The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity

 The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity – September 26, 2021

Psalm 119; Proverbs 25:6-14; Ephesians 4:1-6

St. Luke 14:1-11

In the name of the Father, and of the T Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.[1]

For the third time, our Lord has come into conflict with the Pharisees over the Sabbath. This is why they are said to be “watching him carefully.” It may be that the ruler of the Pharisees invited Jesus into his home precisely to entrap him into performing a miracle. I wouldn’t be surprised if the chief Pharisee specifically invited the man with dropsy.

When our Lord asks if it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath, he is not looking for permission. He knows he is going to heal the man. Rather, he is mocking the Pharisees. They think they have the upper hand, that they have laid a perfect trap. What they didn’t expect was for Jesus to call their bluff. His question leaves them in silence. They are silent because they’ve been caught. They have been called to account for their deeds and yet stand silent before the Lord.

This is not the silence of reverence or the silence of awe. It is the silence of shame, the silence of sin. It is the silence of Adam in the Garden. He hid from his Lord because he was naked. To us, the silence is deafening. To God, we are but small children who, after the window is broken, stand with the baseball bat behind our backs. The Pharisees feel the weight of the Law and stand silent. Any response given would be an admission of guilt.

Then Jesus heals the man and poses a second question. “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?” Now the Pharisees are not only silent, but they have no answer. No longer do they withhold the truth for there is no truth in them.

Their shame is the revealing of their pride, for pride is the fundamental sin of man. Man desires to be like God and in being like God, he would become more than God. We think we know what is good. We know that suffering is always bad and to be avoided. We know a better foreign policy or tax policy. We know that happiness, leisure, and pleasure are the chief goals in life. It turns out that what we think is good are the things we like. This is the very height of pride.^[2]

We think we are smart, clever, or poetic. We think we can imitate God and by doing so please him. We, like the Pharisees, even think that we can outwit God by knowing the right answer. ‘I know what God says about humility so if I act humbly, I will be exalted.’ When coming into conflict with a brother in Christ, we must tell others about the confrontation, always admitting some mild form of blame while painting the other guy in the worst light. ‘See, I’m humble for admitting my fault but he’s the real bad guy.’

God will not be mocked. God knows the filth in your heart. God knows the greed, wrath, and sloth of your inner thoughts. God knows your humility is hypocritical for it is only a display to garner sympathy. God knows your shame and God will not be mocked.

This is demonstrated in the telling of the parable. It is not an etiquette lesson. Our Lord accomplishes three purposes in this parable. The first is again to mock the Pharisees, showing their false humility to be the height of pride. He sees the Pharisees jockeying for position and again, he mocks their pride. Neither the Pharisee sidling across the room toward the couch at the right hand of the host nor the one making a show of his ‘humility’ to sit at the foot of the table, of course expecting a promotion, avoids the sting of Christ’s parable. Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. Those who seek advancement through their own means will end up outside of the banquet.

The second purpose is to reveal himself to the Pharisees. Christ is the one who descended from the Father to dwell amongst sinners. He did not spurn the virgin’s womb, but humbled himself to become man. The very men listening to these words soon have him beaten, spat upon, and executed in the most humiliating manner. He then returns to his Father, to the right hand of God, exalted on high, and crowned in glory. He who humbled himself is exalted.

Remember that he reveals himself in this parable to the Pharisees, in the home of their leader. While he is certainly mocking their behavior, he is also revealing himself to them because he loves them. We are used to Jesus showing compassion upon the tax collector and prostitute, but we must remember that Jesus loves the Pharisee also, which is very good news for you because of how much you and I are like them.

Truly, we have more in common with Nicodemus, who must come to the Lord in the cover of night than Mary who anointed Christ’s feet with pure nard and dried them with her hair in the presence of the disciples. Thanks be to God he has compassion upon the Pharisees because it means he has compassion upon you. He desires their repentance every bit as much as he desires yours. He is their shepherd just as he is yours. Christ died for the ugly sinner just as he died for the fashionable one.

Which leads us to our Lord’s third purpose in the parable: He is calling the Pharisees, and all who hear his words, to his humility. He is calling us to walk in his ways. We no longer humble ourselves expecting a reward for the reward is already ours. We love and serve because Christ has humbled himself that we would be exalted with him.

In fact, we ought to be humbled by the knowledge that we are nothing. We are worms and not men. We are dust. We are nothing compared to God. We are nothing and we have been saved by grace. The love of God, his compassion on sinners has rescued us from the pit and set us upon Mount Zion. Our feet, swollen with dropsy, have been relieved by the piercing of Christ’s feet. We are lifted up and placed in the seat of honor by Christ being lifted up on the beam of the cross. We are counted as the honored guest because Christ is the honored guest who both humbles and exalts those whom he loves.

May the gracious Lord of the banquet continue to humble each of us, that we would be rid of the shameful pride which dwells in the heart of man.

In T Jesus’ name.  Amen.

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[1] This sermon is based on a sermon preached for my Theologia III: Preaching Small Group with Dr. Gifford Grobein during my fourth year of studies at Concordia Theological Seminary. Changes have been made to fit the context of the saints of Mount Calvary.

[2] This and the preceding paragraph are inspired by the Trinity 17 sermon by Rev. David Petersen found at https://cyberstones.org/sermon/trinity-17-2015/

The Sixth Sunday after Trinity

 

Psalm 28; Exodus 20:1-17; Romans 6:1-11

St. Matthew 5:17-26

            In the name of the Father, and of the T Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

            At the time of our Lord’s Incarnation, the Pharisees believed the Law of God required outward obedience. They had begun to teach Israel how to outwardly obey the Law so that they might become holy. The Pharisees recognized that sin infects the whole person, that the inward motivations of the heart cannot perfectly obey the Law of God. But in their view, the Law did not require this. The Law only required outward obedience. This they believed was achievable. Through such outward obedience, they would be made holy, and this holiness would make them acceptable to God.

            The primary error in this teaching of the Pharisees is their view of the Law. God’s Law demands perfect obedience – outward obedience, inward obedience, conscious, unconscious – perfect obedience. “Whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.”[1] The Law of God is perfect and holy, therefore it requires perfect and holy obedience.

            No man is capable of such obedience. We may be able to keep portions of the Law in an outward manner, we may even be able to keep the whole Law in an outward manner, but so long as we dwell on this side of heaven, Original Sin guarantees we will transgress the Law inwardly. We will also certainly sin outwardly.

            Our Lord is teaching this precise lesson in today’s portion of the Sermon on the Mount. “I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”[2] The Pharisees were outwardly righteous. They outwardly kept the Law better than anyone else. Yet entrance into heaven requires more righteousness than this. The Law of God requires perfect righteousness. Keeping the Law in every jot and tittle.

            You have heard what God said in the Ten Commandments, “You shall not murder.” The Pharisees have taught you that to keep this commandment means do not kill people. But Jesus says that whoever is angry is in danger of judgment. Jesus says whoever calls his brother empty-headed[3] is in danger of the council. Jesus says that anyone who calls his brother a moron[4] is in danger of hell fire.

           These words of Jesus should not be easily dismissed. At the heart of murder is anger. Cain was first angry with God and Abel. This anger consumed him and led to his murderous act. Should Cain have called Abel a moron, Jesus says the result would’ve been the same. Cain would be in danger of hell fire. ‘The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. It defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature. No man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.’[5] Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words hurt forever. The consequences of our words hurt forever.

            If we cannot keep the Law as God has commanded, how can we call the Law Good, Wise, and Holy? St. Paul says the Law “imprisons all under sin, that the promise of grace might be given.”[6] If a man has cancer, but does not feel the effects, he will not seek treatment. However, when set against the good and set standards used in testing, his cancer is revealed, and he knows where to seek treatment. The Law functions the same way for man. The Law reveals your sin and calls your attention to it. You realize that you are imprisoned under the Law. Like the all-too-often death sentence of cancer, the Law reveals not only the cause (being sin) but the result (death).

            Christ our Lord is calling our attention to our sin. He is pointing out the sin residing in our hearts that we might identify it, repent of it, then flee from it. The instruction to be reconciled to your brother and your adversary are examples of the fruit of repentance. The one whose righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees seeks reconciliation.

            Where do we turn for help? We cannot keep the Law for we sin daily and we sin much. We turn to Christ. The Son of God has come to fulfill the Law, not to destroy it. It would be impossible for Christ to destroy the Law. First because the Law is the Will of God. It is Christ’s own Will. He cannot destroy his own Will. Second, the Law is eternal. It is essential to God. Third, if Christ were to destroy the Law, how would man realize his sin? How could anyone be saved if his need for a Savior remained hidden? Sin has so corrupted mankind that without the Will of God we would be content to live in our sins. We would know nothing better until the day we die and see Abraham from afar in our eternal torments.

           Christ used the Law of God to show Cain his sin before he ever killed Abel. When Cain was angry, Christ said to him, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”[7] This was God calling Cain to repentance of the sin in his heart and warning him of the consequences for allowing that sin to fester. God desired reconciliation between Cain and Abel. Cain refused this Word of God, allowed the sin of his heart “to give birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”[8]

            What then does it mean that Jesus came to fulfill the Law? That not one jot or tittle will pass away until all is fulfilled? In the first place, it means that Jesus was born under the Law that he might keep it perfectly. God himself took on our flesh in order to submit to the Law of God. Jesus actively kept the Law in every way. Never once did he break the Law in thought, word, or deed. He kept it perfectly. This active obedience of Jesus fulfilled the Ten Commandments. His active obedience fulfilled all the commandments God has given to man. But the active obedience of Christ was not enough to redeem you. It was not enough to save your soul from deserving hell.

            Jesus also submitted himself to God’s justice. The Law of God requires not only obedience, but it requires justice for transgression. It requires payment be made for the debt of sin. The wages of sin is death. Therefore, God’s justice requires the death of the sinner. Jesus, though he knew no sin, took the place of sinners. He died the death that we’ve earned. Death had no claim on him because he did not sin. They still beat him, stripped him, and crucified him. Jesus really died. He died because he bore your sins.

            But death could not hold him. It would be unjust for death to hold Jesus because he was without sin himself. His holiness exceeds the sin of the world. Therefore, when he rose from the grave, it was in victory over death. It was in victory over sin. This fulfilled the Law of God. Jesus fulfilled the commandments of the Law through his active obedience, his perfect keeping of the Law. Jesus also fulfilled the justice of the Law through his passive obedience, submitting to death on the cross on your behalf.

            It is this death into which you are baptized. You are baptized into death with Christ, so that you would also rise with him.[9] In Holy Baptism, you died. One who has died has also been freed from sin.[10] You have been freed from the sting of death which is sin, and the strength of sin is the Law.[11]

           “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”[12] The Law is fulfilled, not destroyed. God’s Holy Law is Eternal and Good. Those who have died to sin now look to the Law to see “those good works which God has prepared that we should walk in them.”[13] We look to the Law to see what it is to live like our Heavenly Father, to live according to His Word in love and service to our neighbor.

            This is also the teaching of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount. How does one become more righteous than the Pharisees? Through the Blood of Jesus that has fulfilled the Law. What does that look like? It looks like seeking reconciliation. Notice that whoever is angry, or says “Raca” or “moron” is in danger of judgment, the council, and hell fire. These things are bad for you because by doing them, you are allowing sin to rule you. You are returning to the sin of Cain.

            Instead, be reconciled to your brother. Repent and beg forgiveness. Then walk in love. In doing these things, in seeking to keep the Law of God, you are not making yourself more righteous than the Pharisees. Rather, you are showing that the righteousness of Christ already belongs to you.

In T Jesus’ name.  Amen.

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[1] James 2:10.

[2] Matthew 5:20.

[3] ῥακά (Matthew 5:22)

[4] μωρέ (Matthew 5:22)

[5] See James 3:1-12.

[6] Galatians 3:22.

[7] Genesis 4:6-7.

[8] James 1:15.

[9] Romans 6:1-5.

[10] Romans 6:7.

[11] 1 Corinthians 15:56.

[12] Romans 6:1-2.

[13] Ephesians 2:10