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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. (Amen.)
At the wedding of one of my second-cousins this past summer, we actually saw it happen. My mother and I were assigned seats—and so sat—close to the front, at a table with her sister, my aunt, the grandmother of the bride. Since other people assigned seats at that same table did not come to the wedding, the father of the bride, my first-cousin, moved up to our table two of our other first‑cousins, who were seated where they had been assigned, at a table towards the back. And, as I recall, a number of us at the time commented on the connection to Jesus’s words in today’s Gospel Reading, related to today’s Old Testament Reading (Proverbs 25:2-10), about one’s sitting in the lowest place, so that when one’s host comes he may say, “Friend, move up higher” and one’s so being “honored in the presence of all who sit at table”. Of course, much more is going on in today’s Gospel Reading than even that whole parable based on earthly wedding etiquette at the middle of the Gospel Reading, and the parable’s saying about one’s humbling oneself and being exalted may also apply both to Jesus’s dealing with the man who had dropsy (what today might be called “edema”) at the beginning of the Gospel Reading and to Jesus’s words to the man who had invited Jesus at the end of the Gospel Reading. So, considering primarily the whole Gospel Reading, this morning we direct our thoughts to the theme, “Humbly dining with the Lord”.
Jesus had been invited to Pharisees’ homes to dine before (Luke 7:36; 11:37), and Jesus had had run-ins with the Pharisees over healings on the Sabbath before, too (Luke 6:6-11; 13:10‑17). In this case, the Divinely-inspired evangelist St. Luke gives no explicit indication either that Jesus’s going to dine at this particular house or that the appearance before Jesus of a man who had dropsy were “traps”, though St. Luke does report that at least some Pharisees were standing by themselves watching Jesus carefully, perhaps either because they themselves were not invited guests or because they had not yet sat down. But, Jesus also noticed how those who were sitting down chose places of honor, and Jesus also apparently knew that the man who had invited him had invited the others in order to be invited by them in return and so be repaid. In a sense, Jesus was not trying to “trap” them, but they still got caught.
Some of you may have seen or at least remember the 2005 movie Wedding Crashers starring Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, or maybe you saw or remember the 2009 real-life story of a Virginia couple who “crashed” a White House state dinner and personally greeted President Obama. The man who had dropsy in the Gospel Reading may or may not have been a Sabbath Seder “crasher”. If he had not been invited, by what Jesus said, the man should have been invited. The man seemingly had heard something about Jesus and arguably humbly came to the Lord seeking healing. The Pharisees criticized by Jesus throughout the Gospel Reading had so-exalted themselves in their wrongful interpretation of God’s Sabbath Law that they were blind to the man’s need. And, they may have slighted Jesus in seating themselves in places of honor (we are not told where Jesus ended up sitting), and they also used their relationships for selfish gains.
Bible commentators differ as to which places around the table would have been the places of honor then: whether the left end of each couch, or the head end of the table, or the middle of the middle couch. Similarly, we might differ as to which places here in Pilgrim’s Sanctuary are the places of honor now: probably not the front pews, but maybe the back pews, or maybe some other seat for some other reason. There may be little shame or honor in the seating here at Pilgrim, but that does not mean that here there is not overlooking of other people’s needs, and judging oneself to be better than others (maybe on the basis of what they wear or do not wear to church), and using relationships for selfish gains.
