Proverbs 25:6-14; Ephesians 4:1-6; St Luke 14:1-11
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
When a man falls into a pit, you help him. That’s the Law. When a man falls into a pit, God helps him. That’s the Gospel.
Jesus is at a dinner on the Sabbath, a day on which work was prohibited. The other guests at the Sabbath dinner, especially the Pharisees, are watching Jesus closely. To see what He will do when confronted with a sick man. If Jesus denies him, He is not compassionate. If He heals him, He breaks the Sabbath law by working when He should not. Or so the allegation goes.
But the charge is really a trumped up one. The rabbis had already dealt with such problems. For example, the laws seemed to conflict when it came to circumcision. Circumcision had to be done on the eighth day after birth. But what if that day fell on the Sabbath? The circumcision took priority. The same was reasoned for other medical or rescue work. The Talmud, that rabbinic commentary on the Torah, reasons: “We know that the duty of saving life annuls the Sabbath.”
If an ox falls into a pit on the Sabbath do you not pull him out? And not only you, but you gather your friends and neighbors, perhaps employ the labor of another ox, dig and pull, and rescue the ox from the pit. By the end of the Sabbath you’ve done more work than a normal day, but still haven’t violated the Sabbath.
So when Jesus says, Which of you having a son or an ox that has fallen into a pit on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out? they have no answer because Jesus is following rabbinic reasoning: this man’s needs annul the Sabbath law. Only Jesus adds the caveat of “a son,” not a donkey. Not a beast, but a man. Not an animal, but a child. Who would leave him in the pit? This is how Jesus cares for His creation. Not only how He loves the man with dropsy, but also how He even loves the Pharisees who are sadly blinded by their pride.
You see, there is a symbolism going on that runs through all of Jesus’ teaching: this sick man is a symbol of the human race. The theme comes up again and again: the Prodigal Son wandered away, squandered his inheritance, became enslaves and starving. That’s a good picture of death. Wandering far from our heavenly Father’s Home. The prodigal is you. He is all mankind. The Good Samaritan must rescue the man who was robbed, beaten, and left to die in the ditch.
And that’s you, too. No matter how strong you are now, no matter how young you are now, no matter how wealthy or happy or successful you are now, you end up in a pit. You end up in a grave.
But even before that, and what puts you there, is the contagion within you. The sickness that fills you with anxiety and dread. What makes you slave to your lust, a slave to your hunger. The passions that drive you to drink too much. That urge you to move in with your boyfriend. The passions that expel unwholesome words from your mouth, making you impatient with your husband or your children. Pride is the first sin. It is the sin of that ancient serpent, the devil. And in sinking his fangs into Adam and Eve, he has infected the entire human race.
When you act selfishly, when you give in to your anger, when you regard yourself higher than others, that is pride. That is when you are doing precisely what Jesus identifies in the Pharisees. Even the small thing like their choice of seat at the dinner table reflected the condition of their heart, and yours, full of pride, wanting the praise and respect of others. Every one of us is the creature at the bottom of the pit.
Our only hope of rescue is One who will come into our pit, come breath our poisoned air, come absorb our infection in Himself, come enter our hell to effect our rescue. That is the work of our Lord Jesus. The only One who can help. The only one who has compassion on His poor creatures as His dear children; as sons in the pit on the Sabbath. You can’t pull yourself out by your boot straps. But He humbles Himself to exult you. He stoops and makes you to sit with kings. A man falls into a pit and God helps him. That is the Gospel.
So what was the Sabbath for? Well the first Sabbath, the seventh day of creation, indicated the perfection of creation. Even the closing of each day with It was good was an indication of the perfection of God’s handiwork according to His Word and will. Not only was it good as opposed to bad, but is was good for it was in perfect harmony with God’s will.
But once sin was introduced into the creation, and with it death, the Sabbath was given not as rule for pleasing God, but as a blessing. A day off from work is not a burden to be kept, but a gift to be received.
But there is something deeper in the blessing of the Sabbath: God works where you cannot. God supplies what you lack. He works on the Sabbath. He feeds the 5,000. They do nothing but receive. He commands His children not to gather manna on the Sabbath, for He would feed them. When people gathered anyway, the sin was not in working. The sin was in not trusting that God would do what He said. The sin was in not recognizing that God is the worker. God is the Creator. Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. And the Lord of the Sabbath works on the Sabbath.
He works for you and in you today, as He gathers you here to the wedding feast. Which seat do you chose? Its not about which pews in which we habitually sit. Its about how you approach the King. In humility? Or pride?
Pride seeks everything - including heaven and God Himself - on one’s own terms. Humility seeks everything, especially heaven and God Himself on His terms. Pride glorifies the self. The rugged individual, the achiever, the self-made man, the independent woman. Humility glorifies God and abandons every personal claim to self-righteousness.
The confession of sins puts you in the right place. You naturally want to put yourself up higher, but the confession puts you in the pit, sitting in the ash heap with old Job, scrapping our sins with a potsherd, lamenting the day of our birth. And that’s right where we belong, poor, miserable sinners belong. You cannot pull yourself out. But God does. He bends down low in the absolution, extends His arm, and raises you, His dear children, out of the pit on the Sabbath day. This is not only the work of Jesus, this is the work of the Blessed Holy Trinity, even as you are forgiven all your sins in His Name. The Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
He came among us and He took the low spot - not just to set us an example. Oh, He is an example, but He is much more. He did it because He wanted us to have glory. He looked at you and thought, “This one is precious and it would be the joy of My heart to see the holy angels serving him. To see her sitting at the table in my Father’s kingdom as a beloved daughter. To see him filled with the joy of my Father’s love.”
You see, He was humble because He didn’t look at Himself - He looked at you. He did everything that He did so that you could be exalted and blessed and lifted up. Amazing! To give you the seat of honor at His Father’s table, He chose the seat of shame upon the cross. To cleanse you with living water, He bled. To pour out on you His Holy Spirit, He gave up His Spirit on Calvary’s Tree. To supply you with life-giving bread, He gave up His flesh to death.
In everything, then, He humbled Himself so that you might be lifted high. That’s the miracle our readings celebrate today. You have a God who is humble! Always looking out for you and not for Himself. A God looking out for Himself would never have gone to the Cross.
But do you see, then, He lifts you up - all the way up to His humility! He invites you into the joy of His way of life where the focus isn’t on you, but on His Father and the people He has seen fit to surround you with. He lifts you up so that you can be humble with Him, focused on others. Noticing when someone’s hurting, grieving, heart-broken. He frees you from the obsession with yourself and your own little world. He would make your heart a chalice to hold a few drops of this world’s blood and tears.
His Supper frees you for that, dear Christians. He bodies and bloods you one to another, members of one body, sharing one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, with one God and Father of all, over all and through all and in all. You don’t look at each other the same way again after sharing together in this Feast. You walk away from it, delighting in the honor He has bestowed on your brothers and sisters - praying for and seeking out those who are not with us - and how He has given them a seat of glory in His presence. And you’re invited too!
But it doesn’t stop here. Out you go into the world. Out to all those still stuck in the pit, trapped in sin and death. In Christ you are freed to take the low place, that is, freed to focus on them. To notice them in their hurts and to offer to them the joy of a place with you where a nail-scared hand wipes away the tears forever.
If a man falls into a pit and you pull him out that is the Law. But our message to a world in death is not “Be better! Try harder! Pick yourself up!” Rather, “There is a Better One, the Good One, who joined us in this pit. He Himself suffered here and has raised you up. He now invites you to join Him saying, Fried, go up higher.
Come forward, then, dear children, move up higher to the wedding feast of the Son of the King who feeds you on Himself, His flesh and blood, out of the pit, out of death, raised to eternal life, never to die again. Watch and listen closely. He bestows this immortal gift to you. For when a man falls into a pit, God helps him. That’s the Gospel. And it is for you.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
When a man falls into a pit, you help him. That’s the Law. When a man falls into a pit, God helps him. That’s the Gospel.
