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INJ
St Luke 14:1-11
'Friend, Go Up Higher'
Morning Service
17th Sunday after Trinity Sunday | October 8, 2006
Dear Saints,
The Gospel text this morning is in two parts. The first records Jesus healing of a man with dropsy on the Sabbath Day, and the conversation with the Pharisees about the Sabbath. The second part of the text is Jesus' teaching about humility. We will take up these two topics in order.
First, the Sabbath. “Sabbath” is the Hebrew word for rest. After the Holy Trinity created the universe in six days, there was a day of rest, the last day of the week, the Sabbath. This day the Lord made holy, He set it apart, and so we have the third commandment: Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. The Sabbath is the day of holy rest.
Now we know that physical rest, like sleeping or sitting on the couch doesn't make us holy. If this were the case the laziest people would be saints. But this is holy rest, and how are things made holy? By God's word, the Holy Scriptures. To be holy is to belong to God, to have His name on you, to be His, set apart by Him.
And so the Sabbath is made holy when we hear and learn God's word; His word gives us rest. “Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” [St Matthew 11:28] As we hear and learn the Scriptures we are coming to Jesus, to our Savior, and we hear of the forgiveness of all of our sins, we are made holy and we are given rest. This rest is the rest from all our works and strivings to be good enough and holy enough to stand before God, it is rest from all or efforts to comfort our own terrified consciences, it is rest from the fear of death, and the stopping of all of our attempts to climb into heaven with our own strength.
This is why the Lord Jesus gave the command: remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy, that we would not despise preaching or God's Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it, and rest in the gifts and promises God gives there.
But the Pharisees had distorted God's command, and so loaded up the Sabbath Day with regulations and restrictions and laws that there was no rest or even the possibility of rest. The only thing remaining for them was the worry and condemnation of breaking the Sabbath or the pride and self-satisfaction of keeping all these man-made rules. That's how it is when the law has its sway, there is only two options: despair and pride, and Jesus comes to undo both of these. He comes to throw down the prideful and to lift the sinner out of despair.
Thus Jesus heals the man with dropsy on the Sabbath, and exposes the prideful hypocrisy of the Pharisees with the question, “Which of you, if your donkey falls into a pit on the Sabbath, does not pull it out?” The Sabbath rest is not to prevent us from doing good, it does not stand in the way of helping our neighbor. So the self-declared righteousness of the Pharisee is shown to be sin, a cloak for vice.
You see how it is with Jesus. There is no room for pride, and there is no room for despair. So we get to the second part of the text: the parable of the seat assignments. “When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; and he who invited you and him come and say to you, 'Give place to this man,' and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place.” The Pharisees take the best place, they speak of their own goodness and righteousness; they sit in the best place; they act as if they are the closest to God, but Jesus isn't impressed.
Jesus continues the parable, “But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when who invited you comes he may say to you, 'Friend, go up higher.' Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. For whoever exalts himself will be abased, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” This is a description of all the humble people who came to Jesus, the poor and the maimed, the lame and the blind, the man in our text who suffered from dropsy, sinners and tax collectors. The Pharisees would have nothing to do with these poor miserable sinners. They were outsiders, rejects, cast off.
But in the feast of Jesus, in the kingdom of God, in the church, the Pharisees who took the best seats are sent to the back, and the sinners who hardly dare to approach Jesus are called forth, invited to the bests seats. “Whoever exalts himself will be abased, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
This is how it is in the kingdom of heaven, how it is with Jesus. The first are last and the last are first. The blind see and those with sight are blind. The world's wisdom is made foolishness as we are given the wisdom of God in the foolishness of the cross. Those who seek their life will lose it, but those who lose their life for the sake of the kingdom, for the sake of Christ, will find it. Death, the death of the Lord Jesus, brings life; His suffering brings eternal bliss. He becomes poor that we might be rich. “Whoever exalts himself will be abased and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
So the Lord Jesus would teach us humility, to be meek and lowly, to take the lowest place and think more highly of others than of ourselves. For Jesus is after the humble, the lowly, the sick and troubled and poor and needy; these are the ones He seeks after. It's the sick who need a doctor, the poor who need the Lord's treasure, the humble who need to be lifted up. It's the dying ones who need the Lord's life, and its the sinners who need a Savior.
So this is how Jesus would have us: humble, lowly, dying sinners. If we get too haughty, too proud, the Lord has His ways of taking us down a notch, abasing us. It's the work of His law, showing us our sin, our desperate powerlessness to do anything good in His sight without His help, our constant need for the Lord Jesus and His grace and forgiveness.
This is why, when we are gathered here before the Lord's altar to call upon His name, that the first thing we say is, “I, a poor miserable sinner, confess unto Thee all my sins and iniquities.” This, dear saints, is taking to lowest place, it is humbling ourselves, is it saying the hardest thing to say, that we are nothing, and worse, we are sinners. These words are not to be said with false humility, but as a true confession of our own rottenness.
But then, as we take the lowly place, the Lord Jesus makes room, and calls us to the head of the table to sit with Him. He speaks to us with mercy and compassion, saying, “Friend, go up higher.” This is the call of the gospel, the invitation to the feast of eternal life. Jesus calls us to Himself with gracious words that we do not deserve to hear.
“I forgive you all your sins.” “Friend, go up higher.”
“Though your sins be as scarlet, yet I will make then white as snow.” “Friend, go up higher.”
“He who believes and is baptized shall be saved.” “Friend, go up higher.”
“Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.” “Friend, go up higher.”
“Take and eat, this is My body, given for you.” “Friend, go up higher.” “Take and drink, this is the New Testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” “Friend, go up higher.”
This is how Jesus speaks to us, to the lowly humble dying sinner, to all who know the humility of sin and who believe His promise of forgiveness. By His death on the cross He abases the proud and lifts up the humble.
And so, dear saints, when we are finally given the wages of our sin, when our last hour comes and we are humbled in death and are laid low in the grave, our Lord Jesus will speak thus to us, “Friend, come up higher.”
May God grant us the comfort of this forgiveness and assurance. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO