Temptation

 Matthew 4:1-11

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.  And the tempter came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."  But He answered and said, "It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'"

Then the devil took Him into the holy city; and he had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God throw Yourself down; for it is written, ‘HE WILL GIVE HIS ANGELS CHARGE CONCERNING YOU'; and ‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, LEST YOU STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.'"  Jesus said to him, "On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.'"

Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory; and he said to Him, "All these things will I give You, if You fall down and worship me."  Then Jesus said to him, "Begone, Satan!  For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.'"

Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.

Sermon for Invocavit Sunday                                                                                   02/22/26

Temptation

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Our Gospel this morning is the familiar account to the temptation of Jesus.  These temptations echo the temptation of Eve.   Jesus was recapitulating the testing of mankind, taking a second run at it if you will, only Jesus didn't fail – He faced the same fundamental temptations as Adam and Eve, only His were in a far more dramatic and urgent setting – and He resisted.  When Jesus resisted the temptations of the devil that day, He passed the test that Eve, and Adam, had failed.  He resisted precisely the temptations that mankind had failed, and so became, as it were, the second Adam.

As Jesus faced the tempter, the playing field is not quite level.  On the one hand, Jesus is God.  That gives Him an advantage.  On the other hand, He is living in humility, clothed in human flesh and blood and human nature, not taking advantage of all of the powers and prerogatives of God.  That gives the devil an advantage.  Jesus has just spent forty days and forty nights without food.  Matthew highlights this disadvantage for Jesus in saying, seemingly without any real need to, that Jesus was now hungry.  Matthew says it, however, so that we don't get some fancy philosophical notion that Jesus was immune to hunger, and that this wasn't a real test.

The playing field of temptation is never level.  You should learn that here and now, if you didn't understand it before.  Everything was pretty much stacked in favor of the devil, when he confronted Jesus.  Things are usually that way when he tempts us.  He cannot grow tired, while we can and do.  He knows our every weakness, while we rarely understand them ourselves.  He is perfectly deceitful, while we are not perfectly anything, and not always looking to be deceived, or capable of discerning when we are.  He has power and we simply do not. 

The next lesson we should draw from this is simple:  Temptation happens – it will happen.  This law is irrevocable for us while we live in the flesh.  We will face temptations - although we may not always recognize that we are being tempted when it happens.  

We can also note that temptation always hits you where it hurts.  Jesus was hungry, and so it was food.  He tempter also knows where you are sensitive and where you are weak.  Temptation never comes where you are strong and unconcerned.  If it does, it doesn't seem much like a temptation.  It always hits where you are vulnerable.  That is why this lesson is so important for us.  We need to learn from Jesus about the best defense against temptation.

First Jesus faced the temptation of food – physical need.  Eve faced it too, when the devil said, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"  He was challenging the goodness of God and the confidence she had in God's providence.  She answered, and in answering she added to the command of God, indicating that just maybe she thought God was unjust, or extreme, or something. 

How did Jesus confront this temptation?  He responded with the Word of God.  Jesus never went on offense.  I image that He could have, but He did not.  He showed us we can do it when we are tempted.  Instead of claiming power, He claimed the fortress of God's Word.  Jesus expressed His confidence in God:   "It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'" He resisted the temptation to doubt God's provision.  When Eve sinned, she failed that test.  Genesis tells us that one of the reasons that she took from the tree was that the fruit was good to eat.

The second temptation of Jesus listed in Matthew was the one in which the devil took Jesus to a high pinnacle of the temple and tempted Him to jump down, quoting Scriptures and saying, It is written.  That was actually a temptation to doubt the Word of God.  You might say, Jesus was tempted with bad exegesis.  The devil took the Word of God right out of Jesus' hands and attempted to tempt Him with it.  He set before Him an impossible situation, and then said, "Don't you trust God?  Here is His Word saying that He will catch you and take care of you and protect you!"  The devil was suggesting that the only way to demonstrate faith is take the most extreme action and dare God to prove His promises true.  If you cannot ask, you must not believe.

The temptation also came once again with the "If you are the Son of God," clause.  It was as much as saying, "Surely God will do all of this for you, since you are His Son!"  The temptation was to doubt God's Word, and so test Him, to see if He would keep His promise.  It looked like faith, and it sounded like a legitimate promise, but neither was true.

We face disbelief in God's Word disguised as bad exegesis all of the time.  Nearly every debate about doctrine with another confession is a debate about a misunderstanding of the Word.  Some swear that alcohol is forbidden, so they cannot see using it in church, as we do in communion.  Some cannot comprehend how a child can believe, so they reject baptism for infants.  Others cannot imagine how water can work forgiveness of sins, so they deny baptism's power altogether.  Some demand that we worship on the Sabbath because the Jews had to, some insist on keeping the Law - as though we could, some think that the Jewish people are the chosen people and the true Israel of God.  Every one of them marshals Scripture to their cause.  They all have their passages.  And they are all wrong.  They apply half-verses and half-truths just as Satan did, that day against Jesus.

Eve faced the same sort of temptation, when the Devil said,  "You surely shall not die!  For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."  The devil was tempting her to doubt the Word and promise of God.  God had spoken the truth about sin and death, and His will was not to restrict her or deny her anything, but to protect her.  The devil invited her to doubt God's Word about the result of sin - and God's goodness and honesty as well.  Sadly, Eve doubted God.  Happily, Jesus trusted God, and refused to be deceived into a test which would actually show that he did not trust God's Word, but trusted His own judgment more.  Jesus answered with the Word of God – sound doctrine.  He answered a temptation clothed in a Bible passage with the Scripture which answered the real temptation, "On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.'"

Finally, the devil stopped hiding and simply offered Jesus the easy way.  He knew what Jesus had come to do.  He knew that Jesus could see the cross and all the pain and torment.  He knew that Jesus had years of difficult work ahead, and he offered Jesus the easy route.  Just bow down to me, worship me once, and I will let you off the hook.  You can have the whole kit and kaboodle.  Genuflect to me and recognize me as your superior, worship me as your God and I will spare you the cross and give you the whole creation as your prize.

This also teaches us that temptation is never convenient.  It never seems to come when you are ready for it.  It always comes at inconvenient times and when you are least prepared to face it.

Like every temptation, this final temptation was filled with lies.  First, the world does not belong to Satan.  It is not his to give.  The price that Jesus was going to pay for our redemption was not going to be paid to the devil.  It was to be paid to satisfy the justice of God.  If Jesus had given in to the temptation, He would have become just like us, only more so.  That would have been Satan's victory over God and our absolute ruin.  There would have been no glory to give to Jesus, nor would the devil have given it, if there had been.  He is a liar, and the father of it, as Jesus once pointed out.

Eve faced the same temptation.  The devil told her that the fruit would make her just like God.  This was a good thing that Eve expected God could give her.  The devil wanted her to doubt God's goodness, and take matters into her own hand, and grasp the imagined good for herself, rather than wait for God to give her every good thing.  – and she yielded to the temptation.  Genesis tells us that one of the reasons she ate of the fruit was that it was desirable to make one wise.  She became like God only in that she suddenly understood both good and evil.  She understood good (having once been holy) and evil (having become evil).  God understood both without ever becoming evil, so, although she became like God in some respects, she wasn't much like God.

Jesus answered with the Word.  "It is written, YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY."  He answered with the Word of God, and faith. The thing that Eve forgot, which Jesus kept in mind, was that God is first, and we come second. That is the only position that a Christian can take.  The constant theme of humanistic unbelief is that we are of such significance that we cannot set our own desires and felt-needs aside for anything else.  God cannot ask us to suffer, or do without, or wait patiently.  What kind of God could do that!?  The answer, of course, is the God who suffered for us, and waits with patience and earnest desire for our faithfulness and trust in Him.  He is the God who has our true blessing and welfare at heart, and only asks us to trust Him for a moment, so that we may share eternal bliss.

It does not matter what the stakes are in any temptation, or what is offered to us, or how appealing the temptation may be made to appear.  When we know who God is and trust Him and place Him in the proper place in our lives and consideration, then we wait on God, and we accept from God what He gives to us with thanksgiving and faith.  We are called to be faithful, and we must first be faithful to God. If we fail in that, there is no genuine faithfulness left for us to assume. 

Of course, we face temptations similar to Jesus' – similar in kind if not in scope or power.  First is the temptation of physical need – or physical desire.  Many times we are not able clearly to distinguish between the two.  We just know what we want or need, and it seems more important – more urgent – to us to meet that need or fill that desire than anything else.  The temptation is always to take care of Number One first.  The temptation is that we cannot let some theology, some bit of religious stuff – we cannot let some mere rule stand in the way of our need.  That is how the temptation often presents itself.

Like Jesus we want to answer this first temptation with the Word of God and place God first, trusting Him in all our needs.  We want to take Him at His Word that He will not forsake us, that He will always provide – as Jesus said, Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.

The second temptation was the temptation to doubt God's Word.  Funny thing is that it doesn't usually look like a temptation to doubt the Word of God.  Jesus' temptation looked like a challenge to Him as to whether He really trusted God.  The faithful and sincere thing seemed to be to jump off the temple and trust God to do what He had said that He would do.  But that would have been a species of unbelief.  That would have proven that Jesus didn't trust God, because He would have foolishly put God to the test for nothing more than proof.  Faith is not seeing, not having the proof in front of it, but still trusting.

We are tempted in this way by false doctrine.  False doctrine always does what Satan did on that mountain – it presumes to challenge our faith something that sounds Biblical, but actually it challenge us to doubt God's Word or to act or speak on the basis of false doctrine and confused interpretations of Scripture which place God at odds with Himself.

This sort of temptation is often little more than an appeal to ignore God's Word for the sake of feelings.  To do that is to deny the truth of God's Word, and count something or someone as more important than God.  Jesus answered with faith, and clear doctrine – you shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.  We need to do the same; put the truth first, and trust God's Word no matter what.

The final temptation Jesus faced is the most common sort today.  We face this temptation each and every time we are offered the faster way, the easier way, the more effective way than what God teaches us to do.  Jesus said, you shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only!  We need to remember whose is God, and who we are.  We worship God by being faithful, and trusting God, and doing the things He has given us to do.  We can even win by losing — when we are faithful.

We can trust God, after all.  We serve Him not by what we do, so much, as by trusting Him.  Jesus once said to the Pharisees, Learn what this means, I desire compassion not sacrifice.  And His will, summarized in the First Commandment is that we hold Him first in all things, and trust in Him alone, and love Him more than life itself.  And love for God is a love that is seen in love for one another.  This is the same will as what we see on the cross, where He died for your sins so that you might be forgiven and come to know Him as He is, gracious and merciful, full of love and compassion, and desiring your salvation first and last.

When we confront temptations, we can have no better pattern than that which Jesus provided.  Hold fast to His Word, and trust in God.  That is how to deal with temptation.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)

Persecuted by the Flesh

 Galatians 4:21-31

Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law?  For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman.  But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise.  This is allegorically speaking: for these women are two covenants, one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar.  Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.  But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother.  For it is written, "REJOICE, BARREN WOMAN WHO DOES NOT BEAR; BREAK FORTH AND SHOUT, YOU WHO ARE NOT IN LABOR; FOR MORE ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE DESOLATE THAN OF THE ONE WHO HAS A HUSBAND."

And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise.  But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also.  But what does the Scripture say? "CAST OUT THE BONDWOMAN AND HER SON, FOR THE SON OF THE BONDWOMAN SHALL NOT BE AN HEIR WITH THE SON OF THE FREE WOMAN."  So then, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman, but of the free woman.

Sermon for Laetare Sunday                  
                                         3/27/22
Persecuted by the Flesh

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Repetition is the mother of pedagogy.   I could say that in Latin too, but I figure the English is stupefying enough.  It means that repeating is the foundation of teaching - specifically of teaching children.  But it works for adults too.  Let me illustrate:  You have all learned that our failing economy is former President Trump's fault, not the current administration's.  Whether you believe it or not is not important, you've heard it until you could say it in your sleep.  You know that the evils of capitalism stand at the heart of our nation's troubles, that Republican is bad and Democrat is good, unless you listen to Tucker Carlson or that evil Fox News.  You know that anything but open handed acceptance of the GBTQ+ Agenda is homophobia, saying anything about people of color except praise is racism, that noticing that Jews are present is anti-Semitism, and the silly idea that terrorists tend to be Moslems is both racist and Islamophobic.  And Critical Race Theory establishes that white folk are racist by race and from the womb.

Whether you agree with any of the statements I just made or not is not the issue – it is the politically correct line repeated to us until you know it without thinking about whether you agree with it or not.  This same process that has been used to tell us that our religion belongs in private - or in your church on Sunday - and that holding faithfully to the teachings of the Bible is superstitious, fundamen-talist, uneducated, old-fashioned, and bigoted, and that you have no right to impose your religion – or morals – on anyone else.  It doesn't seem to strike any one that every one of these statements is some else's religion and/or their values imposed on you repeatedly until you don't stop to think about its rightness or wrongness.  You simply live with a sensitivity to these social rules and allow the arrogance and judgmentalism of the pagans among us to silence you, and train your public and private expressions, and force you to kowtow to their sensibilities.

This constant drumbeat of proper public opinion - or politically correct expression - is a part of what the Bible describes as being persecuted by the flesh.  That is the focus of our Epistle lesson, and the theme of our sermon this morning: Persecuted by the Flesh.

Now I chose the most egregious political examples I could think of because I know that everyone has heard them, and you probably have an opinion on each one - so I can count on getting more than just your intellect focused for a moment.  It doesn't matter how you might respond to them - I reckon some of them are hot-buttons for some of you, and perhaps different ones are for others.  My point is not to address these slogans and values individually but to make you aware of the process – and the hostility of the world - and our own flesh - to the Christian faith.

The world hates Christ, Christians, and the Church.  To the world, they are indistinguishable as objects to be lied about, disabled, or destroyed.  You may have noticed that every time anyone with any sort of religion does anything that we don't like, somehow Christians get thrown into the mix.  News reports about a child abuser almost always focus on the religion of the abuser, if there is one, as though the religion actually played a part in making the pervert perverted.  When a politician speaks what our culture does not want to hear, if he is a Christian, we hear complaints about someone forcing our religion on others – or about some supposed plot to bring about a theocracy in America.  Even when the evil-doer is not Christian - such as when Moslem terrorists attack us - somehow the news report gets around to Christian extremism, or Fundamentalism, and by that term they mean faithful Christians like us.  In such reports, we are likened to the terrorists, or it is suggested, at the very least, that Conservative Christians are every bit as much of a danger to society as "they" are, whomever they may be.

Our culture is drifting - some would say speeding - toward thought control.  We hear about thoughts which are unspeakable in polite society - and there is an effort to make certain thoughts illegal to express.  They call it a hate crime.  Speaking negatively about homosexuality, or denying the holocaust, is already illegal in some countries.  Expressing the wrong opinion about climate change in America can cost you your job, in some places and in certain professions.  Christians have to stand on the politically incorrect place in such a debate, because to take the politically correct point of view is to imagine that God is not in control.

But when the Apostle wrote about being persecuted by the flesh, he wasn't just thinking of society outside of the Church, but of the opposition in the church and even within ourselves to the Gospel.  Paul was facing the Judaizers.  They were the ones who wanted the law first, who taught that you had to keep the Law before you were fit for the Gospel.  Now, the specific Law they often focused on was the law of circumcision - but it doesn't matter which Law you use.  Whenever you make even a part of the Law a requirement of salvation, you destroy the Gospel altogether.

You see, the Gospel is the gift of forgiveness, life and salvation.  It is grace.  The Law is about obedience, worthiness and ‘earning it'.  If you must first prove yourself worthy before you can receive the gift, it is not really a gift.  When you earn something it is called a wage.  But the Gospel presents us with that which we do not deserve and have not earned.

Following the law leaves one constantly unsure.  Luther called it "the monster of uncertainty".  Have I done enough?  Have I done it well enough?  Did I follow the right rules?  Have I kept the faith enough?  Was my commitment pure enough?  Did I start early enough?  As long as any part of my salvation depends upon me, I can mess it up.  I can fail.  I can fall short.  Therefore, I can never be confident.

The Gospel takes all of that uncertainty away.  My salvation does not depend on me . . . it depends on Christ.  Did He do it right?  Did He do enough?  The resurrection says, "YES!"  Jesus did what I needed to do, and died in my place for my sins and failures.  When Jesus arose, He was proclaiming first and foremost that His death was enough - - and more than enough!  If He had not fully paid the penalty, He would not have risen from the dead.  But now Christ has risen, and the promises of God are secure.  I have been redeemed.  He that believes and is baptized shall be saved.

Nevertheless, most churches teach some sort of earning, deserving or ‘first you do your part, and then God will rescue you'.  These false teachings are also part of being persecuted by the flesh.  With Rome, the doctrine is that Jesus cleanses you from your original sin, and then you must work your way through the pearly gates, with the help of the saints and Mother Mary.

