Jesus Serves You

Jesus Serves You

Scripture Lessons

Proverbs 25:2-10

Psalm 131:1-3

Hebrews 13:1-17

Luke 14:1-14

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

For starters, I want to re-read the text that you heard this morning. First, let’s set the context. The preceding chapter of Luke (13) ends with Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem. He was warned, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” To which He responded that it was not yet His time to die, but that day would come and certainly in Jerusalem, “the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!” Jesus will serve by teaching and healing and ultimately, by giving Himself up to death on the cross. That leads then into our text this morning.

One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. ² And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. [This is like edema, a swelling condition. A man with dropsy was ceremonially unclean according to Leviticus 13.] ³ And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” ⁴ But they remained silent. [Why were they silent? If they answered “yes” they would be undermining the law. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy….you shall not do any work. Given their legalistic scruples, they cannot answer “yes.” But on the other hand, if they answer “no” then they will be showing a lack of compassion for this man with dropsy. So they can’t answer “no.”] Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. [Jesus demonstrates here that He is Lord of the Sabbath. Man does not exist for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath exists for man.   ⁵ 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?” ⁶ And they could not reply to these things. [You wouldn’t leave your son lying in a ditch just because it is the Sabbath. You wouldn’t even leave an ox in the ditch.]

[Of course they can’t answer or reply to Jesus. Listen, God’s righteousness is a good thing. It is right to desire the righteousness of God. The problem is that if you believe that righteousness comes through your adherence to the law, then you have a false paradigm. The law condemns, always, as any any honest person will clearly see when they view themselves through the mirror of God’s law. If you believe that you are saved by the law, then you will either 1) fall into despair for failure to keep it perfectly (Martin Luther), 2) water it down and lower it to the point where you can keep it (Mainline Protestantism), or will delude yourself into thinking that you are keeping the law (legalists). With His question, the Pharisees are in a pickle. If they answer “yes, it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath,” then they are advocating the violation of God’s law. No work is to be done on the Sabbath. On the other hand, if they answer, “no,” then they are manifestly lacking compassion for this man with dropsy who is “before [Jesus].” And they can’t deny that of course they would not leave their son to lie in a ditch because it is the Sabbath. Jesus is not challenging the law, He is demonstrating that salvation does not come by it. That the law was not given so as to have a reason to smite you. The law was given for your benefit, not your harm or as Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Jesus was not challenging the law, but He was fulfilling it. He loved the man, by healing him, even though he was unclean. Even though it was the Sabbath.

Jesus emphasized this point with the parable. He noticed how they chose the places of honor. Notice in verse 2 that the man with dropsy was “before him.” In other words, Jesus was not in a seat of honor. The king of creation was present at a lower seat.

⁷ Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, ⁸ “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, ⁹ 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. ¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” [This is the reversal of fortunes that Christ has ushered in. Blessed are those who mourn, suffer persecution, hunger and thirst for righteousness, and so forth.]

¹² He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. ¹³ But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴ and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” [What does it require to show hospitality to those who cannot repay? Humility. Fidelity to God’s clear instruction. Love for your neighbor. Trust in God, that your reward awaits, that He will fulfill His promises and that you are free to lay aside your earthly pleasures, which are fleeting, as you eagerly look toward the resurrection.

Having heard this gospel lesson again, with my commentary added, the take-away may be that Jesus did thus (He loved), now you go and do likewise. However, that emphasis would miss the most important aspect of this account and that is what Jesus did. He lowered Himself and was a servant to the man with dropsy. He sat in the low place, served the unclean man, served Him on the Sabbath, and taught the Pharisees how they might also inherit eternal life.

He is Lord of the Sabbath and yet he accepted the lower seat that was given Him. He lived to serve you and He still lives (the risen and ascended Christ) to serve you, with His word, at the Baptismal font, and here at this table as you gather to receive His very body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.