Jesus is at a dinner on the Sabbath, a day on which work was prohibited. The other guests at the Sabbath dinner, especially the Pharisees, are watching Jesus closely. To see what He will do when confronted with a sick man. If Jesus denies him, He is not compassionate. If He heals him, He breaks the Sabbath law by working when He should not. Or so the allegation goes.
But the charge is really a trumped up one. The rabbis had already dealt with such problems. For example, the laws seemed to conflict when it came to circumcision. Circumcision had to be done on the eighth day after birth. But what if that day fell on the Sabbath? The circumcision took priority. The same was reasoned for other medical or rescue work. The Talmud, that rabbinic commentary on the Torah, reasons: “We know that the duty of saving life annuls the Sabbath.”
If an ox falls into a pit on the Sabbath do you not pull him out? And not only you, but you gather your friends and neighbors, perhaps employ the labor of another ox, dig and pull, and rescue the ox from the pit. By the end of the Sabbath you’ve done more work than a normal day, but still haven’t violated the Sabbath.
So when Jesus says, Which of you having a son or an ox that has fallen into a pit on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out? they have no answer because Jesus is following rabbinic reasoning: this man’s needs annul the Sabbath law. Only Jesus adds the caveat of “a son,” not a donkey. Not a beast, but a man. Not an animal, but a child. Who would leave him in the pit? This is how Jesus cares for His creation. Not only how He loves the man with dropsy, but also how He even loves the Pharisees who are sadly blinded by their pride.
You see, there is a symbolism going on that runs through all of Jesus’ teaching: this sick man is a symbol of the human race. The theme comes up again and again: the Prodigal Son wandered away, squandered his inheritance, became enslaves and starving. That’s a good picture of death. Wandering far from our heavenly Father’s Home. The prodigal is you. He is all mankind. The Good Samaritan must rescue the man who was robbed, beaten, and left to die in the ditch.
And that’s you, too. No matter how strong you are now, no matter how young you are now, no matter how wealthy or happy or successful you are now, you end up in a pit. You end up in a grave.
But even before that, and what puts you there, is the contagion within you. The sickness that fills you with anxiety and dread. What makes you slave to your lust, a slave to your hunger. The passions that drive you to drink too much. That urge you to move in with your boyfriend. The passions that expel unwholesome words from your mouth, making you impatient with your husband or your children. Pride is the first sin. It is the sin of that ancient serpent, the devil. And in sinking his fangs into Adam and Eve, he has infected the entire human race.
When you act selfishly, when you give in to your anger, when you regard yourself higher than others, that is pride. That is when you are doing precisely what Jesus identifies in the Pharisees. Even the small thing like their choice of seat at the dinner table reflected the condition of their heart, and yours, full of pride, wanting the praise and respect of others. Every one of us is the creature at the bottom of the pit.
Our only hope of rescue is One who will come into our pit, come breath our poisoned air, come absorb our infection in Himself, come enter our hell to effect our rescue. That is the work of our Lord Jesus. The only One who can help. The only one who has compassion on His poor creatures as His dear children; as sons in the pit on the Sabbath. You can’t pull yourself out by your boot straps. But He humbles Himself to exult you. He stoops and makes you to sit with kings. A man falls into a pit and God helps him. That is the Gospel.
So what was the Sabbath for? Well the first Sabbath, the seventh day of creation, indicated the perfection of creation. Even the closing of each day with It was good was an indication of the perfection of God’s handiwork according to His Word and will. Not only was it good as opposed to bad, but is was good for it was in perfect harmony with God’s will.
But once sin was introduced into the creation, and with it death, the Sabbath was given not as rule for pleasing God, but as a blessing. A day off from work is not a burden to be kept, but a gift to be received.
