Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 17C)

August 28, 2022

Text: Luke 14:1-14

            What is the Sabbath for?  Is it for good, or for evil?  For healing, or abandoning those broken by sickness and death?  Is it for releasing from bondage, or forsaking the captives?  Is it for forgiveness of sins, or condemnation of sinners?  Why did God give us the Sabbath, and even guard it by a holy Commandment, the Third of ten, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy?”  And how do we keep it holy?  By slavishly observing limits on which activities are permissible on a certain day of the week?  Is that what it means to rest?  Or by hearing and learning God’s Word, and so receiving His gifts?  What is it that brings us true Sabbath, the rest that God intends for us?

            And could the Pharisees and lawyers possibly be keeping the Sabbath holy by their activity at the Sabbath Seder in our text?  What are they up to?  They are watching Jesus carefully, hoping to catch Him breaking the Sabbath laws.  And they’ve even set a trap they know He can’t resist.  I mean, do you really think a prestigious ruler of the Pharisees would have a man with dropsy… edema, we call it today, the swelling of bodily tissues due to excess fluid… do you really think he would have such a man present at his table?  Of course not.  The sick man is there as a prop.  They planted him there on purpose.  Because, if Jesus heals him, they can say, “It is not lawful to heal on the Sabbath!”  And if on the off chance He does not heal him, they can say, “Look at His lack of compassion,” or “Look at His inability to relieve the man of dropsy.”  Either way, they’ve got Him!

            Well, we know Jesus is able, and we know His compassion moves Him.  But what about the Sabbath?  Jesus asks the Pharisees and the lawyers what the Sabbath is for.  And they sit there, stone silent.  Needless to say, Jesus heals the man.  He releases him from the bondage of his afflictions.  He sends the man away, well.  And He asks the religious and legal experts whether they would not do the same, even on the Sabbath, for one of their children, or even for an ox that has fallen into a well.  Isn’t the Sabbath precisely for such freedom?  Doesn’t healing and release from all that binds a person bring relief and rest?  In fact, it brings true rest, real Sabbath, because it directs those so freed to find all their hope and rest, their healing and salvation, in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and in Him alone.

            Jesus doesn’t break the Sabbath by healing the man.  Jesus is the Sabbath for the man, and for us all.  Now that Jesus has arrived on the scene, the Son of God in human flesh, the Sabbath is no longer a day, but a Man.  It is Jesus Himself.  What does He do every day of His earthly ministry, but walk around providing Sabbath to those who bear the great burden of sin and death?  The blind see.  The lame walk.  Lepers are cleansed.  The deaf hear.  The dead are raised.  And the poor have the Good News preached to them.  Satan is cast out.  And tax collectors and sinners, the unclean and outcast, are brought to the Table to eat and drink with Jesus.  He takes all that binds them away from them, and into Himself.  He bears it.  He suffers it.  Their sin.  Their death.  In His death for them on the cross.  He is crucified, dead and buried.  And on the Third Day, He rises again.  Because He is the Lord of Life.  And He has life within Himself, and He gives it, freely, by grace, to all who believe.  It is liberty.  It is relief.  It is rest.  It is Sabbath.

            But that was there, and then.  What about here, and now?  How do you, here, now, today, receive this Sabbath in Jesus?  You receive it in preaching and God’s Word.  “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  What does this mean?  We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.”[1]  You receive Jesus’ Sabbath… Jesus gives you healing, release, the forgiveness of sins, true Sabbath rest… by means of His Word. 

            And by means of His Feast!  The wedding Feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom that has no end.  The Feast He provides for His Bride, the Church.  The Feast of which we receive a foretaste right here at this Altar.  His body.  His blood.  Given and shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins.  Just as our Lord brought tax collectors and sinners, the unclean and the outcast to the Table during His earthly ministry, so He does now in His Church.  He brings you to the Table.  Not by your own merit or righteousness.  But by His.  That He may give it to you, feed it to you, in the eating and drinking of His Supper.

            Now, when you are invited to a Feast like this one, it is important to come with the proper disposition.  Jesus illustrates this by means of a parable.  Here is earthly wisdom.  When you are invited to a wedding feast, you don’t presume to go and sit at the head table with the bride and groom, do you?  You don’t claim the place of honor for yourself.  If you do, what will happen?  The host will tell you to get up and give your place to the person for whom that seat of honor is intended.  And then, because all the other places are now taken, you have to sit over there, in the back, next to the kitchen.  But what happens if, immediately when you walk in, you go and take that seat over by the kitchen, the lowest place, not presuming any honor for yourself, but simply thankful to be at the party?  Now the host will come to you and say to you, “Friend, move up higher” (Luke 14:10; ESV), and you will be honored in the presence of all. 

            This is very good earthly wisdom, but what is Jesus’ point?  Certainly, He is not concerned about wedding party etiquette.  He is teaching you, by means of the parable, how you ought to enter the Church to receive Holy Communion.  That is, you don’t come in like you have a right to be here, like you have a right to Jesus’ gifts, or as though you’ve earned a place at the Table and in His Kingdom.  You don’t come in, comparing yourself to others, thinking yourself to be more righteous than they, as though they may be here by grace, but you are here because you deserve it.  See, this is the endless quest of self-justification in which we all find ourselves making excuses for our sins and weaknesses, judging others for theirs, and pointing out where we think we really have it together as opposed to everyone else.  This is Pharisaism, that’s what this is.  Insisting on one’s own righteousness.  But it is no Sabbath.  There is never any rest in the quest for self-justification.  And Jesus doesn’t fall for it.  You may fool yourself, and perhaps you’ll even fool other people, but you can’t fool Jesus.  He will come to you with His righteous Law.  He will hold His Commandments before you as a mirror, and you will see yourself in all the horrifying truth, as a rebel and an idolater, a fake and a fraud.  The mirror does not lie, and this will humble you.  You will begin with shame to take the lowest place.  This is what self-justification gets you every time.

            How much better… how freeing… what a relief to simply rest in Jesus Christ and in His Word that absolves you, forgives your sins, justifies you for His own sake.  Confess who you are, a poor miserable sinner, unworthy, unclean, one who by all rights should be an outcast.  Confess the things you’ve done, your sins of thought, word, and deed, and the things you’ve left undone.  Confess even your penchant for self-justification.  And then gladly take your place in the back, by the kitchen, just happy to be invited to the party.  Do you know what Jesus will say to you?  “I forgive you all your sins!  I have put them to death in My body!  You are healed.  You are free.  I relieve you of your burdens.  And more than that… I am risen from the dead, and I give you My very life.  I have washed you clean in Baptism.  (We saw it again today in Josiah’s Baptism!  And, by the way, is there any better example of how this is all by grace alone than an infant Baptism?  God does it all!  It is God’s saving work!)  I have clothed you with Myself.  I breathe My life and Spirit into you by the preaching of My Word, and I feed you with the Bread of Life in My Holy Supper.  You were right to confess your sins.  To be sure, you spoke the truth.  But now, My Friend…  move up higher!  Come to the place of honor I have prepared for you right here at My Table.”

            I submit to you that this is what Jesus does for you every Sunday, and every time we gather around His Table for the Divine Service.  You come in penitence, humbled by His holy Law.  And He bespeaks you righteous with His own righteousness, by His death, and His resurrection, for you.  And then He invites you to His Feast, and gives you an honored place.  Freely, by grace.  That is what the Sabbath is for. 

            And then, note this, too.  The Sabbath is a gift you can give to your neighbor.  The poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind.  Who do you know that needs Sabbath in Jesus?  Invite them here to receive Him, just as you do.  By the way, Jesus is not against dining with your loved ones and friends.  That is a Hebraism (a Hebrew manner of speaking) when He says, “Don’t invite them… invite the poor and sick instead!”  Jesus dined with His disciples all the time, and He loved them dearly, so again, the point is not that you should never invite your friends and family.  The point is, rather, don’t evaluate another precious human being, created by God in His own image, and redeemed by Jesus’ blood, based upon what they can do for you, or whether they can pay you back.  Don’t invite them based on any worthiness intrinsic within themselves.  Rather, look upon every human being, including your friends and family, as one who is just like you: In need of Sabbath.  In need of Jesus.  Poor.  Crippled.  Lame.  Blind.  Just the kind of person who needs Jesus’ healing, His forgiveness, His Word, and His sustaining and life-giving Food.  Invite them to come where Jesus is for them, even as He is here for you.  Just as He was there for the man with dropsy, and even, if they would have it, for a group of Pharisees and lawyers.  For that is what the Sabbath is for.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.                    

 

 

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[1] Catechism quotes from Luther’s Small Catechism (St. Louis: Concordia, 1986). 

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 16C)

August 21, 2022

Text: Luke 13-22-30

            “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” (Luke 13:23; ESV).  Jesus doesn’t answer the question, does He?  And isn’t that just like Jesus!  You ask Him one question, and He answers a different one.  We ask Him, “Lord, how many people will be saved,” and He counters by asking, “What about you?  Will you be saved?”  “Strive to enter through the narrow door,” He says,   “For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able” (v. 24).  And this leads us to ask a whole host of additional questions. 

            First of all, what is the narrow door?  Well, it’s not so much a “what,” as it is a “Who.”  Jesus Christ is the narrow Door.  The Jesus who died on the cross for our sins.  The Jesus who is risen from the dead for our life and salvation.  And the point is, there is no salvation, no entering into eternal life, except through Him.  Jesus Himself asserts this very thing in a verse you know and love: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).  This is what St. Peter preaches to the Jewish Sanhedrin: “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).  This is the scandal of exclusivity, that Jesus, and Jesus alone, is the Savior, and you can only be saved in and through Him.  Needless to say, this teaching is not politically correct.  This is to say that Christianity is the only true religion, and that the God revealed in the flesh of Jesus of Nazareth, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is the only true God. 

            But it is also pure Gospel.  We enter life and salvation, we enter the Father’s House and the Father’s Family in and through Jesus.  Yes, even us, poor miserable sinners that we are.  Because Christ has made atonement for our sins, and therefore we are forgiven.  “I am the door,” Jesus says.  “I am the door of the sheep.  All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.  I am the door.  If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.  I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:7-10).  We enter by means of His Word.  We enter by means of Holy Baptism.  He feeds us here with His true body and blood.  And He protects us from thieves and robbers and predators that would steal us from the sheepfold, injure us, and kill us.  In Jesus, we are safe, and our Good Shepherd provides for our every need. 

            But now there is another question.  What does it mean that the Door is narrow?  Well, it doesn’t mean that the Door is hidden.  Jesus commands that His Gospel be proclaimed to the ends of the earth.  “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.  Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:15-16).  “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem’” (Luke 24:45-47).  “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20).  The whole world is to know the identity of the narrow Door, and how to enter through it.  And that is the joyful task of the Church as she proclaims Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, as Savior and Lord of all. 

            But that the Door is narrow is to say that there are infinite doors that promise life and salvation, but lead only to death and damnation.  There is only one Door that can deliver on His Promise, and that is Jesus Christ.  Jesus says in another place, similar to our text, “Enter by the narrow gate.  For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matt. 7:13-14).  The way is hard precisely because the great masses of people are stampeding to all the other gates, and they are sneering at you, and even seeking to impede your way to that one little narrow Gate, the narrow Door, Jesus.  There is a quote attributed to C. S. Lewis, probably erroneously, unfortunately, but wonderful nonetheless: “When the whole world is running towards a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind.”  So when the whole world is running toward all the wide and easy doors, and you are insisting that the only way to salvation is to go through the Door that is Christ crucified and risen, well, that appears to be insane!  Or sinister.  Certainly intolerant and hateful of other ways.  And so the world mocks and marginalizes, pesters and persecutes Christ’s Christians.  The world makes it difficult, hard, even agonizing to go the way of Jesus Christ. 