With some Protestant churches, you are expected to live without sin, if you are really a Christian.  Strict Calvinism said that it didn't matter, since you were predestined for heaven or hell anyway.  Your goal was just to show forth your election by holy living.  Most modern Protestants, on the other hand, believe that all you need to do is make the decision, or pray the prayer of faith, sincerely.  Of course, those who fall away after seeming to be Christian raise the question,  "Was my decision sincere, or sincere enough?"  Or, "Do I really believe?"

The answer to those questions is found in my conduct, or so they say.  I must live purely enough, or I prove that my decision was not genuine.  The result, however, is that I am left unsure, hoping but not confident.  Some seek to assuage the lack of certainty by stirring up good feelings, religious and uplifting emotions.  This leads to entertainment worship and "praise services" which focus on stirring up the right sorts of feeling in me.  The problem is, there is no mention of ‘feelings' in the Bible as that which saves you.  Even if it were true that how you felt was a measure of your relationship with God, it still doesn't help.  People don't often die in the praise service.  They don't usually die feeling good and religious.  They die in pain.  Or, they die suddenly, without a moment to feel out how they are doing.  Or, they die in sickness and sometimes wondering why they are suffering and not others who appear to them to deserve such agony more.

In the end, the Monster of Uncertainty is still there.  That is also being persecuted by the flesh.  Only the Gospel can silence that monster.  The Catholic wonders if he – or his or her loved one – has done enough.  The Gospel tells us that Christ has done everything needed, and more!  The Protestant wonders if he or she was sincere, or if it was really enough.  The Gospel teaches that Christ took up you sins, paid the price by dying for you on the cross, and pours out freely the forgiveness of sins.

Human nature even fights against this.  This is the final form of being persecuted by the flesh, although this time it is your own flesh that does the persecuting!  There is no such thing as a free lunch, or so they say.  The Gospel tells us that it is not free — but Christ picked up the tab, so to speak.  He paid.  He won.  He is sufficient.  You are forgiven.  You are redeemed.  You have the promise and the gift of everlasting life, and resurrection from the grave on the last day, just as Christ rose - and just as certainly as Christ rose from the dead.  And that is history.

In our Epistle, Paul used the events and people of the life of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar as an allegory in order to teach.  Sarah is the Gospel, and Hagar is the Law.  The son of Sarah is the heir and free, the son of Hagar is the slave.  Just so today, the Gospel sets us free from condemnation and uncertainty and fear of what is to come.  The Law still accuses and makes one more aware of failing to measure up than confident of meeting the requirements.  The Law always accuses, that is a theological principle.  That is particularly true when you know that the standard required by the Law is perfection.  I might be perfect today – but I am certain I was not always so.  And to get to perfection, you must start with perfection.  You cannot un-ring the bell of sin.

But Jesus never did sin.  His perfection is pure and sinless and from start to finish.  It is this perfect righteousness which He gives to you as He takes away your sin.  It is what is left after forgiveness.  He got your just deserts on the cross.  You get His, all that He has earned and deserved, in the absolution, and in the Holy Supper, and in eternal life.  In the Gospel you are free.

That freedom gives you the power to be holy also in your conduct.  It gives you permission to aim for it without fear that your sin - your missing the mark of perfect holiness - will destroy you.  Your sins are forgiven.  You can aim for holiness - and each day put to death the man of sin in the waters of your baptism, and start fresh again, because your salvation does not depend on you.  It depends on Jesus Christ.  And His victory is, as they say, history.  It is also our future.  And it is our present, right now.

The creeping doubts, the feeling that we ought to be better, the desire for greater holiness and the fear of sin are all part and parcel of the law.  Some of those feelings are true.  They remind us that we are sinners, and we still need our Savior.  But as the foundation of one's hope for salvation, they are the baggage of the sons of Hagar, the heirs of the Law and of condemnation.  There is no comfort, and no salvation in them.  They are the remnants and evidence that we are still and always Persecuted by the Flesh.  But they are not part of the Gospel.

"So then, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman, but of the free woman."

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
(Let the people say Amen)

Humility

 Luke 14:1-11

And it came about when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, that they were watching Him closely.  And there, in front of Him was a certain man suffering from dropsy.  And Jesus answered and spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?"  But they kept silent. And He took hold of him, and healed him, and sent him away.

And He said to them, "Which one of you shall have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?"  And they could make no reply to this.

And He began speaking a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor; saying to them, "When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him, and he who invited you both shall come and say to you, ‘Give place to this man,' and then in disgrace you proceed to occupy the last place.  But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher'; then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you.  For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted."

Sermon for The 17th Sunday after Trinity                         09/26/21

Humility

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

It had to be a difficult way to live.  Jesus probably experienced the reality of modern celebrities way back then.  People were watching Him, looking for an opportunity to do Him in.  They were not merely content to wait, they were baiting the trap, setting up situations where Jesus might do something they thought they could use against Him.  They would quiz Him, hoping for a sound-byte that would serve them.  In our Gospel, they set a man in front of Him who was sick and just waited for Jesus to do something they could use against Him.  Our theme is "Humility".

Not that the adversaries of Jesus had any.  They apparently had no shame either.  He is invited out to dinner at the home of one of the leaders of the Pharisees, and they set a seriously ill man in front of Him.  They knew that Jesus had this proclivity to heal, and I suspect that they wanted to use the Sabbath Law of absolute rest as a weapon against Jesus, if He should heal the man.

Jesus took the question directly to them.  He asked them, speaking directly to the head Pharisee and the Bible Experts who stood around him.  He said, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?"   They could not answer – or they chose not to, and since they could not condemn that action in principle, they lost the ability to use it against Jesus in this situation.  So, Jesus healed the man.  Score one for Jesus.

But He didn't just leave it there.  They had put Him to the test, and He returned the favor.  He pointed out that what He had done was just common decency and concern, something that every one of them would likely have done, if the situation were just a bit different.  And He said to them, "Which one of you shall have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?"  And they could make no reply to this.  He pointed out that even if it were an animal, they would have rescued it.  There was no shame, no violation of the Law of God in rescuing one of their fellow-men from evil, even on the Sabbath.  Their silence speaks clearly.  Jesus was right, and even their test was wrongly conceived.

Their problem was their pride.  The word you probably hear used in such circumstances is "Hubris", although it is usually pronounced "Hyoobris."  They were the leaders, or so they thought.  They were the clever ones and they were to be respected and feared!  Their pride showed itself in the way they went about seeking the best places at the dinner.

They lay around the dinner on pillows.  The "important people" would have certain places where they would lie, and everyone else sought the good spots, close to the important people, where they would be able to participate or at least hear the conversation.  Jesus seizes upon the competition for the best spots and uses it as a parable about pride and humility.  The elements of the parable are drawn from the activities around them, but are extreme, to focus on the lesson.

He says to choose the lowest spot - the least desirable place, rather than going for the best spot.  If you choose the best spot, and someone more important than you, in the eyes of the host, arrives, you will be humiliated and forced to slink off to the lowest place, the place everybody avoided, and so it is the only one open.  Jesus says to choose the least desirable spot.  Then the host will see you, and invite you to move up, and you will have honor in the eyes of everyone else.  

Practically, does it work that way?  I don't know.  I suspect sometimes, yes, and sometimes, no.  But this is a parable - and everyone can clearly see the principle here.  Pride can lead to humiliation.  Jesus says, in fact, that before God it always does.  Humility avoids the pitfalls of pride - and can bring the delightful moment of what Jesus calls "exalting" when you are asked to move up.  Again, in the presence of God, humility is always rewarded.

But this is about the Gospel.  Within the Gospel, there is no room for pride.  We don't earn or deserve a thing.  Earthly position and human effort accomplish nothing, and holding them out as our rationale, our hope, or our sense of entitlement is pointless.  Not one of us deserves the invitation to the dinner which is eternal life.  If we don't just naturally belong at the dinner, our place at the dinner is also not ours to choose.  We may think that we are something, or that we deserve something – but we don't.  I think St.  Paul was pointing at this very thought in Philippians 3: "If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more:  circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.  But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ."

It doesn't matter who we are.  It is of no account what we are able to do, or what good things we have done.  Our sense of deserving is wrong, because it always overlooks our sins and measures our worthiness by the wrong standards.  In the Gospel, everything is gift.  Everything is Christ!  He died, not us, even though the sin and the guilt is ours.  He gives us undeserving people His life and His eternity and His love.  If we presume to claim a place, an honor, an importance even here in our congregation, we claim something that belongs to Jesus, and it is His to bestow as He wishes.

Only true humility can see that and accept that.  True humility is to see yourself in the Law, and know that there is no way you can deserve what you so long for – God's favor, and salvation.  Our hope is not found in self-assertion, or self-promotion.  Our hope is found in humility - that is in repentance.  We have to be humble enough to see ourselves as we truly are and confess our sins and seek God's forgiveness.  Only when we take that lowest place at the dinner, can our Savior invite us to ‘come on up higher' and give us a place at the table of salvation.  Then we truly have honor in the eyes of all, not the honor of someone who thinks he is something, but the honor of being chosen, beloved, truly valued by God Himself, and made a member of the household of God in Baptism, and invited by one no less glorious than Jesus Himself to break bread with Him and eat at His table.

Then, in life, we go where He sends us and do the things He gives us to do.  Who we think we are isn't important.  What we want or what we think we may deserve for whatever reason is irrelevant.  Our very presence at the Supper is the delightful gift of our Lord.  Better the lowest seat in the kingdom of heaven than the highest glory in the kingdom of Hell.  Our salvation is all about Jesus.  He won it, and He gives it.  He forgives you all of your sins, and He calls you by name into His family and makes you are sharer in His glory both now and for eternity!

So what if life didn't turn out the way you had dreamed?  You have everlasting glory instead.  So what if you are bearing a cross you would rather not bear, a cross which you did not anticipate?  Jesus already bore the cross on your behalf, and He is giving you something important to do - but important in His eyes, not necessarily in your own.  

Humility.  It is the state of those who know themselves, both as sinners, and as those who have possession of something that they just have no business having – the grace and favor of God.  But they have it because Jesus has seen them and invited them to move on up, and exalted them in the presence of all humanity.

When Jesus teaches the importance of the attitude of humility, He is not engaged in some abstract speculation on ethics.  In fact, while He was teaching it, He was already living it out.  He humbled Himself to be born human.  He humbled Himself to live among sinful men.  He humbled Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross.  He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  And therefore, by His stripes, we are healed!  So, when Jesus is urging humility, He is not just recommending a successful approach to social engagements, He is telling us how we may be like Him, and what it is that shapes the minds and the lives of those who will sit at table with Him at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb of God in glory.

So, your life is the gift of God, both here and now – and in eternity.  It is grace and forgiveness and not deserving or self-chosen glory.  But you can only accept that, if you exercise true humility.  So, repent, and believe, and trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding (or preferences) In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.  

The name of the game is "humility".

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
(Let the people say Amen)

This Is Why

People wonder why the leaders of this nation do not appear to be overly concerned with the troubles that the citizens seem to be enduring. The answer is very simple, they are Humanists.

These people are humanists of the stripe of those who produced the Humanist Manifestoes in the last century. They stand in stark contrast to Christians and other theistic religions which generally have a code of ethics and compassion. It is sadly true that not every religionist has always lived up to their religous confessions. There is a simple reason for that. It is called, "SIN". Humanity, as a species, is sinful by nature, and tends to fail when it comes to keeping moral commitments. Some failures are small, and some are quite large. Some don't matter to anyone except the one who fails, and some matter a great deal to many people. But fail or not, these people who practice religion based on the Bible have a code of compassion toward others, and tend to be concerned about how the other guy is doing.

Humanists do not. They will use the distress of others to motivate people to support them, or to empower their agenda for change, but they do not care about people, precisely because they are humanists. Read the Humanaist Manifesto II. It boldly asserts that there is no deity out there, caring about us, motivating our caring about one another, saving anyone. When they list the great destructive pressures of human society, "vulgarization, commercialization, bureaucratization, and dehumanization", they offer no solution. They simply tell us to pursue life's enrichment "despite [these] debasing forces". The traumas and terrors of human life are merely the evolutionary pressures which are to be endured and overcome by those fit enough to survive.

If you wonder why they campaign on the troubles oflife, as though they were going to resolve them, if elected, but never seem to actually fix the problems, it is because they never intended to fix them. The troubles are easy handles to motivation for getting people to vote for them. Solving the problems would make the elected officials less important and less necessary. Besides, they expect you to either survive or not, pretty much on your own. These problems are viewed as the evolutionary forces necessary to cull the herd of the unfit. It helps to remember, when dealing with committed evolutionists, that evolution does not care about the individual. Evolution is scarcely conscious of the individual. It focuses on populations, and is really about the species as a group, without a concern for any specific member of the group -excluding themselves, of course.