The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The apostle Paul begins today’s Epistle with an exhortation to “walk worthy of the calling with which you were called” (Ephesians 4:1). He goes on to explain that lowliness, gentleness, patience (or literally, “longsuffering”), and bearing with one another in love are the ways that we maintain the bond of peace and live in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called. In short, the Christian is called to a life of humility. There is one Lord who calls us. There is one faith which we share. And there is one baptism undergone by all Christians. The Christian is no longer his own. He has been bought with a price by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, which He shed upon the cross for our forgiveness. We are all poor, miserable sinners who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. Therefore, no one is greater or less than another. And so it is that the Apostle exhorts us to live lives worthy of, or consistent with, this calling and fact. In other words, the Apostle would have us know that: The attitude of humility permeates all aspects of the Christian life. It is to this point also which our Lord speaks and acts in today’s Gospel.
Now, it is important to note that the parable which our Lord tells in the second half of the Gospel is not merely an illustration of worldly wisdom. He tells this parable to teach a much deeper truth which permeates every aspect of life. And so, our Lord tells the parable of a man who was invited to a friend’s wedding feast. He took his seat front and center, right in front of the head table. But when the bride’s father showed up, his friend, the groom, asked him to give up his seat and ushered him to the back corner of the room, walking with shame past every table in the wedding hall while the people mocked his presumption and pride. Our Lord also tells of the wise man who entered the wedding hall and took his seat in the back corner of the room. And when his friend, the groom, entered the hall, he saw him sitting in the back corner and invited him to move up to a more prominent table. And so, our Lord concludes by saying:
“For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:11).
Our Lord did not speak this parable simply so that we would know proper etiquette when we are invited to a wedding celebration. For our Lord is not concerned with human power dynamics and social manipulation. He is not interested in teaching you how to become the most popular person in the room. Our Lord cares about people. And He desires not only that we would be saved eternally. He also desires that we would learn to see the world through His eyes of compassion and love.
The Pharisees’ testing of our Lord in the first part of the Gospel illustrates this point perfectly. They set a trap for Him at dinner one Sabbath Day. They watched Him closely as they inconspicuously sent into the room a man who was plagued by dropsy, a disease of bloating and water retention, usually indicative of an underlying heart condition. They knew that our Lord would not be able to help but heal this man, thus breaking the Sabbath command, as they understood it. But our Lord sees the trap and springs it right in their faces.
The question is, which is more important, one’s own spiritual piety or the physical needs of another? To get to the bottom of this question, let’s ask it another way. If a mother is reading her Bible in the morning before the kids are supposed to get up and she hears a loud “thud” followed by intense crying coming from one of the children’s rooms, will she not immediately put her Bible down and run to see if the child who fell out of bed is okay? Or if a father is leading his family in devotions after dinner and the dog begins yelping in pain from the other room, will he not pause the devotions to go check on the dog? The point is, there are times when physical needs are more important than spiritual piety. True emergencies and bodily needs are a necessary time to suspend our priorities. To be sure, this is no justification to go and make up excuses to set aside spiritual piety entirely. But it is an important reminder that humans consist of both body and spirit. And the needs of both body and spirit must be taken into account.
So it is that the Christian life ought not be relegated to one portion of life. Our Lord’s pious devotion to His Father compelled Him to worship in the synagogue on the Sabbath Day in the same way that His love for others compelled Him to heal the man with dropsy on the same Sabbath Day. In the same way, our Christian faith must not be relegated to certain portions of our life, as if church attendance, prayer before meals, and volunteering on a church board is the totality of the Christian life. If we are participating in gossip and vulgar language at work, partying and getting drunk at night, or engaging in explicit behavior online, then we are not living a life worthy of the calling to which we were called. In such a case, we are hypocrites who refuse to let our Christian faith inform all areas of life. The Christian, however, allows his faith to permeate all aspects of life.
And so, when we come to church, we come looking to be fed spiritually. Our honoring of preaching and God’s Word on Sundays is a crucial part of our keeping the Third Commandment. But still, when we come to this place and enter this room, our piety and faith does not remove all responsibility toward our neighbor. At times while we are in the pew, we will have neighbors who are in need. Are we willing to humbly offer aid when and where it is needed? The most obvious examples of this are a parent caring for her children or someone who assists an older person who struggles with mobility. The crying child needs to be attended to and the person with mobility challenges needs assistance. And most of the time, we willingly jump in and help. But what about the lonely member who hasn’t attended in a while and slips in quietly while we are talking to a friend? Are we willing to humbly excuse ourself from the conversation with our friend to check in on that lonely neighbor? What about a visitor who has no experience operating a Lutheran Service Book? Are we willing to leave the comfort of our place and sit next to the visitor—maybe for several weeks—to help them learn how to navigate the service and the hymnal? Or will we refuse to help? The Lutheran service is complicated anyway.
This is why our Lord tells the parable of the wedding guest. He would have us see that the Christian life of new obedience is an integrated life where our faith permeates all areas. This is particularly true with humility. After all, humility is at the center of our faith. It is humility which allows us to acknowledge our sins and look to Christ and the cross in faith. Apart from humility, we will never be able to receive the grace of Christ. And likewise, if we do not learn to practice humility in every area of our lives, pride will take over and we will find ourselves humbled by the Lord. But when we learn to practice humility—seeing our neighbor’s need and acting for his help—when we practice this kind of humility, the Lord promises to exalt us, not only in this life, but also in the life to come.
May God the Holy Spirit grant us humility of faith and life which permeates all aspects of the Christian life so that we may be exalted in faith and that we may “walk worthy of the calling with which [we] were called” (Ephesians 4:1).
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