            And that brings us to the question of what it means to strive.  “Strive to enter through the narrow door.”  The Lutherans don’t like that word, “strive.”  But it doesn’t mean what you think it means.  This is not salvation by works, or a salvation that depends in any way upon you, as opposed to Christ.  The verse is not against grace alone, faith alone, or Christ alone, and Jesus is not urging you toward works of self-righteousness, self-justification.  The word “strive” could, perhaps, better be translated as “struggle.”  The Greek word is Ἀγωνίζεσθε, from which we get the English word “agony,” or “agonize.”  “Strive… struggle… agonize to enter through the narrow door.”  In spite of the world’s opposition.  In spite of the devil’s temptations and accusations.  In spite of your own sinful flesh’s lack of stamina, and earnest desire to run with the crowd to the doors that are wide and easy.  To strive in this way, to struggle, to agonize, is to live by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God, ears focused on the Good Shepherd’s voice, over against all the other voices clamoring for your attention.  It is to live by the Spirit of the Lord in daily repentance, crucifying the sinful flesh, returning continually to the waters of your Baptism where you were crucified with Christ in His agony, and raised to new life in Him.  It is to live by faith in spite of all appearances, in cross and suffering, to agonize over this present darkness, even as the light is within you, and is overtaking the darkness, and you know the darkness will never overcome it.  St. Paul says, “For to this end we toil and strive,” ἀγωνιζόμεθα, agonize, “because we have set our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe” (1 Tim. 4:10). 

            In a related thought from our Epistle, the writer to the Hebrews says, “In your struggle,” ἀνταγωνιζόμενοι, another derivative of the word for agony, your antagonism “against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood” (Heb. 12:4).  You have “not yet.”  But you may.  Such antagonism against the wide and easy way will certainly bring the agony of suffering, and perhaps even a martyr’s death.  The Christian must always be ready for that, though it is a struggle, it is a striving.  Because the only way to enter through the narrow Door that is Jesus Christ is death and resurrection.  His for you.  Yours in Him.  The death part always hurts.  But we know that Easter always follows Good Friday.  That is the baptismal life of daily repentance and faith.  And we confess “the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting” (Apostle’s Creed).  So we live in hope and go to our death with confidence, and, even in spite of whatever agony, with joy. 

            Now, there are many driving toward the wide and easy doors who nevertheless give a nod to Christ.  They think He is a pretty good guy, but they do not accept that He is the only Door to salvation, or that His Word is entirely true.  “We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets” (Luke 13:26), they will object, when they find out too late that the Door is now shut and they are locked in the outer darkness.  That is to say, when they have died, or when Jesus has come again to Judge.  And it is true, as far as it goes.  The Pharisees and teachers of the Law literally had Rabbi Jesus over to dinner, and we know they were present for His teaching… to oppose Him!  We can think, here, of Judas, with whom our Lord dipped the bread in the sop, and who very well may have been present to receive the Last Supper.  To this day, there are those who come to Church regularly, who nod and smile at the preaching, and belly up to the altar for the Lord’s Supper, but who do not hear in faith, or eat and drink in faith.  They may flirt with the narrow Door, but keep their options open, keep one foot aimed toward other doors they find more appealing.  But they will not be able to enter that way.  To them, on that Day, Jesus will say, "I do not know where you come from” (vv. 25, 27).  On that Day, it will be too late.  They will have to depart from Him, to the place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Now is the time for repentance.  Now is the time to enter through Christ, to hear His Word, and believe it.

            Others will enter, and we will be surprised to see them there.  Oh, we won’t be surprised to see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets, feasting with Jesus in the Kingdom.  Of course, they’ll be there.  But we will be surprised at the many from east and west, north and south, tax collectors and sinners, Jews and Gentiles, ex-cons and politicians, and even that jerk from fifth grade who bullied you when you walked home from school, none of whom would you have considered “good Christian folk,” reclining at Table in the Kingdom of God.  They won’t be there because they were such great people.  They will be there because they believed in Christ.  By grace alone.  Because they entered through the narrow Door.  They believed the preaching.  And so they live. 

            Some are last who will be first.  That’s these guys who are reclining at Table.  Some are first who will be last.  You may be somebody in this world, but it makes no difference if you don’t enter through the narrow Door.  And that is Jesus.

            So, will those who are saved be few?  That’s not the right question.  The question is, will you be saved?  And you know the answer.  He is hanging on the crucifix, and He has burst forth from the tomb.  As a result, whoever you are…  Whatever you’ve done…  Wherever you’ve been…  Christ bids you enter the Kingdom of our Father through Him.  He journeyed toward Jerusalem (v. 22) for this very purpose, to die and rise again for your salvation.  “God so loved the world,” and that means you, “that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.