting of silver. He will speak proverbially. Well here is another fitting proverb: pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall (Prov 16:18). It is pride that killed the cat, not curiosity. It was pride that brought down Lucifer. It was pride that blinded the eyes and stopped the ears of Adam and Eve. It is in pride that those invited to the Sabbath Seder chose the places of honor.
And it is pride that causes us to think highly of ourselves, to place ourselves above others, to take the seats of honor and to dismiss the humanity of those in front of us who need mercy. This is what the disciples did in the Upper Room the night of Jesus’ betrayal. They argued about which of them was the greatest (Lk 22:24-27)! Before we pass judgment, consider, are we really any different?
Repentance is needed. The Great Reversal - everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted - is a call to repentance, to turn away from our self-aggrandizement and boasting, to despair of our works and our accomplishments. It is a call to be a completely different person in heart and mind. To approach not only the throne of the Father, but also one another, in humility, as St Paul writes to the Ephesians.
With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirt in the bond of peace.
For the Great Reversal - the lowering of those self-exulted and the raising of the humble - is seen ultimately not in your actions and good works, but in the salvific action and the great work of our Lord Jesus Christ for our justification.
As St Paul writes to the Philippians, Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:5-11).
Consider this, beloved, it was at the final Passover in which Jesus, laying aside His outer garment, wrapped Himself in the apron, and washed the feet of the disciples. He is the greatest at the Table, yet He took the place of the lowest servant. For this is what our Lord has done and continues to do, always, since before the foundation of the world. He serves in infinite love and mercy. Even on the Sabbath!
For it is at the same meal - the Last Supper, the Lord’s Supper - at which Jesus calls His disciples friends. No longer servants, not just disciples, but friends.
So does He also do for you! He has pulled you up from the pit like a helpless ox. He has pulled you up from the grave and has made you a son. He has washed you, as He did the feet of the Twelve, when He cleansed you in body and soul in Holy Baptism. And raising you up in Himself, by His Incarnation, by His death and resurrection and ascension, He exalts you in Himself and gives you a seat the heavenly banquet, saying, Friend, move up higher.
Move up from the lowest place to the place of honor. And not just any place of honor at a Sabbath Seder. No. The place of honor - where? - Jesus says, When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast. Where is the place of honor at a wedding? But at the head table of course! You, dear Christians, the one body and one Spirit of and in Christ, are His Church, His Bride, radiant and splendid, washed and sanctified, justified and set free, and you are given the seat of honor right next to our heavenly Bridegroom, Jesus Christ.
For He not only loves you, He likes you too. As He was not ashamed to take this man wth dropsy and heal him, so He is not ashamed of you. He heals you of your sin and iniquities and gives you to partake of the feast.
For Christ Jesus is your true Sabbath. He is your Rest and Hope and Life and Light. He invites you to His Table, to partake with great honor, of His Body and Blood. Not that you are worthy in yourself, nor trust in your righteous deeds, but you believe His word, Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. That which you receive here in faith, namely the true Body and precious Blood of Christ, not only strengthens saving faith, but likewise engenders love and good works toward your neighbor in need, so that we hear and learn again from Jesus our Catechist, how to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called; that is, to delight in the Law of the Lord and mediate on it day and night, seeing just how blessed it is for the good of my neighbor.
Indeed it is lawful and meet, right, and salutary, that our Lord Jesus heal us, again and again, on the Sabbath. As He does here, when you are invited to His House to eat bread that is His Body and partake of the Cup of Salvation.
For this is how He has always acted and how He shall likewise do at the last when He shall raise you up from your graves and seat you with Himself in the marriage feast of the Lamb in His kingdom which shall have no end.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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