Those people afflicted as was the man who had dropsy at least later were thought by Jewish rabbis to have committed some greater sin of immorality (Jones, CPR 26:4, p.18, points to Numbers 5:11-28), but any sickness can remind us of sin’s being in the world and the common sinful nature that we all share, and so also the actual sins we all commit and the temporal death and eternal torment that we all deserve, apart from our, being called and so enabled by God, to turn in sorrow away from our sin, to trust God to forgive our sin, and to want to stop sinning. When we so humble ourselves, then God exalts us. When we so repent, then God forgives us. God forgives our overlooking of other people’s needs. God forgives our judging ourselves to be better than others. God forgives our using relationships for selfish gains. God forgives all our sins, whatever our sins might be. God forgives us for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
The particular ruler of the Pharisees in the Gospel Reading may or may not have been a member of the local or “national” ruling council, or “Sanhedrin”, but we know that Jesus’s healing on the Sabbath provoked the Pharisees (confer Luke 6:11) and that those who were on the “national” Sanhedrin eventually sentenced Jesus to death. But, Jesus only permitted Himself to die for the sins of the world, including your sins and my sins. Though He was in the form of God, He did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped but made Himself nothing, 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: with His descent into hell, resurrection from the dead, ascension into heaven, and sitting at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. (Philippians 2:6‑9.) As we heard in the Epistle Reading (Hebrews 13:1-17), Jesus suffered in order to sanctify the people through His own blood. In the Gospel Reading, with Jesus’s healing of the man who had dropsy, we see Who Jesus is as the Lord of the Sabbath (confer Luke 6:5) and so we also see what we can expect of Jesus each and every day, namely love, mercy, and grace that forgive us and ultimately result in our healing, if not now, then at least for eternity.
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus healed the man who had dropsy and sent him away, perhaps Jesus did not have the man stay for the Sabbath meal because Jesus was not the host of that meal, or perhaps Jesus did not have the man stay because no one that evening was “Humbly dining with the Lord”. Yet, the emphasis on “Humbly dining with the Lord” is arguably unmistakable! Yes, the reading and preaching of God’s Word, Holy Baptism, and individual Holy Absolution are all also Means of God’s Grace, but today’s Gospel Reading and the continuation of Jesus’s teaching in Luke chapter 14 that is not included in today’s Gospel Reading or in any other Gospel Reading in our three-year series of Readings (Luke 14:15-24) emphasize the fellowship that we outcast sinners have with Jesus as He teaches about His Kingdom and gives that Kingdom to us with bread that is His Body and wine that is His Blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. Wherever Jesus sits at table with humble, repentant sinners, there is the Kingdom of God. We who faithfully sit at table with Jesus now in the Sacrament of the Altar will sit at table with Jesus for eternity at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9), and, yet, in some sense they are both the same table and the same ongoing feast, though presently caught in the tension between what is already now and at the same time still not yet fully ours. (Just, ad loc Lk 14:7-14, 574.) Through all of the Means of God’s Grace, Jesus Himself continues His ministry of forgiving and so healing us.
As we humbly in repentance receive that ministry of the Lord, He transforms us. We better notice other people’s needs. We do not arrogantly anticipate God’s judgment but humbly wait for it. We use what we have to serve others in need and make relationships with them. And, we are “repaid” for those at the resurrection of the just, which is at the same time as the resurrection of the unjust (for example, Acts 24:15). Our being resurrected as just is not because of anything that we have done but because of what Christ has done for us, which by God’s grace we receive humbly in repentance. Our repentance is evident by our good works, and so we are judged on the basis of those good works (confer Matthew 25:34-40). And, as Scripture teaches in today’s Gospel Reading and elsewhere, God out of His grace also really “rewards” those good works, both now and for eternity, in other ways, such as degrees of glory (Pieper, III:52, with reference also to 1 Timothy 4:8), though the gift of eternal life for Christ’s sake arguably outweighs any other reward that we could receive, at least in this life (TLSB, ad loc Luke 14:14, p.1746), if not also in the next life.
Regardless of any place that we may initially be assigned or eventually receive at any wedding receptions here and now, our “Humbly dining with the Lord” leads to us sinners’ being exalted to a place with Him now and for eternity. In keeping with our various callings in life, we love and serve God and our neighbors, and we live in God’s forgiveness for when we fail to love and serve Him and our neighbors. We neither trust in our good works nor despair on account of our sins. Ultimately, we heed the call of today’s Psalm (Psalm 131; antiphon: v.2) and hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +