The Second-Last Sunday of the Church Year – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 2 Chronicles 36:11-21
In Christ Jesus, who came into the world, yet the world did not know Him, who came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him (Joh. 1:10-11), but who still, by His grace, gave Himself humbly for the sins of all people, for your sins and mine, dear fellow redeemed:
As we review the history of the kings of Judah, it is strange to see how often the throne flip-flopped between good kings and bad kings. Ahaz was a wicked king, and he was followed by Hezekiah who “did what was right in the eyes of the LORD” (2Chr. 29:2). Hezekiah’s son Manasseh was a wicked king before the LORD humbled him and led him to repentance. After him came Amon, a wicked king. He was followed by Josiah, a good king. Josiah’s sons once again pursued wickedness after him.
So why did it so often happen that a son did not follow his father, either in doing what was right or in doing what was wicked? The reason that some sons did not follow the wicked example of their fathers is because God was merciful to His people and continued to raise up good kings to call the people back to the worship of the true God.
On the other hand, it is troubling that so many sons did not follow the example of their faithful fathers. Was it because the fathers ruled the kingdom well but failed to lead and guide their households? Or was it because the times of peace and prosperity under faithful kings led their sons to become complacent and proud? We can imagine both to be true.
We fathers know well our own failures in teaching the truth to our kids. We might excuse ourselves for our past failures because we had too much work to do. Or maybe we were so caught up in our hobbies and leisure activities that we told ourselves we didn’t have time to lead our families in the Word of God. God’s command to fathers is clear and convicting: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4).
Even when fathers lead their households well, it can happen that their children forsake the truth and chase after the false promises of the world. These children take the peace and prosperity of their Christian home for granted. Instead of seeing the blessings God gave them in the home, they only see barriers to their personal happiness and fulfillment. It is ever the case that the younger generation is critical about the older generation. “We could do it better,” they say. “When we are older, we won’t make the mistakes our parents did.” And maybe they won’t, but they will certainly make new ones.
Despite the clear evidence of God blessing the faithful kings before him, the last king before Jerusalem was destroyed, King Zedekiah, “did what was evil in the sight of the LORD his God.” He disregarded the words of the LORD’s prophet Jeremiah and “did not humble himself.” He rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, to whom he had sworn allegiance. “He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the LORD, the God of Israel” and would not repent of his wrongs, and he led the people of Judah to do the same.
“He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart” against the LORD. Those are strong words! The head and the heart go together, don’t they? Zedekiah would not listen to the LORD’s Word and humble himself. He would not bow to the LORD’s will but went in a different direction. He would not turn his face from evil; he pursued it with all his heart.
We can relate to this sinful stubbornness. We have behaved like this more times than we can count. Maybe your parents or other superiors told you not to do something, so it made you want to do it even more. There was no fun in being good, so you pursued what was evil. No one was going to tell you what to do or not do. You were going to do what you wanted. If anyone didn’t like it, that was their problem. You made up your mind, so nothing would stop you from going through with it—stiff neck, hard heart.
But what did those times of sinful stubbornness get us? We acted and spoke in pride, but are we proud of what we’ve done? There is so much we wish we could undo and take back. That humble assessment of the sins of our past is a true gift from God. He is constantly calling us back from the sinful paths we’ve taken and away from our bad choices. In love, He wants to lead us to repent of our wrongs and to trust in His mercy and grace.
This is what He wanted for the people of Judah. He “sent persistently to them by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place.” He wanted to save them. He wanted them to be His own and live under Him in His kingdom (Second Article Explanation). He wanted to lead them in faith from this life to eternal life with Him in heaven. But how did they respond to His gracious call? “[T]hey kept mocking the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets.” They rejected God’s Word, so they were also rejecting God’s goodness and life.
This is nothing but pride. It is saying that I know better how to live my life, than God knows who gave me life, provides for my life, and preserves my life. Talk about ungratefulness to the extreme! God does not reward this; He opposes it. We see this in God handing over His prideful people to the Babylonians. Many of the people were slaughtered, Jerusalem was burned to the ground, and all the treasures of the temple and the kingdom were hauled away.
Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” This is why Jesus will reject the goats at His left hand, the unbelievers, on the Day of Judgment. In their pride, they did not fear, love, and trust in the true God. And because they rejected Him, they neither loved Him nor their neighbor as they were commanded to do.
