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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.)
Those whom we know and love, or perhaps we ourselves, may suffer from swelling caused by too much fluid in the body’s tissues, typically in its legs, ankles, and feet, but sometimes in a body’s hands and face. Such swelling today is usually called “edema”, which English word comes from a Greek verb meaning “to swell”, though today’s Gospel Reading uses an older term “dropsy”, which English word comes from the Greek adjective used in the Gospel Reading, which adjective is itself a medical term, a compound of the noun for “water” and a verb that can mean “appear”, so as a compound describing someone who, as it were, “looks watery”. The Greek New Testament uses this particular adjective only this one time that we heard in today’s Gospel Reading’s account of the healing of a man with “dropsy”, or “edema”, an account Divinely‑inspired through Saint Luke, the beloved physician (Colossians 4:14). Considering primarily today’s Gospel Reading, with the help of the Holy Spirit, this morning we realize that “God heals, exalts, and repays the humble”.
For today’s Gospel Reading, we have returned from last week’s festival selection to our largely‑continuous reading of St. Luke’s Gospel account, which account is said to contain more about Jesus’s Sabbath conflicts than any of the other Gospel accounts, and so, not surprisingly, most of what we heard today is unique to St. Luke’s account. As we heard, one Sabbath when Jesus went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching Him carefully, to see if He would heal on the Sabbath as He had done before (for example, Luke 6:6-11; 13:10‑17), but Jesus also noticed what the Jewish leaders were doing, both choosing the places of honor (confer Luke 20:46) and inviting only those who could repay them. The “lawyers”, the Jewish experts in the law, and Pharisees did not and could not answer Jesus’s questions to them, either about the lawfulness of healing on the Sabbath or about what they themselves might do on the Sabbath, but Jesus spoke repeatedly both to those who were invited, telling them a “parable”, and to the man who had invited Him, telling him whom to invite, perhaps including those such as the man with dropsy, or “edema”, who may or may not have been invited to that particular Sabbath Seder.
The “edema” that those whom we know and love, or perhaps we ourselves, may suffer can have various medical causes, such as heart, liver, or kidney failure. We are not told and so do not know the medical reason why the man in the Gospel Reading was swollen, but those watching Jesus carefully may have assumed wrongly that the man was guilty of some gross immorality, such as adultery, and at a minimum they likely would have thought that he was ceremonially unclean. Some specific illnesses often can be traced to specific sins, but not necessarily in every case. Of course, in general, sickness and death are in the world that God created very good only because of sin. We get sick and die because we are sinful by nature and commit actual sins. We seek honor before other people, and we want them to pay us back for what we do for them. And, we sin in countless other, sometimes unspeakable ways. By nature we exalt ourselves before God and deserve Him to humble us. Like today’s Gospel Reading, today’s Introit (Psalm 75:1-2, 6, 9; antiphon: v.7) and the Old Testament Reading (Proverbs 25:2-10) remind us that God does humble those who exalt themselves, but those passages also assure us that God exalts those who humble themselves. When, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we turn in sorrow from our sin, trust God to forgive us, and want to stop sinning, then God does forgive us. God forgives our sinful nature and all our sin, whatever our sin might be. God forgives us for Jesus’s sake.
We are not told and so do not know where Jesus sat at the Sabbath Seder in today’s Gospel Reading, but elsewhere we are told and so do know both that Jesus “humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” and that God the Father exalted Him (Philippians 2:8-9 ESV). That Jesus is God in human flesh was evident by His healing the man with dropsy, or “edema”, but Jesus “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped” (Philippians 2:6 ESV). For their own reasons, the Jewish leaders watched Jesus, at least later, in order to hand Him over to the Romans to be crucified and killed (Luke 20:20), but, out of God’s great love, mercy, and grace, Jesus voluntarily went to the cross for us and for our salvation. On the cross, Jesus died for us and for all people; He died in our place, the death that we deserved, and then He was raised from the dead. Now, Jesus lives and reigns, still Lord of the Sabbath (for example, Luke 6:5), and on this day of His resurrection, the day of re‑creation, He more than heals us physically, He heals us spiritually, forgiving our sins, as we believe in Him. As we heard in the Epistle Reading (Hebrews 13:1-17), Jesus sanctifies us, He makes us holy, through His own Blood, which we receive in His Holy Supper.
Today’s Gospel Reading—with its healing at a Sabbath Seder, invited guests, and host— certainly makes us think about the Holy Supper. As we heard in the Epistle Reading we have an Altar from which others have no right to eat. At this Altar and its Rail, our Lord Himself hosts the meal; He invites us sinners who humble ourselves in repentance; and He exalts us with the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation that come with His Body and Blood under the forms of bread and wine. As in today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus took hold of the man who had dropsy, or “edema”, and healed Him, so the Lord heals us through the water and the Word of Holy Baptism. As in today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus “sent-away” the man, so the Lord “forgives” us through the touch and the Word of Holy Absolution. The Lord chooses to work in all of these ways, assuring us that He is gracious towards us for Christ’s sake so that we do not despair in our sin but live in His peace and joy.
We humble ourselves before God by confessing our sins and seeking His forgiveness, and He exalts us by forgiving our sins (confer Luke 18:9-14). The forgiveness of sins that we receive freely for Christ’s sake through His Means of Grace transforms us. As described in the Epistle Reading, we offer a sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of our lips that confess His Name, and we do good and share what we have, for those sacrifices are also pleasing to God. We do not humble ourselves in order to be exalted, as if by humbling ourselves we are trying to be or deserve to be exalted (Plummer, ad loc Luke 14:10, p.357), nor do we do good to others in order to be repaid, as if by doing good we are trying to be or deserve to be repaid (Marshall, ad loc Luke 14:12-14, p.583). Rather, we do as we should do and leave the whole matter of earthly and heavenly rewards to God (confer Pieper, III:52). After the resurrection of the just, which will include the resurrection of the unjust (for example, Acts 24:15), we, who do not reject Jesus’s invitation, will feast in the Kingdom of God, as Jesus goes on teach in the verses that follow today’s Gospel Reading (Luke 14:15-24).
Considering primarily today’s Gospel Reading, with the help of the Holy Spirit, this morning we have realized that “God heals, exalts, and repays the humble”. God is the healer, exalter, and re‑payer (confer Roehrs-Franzmann, ad loc Luke 14:7-14, pp.72-73). Dropsy, or “edema”, or not, unless the Lord returns first, we will die from something. But, we have God’s spiritual healing already now, and so we can be sure of His final physical healing with the resurrection and glorification of our bodies on the Last Day. So, as we sang in the Introit, we give thanks to God, for His Name is near, and we recount His wondrous deeds!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Amen.)
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +