The Church Season of Trinity
The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity, One Year Series
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (September 14, 2008)
“EXALTING THE HUMBLE”
The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity, One Year Series
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (September 14, 2008)
“EXALTING THE HUMBLE”
Readings:
Psalm 2
Proverbs 25:6-14
Ephesians 4:1-6
Luke 14:1-11
Sermon Form Deductive
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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen
The text for today is as recorded in the Gospel Lesson from the 14th chapter of St. Luke, especially the following verse:
Luke 14:1-11 (NIV)
1 One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. 2 There in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy. 3 Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” 4 But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away. 5 Then he asked them, “If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?” 6 And they had nothing to say. 7 When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: 8 “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. 9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. 10 But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Jesus joins a gathering as a guest and it is He who is being carefully watched by the host who is a Pharisee, and other guests the experts in the Law all waiting to see if they could catch Jesus being ill-mannered regarding the Law of the Sabbath. In front of Jesus was man who was physically ill, “suffering from dropsy.”(v. 2) a condition we would probably call today congestive heart failure. The sick man had a sick heart. The Pharisees and Lawyers had sick hearts too, today we would probably call their condition, misdirected piety. Meaning the Pharisees appeared outwardly very religious, but in truth they were just as sick in their hearts as the man with dropsy.
And seeing the man sick of heart Jesus asked, ““Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” 4 But they[the Pharisees] remained silent. So taking hold of the [sick] man, [Jesus]he healed him and sent him away.”(v. 3-4) And Jesus anticipated the response, knowing it was unlawful to do much of anything on the Sabbath, unless of course they had checked in with the proper authorities to make sure that they were using the most precise technicality to skirt the law. So in anticipation of the hrumpfs and disgust of this healing on the Sabbath, Jesus asked, “If one of you has a son or a donkey or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?”(v.5) But the Pharisees and Lawyers could care less whether their son, their ass, or oxen made it out of the well, rather they were too busy trying to take care of their own oxen by being the upstanding experts of the law. You don’t get to be called a prominent Pharisee without a little bit of hard work you know. Whether at that point they realized it or not, in two swift sentences Jesus had humbled them. Because He had directly challenged these high and mighty technocrats of the world and then by the healing on the Sabbath He had brought them low, cut them down to size. Jesus lifted their robes of prominence and exposed their arrogance .
Lack of humbleness combined with overt pride will do that to a man, we all know that , “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”(Prvb 16:18) And good example of that is a young man who you have read about. A man who, in his younger days, was thought to be very impressive, he stood a head taller than all his peers. When he was younger he was obedient to his father, taking care of his fathers farm and all their livestock. And that quality which he had in his younger days which brought him to the top, made him a great leader, and ultimately helped to single him out to become the top of his nation, the quality that he had that brought him to pinnacle of worldly ultimate success, well it was humbleness. But just as soon as he was recognized for his humbleness, it didn’t take too long for all that to go straight to his head and for that lack of humbleness he paid a very high price, he paid by losing his life. For that man who went from donkey herder to sovereign ruler was named King Saul who was anointed by the prophet Samuel at God’s command, and so he became Saul, King over all of Israel. But no sooner than Saul had became King, his ego also became inflated, and in his pride he no longer cared about the Lord God and his Word. God exalted him before all the people of Israel when he was humble. But when he became proud, God cast him down again and in despair King Saul took his own life and he and his family were literally wiped out. (Luther’s House postils, Vol. 7:42)
But recalling those who were humbled in the past like the King Saul’s of the world, only seems to give us some kind of misdirected hope for our present world. We watch time after time as we see our fellow men who seem to be like that lowly donkey raised from the well, who appear to conquer all the challenges in life, hit the highest heights, achieved all their aspirations only to see them make fools of themselves. Donkey is too kind of word for a fool, yet a donkey by any of it’s other given names it does not sound so sweet.
We love to watch that fall from worldly grace, to see that highly positioned person get his comeuppance, to see the people we hate stumble, to see those whom we despise get their just deserts. Whether we admit we know what haughtiness means, we still have it as we put on our best smirk when seeing someone else get caught doing something that we just did. But of course, that doesn’t seem to happen quite often enough, somehow it seems that that other guy should get caught breaking the rules a little more often than he does.
Repent, because that that kind of disgust for our fellow men, only puffs up the skirt of our own pride and reveals that we are just like the Pharisees and Lawyers who were out to trick Jesus. It proves that we too have the pride of King Saul. It compels us to stand alongside Cain as we attack our fellow man and deny that we have ever done anything wrong. It reveals that we are the true sons and daughters of our parents Adam and Eve as we pridefully place our hands over our faces in disgust at what someone else has done, never realizing that our hands have become fig leaves and quite frankly placing them over our face only brings to prominence the fact that our true nature is still exposed.
There is only one who exhibits true humility, and it is He who came from heaven and “being found in the appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death-even death on a cross!”(Php 2:8) And through the cross of Christ, ‘God who knows our sin and pride’(Prvbs 3:34) yet He, still freely gives us His grace. You who “humble yourself before the Lord, He lifts you up.” In fact He has already lifted you up, for in the waters of your baptism all your pain, your worry, and your sins were set aside, you have been “raised from the dead so that you may live a new life.”(Rom. 6:4) And today you will receive the true body and blood of Jesus Christ which gives you the forgiveness of sins, and strengthens your faith.
In pride the Pharisees would pull their oxen or donkey from a well even if it meant breaking their rules of the Sabbath. But God sends to you the Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus Christ and through His humbleness we who are weak of heart stand in His presence. Christ frees us from the depths of our sin, and He lifts us from this world this well of despair and he brings us to our knees, and kneeling there we are humbly blessed to exalt Him for all eternity.
1 One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. 2 There in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy. 3 Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” 4 But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away. 5 Then he asked them, “If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?” 6 And they had nothing to say. 7 When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: 8 “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. 9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. 10 But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Jesus joins a gathering as a guest and it is He who is being carefully watched by the host who is a Pharisee, and other guests the experts in the Law all waiting to see if they could catch Jesus being ill-mannered regarding the Law of the Sabbath. In front of Jesus was man who was physically ill, “suffering from dropsy.”(v. 2) a condition we would probably call today congestive heart failure. The sick man had a sick heart. The Pharisees and Lawyers had sick hearts too, today we would probably call their condition, misdirected piety. Meaning the Pharisees appeared outwardly very religious, but in truth they were just as sick in their hearts as the man with dropsy.
And seeing the man sick of heart Jesus asked, ““Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” 4 But they[the Pharisees] remained silent. So taking hold of the [sick] man, [Jesus]he healed him and sent him away.”(v. 3-4) And Jesus anticipated the response, knowing it was unlawful to do much of anything on the Sabbath, unless of course they had checked in with the proper authorities to make sure that they were using the most precise technicality to skirt the law. So in anticipation of the hrumpfs and disgust of this healing on the Sabbath, Jesus asked, “If one of you has a son or a donkey or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?”(v.5) But the Pharisees and Lawyers could care less whether their son, their ass, or oxen made it out of the well, rather they were too busy trying to take care of their own oxen by being the upstanding experts of the law. You don’t get to be called a prominent Pharisee without a little bit of hard work you know. Whether at that point they realized it or not, in two swift sentences Jesus had humbled them. Because He had directly challenged these high and mighty technocrats of the world and then by the healing on the Sabbath He had brought them low, cut them down to size. Jesus lifted their robes of prominence and exposed their arrogance .
Lack of humbleness combined with overt pride will do that to a man, we all know that , “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”(Prvb 16:18) And good example of that is a young man who you have read about. A man who, in his younger days, was thought to be very impressive, he stood a head taller than all his peers. When he was younger he was obedient to his father, taking care of his fathers farm and all their livestock. And that quality which he had in his younger days which brought him to the top, made him a great leader, and ultimately helped to single him out to become the top of his nation, the quality that he had that brought him to pinnacle of worldly ultimate success, well it was humbleness. But just as soon as he was recognized for his humbleness, it didn’t take too long for all that to go straight to his head and for that lack of humbleness he paid a very high price, he paid by losing his life. For that man who went from donkey herder to sovereign ruler was named King Saul who was anointed by the prophet Samuel at God’s command, and so he became Saul, King over all of Israel. But no sooner than Saul had became King, his ego also became inflated, and in his pride he no longer cared about the Lord God and his Word. God exalted him before all the people of Israel when he was humble. But when he became proud, God cast him down again and in despair King Saul took his own life and he and his family were literally wiped out. (Luther’s House postils, Vol. 7:42)
But recalling those who were humbled in the past like the King Saul’s of the world, only seems to give us some kind of misdirected hope for our present world. We watch time after time as we see our fellow men who seem to be like that lowly donkey raised from the well, who appear to conquer all the challenges in life, hit the highest heights, achieved all their aspirations only to see them make fools of themselves. Donkey is too kind of word for a fool, yet a donkey by any of it’s other given names it does not sound so sweet.
We love to watch that fall from worldly grace, to see that highly positioned person get his comeuppance, to see the people we hate stumble, to see those whom we despise get their just deserts. Whether we admit we know what haughtiness means, we still have it as we put on our best smirk when seeing someone else get caught doing something that we just did. But of course, that doesn’t seem to happen quite often enough, somehow it seems that that other guy should get caught breaking the rules a little more often than he does.
Repent, because that that kind of disgust for our fellow men, only puffs up the skirt of our own pride and reveals that we are just like the Pharisees and Lawyers who were out to trick Jesus. It proves that we too have the pride of King Saul. It compels us to stand alongside Cain as we attack our fellow man and deny that we have ever done anything wrong. It reveals that we are the true sons and daughters of our parents Adam and Eve as we pridefully place our hands over our faces in disgust at what someone else has done, never realizing that our hands have become fig leaves and quite frankly placing them over our face only brings to prominence the fact that our true nature is still exposed.
There is only one who exhibits true humility, and it is He who came from heaven and “being found in the appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death-even death on a cross!”(Php 2:8) And through the cross of Christ, ‘God who knows our sin and pride’(Prvbs 3:34) yet He, still freely gives us His grace. You who “humble yourself before the Lord, He lifts you up.” In fact He has already lifted you up, for in the waters of your baptism all your pain, your worry, and your sins were set aside, you have been “raised from the dead so that you may live a new life.”(Rom. 6:4) And today you will receive the true body and blood of Jesus Christ which gives you the forgiveness of sins, and strengthens your faith.
In pride the Pharisees would pull their oxen or donkey from a well even if it meant breaking their rules of the Sabbath. But God sends to you the Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus Christ and through His humbleness we who are weak of heart stand in His presence. Christ frees us from the depths of our sin, and He lifts us from this world this well of despair and he brings us to our knees, and kneeling there we are humbly blessed to exalt Him for all eternity.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
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