“But Lord,” they will cry, “when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You? If we knew You needed help, we would have helped You!” (Mat. 25:44). He will reply that they were only ever concerned about themselves: “as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me” (v. 45). No matter how outwardly good and charitable they appeared to be, “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6).
The reverse is also true: “With faith it is impossible not to please God.” You, dear child of God, are pleasing to Him, though you might wonder how this could be. You remember the stiff-neck, hard-heart episodes; how in your pride, you didn’t want to admit your wrongs. You think of how you have taken God’s gifts for granted and been so ungrateful toward Him, how you have fallen short in your callings to your family, friends, and neighbors. How could you be pleasing to God?
You are pleasing to Him not because of what you have done for Him or others, but because of what He has done for you. He has redeemed you, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won you from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil. The price for your soul could not be covered by anything you might do or pay, not by a billion good works or by all the gold and silver in the world.
You could not do it, so Jesus humbled Himself for you. The Son of God took “the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phi. 2:7-8). He redeemed you with His life of perfect obedience to God, with His holy, precious blood, and with His innocent suffering and death (Second Article Explanation).
He did this for you, and the Holy Spirit has given you faith to believe it. One of the gifts that comes with faith is humility. How can I be proud when I hear that Jesus took all my wretchedness and transgression on Himself, every sordid sin, and paid for it as though it were His? How can I be proud when I know that He suffered eternal death and hell in my place to win for me eternal life? How can I be proud when I learn that He chose me by grace to be His own and that He brought me to faith by the power of His Word?
This same powerful Word that brought you to faith is what keeps you humble before Him and equips you for humble service to others. As true as it is that “God opposes the proud,” which sometimes means you and me, it is also true that He “gives grace to the humble” (1Pe. 5:5). He looks with favor upon you. He knows how you are weak, and how you don’t always do the things you want to do or should do. He does not turn His back on you or push you away from Him.
He says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mat. 11:28), and “whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (Joh. 6:37). And when you stand before His throne of judgment on the last day, He will say, “Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Mat. 25:34). This is all grace, undeserved love.
Grace cannot be earned; it can only be received in humility. The LORD has looked with favor on you. He has chosen you. He has saved you. There is no other response, nothing more to say, than: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “The Last Judgment” by Fra Angelico, c. 1395-1455)
The Second Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 2 Samuel 7:4-16
In Christ Jesus, who invites you to sit at His banquet in His house and receive His gifts, dear fellow redeemed:
You might enjoy watching the television shows about home renovation. Some shows even feature the total gutting and rebuilding of a home’s interior with only the essential structure of the house staying the same. Maybe you are already living in your “dream house,” but you probably have ideas how it could be updated and improved. And if someone offered to remodel your home at no cost to you, you would likely jump at the chance.
King David thought the LORD would appreciate a better “house,” so to speak. After all, David was living comfortably in a “house of cedar,” while the Ark of the LORD sat “in a tent” (2Sa. 7:2). He made his intention known to the prophet Nathan that he wanted to build the LORD a house, a great temple. It seemed like a good, right, and salutary idea.
But the LORD did not respond as David expected. First of all, the LORD said that He did not ask for a temple. If He wanted one, He would have commanded it done. Second, He reminded David that He took him from tending sheep in Bethlehem to ruling over all Israel. Whatever the all-powerful LORD wants to accomplish will happen. Third, He promised to make David’s name great and prosper the nation. Fourth, God said He would make David a house, but not one made out of cedar or stone. He said that David’s throne and kingdom would be established forever. This was a reference to the Savior Jesus who would come from David’s line.
So David had a wonderful gift planned for God, and God’s response was to direct David back to His gifts, particularly His gift of salvation through His only-begotten Son. It was a gentle lesson that was not meant for David only, but for us too. We can think so much of the gifts we give to God that we fail to honor Him in the best way, which is to believe what He says and to humbly receive what He offers.
Now this does not mean that the gifts we offer to the LORD and the sacrifices we make are meaningless to Him. God desires that we pray, praise, and give thanks to Him, that we live holy lives according to His Commandments, that we love one another out of love for Him, and that we give generously for the work of His kingdom. He loves all these gifts.
But it can happen that even these good things become sins. We can have a wonderful habit of Bible study and prayer each day, but then we find ourselves going through the motions or thinking that we are righteous because of what we are doing. We can watch carefully how we live and how we speak, but then we judge others for not being as good as we are. We can give generously toward the work of the church, but instead of giving humbly and quietly, we want to have our gifts be known and recognized.
When we think too much and make too much of our works, our view of God’s grace becomes clouded. We start to think that we are among the “good people,” who are nothing like the “bad people” who don’t do these nice and beneficial things. This self-righteous attitude ignores the fact that by nature we are no better than anyone else. Even as Christians, we still sin all the time, as Luther’s explanation of the Fifth Petition reminds us: “we daily sin much and deserve nothing but punishment.”
No matter how good and right our gifts to God may seem, they are always tainted by our sin. They are never perfectly holy. This is why the LORD’s message to David was so important for him and for us. God doesn’t need a magnificent temple. He doesn’t need beautiful, ornate church buildings. He doesn’t need us to save His kingdom. He brings His kingdom to us; He saves us; He meets us in our lowliness and sin; He gives His gifts to us. One of our hymnwriters puts it like this:
Surely in temples made with hands
God, the Most High, is not dwelling,
High above earth His temple stands,
All earthly temples excelling.
Yet He whom heav’ns cannot contain
Chose to abide on earth with men—
Built in our bodies His temple.
(Evangelical Lutheran Hynmary #211, v. 2)
The almighty God “chose to abide on earth with men.” The eternal Son of God was born of Mary, a descendant of King David. This was just what God had promised David. The LORD said to him, “I will raise up your Offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish His kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever. I will be to Him a father, and He shall be to Me a Son.” Some of the Jews interpreted this and other prophecies to mean that the Messiah would reign over an earthly kingdom. This is why the crowds were so excited to welcome Jesus to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Their Messiah-King had finally arrived!
But Jesus did not come to rule over an earthly kingdom like David’s. He came to redeem all sinners and to take His place as God and Man at the right hand of His Father. The way He would redeem sinners was also conveyed to David. God said regarding the Christ: “When He commits iniquity, I will discipline Him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but My steadfast love will not depart from Him.” Jesus never committed any sin of His own, but “For our sake [God] made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2Co. 5:21). Jesus was punished as if He were the one who committed all sin—the sin of every human being in every time and place.
This punishment from God for sin was carried out on Jesus by the hands of sinners. Jesus was punished “with the rod of men” and “with the stripes of the sons of men.” This is exactly the way the prophet Isaiah described it after David: “He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed” (53:5). When Jesus was being struck with the rod and whip and nailed to the cross, this was really God the Father meting out punishment on His Son for our sin.
The LORD did not require something from us before He would do something for us. He did not demand gifts before He would give gifts. The Son willingly went to the cross to save us, and the Father accepted His sacrifice on our behalf. It was a truly perfect offering that covers over the imperfections of our offerings, and it was the sufficient payment for all our sins. After His death and resurrection with His work complete, Jesus ascended into heaven in order to “[give] gifts to men” (Eph. 4:8).
In His position at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, Jesus invites you to partake of the banquet that today’s Holy Gospel describes (Luk. 14:16-24). This banquet is served wherever God’s powerful Word and Sacraments are found. Jesus warmly invites you here in this humble house to be His honored guest. You have been washed clean in the holy waters of your Baptism. You are clothed in the garments of His righteousness. By faith, you are prepared to receive His gifts.
“Everything is now ready,” He says. The rich food and drink He sets before you is the free forgiveness of all your sins. Whatever those sins may be, such as your inclination to trust in your own righteousness, your judgmental attitude toward others, or your pride because of what you have accomplished—all of these sins are blotted out by Jesus’ precious blood. He gives you to feast on His life, His salvation, His love, His peace, His joy. These are the gifts you receive at His banquet.
You Need the Gifts of God far more than He needs gifts from you. David said, “I will build you a house,” and the LORD replied, “No, I will build you a house!” Every good gift comes from God, as the Book of James says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (1:17). When you offer gifts to God, you are simply returning to Him a portion of what He has given you, whether it is your money, your strength, your intellect, or your time. It all comes from Him.
When you feel as though you have done something great for God, remember what He has done and continues to do for you. Like a house that needs work, your life on earth always needs renovating and improving, and your gifts to God will not be perfect. But His home and His gifts are. By the gifts He gives you through His Word and Sacraments here, He prepares you to enter His heavenly home where you will live with Him forever.
Now we may gather with our King
E’en in the lowliest dwelling;
Praises to Him we there may bring,
His wondrous mercy forth-telling;
Jesus His grace to us accords,
Spirit and life are all His words,
His truth doth hallow the temple.
(ELH #211, v. 4)
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(woodcut of the poor, the blind, and the lame being invited to the banquet from the 1880 edition of The Story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation)
The Sixth Sunday of Easter – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Judges 16:18-30
In Christ Jesus, the greater and perfect Samson, who delivered us from all our enemies, dear fellow redeemed:
There is an error about prayer hanging around some of the branches of the Christian Church. The error is the idea that if you pray with enough faith, or if you have proven yourself worthy before God by your good works, then He will give you exactly what you ask for. When people who are taught this do not receive what they pray for, they have a crisis of faith. They assume that God must be punishing them for something. They picture Him looking upon them with fierce wrath instead of looking upon them with mercy.
We see a different picture in God’s dealings with Samson. But first, a little backstory is helpful. Before Samson’s mother had him, she had been unable to have children. The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said that she would “conceive and bear a son” (Jud. 13:3). He would be dedicated to the LORD, and his parents were directed to let his hair grow. As he got older, we are told that “the LORD blessed him. And the Spirit of the LORD began to stir in him” (13:24-25).
One of the ways the Holy Spirit “began to stir in him” was by giving him tremendous physical strength. On one occasion, a young lion charged at him roaring. “Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and… he tore the lion in pieces” (14:6). The same language is used later on—“the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him”—and he single-handedly killed thirty men among the Philistines who ruled at that time over the Israelites (v. 19). The LORD was using Samson to deliver the Israelites from their oppressors.
For his next act, he caught 300 foxes, tied them together in pairs and put a torch between them. Then he set them loose in the Philistines’ grain fields and olive orchards, and much was destroyed. The Philistines came after him, and with the jawbone of a donkey in his hand, Samson killed 1,000 of them. Another time, he tore out the gates and posts of one of their cities and carried it in one piece and set it on the top of a hill. Samson was a big problem for the Philistines.
And Philistine women were a big problem for Samson. We meet one of them in today’s reading, a woman named Delilah. The Philistine rulers promised her great riches if she would “seduce him” and find out “where his great strength lies” (16:5). Samson told her that if he were bound with seven fresh bowstrings, he would become weak. When he fell asleep, she bound him with seven fresh bowstrings, but when he woke up, he broke them easily. She kept trying. He told her that fresh ropes would do it, but he broke those too. Then he said if his hair were tied into a weaver’s loom, he would become weak. Delilah did this, but it didn’t work either.
It is obvious that Delilah could not be trusted, but she wouldn’t give up. She kept pressing and pressing until Samson finally gave in. “A razor has never come upon my head,” he said, “for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man” (16:17). You heard what happened next. The Philistines shaved his head while he slept, and when they attacked him, he figured he would defeat them like before. But “his strength left him” because “the LORD had left him.”
Samson had taken his strength for granted. He felt invincible. He thought he could not be defeated. He had forgotten where his strength came from. He had forgotten to put his trust in God and follow the LORD’s will. He was full of pride, and that led to his fall (Pro. 16:18). It was a tremendous fall. The Philistines gouged out his eyes and made him grind at the mill in their prison. Then they gathered for a great feast to their god Dagon to celebrate Samson’s defeat, and they brought Samson in to entertain them. We can imagine the abuse and mockery hurled toward him. He had killed so many of their people, but now here he was—weak, pathetic, a joke.
These hardships had given Samson time to reflect. He knew where he had gone wrong. He understood how foolish he had been. He realized how arrogant he had been and how faithless before God. We see this humility come out in his prayer to the LORD: “O Lord GOD, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.”
But why should God give back to Samson what he had so carelessly thrown away? He didn’t owe Samson anything. Samson had been given a great gift from God, and he sold it for the charms of Delilah. Samson deserved to be the Philistines’ slave. He deserved their ridicule and torment. Why should the LORD listen to his prayer?
The same question might come to our minds. None of us have had the strength of Samson, but like Samson, we have taken God’s gifts for granted. We have not used our ability to think in pure and dedicated service to the LORD. We have not always used our mouths for His glory and honor. We have not always used our physical abilities to serve Him and our neighbors. We have treated these gifts as though they originated with us and not with God. Why should the LORD listen to our prayers?
The answer is not that we have somehow earned the right to have God hear us because our faith is strong enough or we have proven ourselves worthy before Him. We know this is not the case. The reason the LORD listens to our prayers is because He is merciful—full of mercy—toward us. He is not watching us and keeping a tally of all the things we do and say and think that are wrong, to see when the scale tips or the balance shifts away from His favor. If this were the case, our fate would have been sealed long ago for our sins against Him.
But as He looked upon Samson, so He looks upon us. He knows far more clearly than we do how we have sinned against Him. He sees every misdeed, every infraction, every transgression. We deserve nothing but torment from God for these sins, endless torture in the eternal prison of hell. But the LORD has mercy upon us. He saw us in all our weakness, surrounded by our enemies, unable to free ourselves, and He sent us a Savior.
Like the angel who spoke to Samson’s mother, an angel appeared to the virgin Mary and said, “you will conceive in your womb and bear a son” (Luk. 1:31). The Spirit of the Lord was upon Him because He was the eternal Son of God. As He humbled Himself to carry out His saving work, Jesus appeared vulnerable and weak, but His enemies were not able to overcome Him. The devil, the roaring lion, rushed at Him with many temptations, the unbelieving world with all its power and resources tried to bury Him, death tried to hold Him fast in its dark chains. But all of them failed. He conquered them all.
He was our Samson, the strongest Man, who stood up to our formidable enemies. He had mercy on us in our weakness. He rescued us from the devil’s prison house. He paid the price for our transgressions. He suffered and died for our sins. This is how we know God the Father loves us—He sent His Son to redeem us by pouring out His holy blood. This is how we know God the Father is not punishing us for our wrongs—He punished His Son in our place.
Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection on the third day is also how we know the Father hears our prayers and wants to hear them. In today’s Holy Gospel, Jesus says, “the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God” (Joh. 16:27). Because of what Jesus has done, the way is open to the Father. He urges us to pray to Him as He says in Psalm 50, “call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (v. 15).
He knows that it is often in “the day of trouble” that we remember to pray to Him. It is when we are weak, when we are unable to control or fix something, when we don’t have answers, that we remember to bring these troubles to our LORD. This is what Samson did. He was weak, he couldn’t see, he was the object of everyone’s scorn, and he prayed for the LORD to give him strength. The LORD did. Samson pushed against the pillars of the house, and the house fell on the thousands of Philistines gathered there, killing more in Samson’s death than he had in his life.
The LORD had given him strength in his weakness, and He had done it for the sake of His people Israel to save them from their enemies. The LORD also works in you as the Holy Spirit strengthens and builds you up through His Word and Sacraments. He leads you to repent of your sins, to set aside your arrogance and pride, and put your trust in Him alone. He applies the saving work of Jesus to you, so you are comforted and assured of His grace.
The Holy Spirit also guides you in your prayers. He graciously brings your needs and concerns and requests before God. Romans 8:26 says, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” The Lord God wants to hear your prayers, and in His mercy, He promises to answer them in the way that is best for you, both for your earthly good and for your eternal salvation.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from stained glass by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, c. 1660)
The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity – Vicar Lehne sermon
Text: St. Luke 14:1-11
In Christ Jesus, who humbled himself so that we may be exalted, dear fellow redeemed:
The Pharisees were at it again. This wasn’t the first time they had tried something like this. In fact, just a few chapters before our text for today, at the end of Luke 11, it says that “the scribes and the Pharisees began to press [Jesus] hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say” (Luke 11:53–54). You would think that they would eventually learn their lesson and realize that their mission was a futile one, but their reputations were on the line, so, they kept on trying to get Jesus to slip up and do or say something wrong. This time, they did so by inviting Jesus over for a Sabbath meal.
The Sabbath was meant to be a day when the Israelites would take a break from their work and worship God. There were still actions that the Israelites were allowed to do on the Sabbath, but the Pharisees had taken things too far. They had invented their own laws that forbid any amount of work on the Sabbath, taking the focus of the Sabbath off of God and putting it on their own actions. And, knowing Jesus, they would hopefully be able to catch him doing something that they didn’t permit on the Sabbath. So, they all watched him carefully.
At this Sabbath meal, there happened to be a man there who had dropsy. Dropsy was a condition that caused swelling to occur due to fluids building up in a person’s body tissue. Luke doesn’t tell us why this man was there. Since Jewish feasts, such as this one, were semipublic, it’s possible that he came to the Sabbath meal all on his own. It’s also possible that the Pharisees intentionally brought him along to their Sabbath meal in order to get Jesus to break their manmade Sabbath laws by healing him. But, regardless of the reason, Jesus decided to use this moment to teach these so called “experts in the Law,” and the lesson that he taught them was that the humble will be exalted. While this is certainly a lesson that the Pharisees needed to learn, it’s also a lesson that we all need to learn because, like the Pharisees, instead of being humble, (1) we judge others in our pride. But we have no need to fear, for (2) Jesus saved us through his humility.
