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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
As many of you know, people from here at Pilgrim often share a meal after our Sunday church service. Getting together in such a way helps us get to know and stay current with one another. Having lunch with one’s church family also helps fill a void for those of us without immediate family and for those whose immediate family is further away. A somewhat similar meal is the setting for today’s Gospel Reading. The Sabbath‑evening Seder meal could follow a Synagogue service or, with its own liturgy, psalms, and readings, the Sabbath‑evening Seder meal itself could serve as that which set apart or sanctified the Sabbath day. As we consider today’s Gospel Reading with its report of Jesus’s healing and teaching at a Pharisee’s feast, we see how the Reading points us to the “Feast of Healing” that Jesus gives us.
More than any other Gospel writer, St. Luke by divine inspiration tells us about Jesus’s healings on the Sabbath. And, although Jesus on more than one occasion speaks about the one who exalts himself being humbled and the one who humbles himself being exalted, this particular occasion is only reported in today’s Gospel Reading. At first glance, the Gospel Reading might appear to report two separate things—first, Jesus’s healing of a man with dropsy and, second, His teaching about humility—but the two are closely related, both in that they take place in the same setting of the Pharisees’ Sabbath‑evening Seder and in that they are on the same “Feast of Healing” theme that Jesus continues in the ten verses following today’s Reading.
As with last week’s Gospel Reading, today’s apparently takes place in Perea, a Roman District east of the Jordan River that was part of Herod’s kingdom. Today’s Reading picks up five verses after the end of last week’s Reading, verses we heard this past Lent in which both some Pharisees tell Jesus that Herod wants to kill Him and Jesus laments Jerusalem’s unwillingness to be gathered to Him. The Sabbath‑evening Seder meal in today’s Reading illustrates well those who were unwilling to be gathered to Jesus: the Pharisees apparently were too concerned both about their own pride and about social favors to recognize the Lord of the Sabbath and the healing He provides at the feast.
St. Luke does not tell us how Jesus or the man with dropsy came to be at this house of a ruler of the Pharisees, but St. Luke does tell us that the Pharisees were watching Jesus carefully. They had run-ins before over Jesus’s healing on the Sabbath, and, Jesus responds to what they are again thinking on this occasion. St. Luke, a physician by trade, uses a unique medical term to refer to the man’s affliction, what we would call “edema” today, a grotesque disfigurement from swelling of the body’s tissue, itself caused by some other illness. Before healing the man, Jesus asks the Jewish leaders about the legality of healing on the Sabbath, but they remain silent. And, after healing the man, Jesus asks them if they would not similarly rescue their own son or an ox, but they could not reply to what He said. Then, as Jesus watched them, how they chose the places of honor at the feast and invited those who could reciprocate, He used their own daily experience in a parable teaching them about humility, telling both guests and His host, both what not to do and what to do. He did not teach them humility in order for them to be honored before other people, for such common sense wisdom was already before them, in such places as today’s Old Testament Reading (Proverbs 25:2-10). Nor did He teach them humility in order for them to earn a heavenly reward. Rather, He reveals Himself as the Gospel gift, the humble Lord of the Sabbath Who graciously hosts a “Feast of Healing” for those who both know they need it and humbly seek it.
The verse that follows today’s Gospel Reading may suggest that at least one person present got some of what Jesus was saying. How about us? Do we know we are in need of His “Feast of Healing”? Do we humbly seek it? The Pharisees in today’s Gospel Reading thought they were better than others present. Do we think ourselves better than others present? Do we maybe even think too well of ourselves before God? The Pharisees in today’s Gospel Reading may have thought that their legalistic Sabbath observances made the day holy and made them righteous. Do we think that we ourselves make this day holy and make ourselves righteous? Or, do we sin in some other way? Today’s Epistle Reading (Hebrews 13:1-17) reminds us that God judges the sexually immoral and adulterous, that He does not want us to love money, and that we should be content with what we have. Similarly, today’s Introit (verses from Psalm 75) declares that God judges at the set time, that He puts down one and lifts another. Those who are just and those who are unjust both will be resurrected on the last day, and both will receive their respective rewards. Now is the time humbly to repent: to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust God to forgive our sin, and to want to do better. When we so repent, then God forgives our sin. God forgives our sin of exalting ourselves. God forgives our sin of thinking we make ourselves righteous. God forgives whatever our sin might be; He forgives it all for Jesus’s sake.
More than any other, Jesus humbled Himself and was exalted. True God in human flesh, Jesus resisted Satan’s temptation to exalt Himself (Luke 4:5-8), and He lavished His power and love on the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. He loved and served those who could not repay, because they could not repay. He loved with the love of the Most High God (Luke 6:35), and He humbly served by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8). His Sabbath healings before the Pharisees may even have contributed to the charges that led to His death (Luke 20:20). But, now He is resurrected from the dead and lives to give us the benefits of His death and resurrection through His gracious “Feast of Healing”.
Some of you may have noticed the sign for St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Business 259; it says something about them on Wednesdays having “Healing and Holy Eucharist”. I have been meaning to ask their new “priestess”, who is becoming a member of our Rotary Club, just what that sign means, as I usually do not think of Episcopalians as doing “healings”. If the sign means that the Lord’s Supper provides healing, then it is right on target. We who hear God’s Word preached, we who are Baptized and absolved—we come on this day of rest to eat bread that is Jesus’s body given for us and to drink wine that is His blood shed for us. In so doing, we receive the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. We are the spiritually poor, crippled, blind, and lame Jesus whom invites, who humble ourselves before Him in repentance and here at this rail are exalted by Him. We are not worthy to come here in and of ourselves but by having faith in His words: given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. As we gladly hear God’s Word and receive His Sacrament, this day is set apart and made holy as God intends. And, as we eat of His “Feast of Healing” now, we know we will partake of this same feast with Him for eternity.
The blending of our worship here below with that of the company of heaven above was reflected in our Opening Hymn. The hymn’s author, Gerhard Tersteegen, died at the age of 71 of a severe case of dropsy. Though he himself remained outside the church as an institution, the poetry of his hymns “repeatedly and directly leads into God’s house.” As well it should! Here we worship God by pleading for God’s mercy on us sinners, and in so doing we go home justified (Luke 18:9-14). We can sanctify not only this holy day, but we can sanctify every day by hearing God’s Word and by living according to it. In so doing, we humble ourselves before others and include those in need at our tables. We try to follow Jesus’s example of humility, and, when we fail to live according to God’s Word, as we will fail, we live each day in the forgiveness of sins with repentance and faith. Such faith is ultimately rewarded at the resurrection of the just. May God use this “Feast of Healing” and all of our time together as His people to that blessed end.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +