Trinity 17
Lk
14:1-11
9/27/26
There are two wedding seasons in
life. The first is around the time when you graduate from high school and
college. This is the time in life when many people get married. There are
weddings to attend for siblings and friends.
The second wedding season is when
your children and your siblings’ and friends’ children are getting married. Amy
and I are in that season now as preparations are made for Abigail and Timothy
to get married in 2027. We just attended
two weddings in August as my niece, and then best friend’s son were married.
As I attend these weddings I have
been reminded that while it is nice when the wedding has seated you with family
and friends that you know, that’s not really what I care about. My primary
concern is where my table is located in relation to the order that people are
able to go get their food. After attending a wedding and waiting while pictures
are being taken, I don’t want to be stuck at the wrong end of the wedding
reception where I have to wait forever to eat.
In our text we learn that in Jesus’
day there was also concern about seating at a wedding banquet. However, here the concern was not about
getting food. Instead, it was about status and honor. Our Lord observes how
this was playing out, and this becomes the occasion when he speaks words that
address a matter far more profound than mere social etiquette.
Our Gospel lesson begins by saying,
“One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees,
they were watching him carefully.” This a charged statement of confrontation.
Jesus and the Pharisees have engaged in disputes about conduct on the Sabbath.
They have had confrontations in the settings of meals. So when Jesus goes to the
house of a ruler of the Pharisees, for a meal, on the Sabbath, you know there is
going to be conflict. And sure enough, we are told that the Pharisees were
watching Jesus carefully.
We learn that there was a man
present with dropsy – that is, the swelling caused by the accumulation of fluid
in the body. Our Lord responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it
lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”
The Sabbath was a day of rest – a day when work was not to be done. But
was it permitted to heal on the Sabbath – was it permitted to help this man?
The Pharisees remained silent. They
didn’t answer Jesus. So the Lord healed the man and sent him away. Then he
asked the Pharisees, “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’ question
assumes that the Pharisees would help the son or ox. And if they were willing
to do that on the Sabbath, how much more it was clear that it is lawful to heal
on the Sabbath.
Luke tells us that the Pharisees
could not reply to what Jesus said. He had caught them in the fact that the law
supports love. Love and God’s law are not in conflict. As Paul told the Romans,
“Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the
law.”
The Pharisees were watching Jesus
carefully. But our Lord was watching them as well. He noticed how they were
trying to get the places of honor at the meal. The first century world was very
focused on honor and shame. It prized being accorded honor – the status that a
person had based on how they were viewed by others. The seating arrangement at
a meal presented a social ranking system. Naturally, everyone wanted the best
seat possible.
However Jesus 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 be told
by the host to move to a lower spot in front of all the guests would be an
occasion of great shame.
Instead, the Lord 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.” Then he added, “For
everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be
exalted.”
On the surface, it sounds like Jesus
is giving good advice to avoid social embarrassment such as we find in our Old
Testament lesson from Proverbs which says: “Do not put yourself forward in the
king’s presence or stand in the place of the great, for it is better to be
told, ‘Come up here,’ than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.”
However the tension at the beginning
of our text between Jesus and the Pharisees signals that Christ is doing far
more. He is criticizing the manner in which they approached life as they sought
honor for themselves at the expense of others.
Instead, Jesus sets forth a very different way of doing life: His way.
He says, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles
himself will be exalted.”
We recognize the way the Pharisees
were doing things. It comes naturally to us. Our tendency is to look out for
ourselves. We are interested in what is best for us – what is easiest for
us. If achieving this means ignoring
others or even climbing over them, then so be it.
But Christ teaches us that his way
is very different. It is the way that he walked because we are selfish sinners.
He is the One who humbled himself in order to save us. St Paul told the
Philippians, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing
to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born
in the likeness of men.”
The Son has eternally existed with
the Father and the Holy Spirit as the trine God – the Holy Trinity. He was
active in the creation of the universe. But he did not consider equality with
God something to be held onto. Instead, he emptied himself and took the form of
a servant. This emptying was not denial of his divinity. It was not the fact
that he took on a human nature in the incarnation as he was conceived by the
Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Instead, it was the fact that he did
not use his divine power to serve himself. To be sure, he displayed his divine
power as a demonstration of who he is. But Jesus always used his power to
help others, such as we see in our text.
Paul went on to say, “And being
found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of
death, even death on a cross.” Christ humbled himself in obedience to the
Father’s will. He had entered our world to bear the sins of all – to bear your
sins. He took them as if they were his own and was obedient to the point of
death – even the shameful and humiliating death of the cross. By his death he
won forgiveness for you as he freed you from sin. Jesus said, “The Son of Man
came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Christ humbled himself for you. And
then the Father exalted him. He raised Jesus from the dead on Easter, as he
vindicated Christ. And in the ascension he exalted him to the right hand of
God. Paul went on to tell the Philippians, “Therefore God has highly exalted
him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name
of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and
every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father.”
Jesus says this morning, “For
everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be
exalted.” These words describe what Christ has done for you. And they also
describe how you now receive the forgiveness that Christ won on the cross.
God’s Law confronts the sin in your
life. It is the mirror that reveals your false gods – the things you place
before him and his Word. It reveals all of the selfish ways by which you put
yourself before your neighbor. In the face of this you confess your sin.
You repent, and turn again in faith
toward your crucified and risen Lord. You return to your baptism through which
you have shared in Christ’s saving death. You believe our Lord’s promise that
in baptism your sins have been washed away. Through repentance and faith in
what Christ does through baptism you humble yourself and are exalted as the
forgiven child of God.
Christ humbled himself for you, so
that you can be exalted in forgiveness and eternal life. Through his Spirit he
has given you new life – you have been born again in baptism. You now live as
those who are in Christ, and so Christ’s Spirit strengthens you to live as
Christ towards others.
This life in Christ serves others. It
is one in which we humble ourselves. Jesus told his disciples, “The greatest
among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and
whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
This way of humble service is the way of love. Paul told the Galatians,
“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
This means that rather than being
focused on ourselves, we look out and care for others. Paul told the
Philippians, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility
count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to
his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
So do this in your home as you care for your spouse, and as you
support and help your parents. Do this as you assist other members of this
congregation. Paul told the Romans, “Love one another with brotherly affection.
Outdo one another in showing honor.”
We follow Christ by humbling ourselves in service towards others.
We walk the way of faith as we have this mind among ourselves, which is ours in
Christ Jesus. Yet we do so in the confidence that the way of humility and
service leads to exaltation. We know this because Jesus Christ has been exalted
in his resurrection and ascension.
Already now we know that we too will share in our Lord’s
resurrection when he returns on the Last Day. Paul told the Romans about
baptism, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall
certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” As Paul told the
Corinthians we know that “what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.” God
will raise up our bodies through the work of the Spirit. Already now, the
presence of the Spirit within us means that we will be raised. Paul went on to
say, “He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the
Spirit as a guarantee.” Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection our lives are
guided by his words this morning: “For everyone who exalts himself will be
humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
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