17th Sunday after Trinity – September 22nd, 2024
Trinity Lutheran Church, Block, Kansas
Rev. Joshua Woelmer
Text: Luke 14:1–11
“Jesus-Others-You”
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
There is a simple acronym that we can teach children about how to find “JOY” in this world. You take each of the letters of joy and make it an acronym for “Jesus-Others-You.” So we can teach that you find joy when you put Jesus first, then others, then yourself. Now, this doesn’t encompass everything the Bible has to say about joy, but it’s simple, easy to remember, and it gets the basic message across.
And yet, it’s amazing how often we as sinful humans get this wrong, isn’t it? Any parent can tell you of the struggles to remind children to share and to consider others’ needs before their own. But this is not only a problem with children—I think we adults struggle with JOY as well, don’t we? We can put on a show sometimes when it will benefit us, but there are some occasions when our sinful nature rears its ugly heads and we want what’s best for us. The simple term for this is “pride.” Pride seeks its own advantage, even—or sometimes especially—at the expense of others. It’s easiest to see in interactions with others, but it can be harder to point out when someone is prideful in relation to Jesus. So if I were to express this with the acronym, it’s easy to see “JYO” but not “YJO” or “YOJ.”
But, we see two examples of this in our Gospel text for today. Our Gospel text is split nicely for us into two parts: a question of the Sabbath, and a question of the place of honor.
The first part of our reading deals with a question of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was instituted by God to be a day of rest for man. God wants us to rest both body and soul on at least one day of the week. For the Old Testament, it was a law for them to do this on Saturday: “Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work” (Deut 5:12).
By the way, in the New Testament era, we recognize that Jesus is the “Lord of the Sabbath” (Matt 12:8), so we worship on “the Lord’s Day” (Rev 1:10), which is the day when he rose, or Sunday.
Yet for the Israelites, there were many laws that God instituted to help them keep the Sabbath. He did not want them working or making money on the Sabbath Day. On the one hand, this is good, because sometimes we can make money so much of a god that we will work tons of overtime and on days off just to get more of it. On the other hand, sometimes we humans can abuse the gifts of God for our own pride, our own benefit.
This was certainly the case with the Pharisees. They added tons of extra laws just to make sure they would not break these Sabbath laws. Then, they expected to get God’s grace because they were doing such a good job keeping both God’s laws and their own laws about the Sabbath. However, they were just using God and his law to make themselves look good. Why? Because there were many others who couldn’t keep all of their man-made traditions, even if they were keeping God’s law of the Sabbath. So the Pharisees used the Sabbath to show how good of people they were.
However, you can tell that their heart was not in the right place, because they decided to use the Sabbath to trick Jesus. If they really cared about the Sabbath or even this man with dropsy, they would not have tried to pull off what they did. But, it’s clear in our text that this man with dropsy did not just appear. He was not a door-to-door beggar. He was invited to be a part of the same dinner party that this ruler of the Pharisees had invited Jesus to. Dropsy, by the way, is known now as edema, or a swelling of the body with water. In a day without Lasix, this would have been extremely painful and difficult to deal with.
Jesus asks a simple question: “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” (3). There is no answer from the law on this matter. But what Jesus is trying to get at is this: can you show love on the Sabbath? Or are you so bound up by your laws and regulations that you can’t do a simple act of love like healing on the Sabbath? This, by the way, is an example of “YJO”—putting yourself over Jesus and over others. I feel bad for the man with dropsy most of all. So the Pharisees couldn’t answer, so Jesus heals the man then says, “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?” (5). This answer is clear: all of them, despite the fact that it could be considered “work.” Their pride in themselves could not understand the purpose behind God’s law, which is to show love and mercy for the neighbor.
Pride does not only affect our relationship with God. It also affects how we see other people. Jesus noticed as the Pharisees jostled for the best positions at the Sabbath feast. Again, this should be a time to recognize God’s gift of rest, but they’re worried about status and honor and their own pride. Jesus gives them some advice about choosing where to sit. Don’t sit in a place of honor lest you be displaced (8–9). Sit in a place of lowliness that you may be raised up from it (10). This simple wisdom is based on the Proverb in our Old Testament lesson: “Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presence or stand in the place of the great, for it is better to be told, ‘Come up here,’ than to be put lower in the presence of a noble” (25:6–7). It is a good piece of wisdom.
One way that I might translate it into today’s world is by saying, “At a party, don’t just talk with your friends and those you want to hang around with. Pick someone you don’t know, and get to know them.” Find something interesting about them and their life—that’s part of being human and living in society. Maybe we could start even right after church—pick someone you don’t know very well, and get to know them even a little bit. You might be surprised if you put this into practice in other areas of your life.
Jesus ends our Gospel lesson with this: “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (11). This certainly applies to us now as we live our daily lives. It’s good to memorize and try to live by.
We should also acknowledge that where we fail, Jesus does not. Jesus is the fulfillment of this very passage. Even though he is God, he humbled himself by become one of us—a man. He came redeem us and rescue us. He humbled himself even to the point of the cross, dying as the perfect sacrifice there. Jesus was not prideful in any of it. He put God first by following his will. He put others first by forgiving them on the cross. He put others first by dying for us. He put himself last. And because he did that, “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” (Phil 2:9–11).
And so, we are the recipients of the greatest humility of all, a humility that led to our salvation. Thanks be to Jesus for that. Everything we do is in reaction to the knowledge of that salvation. We love because we have first been loved. We are given the strength by the Holy Spirit to put Jesus first, then to love others, and finally to understand yourselves as beloved children of God, baptized and reborn to a living faith
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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