Trinity 17
Lk
14:1-11
10/8/17
When you are eating with a group of
people who are not family members, I doubt that you give all that much thought
to where you are going to sit. Any
consideration you do give probably doesn’t go any farther than that you want to
sit with people you know and with whom you want to visit.
Our Gospel lesson this morning tells
us that things were very different in the first century world of
Palestine. The ancient world was very
concerned about status. Now it is not as
if we are unaware about status. We
recognize that there are neighborhoods, universities and occupations that carry
more status than others. But our
experience of this really can’t compare with the way the ancient world valued
status – how it desired to possess it and have it viewed by others.
We see this today in the fact that
places at a table eating were assigned specific levels of status. Jesus notices that everyone at the meal is
choosing the places of honor. There is a scramble to get the best seat possible. And here “best” is determined by the status
that the seat displays to others. A meal is an occasion to show others where
you stand in society – an opportunity to show that you are more important than
others.
Our text begins by saying, “One Sabbath, when he went to dine at
the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully.” Now by the time we have arrived at this point
in the Gospel, we know that there is going to be trouble. The Pharisees have already watched Jesus to
see if he will heal on the Sabbath. The
Sabbath has been a source of controversy between Jesus and the Pharisees on a
couple of occasions. Jesus has also dined
twice at the home of a Pharisee, and each time there has been conflict. So, when Jesus goes to eat, at the home of a ruler
of the Pharisees, on the Sabbath
… buckle up, because we know that things are going to get rough.
Not
unexpectedly we learn that that Pharisees were watching Jesus carefully. A man with dropsy – severe edema – was
present. On this occasion, Jesus took
the initiative by asking: “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” The Pharisees could see that their own
legalism was being set in contrast to mercy and so they remained silent. Jesus
healed the man and sent him away.
Then he
said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well
on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” Jesus knew that the Pharisees made exceptions
for this kind of action. His argument
goes from the lesser to the greater. If
they were willing to allow this kind of action in assisting on the Sabbath, how
could they not allow the healing of a man?
Our Lord had the Pharisees caught in the inconsistency of their laws and
hatred of Jesus. They knew it, and they
could not reply to these things.
The
Pharisees were watching Jesus closely. But we learn in our text that Jesus was
watching them too. He noticed that they
were all choosing the places of honor.
So he spoke words that our text calls a “parable.” He said, “When you
are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor,
lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited
you both will come and say to you, 'Give your place to this person,' and then
you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.” To choose a place of
honor, and then to be forced publicly to move to a lower spot would have been
humiliating.
So instead,
Jesus gave this advice: “But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest
place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up
higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with
you.
For
everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be
exalted.”
Luke describes Jesus’ words as a
“parable.” We may find this puzzling
because we often assume that a parable is story that Jesus tells in order to
teach some deeper meaning, such as the parable of the Good Samaritan that we
had in the Gospel lesson not long ago.
But the word “parable” actually has a broader meaning. It can be applied to any saying or statement
that is intended to convey something that goes beyond the surface meaning.
Jesus is
teaching about far more than meal etiquette. The Pharisees’ actions reveal
something about their attitude and character.
Jesus had already said in chapter eleven, “Woe to you Pharisees! For you
love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.” The
Pharisees thought that they were better than other people, and they wanted
people to see their status. They wanted
to call attention to their status in public settings.
As fallen
sinners, we always face the temptation to think we are better than those around
us. We often have an innate desire to
compare ourselves to others. And we feel
better about ourselves when that comparison reveals that we are superior to
others in some way. I have a better
job. I have more money. I have more education. I have a better house.
I get better grades. I am better at
sports. Feeling good about myself means
putting the other person down below me.
Of course,
this strategy can backfire. Because more
often than we would like, there are people who rank higher than we do in these
areas. And when this happens, we begin
to covet what they have. We begin to overlook the blessings God has given to us. We begin to get irritated with God because he
isn’t giving us all that we think he should.
Instead of
this, Jesus offers a different way as he says: “But when you are invited, go
and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you,
‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who
sit at table with you. For everyone who
exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Jesus says
that we are to choose the lowest place – the place of least honor. Yet this action actually produces the
opposite result. Choosing the least honored position leads to being
honored. As Jesus says at the end of our
text, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles
himself will be exalted.”
Now this
probably sounds counter intuitive – foolish even. Yet remember that this is a parable. There is
far more here than meets the eye because of the One who is speaking these
words. Jesus Christ is the One who
humbled himself for you. He was numbered with the transgressors for you in
spite of the fact that he had no sin. He humbled himself to the point of death,
even death on a cross, in order to redeem you – in order to free you from sin.
Jesus
humbled himself all the way into a sealed tomb.
And then, God exalted him. On the
third day he raised Christ from the dead in the resurrection that will one day
be yours. He freed you from death
because death cannot hold onto you.
Instead the New Testament calls it “sleep.” For those in Christ, it is
no more threatening that an afternoon nap. God exalted Jesus Christ to his
right hand. He is the risen and ascended
Lord who will return on the Last Day and raise your body from the dead. Death has already lost. That victory is yours
in Christ.
Yet for
those who are in Christ through baptism, Jesus’ words do not only describe what
the Lord had done for us. After all, Jesus speaks them to those present at the
meal. He describes a pattern of life
that results from his own humble service for us.
In the
parable of Pharisee and the tax collector we heard about the tax collector who standing
far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast,
saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”
Jesus concluded that parable by saying, “I tell you, this man went down
to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself
will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Because
Jesus humbled himself for us and is now exalted, the humility of repentance and
confession of sin leads to the exaltation of forgiveness and
justification. We confess our sin in the
confidence that because of Jesus it leads to the status of being a saint in
God’s eyes. It leads to the exaltation
of being a justified Christian who is ready now
for the judgment of the Last Day.
And Jesus’
words this morning also describe a way of life that is produced by our Lord’s
humility and exaltation. It is a way of
life that follows in the footsteps of our Lord. This means that we humble
ourselves in the service of others. We willingly choose the lower place for the
sake of others.
For those
in elementary, middle school and high school, this means showing kindness and
acceptance towards those who are not popular – towards those who have no status
in the social hierarchy of school. For
adults it means showing kindness and assistance towards those who can’t do
anything for us.
This sounds
wasteful. It sounds foolish. But it is the way of the Christian life that
follows Jesus. Our Lord has already
walked this way for us in order to reconcile us to God and give us the status
of being saints. He did this to free us
from the clutch of death. And he has already
shown us were it leads as we follow our Lord.
As he says, today, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and
he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
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