"Tested"

Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost

August 29, 2010

Luke 14:1-14 . . . 1 One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. 2 And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. 3 And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4 But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. 5 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?” 6  And they could not reply to these things. 7 Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, 8 “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, 9 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. 10 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. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” 12 He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

            Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Introduction

            Well, the first week of class at Ole Miss is over.  I sat in the Grove Wednesday and Thursday for Welcome Week, and it was interesting watching the students walk by.  You could tell who was a freshman because their walk was a little tentative, like they weren’t really sure where they were going.  But the upper classmen strode by with purpose.  They knew where they were going and what to expect.  And one of the things the students learn to expect is tests.  Tests are  just part of instruction because it’s important for the teacher, at whatever level, to know whether or not the material is being understood.  But there’s another kind of test – one that involves testing people by placing them in a situation and observing their actions.  And that’s what the ruler of the Pharisees was doing in today’s Gospel – he was setting Jesus up, he was testing Him because he was hoping that Jesus would do something that could be used against Him.

            Remember, Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem, and He has come face-to-face with opposition all along the way.  And now this Pharisee and his friends are watching Jesus “carefully” (v 1) as part of a test to see how He will act.  Will He do something that violates the Sabbath?  Their hope is to find something to accuse Him of.

            That was their intent, but what they failed to realize is that they weren’t testing Jesus, instead Jesus is ultimately testing them and pointing to their sinful actions as they fail to fulfill God’s Command to love their neighbor as themselves.  The Good News for us is that while the Pharisees may love only themselves, Jesus loves all humanity, and willingly sacrifices Himself for their benefit.  And that’s our hope and anchor when we are tested.

I.

            The first test Jesus sets up asks what the Pharisees will do when they see someone with a problem?  Will they reach out to help or will they ignore the suffering individual?  Will they love that neighbor?

            The test involves a man “who had dropsy”(v 2).  And in case you’re wondering what dropsy is, as I did, it apparently is excessive fluid retention in the body often associated with congestive heart failure.  So a man with dropsy appears at the banquet, and Jesus turns and gives the Pharisees their first test: “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not” (v 3)?

            Those watching Him are asking themselves this exact question, and their answer is, “No.”  At least in this case.  Now Sabbath law did allow for doing as much as needed to be done to preserve life.  For example, if you cut yourself badly on the Sabbath and were bleeding profusely, someone could help you by stopping the bleeding, but that’s as much as they could do.  The stitches, a permanent solution, had to wait until after the Sabbath.  The ruling was that healing was work, and work on the Sabbath was forbidden.

            Jesus had been criticized earlier on a previous Sabbath when He had healed a woman who was “bent over and could not fully straighten herself” (Lk 13:11).  At that time the ruler of a synagogue had made their understanding of the Law very plain: “There are six days in which work ought to be done.  Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day” (Lk 13:14).  So Jesus knows what the reaction of those at the dinner will likely be.

            Now everyone at the banquet saw the need of this man; they saw his illness, they saw his pain, they saw someone with a problem – but that is all they saw.  They didn’t see a neighbor, they didn’t see someone they should love and care for.  So they didn’t see any reason to help him.

            Their actions sound pretty cold to us, but perhaps that’s only because we don’t relate their actions to our lives.  Talking about the Sabbath to people who don’t keep the Sabbath is a difficult thing to do.  But asking whether we see those who need help as neighbors we are to love strikes a little closer to home.

            When we look at those around us with problems and difficulties, how do we feel?  What’s our reaction to the test?  Do we show annoyance and emotional tiredness?  Do we grow tired of giving help and assistance to others – especially to those who come to us with problems but don’t listen to our advice?  Do we find ourselves rationalizing that we have to set boundaries or that we must not be enablers – when, in fact, we simply lack love?

            Jesus cuts through their deception and our deception and points to their true problem: If it were someone they loved, they would act.  And it didn’t even have to be a someone, it could be a something.  For example, if it were their ox or their son, then they wouldn’t see any problem at all; they would see someone or something they loved or at least cared about in trouble and they would jump in and help.  Do you see what Jesus has done.  He’s put this on a very personal level.  It’s not just a theoretical person now, but someone they love.  Now how are they going to respond?  We don’t know because “they could not reply to these things” (v  6).

            What is obvious, however, is that for them, the man with dropsy wasn’t someone they saw either as a neighbor deserving of their love or as someone they did love, so they believe they can act later.  But Jesus sees someone He loves.  And because of His love there’s no delay, He doesn’t wait until the next day, He acts immediately and shows His love.  He heals the man and sends him away fully restored.  Jesus does not wait; He does not delay; He acts because He loves.

            And Jesus sees us and acts.  He does not delay in healing us.  He does not delay in restoring us.  He does not delay in forgiving us.  He does not put off our needs, our pain, or our problems until a later date.  This is because Jesus acts out of love on our behalf.

II.

            So the Pharisees fail the test that involves strangers, people they do not know but who need help.  Now Jesus moves on to the second test.  How do the Pharisees react to those they have relationships with – you know, people like them, their peers.  Are they neighbors worthy of their love?  Unfortunately, they fail this test as well when the answer turns out to be that instead of loving their peers, they love themselves.

            They may have invited Jesus to dinner so that they could watch Him carefully, but Jesus is really watching them and notices that as they seat themselves they try to gain the best seats for themselves.  The closer you sit to the head of the table the more honor you receive.  So they look at what they have done: Their accomplishments, their actions, and their work, and they see that they’ve accomplished a great deal so they deserve the highest seats at the table.  And as they jockey for position it becomes obvious that they love only themselves.

            The problem is that when you love yourself, you don’t see other people as people, as neighbors.  So as the Pharisees decide on where they should sit they aren’t seeing the others or themselves in perspective, instead they simply see themselves in relationship to others and their standing.  It’s like they’re standing on a ladder asking,  “Who is above me?  Who is below me?  Where should I sit?”  What this reveals about them is that they don’t look at the other people as being deserving of their love, but either as those they are superior to or those whom they would like to be superior to.  They are objects, not people.  This is the kind of attitude you see in so many workplaces today, in so many offices where the game seems to be to promote yourself at the cost of others.

            Jesus points out to them that their love for themselves will be their Achilles’ heel.  Because they love themselves and usurp the better positions, the time will come when the host will say, “’Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place” (v 9), the only place left, the place that no one was willing to take voluntarily.  This is not simply a little comedown, this is complete humiliation, brought on by their own lack of love for others and their inordinate love of themselves.

            The proper way is not to love yourself, but to love others and put others before yourself.  As Paul said to the Romans, “I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think” (12:3).   And to the Philippians, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves” (2:3).

            This was the life Jesus led.  Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was willing to place others ahead of Himself, and rather than jockeying for a high position among men, He took the lowest position, the one on the cross where He was sacrificed for us.  Where He gave His life for us.  Where He took our sins upon Himself.  Where He suffered the pains of hell for us.  Because rather than being absorbed in self-love, He loved us and considered our welfare ahead of His own well-being.

III.

            Okay, two tests down, one to go.  Now Jesus asks His host about his guest list.  And He doesn’t ask how the Pharisee was able to get all of these upscale people to come to dinner, instead Jesus tells him that he’s really invited the wrong people.  That’s kind of rude isn’t it?  Criticizing the host’s choice of who he invites to eat with him.

            But the host isn’t insulted by Jesus’ words because he’s not seriously interested in Jesus.  He’s not interested in hearing Him and listening to what He has to say.  He only invited Jesus because he hoped that Jesus would do something that would benefit him, maybe give his social standing a boost.

            You see, given Jesus’ popular following, His presence adds prestige to the host’s event.  What’s more, if he can catch Jesus doing something wrong that would be a feather in his cap and put him in good with Jesus’ enemies.

            Everything the host does is not done for others and does not show that he views others as neighbors worthy of love.  The only one the host loves is himself.  All of the others, including Jesus, are just pawns to be used to boost his self-esteem.  And so he only invites those whom he knows will gladly return the favor and invite him to their parties.

            The host may say that he loves his guests otherwise he wouldn’t have invited them.  But when we use love in this way, we’re not talking about the deep sacrificial love that Jesus has for us.  This is a superficial kind of love that seeks to use rather than to sacrifice.  It’s not love at all, but rather a mockery of what love is.

            It is, however, the love with which we are most familiar.  Our love is often a love for the purpose of manipulation.  “If you really loved me, you would do this.”

            Yes, we love our children, but we can confuse love with continued manipulation in their lives.

            Yes, we love our spouse, but we are not above emotional blackmail.

            Yes, we love our pastor, but will we still  love him if he refuses to bury, marry, or commune someone we ask him to?

            Jesus points out that love’s purpose is simply for itself: Jesus sees others and loves them.  He expects no reward, no return, no reciprocation with His love.  His love asks nothing and expects nothing (1 Cor 13 4:7); He loves purely and simply to help others.

            This is the love of God that led Him to send His Son for our salvation.  This is the love of God from which we will never be separated (Rom 8:38-39).  In this love we see the gracious salvation that is indeed ours even now.

Conclusion

            They came expecting to test Jesus, but found themselves being tested instead, and, in every case, they failed the test.  Those same tests are ours: how do we see those who suffer; how do we see the people around us; and how do we see our friends.  Do we love them because they are God’s creation and deserving of our love, people whom God wants to have come to know Him through us?  Or are they people to be manipulated and used only as they serve our purpose of self-advancement and self-love?  God grant us open and loving hearts filled with the Holy Spirit that enable us to see others as people worthy of love, ours as well as His.  Amen.