The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Anderson sermon
St. Luke 14:1-11 “Through His Humility we are Exalted”
September 22, 2024 | Christ Lutheran Church
In Nomine Iesu
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Lord God, heavenly Father: We beseech You so to guide and direct us by Your Holy Spirit that we may not exalt ourselves, but humbly fear You, with our whole hearts hear and keep Your Word, and keep the day of rest holy, that we also may be sanctified by Your Word; help us, first, to place our hope and confidence in Your Son, Jesus Christ, who alone is our righteousness and Redeemer, and, then, so to amend and better our lives in accordance with Your Word, that we may avoid all offenses and finally obtain eternal salvation; through Your grace in Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever. Amen. (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary, by Veit Dietrich, p. 162)
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (Rom. 1:7, etc.)
The sermon text for today is taken from the 14th chapter of the Gospel according to St. Luke. We read selected verses in Jesus’ name:
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.”
These are Your words, heavenly Father. Sanctify us by Your truth, Your Word is truth. Amen. (Joh. 17:17)
In Christ Jesus, who knows our struggles as He decided to take them on for all people, even as we can’t have our own problems on our shoulders, yet there they hang on the cross, dear fellow redeemed:
In our text for today, it seems like Jesus is trying to address two different issues. He first has to address all of the laws the Pharisees have added to Scripture and how they use them instead of Scripture. After He addresses this, then He looks to teach them how one should humble himself. We want to listen to our Savior when it comes to humbling ourselves because we know many struggle with it. So, is Jesus trying to teach two different ideas? There is a reason this text is read all together. The humbleness at the end goes hand-in-hand with the Pharisees added laws. This is a text where after we read and hear what our Savior has to say, we can easily step back and apply it. We must apply it as with anything our Savior teaches us. While He corrects our thoughts in the ways that we exalt ourselves, He teaches us how to be humble and it is through His humility, we are exalted.
In these two words of, “humble and exalted”, we already can feel in our hearts the challenges of trying to achieve them. Instead of dwelling on our thoughts, Jesus points out what we should look for. One Sabbath, when [Jesus] went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching Him carefully. Why would the Pharisees need to be watching Him carefully? Jesus just walked into the house of the enemy to eat dinner. It is hard for us to fathom this because we know how difficult it is to be in the same room with someone who makes us upset. Just thinking about this already shows us some of the problems we have. 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. We see Jesus displaying His divine knowledge and why they are watching Him so closely. Scripture reveals how they have created Sabbath ordinances, but when it comes to God’s law, Jesus has done nothing wrong.
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. To begin the exercise of being humble, first is knowing the meaning of the law. As the Word made flesh, Jesus knows the ins and outs of the law. So, He asks them a question about the law and how well they know it, which the answer should be obvious. They are the teachers of the law for the people. As they try to exalt themselves, Jesus refutes their practices. They have man-made regulations for the Sabbath, and Jesus reveals why the Sabbath is there in the first place. It is there to find rest in God and to take care of one’s neighbor.
Jesus enemies watch Him heal a man, displaying His power right in front of them. All they can do is sit there in silence because they have no grounds with the law of God to accuse Him. They have exalted themselves without being humble. Jesus points out that the Sabbath is not to do absolutely nothing. “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?” Jesus is not just pointing their hypocrisy, He has more to say. 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. Jesus’ eye for paying attention points out just how hard it is to hide our wants, desires, and pride.
It is easy to see them because like Jesus says, who likes to be embarrassed? We have all been there. Do I even have to ask for you to think about a time you were embarrassed? I don’t think I do. It is something we try really hard not to think of. Our pride can put us in that kind of position. As we work hard in life and we can forget what is most important, our God and our neighbor, we can get lost in the world. All of a sudden, we care how high we are up the ladder and then we are falling. We are sitting in the seat of honor and being asked to move because someone more important is there to take our place. Whether we are trying to excuse ourselves to the law, or we look for that seat, Jesus points out that our humility isn’t there. Like always, Jesus then points out where pride takes us. When our pride fails, there we sit in shame. The Pharisees remained silent, and we have been removed from our special seat of honor in the image of God because of our sins. While we struggle with being humble and being exalted before God which is out of our reach, Jesus’ life reveals the way we are exalted. We are only exalted through Him.
Jesus reveals the humility we will never have. The humility that He has satisfies the Father because His is perfect. His enemies see His humility when He heals the man, looking out for him instead of the importance and standing of the crowd that He was with. They also see it with His parable. He continues to teach, “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.” They don’t understand how to sit in the lowest place. Jesus understands because here He is in front of them. He is going to sit in the place of sinful man. A place that He doesn’t deserve because He has done nothing wrong. Yet, the men who He is sitting with will scheme and put Him to death. This is God’s plan. At the end of this plan will be Jesus’ exaltation.
The Pharisees, no matter how hard they tried, no matter what kind of laws they have written, their humility will never be enough to exalt themselves to heaven. If they would look to Scripture, they would see God’s plan to exalt them. The Messiah as Isaiah prophesied will be a suffering servant. He will be lowly. Jesus is lowly as His only care is for the Father’s plan and for those who need His care. He points out to the Pharisees that even on the Sabbath you will take care of the people you love. Jesus loves the man with dropsy and heals him. And Jesus loves the world, and with His perfect life comes His innocent death.
This perfect life of humility begins at His conception. Jesus, the Son of God, who didn’t have to prove anything to the world came down and put on human flesh. God put on our flesh. We know our struggles and He decided to take it on for all people. We can’t even have our own problems on our shoulders. Yet, there they hang on the cross. This seems like the end, but this is the plan. This is our salvation. This is the way and the certainty that we have in our exaltation. Jesus said, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” This comes to life as Jesus humbled Himself to become a man and He finds Himself fulfilling God’s plan of salvation on the cross for all mankind. And as He bursts forth from the grave, destroying sin, death, and the devil, He is exalted to the right hand of the Father. The ultimate humility to exaltation.
Even though we hear this message every week, this was not an easy life of humility to exaltation. Jesus suffered every one of your sins and He died your death. You will never have perfect humility. You hear how you have to humble yourself and you know how hard it is. God knew you would never be humble enough so He humbled Himself. This humility did what you cannot. He put on your sins. He became cursed and despised. He did this for you. In His death, you become exalted. When you look at the cross, you see your eternal life. He pulls you out of the well and seats you at His wedding feast.
This is another message that will be hard on the ears of the world. The devil loves to help out with the temptation of power and glory. The same temptations he tempted Jesus with to avoid the pain of the cross. The Holy Spirit fights back through the sharing of the Gospel, through the sharing of how Jesus humbled Himself to die for the sins of the world. In His humility there is a heavenly exaltation for all people. Through His work, you can have confidence to live out your life, not having to worry about human honor. Your humility comes through the humility of Christ and in His humility, you find your exaltation. An exaltation that joins you with Christ at the wedding feast forever. Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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