But there is something deeper in the blessing of the Sabbath: God works where you cannot. God supplies what you lack. He works on the Sabbath. He feeds the 5,000. They do nothing but receive. He commands His children not to gather manna on the Sabbath, for He would feed them. When people gathered anyway, the sin was not in working. The sin was in not trusting that God would do what He said. The sin was in not recognizing that God is the worker. God is the Creator. Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. And the Lord of the Sabbath works on the Sabbath.
He works for you and in you today, as He gathers you here to the wedding feast. Which seat do you chose? Its not about which pews in which we habitually sit. Its about how you approach the King. In humility? Or pride?
Pride seeks everything - including heaven and God Himself - on one’s own terms. Humility seeks everything, especially heaven and God Himself on His terms. Pride glorifies the self. The rugged individual, the achiever, the self-made man, the independent woman. Humility glorifies God and abandons every personal claim to self-righteousness.
The confession of sins puts you in the right place. You naturally want to put yourself up higher, but the confession puts you in the pit, sitting in the ash heap with old Job, scrapping our sins with a potsherd, lamenting the day of our birth. And that’s right where we belong, poor, miserable sinners belong. You cannot pull yourself out. But God does. He bends down low in the absolution, extends His arm, and raises you, His dear children, out of the pit on the Sabbath day. This is not only the work of Jesus, this is the work of the Blessed Holy Trinity, even as you are forgiven all your sins in His Name. The Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
He came among us and He took the low spot - not just to set us an example. Oh, He is an example, but He is much more. He did it because He wanted us to have glory. He looked at you and thought, “This one is precious and it would be the joy of My heart to see the holy angels serving him. To see her sitting at the table in my Father’s kingdom as a beloved daughter. To see him filled with the joy of my Father’s love.”
You see, He was humble because He didn’t look at Himself - He looked at you. He did everything that He did so that you could be exalted and blessed and lifted up. Amazing! To give you the seat of honor at His Father’s table, He chose the seat of shame upon the cross. To cleanse you with living water, He bled. To pour out on you His Holy Spirit, He gave up His Spirit on Calvary’s Tree. To supply you with life-giving bread, He gave up His flesh to death.
In everything, then, He humbled Himself so that you might be lifted high. That’s the miracle our readings celebrate today. You have a God who is humble! Always looking out for you and not for Himself. A God looking out for Himself would never have gone to the Cross.
But do you see, then, He lifts you up - all the way up to His humility! He invites you into the joy of His way of life where the focus isn’t on you, but on His Father and the people He has seen fit to surround you with. He lifts you up so that you can be humble with Him, focused on others. Noticing when someone’s hurting, grieving, heart-broken. He frees you from the obsession with yourself and your own little world. He would make your heart a chalice to hold a few drops of this world’s blood and tears.
His Supper frees you for that, dear Christians. He bodies and bloods you one to another, members of one body, sharing one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, with one God and Father of all, over all and through all and in all. You don’t look at each other the same way again after sharing together in this Feast. You walk away from it, delighting in the honor He has bestowed on your brothers and sisters - praying for and seeking out those who are not with us - and how He has given them a seat of glory in His presence. And you’re invited too!
But it doesn’t stop here. Out you go into the world. Out to all those still stuck in the pit, trapped in sin and death. In Christ you are freed to take the low place, that is, freed to focus on them. To notice them in their hurts and to offer to them the joy of a place with you where a nail-scared hand wipes away the tears forever.
If a man falls into a pit and you pull him out that is the Law. But our message to a world in death is not “Be better! Try harder! Pick yourself up!” Rather, “There is a Better One, the Good One, who joined us in this pit. He Himself suffered here and has raised you up. He now invites you to join Him saying, Fried, go up higher.
Come forward, then, dear children, move up higher to the wedding feast of the Son of the King who feeds you on Himself, His flesh and blood, out of the pit, out of death, raised to eternal life, never to die again. Watch and listen closely. He bestows this immortal gift to you. For when a man falls into a pit, God helps him. That’s the Gospel. And it is for you.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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