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INJ
St Luke 14:1-11
'The Lowest Place'
Divine Service
The 17th Sunday after Trinity | September 30, 2007
Dear Phillip (our confirmand),
St Paul (in our Epistle Text) says: There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; on Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. [Ephesians 4:4-6] You have, Phillip, been baptized with this one baptism by this one Lord, and today you have the marvelous privilege to stand before God and man and confess this one faith. For you the promise of Jesus is true: “If you confess me before men, I will confess you before My Father who is in heaven.” [Matthew 10:32]
By such faith and confession the church herself is one, united in the glorious teaching of the Gospel. A sainted professor of mine wrote: “The church is the mouth-house of God.” That is, the place where the Lord puts His word so that it might be heard throughout the world. He has His Word preached and read and heard and studied and confessed and spoken in our conversations with one another, in all of these things the “one faith” is kept among us by the work of the Holy Spirit.
And this Word does its work in our midst. This is why, dear saints, St Paul speaks of the humble service and love of the Church who has this “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.”
1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Jesus says it like this in the Gospel text: “Take the lowest place.”
The Lord's Christians are marked not with pride but with humility. This is a mark of faith, and fruit of the Holy Spirit who lives in your heart. We are told this over and over in the Scriptures, that we are to be humble, and in humility love and serve our neighbors, and especially our brothers and sisters in Christ's church.
The devil is proud, puffed up with conceit, and was condemned. [1 Timothy 3:6] “Whoever exalts himself will be abased, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” [Luke 22:11] That's how it is with Jesus. He cannot abide with pride, with boasting, with grasping for that which is not ours, with the thought (and this is the very essence of pride) that others ought to serve us.
The Lord will do all the exalting and giving seats, and we leave it up to Him. We, meanwhile, serve our neighbors and our brothers and sisters in Christ. This is difficult work. The good works to which the Lord call us are difficult. They involve sacrifice and sweat and tears and pain. We don't always get what we want, and that is what loving and caring for our neighbors is about.
“Well, I would like to love and serve my neighbor today, but I've got other things to do. I'm bust. I'm tired. I'm busy thinking about and entertaining myself and spending all my time and money and energy on me and the things that matter to me.” This is not the way a Christian thinks.
This is love, says Jesus, that a man lay down his life for a friend. And this is the kind of humble love and service that Jesus and His servant Paul are speaking to us about.
We have an example of this selfless love and service to the church in the Old Testament lesson from Esther.
The events are incredible, and if it's been a while since you've read through Esther, I would encourage you to go back this week and rejoice again in this wonderful text.
Summary of the Book of Esther: King Ahasuerus; Queen Vasti (rebellion); new Harem; Esther chosen Queen; Mordecai discovers a plot on the kings life; Haman elected to Ahasuerus' right hand, but Mordecai would not bow to him (fearing he would commit idolatry); Haman plots to kill all the Jews; Mordecai mourns and asks Esther to intercede.
“I will go into the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.” [Esther 4:16] “If I die, I die,” says Esther. So we see the type of sacrifice for our fellow Christians. We set out serving and caring, even if it costs us our life; if we die, we die.
Esther's banquet, king and Haman, Haman builds the gallows, the king's sleepless night, honor for Mordecai from Haman's mouth, the second banquet, Haman exposed and hung on the gallows built for Mordecai, and the Jews are given the right of self defense. Out of this comes the yearly festival of Purim
But back to the point at hand, we have the example of Esther, the command of Jesus and the instruction of Paul to take the lowest seat, to humble ourselves and serve our neighbors in love. This is not a command that Jesus avoided. In fact, Jesus is the supreme example of this loving and serving humility. He is the brightest and best, the greatest example of this service.
Jesus is the very Son of God, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, and yet He was pleased to take the lowest place, the most humble and humiliating station of them all, being hung on a cross to die.
3 Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Jesus was humbled to the point of death for us and for our salvation. He holds nothing back, but leaves it all on the cross. He is stripped and beaten and bleeding for us and for our salvation. And by this, dear saints, the Lord highly exalts Him and gives His the name above every name.
And this is the good and wonderful news for us: because His humiliation was for us, we will be exalted with Him. By His death, by His blood, all of our sins are washed away, even the miserable pride which clings to our flesh, even our laziness which only pursues the good works that are easy and convenient, all of this is forgive, and we are raised with Christ to God's right hand.
May our humble service and love for our neighbor confess our faith in the humbled and exalted Lord Jesus, until He brings us by His grace into His eternal kingdom. 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