Proverbs 25:6-14; Ephesians 4:1-6; St Luke 14:1-11
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
When our Lord Jesus Christ does one of His wonderful miracles, providing healing to the body, there is always more going on there than medical relief. When He heals someone of blindness, He’s not only interested in that man being able to view the beautiful creation all around him, the blues and reds and yellows, but that he also have faith. Eyes to “see” what our Lord Christ is doing in and through His Word. When He heals a paralyzed man, He’s not only concerned that the guy can walk around in this life, but that he walk by faith in Jesus Christ that he may enter into the life of the world to come. There’s always more going on that we think.
One Sabbath, when Jesus went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching Him carefully. And behold, there was a man before Him who had dropsy. We don’t use this term anymore. Dropsy. υδρωπικος. Technically composed of two Greek words translated “water” and “face.” It was the ancient designation for swelling. We call it edema. Swelling of the legs, peripheral edema. Accumulation of fluid in the lungs, pulmonary edema. Swelling around the brain, cerebral edema.
But this isn't a medical lesson. There’s more going on here. Jesus isn’t only interested in getting the water out. He desires to save this man in both body and soul. He has dropsy. υδρωπικος. A swollen face, a puffy face. It means his head was too big.
And you know what that means. You don’t like that guy at work because he has a “big head.” When you praise someone you sarcastically say, “Don’t let it go to your head.” “Her head is swollen with pride, I wish someone would burst her bubble.” Perhaps no sin is more associated with a body part than pride. Pride is associated with the head.
We all walk around with big heads. Heads swollen with pride. We are bloated with vanity. Puffed up with pride. Why else would a woman lie about her weight on her driver’s license? Why else would a man lie about his height or his salary? Why do we drop names and exaggerate our accomplishments? We hastily bring into the court of public opinion all the juicy gossip we have heard and seen. We have big heads. This is the original sin. The source of all other sin.
We have such big heads that we even look down on God. We put ourselves forward in the King’s presence, as Solomon says. God is like a bellhop to us. We want Him around when we need Him, but otherwise it’s “you can go now. I’ll ring when I need you.” Pridefully, we assume that we are in control. We presume that our lives, our futures, and our very selves belong not to God but to us. This is indicative of how we plan our lives - as though God didn’t even exist, as if His Word has nothing to say on these subjects. Our jobs, our homes, our vacations, our dating prospects, even the number of children “we want.” Talk about pride.
And it has been this way ever since Adam and Eve grabbed for control in the Garden. Since they took counsel with the Prince of this World against the Lord and against His Anointed. What they didn’t know was that hell was already wrapping its hands around their necks, laying claim to their bodies and souls. And ours too.
So there, in the middle of that Sabbath meal, the houseguests all watching carefully, hoping to trap Jesus, it came down to two people - Jesus and the man with dropsy. Jesus and the afflicted man, the man with no rest, no Sabbath. Jesus and the man with the big head. And that means it came down to Jesus and us, men and women disfigured with pride, swollen with sin, stuck in the pit of death.
As Jesus made clear, even the Pharisees would pull their sons out of the ditch on the Sabbath! The Pharisees would pull their ox out of the ditch on the Sabbath. But these wicked Pharisees who invited Jesus to partake of the Sabbath meal, which usually would have been served cold, have hardened their cold hearts and withhold mercy from this afflicted man. Who is going to lift out the big-headed man, man puffed up and disfigured with pride? Who is going to pull you out from the very pit of hell?
Only One. The only Humble Man who ever lived. Jesus Christ. And He has done it. He grabbed the man with dropsy, healed him, and sent him away. This same mercy has gripped you. For Satan came to infect man with pride and drag him down. Pull you down in false belief, despair, great shame and vice. But He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds him in derision (Ps 2:4). Christ Jesus came to lift man up, to exalt him and give him rest; give him real Sabbath. And He still comes to give rest at His Meal to those who confess their pride and arrogance, who humble themselves to receive His mercy and healing in both body and soul.
For God does not like our swollen heads. So Jesus goes to the Cross in order to heal you of your pride, by having His head crowned with thorns. God doesn’t like our faces all puffed up with pride, so Jesus’ face is struck, as He is humbled and puffed up with bruises so that your faces might be radiant. God doesn’t like us disfigured, like we have too much water inside of us. So Jesus goes to the Cross, a worm and not a man, disfigured and marred beyond human likeness, dying to atone for our sins, hanging there like a Man with dropsy to make men His again, healing that lost image and restoring that tarnished likeness.
He is then speared so that the water inside of Him, from His heart, would flow outside to you. To you in your Baptism. You sing, you confess, “Not what these hands of done can save this guilty soul; not what this toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole. Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God; not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load. Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin; Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within” (LSB 567:1-3). And Baptism is His work by which He works “forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe.”
He grabbed you in your Baptism, took you to Himself, washed you with water and His Word, clothing you in His humility and bestowing unto you all His righteousness and merit, ready to be exalted on the Last Day.
And because that humble Jesus who suffered hell in your place, Who was buried, Who went down into the pit to proclaim His victory over sin and the grave, is raised from the dead never to die again, you too are given to walk in newness of life. As St Paul says in today’s Epistle to the Christians in Ephesus. Once you were prisoners of Satan, but through Holy Baptism Jesus has grabbed you and claimed you as a prisoner of the Lord.
Having healed you and set you free, He sends you away to give your neighbor a servant, urging 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. Oh the wondrous things Christ Jesus is doing in His miracles; providing healing for you in both body and soul.
And behold, here is another: the mysterious miracle of His Body and His Blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. The King is here to dine with you; to feed you with His salvation. There is no need to put yourself forward here. For the King has invited you to that which is not only a Sabbath meal, but a true Wedding Feast. He who in shame took the lowest place, now says to you, “Friend, come up here. You are given to sit at the head table. The table of the Bridegroom and Bride.” For He has exalted you and in Him you are honored.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
When our Lord Jesus Christ does one of His wonderful miracles, providing healing to the body, there is always more going on there than medical relief. When He heals someone of blindness, He’s not only interested in that man being able to view the beautiful creation all around him, the blues and reds and yellows, but that he also have faith. Eyes to “see” what our Lord Christ is doing in and through His Word. When He heals a paralyzed man, He’s not only concerned that the guy can walk around in this life, but that he walk by faith in Jesus Christ that he may enter into the life of the world to come. There’s always more going on that we think.
One Sabbath, when Jesus went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching Him carefully. And behold, there was a man before Him who had dropsy. We don’t use this term anymore. Dropsy. υδρωπικος. Technically composed of two Greek words translated “water” and “face.” It was the ancient designation for swelling. We call it edema. Swelling of the legs, peripheral edema. Accumulation of fluid in the lungs, pulmonary edema. Swelling around the brain, cerebral edema.
But this isn't a medical lesson. There’s more going on here. Jesus isn’t only interested in getting the water out. He desires to save this man in both body and soul. He has dropsy. υδρωπικος. A swollen face, a puffy face. It means his head was too big.
And you know what that means. You don’t like that guy at work because he has a “big head.” When you praise someone you sarcastically say, “Don’t let it go to your head.” “Her head is swollen with pride, I wish someone would burst her bubble.” Perhaps no sin is more associated with a body part than pride. Pride is associated with the head.
We all walk around with big heads. Heads swollen with pride. We are bloated with vanity. Puffed up with pride. Why else would a woman lie about her weight on her driver’s license? Why else would a man lie about his height or his salary? Why do we drop names and exaggerate our accomplishments? We hastily bring into the court of public opinion all the juicy gossip we have heard and seen. We have big heads. This is the original sin. The source of all other sin.
We have such big heads that we even look down on God. We put ourselves forward in the King’s presence, as Solomon says. God is like a bellhop to us. We want Him around when we need Him, but otherwise it’s “you can go now. I’ll ring when I need you.” Pridefully, we assume that we are in control. We presume that our lives, our futures, and our very selves belong not to God but to us. This is indicative of how we plan our lives - as though God didn’t even exist, as if His Word has nothing to say on these subjects. Our jobs, our homes, our vacations, our dating prospects, even the number of children “we want.” Talk about pride.
And it has been this way ever since Adam and Eve grabbed for control in the Garden. Since they took counsel with the Prince of this World against the Lord and against His Anointed. What they didn’t know was that hell was already wrapping its hands around their necks, laying claim to their bodies and souls. And ours too.
So there, in the middle of that Sabbath meal, the houseguests all watching carefully, hoping to trap Jesus, it came down to two people - Jesus and the man with dropsy. Jesus and the afflicted man, the man with no rest, no Sabbath. Jesus and the man with the big head. And that means it came down to Jesus and us, men and women disfigured with pride, swollen with sin, stuck in the pit of death.
As Jesus made clear, even the Pharisees would pull their sons out of the ditch on the Sabbath! The Pharisees would pull their ox out of the ditch on the Sabbath. But these wicked Pharisees who invited Jesus to partake of the Sabbath meal, which usually would have been served cold, have hardened their cold hearts and withhold mercy from this afflicted man. Who is going to lift out the big-headed man, man puffed up and disfigured with pride? Who is going to pull you out from the very pit of hell?
Only One. The only Humble Man who ever lived. Jesus Christ. And He has done it. He grabbed the man with dropsy, healed him, and sent him away. This same mercy has gripped you. For Satan came to infect man with pride and drag him down. Pull you down in false belief, despair, great shame and vice. But He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds him in derision (Ps 2:4). Christ Jesus came to lift man up, to exalt him and give him rest; give him real Sabbath. And He still comes to give rest at His Meal to those who confess their pride and arrogance, who humble themselves to receive His mercy and healing in both body and soul.
For God does not like our swollen heads. So Jesus goes to the Cross in order to heal you of your pride, by having His head crowned with thorns. God doesn’t like our faces all puffed up with pride, so Jesus’ face is struck, as He is humbled and puffed up with bruises so that your faces might be radiant. God doesn’t like us disfigured, like we have too much water inside of us. So Jesus goes to the Cross, a worm and not a man, disfigured and marred beyond human likeness, dying to atone for our sins, hanging there like a Man with dropsy to make men His again, healing that lost image and restoring that tarnished likeness.
He is then speared so that the water inside of Him, from His heart, would flow outside to you. To you in your Baptism. You sing, you confess, “Not what these hands of done can save this guilty soul; not what this toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole. Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God; not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load. Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin; Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within” (LSB 567:1-3). And Baptism is His work by which He works “forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe.”
He grabbed you in your Baptism, took you to Himself, washed you with water and His Word, clothing you in His humility and bestowing unto you all His righteousness and merit, ready to be exalted on the Last Day.
And because that humble Jesus who suffered hell in your place, Who was buried, Who went down into the pit to proclaim His victory over sin and the grave, is raised from the dead never to die again, you too are given to walk in newness of life. As St Paul says in today’s Epistle to the Christians in Ephesus. Once you were prisoners of Satan, but through Holy Baptism Jesus has grabbed you and claimed you as a prisoner of the Lord.
Having healed you and set you free, He sends you away to give your neighbor a servant, urging 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. Oh the wondrous things Christ Jesus is doing in His miracles; providing healing for you in both body and soul.
And behold, here is another: the mysterious miracle of His Body and His Blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. The King is here to dine with you; to feed you with His salvation. There is no need to put yourself forward here. For the King has invited you to that which is not only a Sabbath meal, but a true Wedding Feast. He who in shame took the lowest place, now says to you, “Friend, come up here. You are given to sit at the head table. The table of the Bridegroom and Bride.” For He has exalted you and in Him you are honored.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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