“CHRIST ABASED HIMSELF TO EXHALT YOU”
Saint Luke 14. 1-11
Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity: 4 October Anno Domini 2009
Fr Watson S.S.P.
The Lord went to the house of not just a sinner, but a hypocritical sinner-a Pharisee-the chief one! He went because He was not just God, powerful, but because He was The Savior, merciful-not wanting anyone to perish in un-repented trespasses.
How fortunate for you that He went to your house as well. He went to the tent, the temple of your flesh, and entered in.
In the house of the Pharisee there was man with dropsy; a neuro-muscular disease? The specificities matter not. The broken man was not broken because of his illness, that is, he was not lost because of uncomfortable symptoms; he was doomed because he was a sinner through and through to the very core-the very molecular level. One could see with a quick glance that the dropsy sufferer was "not right." That's good because sin manifested can be dealt with; hidden evil only festers and metastizes. David's hidden sin was slowly killing him until the Lord sent Nathan to put all things into the light of the Truth.
But the Chief Pharisee had "dropsy" in his own hard heart which was every bit as lethal as the sickness of the cripple. The Lord came to cure both of them. The Lord came to save both of them. Christ cures unto salvation by forgiving. Jesus heals you not for more years on earth, necessarily, but for Heaven assuredly!
It was not that the Pharisees did not "try" to obey God's Law as handed down by the great Moses. They did try to keep the Lord on their "lips," and they did try to tithe 10% of their wealth. They did try to not covet their neighbor's wife and they did try not to murder or rob. But in their trying they had created another golden calf, another false god. They thought their own good works and efforts made them right with The Lord of Abraham, Jacob and Isaac. They did not understand what the Law of Moses really required-not trying but blood, not "working-at-it" but sacrifice and atonement. They could go through the "motions" but they did not understand God's Mercy. They wanted King David but not Shepherd David. They wanted thunder and lightning but not cleansing from the still waters. They could raise their hands to an awesome Invisible god of glory, but they could not smite their breasts and confess to an earthly, humble rabbi from Nazareth.
The Pharisees thought being a Pharisee was more important than following the Lord's Word of Peace, Love, and Truth. This is like a person thinking it is more important to be a respectable synodically-affiliated Lutheran than to follow the Lord's Word of Truth.
To be concerned, rigorous in enforcing and fastidious with the "rules," be they constitutions, by-laws, Mom & Dad's traditions, "the way we've always done it" to the detriment of Mercy for the miserable is to walk a different way than Jesus. Jesus came for the despicable, dirty, dumb and damned. If you are not comfortable with these "types:" repent! If you only want to love people like yourselves: repent!
Pharisees put a "technical" obedience to Moses' Law ahead and above rescuing a man (though maybe not THEIR own ox).
Self-centered, theologically lazy, and morally frightened Lutherans, Christians, all of you, place the way "you think things ought to be done" above PURE FORGIVENESS. This is why you can't, why you don't forgive those people that you should: the ones who don't deserve to be forgiven.
The Christ is not asking or expecting you to bend, give in on, or water down His Doctrine (His teaching, His truth, the content of His Being and Work) but He does desire you to throttle your old Adam, deny your selfish will, give in to your neighbor's need, and stop always trying to have it "your way."
Even as the Nazarene was saddened by the hardness of the Pharisee's hearts, He too is saddened by your lack of real compassion. Do you spend more time criticizing or having compassion on others?
Thank the Lord and Sing His Praise, that though you can't be perfect, you can be perfect IN JESUS. His Word: spoken, crucified, given in Blood and Body to eat and drink, and spoken across the centuries from the lips of God to the ears of all of you; His word does it all for you. His perfect Word reminds you this day, that for you, all of you bidden to the Royal Wedding of God and man, Christ and Church, Groom and Bride, the very Bride-Groom Himself took the lowest room, the most humiliating seat. The Second Person of the ineffable Trinity took a seat down in the garbage and sewage of the world's sin and of your sin. The Son of God did all the healing and fixing and forgiving by letting His Holy Body and Perfect Being be made sick unto death, broken with your guilt, and damned with your lack of forgiveness. He let Himself be lowered into the ground that you might be raised up on high and given His very seat of honor at the Heavenly Table. You grace that table this Mass when you are led by the Spirit to the communion rail and altar. Your Savior thrust you up out of the raging flood of death by letting His own "Sacred Head now wounded" be drug down and engulfed in the depths-your Jonah/JESUS swallowed by the large fish of your stubborn wills.
As a called and ordained servant of THIS WORD, I, with the Word, and by the Word, bid you to come up higher dear friends.
Come to eat and drink, to dine on divinity, to worship, that is, to receive the very Presence of Him who sits at meat with thee.
In the Name of The Father and + of The Son and of The Holy Ghost