God Exalts the Lowly
Luke 14:1–11
One Sabbath, when [Jesus] went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching Him carefully. And behold, there was a man before Him who had dropsy. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” But they remained silent. Then He took him and healed him and sent him away.
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?” And they could not reply to these things.
Now He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, 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. 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 honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (ESV)
Prayer: Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your great love and mercy in Christ. You have given us Your Son to fulfill all righteousness for us and to grant us pardon of our sins. Teach us to trust in Christ alone for our salvation and grant us humility and gentleness to bear with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace as those who have the same Lord, the same faith, the same Baptism, and one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Amen.
In Christ Jesus, who for our sakes became poor and lowly, so that he might raise us to divine glory, dear fellow redeemed!
During college I served as a Resident Assistant in the dorms. One of the things that became apparent to me was that many new college students had a hard time handling their new-found freedom. Now that they were free from Dad and Mom’s rules, they could do anything they wanted—stay up late, play as many video games as they pleased, and wait to do their homework until the late hours of the night. The kids thought mom and dad’s rules were bad. A drudgery! But I knew that very soon, at least by midterms, they would realize the wisdom of their parents’ advice to go to bed at a reasonable hour and that work comes before play. Nothing sobers a first-year college student more than seeing their midterm grades. Soon, I would hear the common refrain, “I need to go to bed earlier and spend more time in the library.”
Rules are usually for our benefit. I am personally thankful that we have laws ensuring that drivers must stay on the right side of the road. God’s law, however, is always good. God is good, his law is good, and God’s law is good for us. His law is for our benefit, though it is certainly not the way blinded sinners see it. It’s good for us to have no other gods besides the one true God, the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit who we honor, call upon for our every need, and whose word we trust in for our salvation. It’s good for us to honor our authorities rather than finding ourselves facing the tyranny of anarchy, to value and uphold human life rather than disdain it. The law of God is good and wise.
On Mt. Sinai, God gave the Israelites the Third Commandment, “You shall keep the day of rest holy.” Through this law, God’s people were provided with rest from their labor. Even the foreigners, slaves and the animals got a day off. But most importantly, the purpose of this commandment was to give God’s people the opportunity to gather to hear the preaching of God’s word. It’s not enough to just rest our body, we also need rest for our souls. The Sabbath foreshadowed the rest that all people would find in our Savior Jesus Christ.
Yet, by the time of Jesus, the Pharisees had added serval hundred human traditions to God’s Law. The Pharisees taught that by observing these rules you were doing a great service for God. They had twisted the Sabbath from a day of mercy, into a harsh day of rules and regulations. They had turned the Sabbath into something that you needed to do for God rather than being a blessing from God.
We learn in our lesson that Jesus had been invited for dinner by one of the rulers of the Pharisees, and by chance, there was a man with dropsy there. Dropsy was a disease in which the body retained fluids that horribly and painfully disfigured the body. This man was likely brought in by the Pharisees so that they could trap Jesus. If Jesus didn’t heal the man, they would accuse him of being unable to heal him or not showing compassion. If he did heal the man, then they would accuse him of breaking the Sabbath. The lawyers defined healing as work—and you were not supposed to work on the Sabbath.
But Jesus knew their hearts, so he asked, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” They wouldn’t answer a word. Now they were caught—if they said “yes,” then they couldn’t condemn him, but if they said “no,” how would they defend such a calloused disregard for the man? Jesus addressed their judgmental attitude by asking them if they would pull a farm animal out of a pit on a Saturday. Isn’t that work? Isn’t a sick man worth more than an ox or a donkey? Of course he was, and Jesus healed him.
The Pharisees were legalists. A legalist is someone who uses God’s law to serve himself. They make rules that they can follow which make them look good. However, they also make their rules just out of reach for their neighbor to make them look bad. It’s like a child who changes the rules to a game so that they don’t lose. It boosts their own pride while hurting their neighbor. The Pharisees were so determined to keep their traditions, that they made it a sin to heal a person on the Sabbath since that would be work.
Legalism is motivated by pride. A legalist uses the law of God to serve himself—make himself look good and his neighbor bad. But God’s law is not given to help us make our neighbor look bad. It’s meant to teach us how to love and serve our neighbor. When a person uses God’s law to hurt their neighbor, they have despised God’s law and put themselves under its judgement.
Legalism destroys love for God, making him into some harsh judge. Legalism also destroys love for our neighbor because it puts us in competition with him. It’s easy for us to think this way because pride sticks to our hearts like crazy glue. We are in a conversation with someone and they mention their struggle, but we think, “If they wouldn’t have made such foolish decisions, they wouldn’t be in this mess. I would never do something like that.” We enter a conversation and instead of thinking how we can boost and encourage our neighbor, in false humility, we tell them how we succeeded when we had a similar challenge. It’s for us to be little Pharisees too. We are constantly comparing ourselves with others, justifying our actions, and condemning others. We might know we are saved by grace, but we often act like we depend on our works.
Jesus noticed how the Pharisees all scrambled to have the honored seat, which prompted him to tell a parable about a wedding feast. “Don’t promote and exalt yourself, but instead, humble and lower yourself and wait for someone else to promote you.” Jesus concludes by saying, “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Pride is thinking that we should be recognized for what we’ve done. When we are comparing ourselves with others, we are always in fear because we are trying to weigh, balance, and compete with them. This only leads to despair or denial because we won’t ever be good enough no matter how hard we try. It’s like running a race on a hamster wheel. We have all fallen short of God’s law. But the truth is, we have no need to compete. Because the race has been won. The law has been fulfilled. Not by me, not by you, but by our dear Lord Jesus who for our sakes became poor and lowly so that you through his poverty might become rich.
How do we get to heaven? How can we be confident of eternal life? Because of Jesus and only him. As the sinless Son of God, he lived a perfect life for you and for me. He showed loved to his neighbor, honored his parents, and prayed for his enemies. It was this great love for us that led him to the cross on Calvary, to take the punishment we deserved. He humbled himself to the point of death on the cross so that he could save you. So that he could raise you up!
God’s law is good. It teaches us to love God and serve our neighbor. In so doing, it also shows us our sin. It leaves us in the same helpless condition that it leaves everyone else. But this too is good. God uses the law to humble us now so that he can exalt us forever in heaven. When you see your sins against God and our failure to love our neighbor as you ought, you shouldn’t try to deny it or hide it. Instead, confess it and trust in God’s mercy. Jesus came to save sinners! And Scripture promises, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9).
You are saved by grace. This is the most wonderful news in the world! Jesus’ holy life and death are yours through faith in him. You don’t have to prove yourself to anyone. You don’t have to worry about trying to save face among your peers. You are a child of God!
Recently, one of my friends from Seminary told me a story from his congregation. My friend had invited a stranger to come to church and he came. However, in the middle of the service, after the confession and absolution the man got up and walked out of the church. One of the ushers got up to make sure that everything was alright with the man. When he caught up with the visitor and asked him, the man said that he left because he was completely overwhelmed by God’s grace. He knew that the confession of sins that he made was true. He was guilty of death and hell for his sins. But he said, it’s amazing that God loves me still and forgives me.
God loves for us is overwhelming. His blood covers our sins, he washes us clean. We come to him totally unworthy and undeserving, but he showers us with his love and mercy. He exalts us lowly sinners into the highest place of honor—children of God and heirs of heaven!
The love that God has shown us changes how we view our neighbor. They aren’t our enemy or someone to compete with, but another person for whom Jesus’ shed his blood. Today’s Epistle lesson teaches Christians to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace by living humbles lives, and patiently bearing with the faults of others. The unity of the Church isn’t something established by clever church politics, but it comes by trusting the same God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, listening to the same Holy Word, and having the same faith, the same hope, same baptism, and same food of immortality. Unity comes with setting aside personal ambition for the sake of the truth of God’s Word.
When it comes to the church, we must set our egos aside. Our Lord’s mission to save sinners and offer hope that the world cannot give is bigger and more important than our pride. So Christians learn to forgive and forget, to love and cherish the blood-bought souls around them. Look to your right and look to your left. What do you see? Right now we see only flesh and blood, fallen human beings. But by God’s grace, your neighbors have eternal souls, purchased and won by God’s own Son. So, see them as precious as our heavenly Father sees them.
God grant us humility and unity in the church, so that we might be among those who Christ invites to move up higher. For he promises, “He who humbles himself will be exalted.” Amen.