Pentecost 15 – 28 August 2016 – Year
C
Grace to you and peace from our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The Holy Gospel reading for this meditation is written in the 14th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Luke: Verses 1 – 14:
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. 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. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. 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.
7 Now he told a
parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of
honour, saying to them, 8 “When
you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honour,
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 honoured 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.”
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 neighbours, 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.”
Today’s Gospel gives
an account of Jesus healing a man who had dropsy. Dropsy is a alternative expression for edema,
which is simply a fluid build up in serous cavities around the human body.
There are many causes for edema or dropsy.
It might be something as simple as an allergy, an injury, or some sort
of infection. The swelling and
discomfort would vary depending on the severity of the edema. The person might even look a little strange
because of the swelling, but this is a condition that people can live with for
a long time. This was definitely not an
emergency.
The real focus of
these verses is not what Jesus
healed, but when He did the
healing. Luke is careful to tell us that
Jesus did this healing on a Sabbath while He was the dinner guest of a
Pharisee. This was one of those times
when an important member of the community would invite an interesting
collection of guests to share a Sabbath meal after the synagogue service was
over.
This particular meal
almost seemed like a trap to embarrass Jesus.
Luke tells us that they were all watching Jesus carefully. Then, suddenly, this man shows up with
dropsy. I don’t think this was a
coincidence. It almost seems as though
the ruler of the Pharisees invited the man with dropsy just to see what Jesus
would do. As usual, Jesus took this
confrontation and turned it into a teachable moment.
This is yet another
example of Jesus teaching – what Theologians call “the Great Reversal” – what
that really means is “Jesus turned the world logic upside down”. We heard Jesus challenge human logic last
week when He said, [Luke 13:30]
“Some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” Back in Luke chapter 1, Jesus’ mother Mary
expressed this Great Reversal in the middle of the Magnificat. She said, [Luke
13:30] “He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in
the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.”
The Pharisees were
not big fans of these glimpses God’s Kingdom.
Why would they be? After all, here on earth they were the mighty who
would be brought low. They were the rich
who would be sent away empty. They had a
lot to lose in these Great Reversal. revelations!
Jesus went on to use
common table manners as a parable to illustrate His point. We are used to the idea of seating
arrangements at an important meal such as a wedding reception. When you enter the banquet hall, you search
the tables until you find a place card with your name on it. Then you know where you are to sit. If you are the parents of the bride or groom,
you find yourself right up front where the action is. If you are a fourth cousin, twice removed,
you find yourself next to the door to the kitchen.
This was even more
important in the culture of that day because people did not sit at table. They reclined. If you were assigned to a bad place at the
table, it would be very hard to participate in anything. In addition to that, there was a very strict
“pecking order” in this culture. People
expected you to keep your place and they were careful to enforce this
idea. If you were moving up in society,
you also moved up at table. Your honour
in the community grew. If you suffered a
downturn, you also moved to a less important place at table. This increased your shame.
The smart thing to do
at a public meal was to take place beneath your station. Then when the host moved you to a better
place all the people at the banquet would remark, “Look how he / she is moving
up in this world!” If, on the other
hand, you took a place above your station, the host asked you to give way to
more important people. All the people at
the banquet would remark, “Look how the mighty have fallen!”
Jesus expanded this
idea of taking a lower place into our standing on Judgment Day. He said, “Everyone
who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be
exalted.” With these words, Jesus
teaches us that those who believe they can contribute to their own salvation
will hear the words, “Give your place to this person and take the lowest
place.” Such people will miss out on the
Kingdom of God. Meanwhile, those who
confess that they deserve eternal punishment for their sin and trust in God’s
mercy will hear the words, “Friend, move up higher.” These people will enjoy God’s presence
forever.
We do something like
that in our worship service. We confess
that we are unworthy sinners and we take refuge in God’s infinite mercy, and
ask for His forgiveness. We stand far
off with the tax collector and say: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” The Priest or Pastor then, has the distinct
privilege of speaking Words such as written in Romans 6. “Christ died to sin once and for all; but the
life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin
but alive to God in Christ Jesus”. – or words such as these that
announce that upon our confession, Jesus Christ offers us forgiveness of sins.
These words from the Holy Scriptures are just as if Jesus Christ Himself said
to each of us individually, “Friend, move up higher.”
Jesus Christ can
invite us to move up because Jesus Himself took the lowest of all places. His perfect life without sin earned Him the
highest place of all, but He did not take it.
Instead, He took the lowest place.
He took His place under the punishment of the wrath of God. Even though Jesus was perfect in every way,
He took the lowest place on the cross.
On that cross, He even experienced the forsakenness of hell as He cried
out, [Matthew 27:46] “My God,
My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
By taking on this lowest of all places, Jesus earned the right for us to
live forever in the very presence of God.
We know that this is
true because God the Father [Acts
17:31] has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. When Jesus rose from the dead it was just as
if God the Father spoke to Jesus and said, “Friend, move up higher.” Jesus Christ became the [1 Corinthians 15:20] “first fruits of those who have fallen
asleep”. His resurrection assures us
all that on the Last Day, Jesus will raise all the dead. Those who arrogantly took the higher places
for themselves will hear, “Surrender your place! Go, instead to the lowest place.” Those who recognise their sin and call out to
God for forgiveness will hear, “Friend, move up higher! Take your place at My side.”
Jesus made one more
point in our Gospel text. He instructed
the Pharisee to invite people who could never pay him back … who would never be
able to repay the favour. With these
words, Jesus assures us that the Kingdom of God is for all people … even those
who are rejected in our society at large.
At the time of
today’s Gospel, Jesus spoke of the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind … He
pointed to that man who had the dropsy.
In our day, He could point to that young person who irritates us with
loud music, the people with tattoos, piercings, strange fashions and odd
hairstyles, or any number of other things that make us uncomfortable. Jesus made Himself the lowest in order to
save them as well. They too can confess
their sins and trust in the mercy that Jesus Christ earned for us on the
cross. They too can hear Jesus say,
“Friend, move up higher!”
The Holy Spirit
inspired St. Paul to write [Philippians 2:5-11] “Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing
to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient
to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that
is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in
heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Jesus Christ who humbled Himself to the lowest
depth of the cross is now exalted to the greatest height. He is now preparing the place of honour that
He has earned for each of us at His wedding feast. When the time is right, He will come and say
to each of His faithful people, “Friend, move up higher.” Amen.
The love and peace of
our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts
and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
