The Church Season of Trinity
The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity,
One Year Series
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland,
MI (September 30, 2012)
Ephesians 4:1-6
Luke 14:1-11
+++INI+++
Grace, mercy and peace be to you from
the Father
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, ESV
“One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the
house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And
behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. And Jesus responded to the
lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”
But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away.
And 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?” And they could not
reply to these things. Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he
noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, “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. 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.””
The reason the Pharisees watch Jesus closely is because
they are hypocrites. They want to catch Him doing something He shouldn’t do in
order to get rid of Him. One Sabbath the Pharisees thought they had Jesus
trapped in the ultimate Catch-22. Jesus is eating at a friend’s house.
Remember, it’s the Sabbath. Suddenly a man appears before Christ who has
dropsy. The modern name for dropsy is an edema. It’s an abnormal accumulation
of fluid beneath the skin. The trap is set. If Jesus heals the man, He violates
the Sabbath by “working”. If Jesus ignores the man, He is a hypocrite. Jesus
tells others to love and care for each other, yet He does not care for a man
who suffers before His face. No matter what Jesus does, the Pharisees have Him
trapped.
The Pharisees don’t care about what Jesus does or says.
They want Him to make a mistake so they can yell “Gotcha!” Perhaps you have
come to God’s house with the same attitude. Perhaps you have come here in order
to catch the pastor as a hypocrite. He says one thing in his sermon, but he
does a completely different thing in life. Perhaps you have come to God’s house
to look for other hypocrites. “Why is so-and-so here? Doesn’t everyone know
that so-and-so isn’t going to listen to the sermon? They drink, swear, steal, and
lie during the week only to come here, fold their hands, and look like an
angel. You can’t fool me!”
But, you’ve been fooled. You are the one who is a fool if
you think you are the only one who isn’t a hypocrite. The Church Militant is a
hypocritical Church. We say and do things that contradict what we believe every
day. That’s what sinners do. Sinners want to do better every day, but they will
stumble back into their old tricks.
The difference between hypocrites and Christian
hypocrites is that Christian hypocrites are recovering hypocrites. The
Christian hypocrite hates the fact that they say one thing and do another. If
that wasn’t the fact, then why is that person at Divine Service? Why do you, O
hypocrite of hypocrites, stand in the place of Almighty God and judge? Repent.
Leave judging of hearts to God. You have enough to worry about each day, let
alone worrying about who is and is not a hypocrite.
Instead of judging others, judge yourself worthy of
eternal death yet rescued from that terrible condition by faith in Jesus
Christ, the Savior of hypocrites. Jesus asks the Pharisees, Is it lawful to
heal on the Sabbath? Jesus knows the answer, but He wants to hear their
answer. He receives silence. So Jesus heals the man of dropsy. In the eyes of a
Pharisee, Jesus has broken the Sabbath Law and must die. In the eyes of those
made righteous in Jesus Christ, Jesus has kept the Sabbath according to the
letter of God’s Law.
Jesus says elsewhere the Sabbath was made for man, not
man for the Sabbath. Our heavenly Father knows we need at least one day a
week to rest in Christ Jesus. For New Testament Christians, that day is
commonly Sunday, the day Christ rose from the dead. This means every Divine
Service is a celebration of Christ’s resurrection. Today Jesus raises a man
with dropsy from near death to healthy life. He does the same for you today.
The Alleluia verse from Psalm 116 says it best: I love
the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. The verse
says nothing about hearing only those who are not hypocrites. The verse says He
hears your voice and your pleas for mercy. One of the first words said in the
Divine Service is “Lord, have mercy.” This is a cry of faith. This cry says,
“Lord, I know you are the God of mercy. I know that You promise never to turn a
deaf ear to me. Do what You promised me. Have mercy on me. Hear my words of joy
and thanksgiving and answer them not according to who I am, but according to
Who You are.”
The Lord is merciful because He lays down His life for
you. He could sit on a throne surrounded by ten thousand times ten thousand
angels and archangels. He could be inaccessible except to those Whom He deems
to draw near to Him. He could be inaccessible to mere mortals like you and me.
This is not Who Jesus is. Jesus becomes like us, except without sin, in order
to exalt us to sit with Him in the heavenly mansions forever. Jesus dies as a
mocked hypocrite of a Savior, despised by both God and man, in order to buy you
back from the devil’s cunning grasp. Humiliation becomes exaltation. Death
becomes life. Hopelessness becomes joy.
Jesus Christ has mercy on recovering hypocrites
everywhere. He bids us ask him to help us control our tongue in order that it
may praise Him rather than curse others. He bids us open our mouths to receive
His forgiveness and life in the Lord’s Supper on the same muscle that wants to
speak ill of God and our neighbor. Instead of cauterizing the tongue or cutting
it off, our Lord sanctifies the tongue through His means of grace to bestow
mercy that is stronger than hypocrisy.
Jesus places His forgiveness, His body and blood where
sin comes out of our body. “Oh Lord open my lips and my mouth shall
declare your praise.” For Christ had said it is not what goes into the
mouth that defiles the body, but what comes out. In the sacrament of Sacrament of Holy Communion not only are your lips cleansed,
but also your mind, your life, and your soul.
You are forgiven, Christ offers
that forgiveness everyday and unto eternal life. Amen.
+++SDG+++
