Grace mercy and peace be to you from God our
father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen. Would you pray with me, please? Lord God,
we thank you that you build faith in our hearts
through the power of your word and the working
of your Holy Spirit. As we consider the word
you bring to us this day through your servant
Luke, we pray that you would open our minds to
understand and transform our spirits in our hearts
to believe. Let your spirit guide us in living
in the way you have chosen for us so that we
might serve you and serve others humbly and joyfully
Amen Up is down and down is up in the kingdom
of God or So it seems to those of us living here
in this world From God's perspective the way
things are in his kingdom are the way things
ought to be. The kingdom of God is all about
turning things right side up. It's just that
right side up often looks upside down to those
of us living in this sinful world. Our gospel
text for today shows Jesus making one of those
paradoxical statements that he often makes. statement
that may sound upside down but in reality is
right side up from a kingdom point of view. Jesus
said everyone who exalts himself will be humbled
and he who humbles himself will be exalted. This
is so typical of Jesus. If you happen to remember
the gospel text from last Sunday Jesus said,
there are those who are last who will be first
and first who will be last. Later on in the book
of Luke, Jesus will say the very same words that
we heard in our gospel text for this morning.
And in fact, we find this idea throughout the
Bible. For instance, Mary, the mother of Jesus,
said this about God. He has scattered those who
are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought
down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted
up the humble. Both James and Peter in their
epistles quote the very same verse from the book
of Proverbs when they write God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble. This theme runs
throughout the entire Bible. Theologians call
it the great reversal. The idea that in the end
God is going to turn everything around from the
way it is right now. That He will set things
right side up from His perspective. And He is
already at work doing exactly that. You and I
are by very nature sinners. In our frail and
faulty human wisdom, we hope that we can be good
enough, that we can be moral enough to earn God's
favor. We spend our days going through life living
in a way that seems right to us. But the Bible
says that is the way of death. Faithfully living
under God's precepts does not come easily or
naturally to mankind. No one is able to do it
without God's power at work in them and without
the Holy Spirit's guidance for humble obedience.
And who better to demonstrate that for us than
the one whom God sent into this world in a very
humbling fashion. Jesus came into this world
through a virgin's womb, maybe the greatest paradox
of all. God as man. Born in a stable surrounded
by noisy, smelly animals. Born into a lowly carpenter's
home. Having to flee to Egypt to escape the hateful
infanticide inflicted by Herod and then only
being able to return to live in Galilee after
Herod's death. This humbling was done for us
and for our salvation. Jesus gave up the glory
of heaven to take on human flesh. And if he did
not take this lowly place, then he would not
experience hunger and thirst. He would not be
a man of sorrows. He would not be one who had
no place to lay his head. If he did not lower
himself. He could not be under the law and therefore
he could not perfectly fulfill the law on our
behalf so that he could take the punishment that
is meant for us for breaking God's law. And who
could whip, beat, and crucify God if he did not
first humble himself and allow them to do so?
So then who better? to teach a lesson in humility.
In our gospel reading for today, Jesus had been
invited to a dinner party at the home of a prominent
Pharisee and the text tells us that their intent
was to watch him very closely. Most likely with
the intent of embarrassing or humiliating him
and even better, to find a reason to get rid
of him. And present at this gathering was also
a man who was affected by dropsy, a disease which
causes the body to swell with fluid. Disfigured,
ceremonially unclean, certainly not an appetizing
sight or presence. And the host seated Jesus
across from this man at what would have been
the lowliest seat at the table. Certainly a humiliating
snub to a teacher who had become well known by
this time. The Pharisee not only placed Jesus
in this lowest seat to embarrass him, but he
also did it to put a challenge before him. And
then he and all of his guests watched Jesus closely.
waiting for him to rise up in outrage and to
demand to be moved. But Jesus turned this challenge
upside down. He asked the guests gathered around
the table, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath
or not? And none of them answered. So Jesus answered
by healing the man with dropsy. From that humiliating
seat at which he had been placed Jesus used his
divine power to heal a man who was humiliated
By the devastation and the ravages of his disease
But this healing Was only an outward sign of
what Jesus had truly come to do God would use
the blood sweat tears pain and death of his son
to heal and redeem the spiritually sick, the
sinfully disfigured, the morally humiliated.
These are the ones that Jesus came humbly into
this world to heal, to rescue and to save. Jesus
then proceeded to challenge the men sitting around
the table to further adjust their thinking by
comparing his act of healing on the Sabbath to
a different situation, but one which presented
the same ethical issue. If one of you has a son
or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath
day, will you not immediately pull him out? The
question Jesus was really asking is, is it lawful?
to show mercy, to help, to rescue on the Sabbath?
And again, no one answered. They could not answer
because their answer would demonstrate how their
man -made idea of keeping God's law turned the
intent of God's commandment regarding the Sabbath
upside down. And then having witnessed the guests
arriving and eagerly choosing places of honor
at the dinner table, Jesus began to teach by
means of a parable. He spoke about a wedding
feast and the choosing of seats there. He didn't
tell them that he was responding to their own
actions earlier during this dinner. He simply
taught them about true humility and how it might
also lead to true honor because choosing seats
stood for something totally different in this
parable. The parable was not intended to instruct
men how to choose seats at a banquet in hopes
of their own glorification, but about who and
how God chooses to lift up and glorify. How God
does things radically different in his kingdom
than men do in their world. Jesus turned their
finite understanding of these things upside down.
And in this passage, Jesus clearly demonstrated
the contrast between being humble and being humbled.
He was teaching how to live in God's right side
up way of living by faith. And one of the people
attending the Pharisees' dinner party got it.
One of them understood that Jesus wasn't just
getting instructions on how to throw or pick
seats at a banquet. We know this because the
verse that follows immediately after today's
gospel text says this when one of those at the
table with him heard this he said to Jesus blessed
is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom
of God apparently this man had been watching
Jesus very closely how about you The lesson for
us in Jesus' teaching today is that humility
will lead more surely to honor and glory than
will pride. Self -importance most often leads
to humiliation. We who are citizens of the Kingdom
of God are not to be seeking places of position
or honor for ourselves. We are not to presume
that we are better than others. Rather, we are
to understand and to confess that we are sinners
seeking God's forgiveness and salvation and guidance
for living our lives of faith. And to that end,
the Lord invites us to the feast which is set
before us today, to His holy supper. And the
places of honor at this table do not belong to
those who choose them. They belong to those who
have been chosen by God. In reality, each one
of us here deserves to be outside. We are nothing.
We deserve nothing from God. We're not here on
account of our worth, our wealth, our status,
our intellect, our skills, or our cunning. We
are who we are. and where we are by the grace
of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ sits at the head
of this table and we are here by his grace alone.
So let us come to this table today delighted
that we have been invited and prepared, rejoicing
in his goodness and grace and mercy. Let us not
look for a place of honor or position rather
let us take the lowest place and count each one
of us here as being more important than ourselves.
Let us be humble. And then we can await together
the ultimate invitation of the Lord to come up
higher to that glorious wedding feast in heaven.
God is at work turning things right side up.
by bringing fallen, broken, lost sinners like
you and me to faith. Christian faith truly is
a divine work. It has to be because everything
about faith runs contrary to human nature. It
is unnatural to us and to our natural proclivities.
It is upside down to us. And as we prayed, God
opens our minds to understand. He transforms
our hearts and our spirits so that we may believe.
And then He guides us every step of the way in
order for us to do what is right and what is
good and to remain faithful. So let us come before
our God with humility. And this humility is found
only by living outside of our worldly selves
and living in Christ Jesus. Only in Christ are
we set free from that upside down world's ways
and thinking. Only in Christ are we free to show
real love to those around us, to do good for
them. to be a source of joy and happiness for
them without any concern for their worthiness
or what we might gain in return. As God's people,
let us walk humbly toward one another and walk
humbly before our God to take the lower part
or the lower position and let God exalt us. This
is the way of greatness and honor in God's right
side up kingdom. That's what the apostle Paul
encouraged in his letter to the Ephesians when
he wrote, as a prisoner for the Lord, then I
urge you to live a life worthy of the calling
you have received. Be completely humble and gentle.
Be patient, bearing with one another in love.
The kingdom of God. is all about turning things
right side up. It is all about the great reversal.
Jesus became sin for us so that we might become
righteousness in him. Our sinful, haughty, arrogant
hearts are changed and renewed so that we might
joyfully take the most humble place and joyfully
serve. others. On the last day death will be
life. The judge will be our savior. The humiliation
that we know here will be exaltation in heaven.
The poverty we experience here will be riches
in heaven. And there will be no last seats. Only
seats of the highest honor for those who are
forgiven and redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ.
That's how things are in the Kingdom of God.
Right side up from His perspective. Just right.
Just the way it ought to be. And how good and
gracious is our God who invites us in. Amen.
And may the peace of God which passes all understanding
keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our
Lord. Amen.