Now, the manmade laws that were invented by the Pharisees were originally made with good intentions. Through Moses, God had given the Israelites the Law that he wanted them to obey. However, the Pharisees were afraid that they wouldn’t be able to obey all of God’s Law, and this fear was completely justified. After all, none of us is perfect, which means that it’s impossible for anyone to rightly fulfill any part of God’s Law. So, the Pharisees came up with a solution: they would make more laws that acted as safeguards so that they wouldn’t even come close to breaking God’s Law. However, as time passed, they eventually came to view their own manmade laws not as safeguards but as equal to God’s Law, which meant that they thought that everyone had to follow their manmade laws in order to be saved.
But it wasn’t just the Pharisees’ attitude toward their own manmade laws that had changed. They were also no longer afraid of breaking God’s Law because they thought that they obeyed it better than anyone else. Therefore, they thought that they had earned a place of honor at God’s table at the eternal feast in heaven. The Pharisees were so focused on what they were doing for their own benefits that they didn’t do anything for the benefit of their neighbors. Instead, they pridefully judged them for not being as good at keeping their own manmade laws and, by extension, God’s Law as they were.
But it isn’t just the Pharisees that invented their own manmade laws, we’ve all done that as well, possibly without even realizing it. We may think that there’s only one correct way to honor our father and mother; only one correct way to do our jobs; only one correct way to dress. So, when we see people living their lives in ways that go against how we think that they should be living their lives, we pridefully judge them, thinking to ourselves, “If they really honored their parents, they wouldn’t have to be asked to do that,” or “If they really wanted to be successful at their job, they would do their job like me,” or “I can tell by the way that they dress that they don’t live respectful and modest lives.” And these are only some examples of ways that we can judge others for not living their lives like we do.
In addition, because we do such a good job at obeying the manmade laws that we’ve invented, we think that we deserve a higher place at God’s heavenly table than others do. Sure, we may confess that we’re sinners who deserve only God’s wrath and punishment when we’re at church and when we say our private prayers to God, but, in our pride, we’re tempted to think that obeying our own manmade laws makes us better than others. Of course, that’s not the case. Obeying our own manmade laws is not the same as obeying God’s Law. Rightfully obeying God’s Law means humbly loving our neighbors as we love ourselves, something that we not only fail to do time and time again but also can never do enough of to earn a place at God’s table.
The good news is that we don’t have to do enough to earn a place at God’s table, because Jesus already did enough for us. He rightfully obeyed God’s Law, humbly loving his neighbors in all the ways that we couldn’t. One of the ways he showed that love was by healing the man with dropsy.
Jesus knew that the Pharisees were watching him to see if he would break one of their manmade Sabbath laws, so, when he saw the man who had dropsy, before doing anything else, he asked them a question: “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not” (verse 3)? The Pharisees were silent. So, Jesus answered his own question through his actions by healing the man who had dropsy and sending him away.
This wasn’t the only time that Jesus healed on the Sabbath. Jesus healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath (Mark 3:1–6), Jesus healed a woman who couldn’t stand up straight for eighteen years due to a disabling spirit that she had on the Sabbath (Luke 13:10–17), and Jesus healed a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years on the Sabbath (John 5:1–17). Jesus showed through his actions, through his active obedience of God’s Law, not only that it’s lawful to heal on the Sabbath but also that rightfully obeying God’s Law means humbly loving our neighbors as we love ourselves.
But Jesus wasn’t done teaching the Pharisees yet. To drive his point home, he gave an example. He asked the Pharisees, “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” (verse 5)? By asking this, Jesus was implying that, if the Pharisees were willing to show love to their family or animals in such a way on the Sabbath, when their manmade laws said that doing any amount of work on the Sabbath was wrong, then, they should have no problem with Jesus or anyone else showing love to his neighbors by healing on the Sabbath, which takes much less work.
Like before, the Pharisees remained silent. They knew that Jesus spoke the truth. In the same way, we too have no choice but to remain silent before Jesus. We’re like the son who has fallen into a well. But this is not a physical well. This well is the well of sin. We may pridefully think that we can come up with ways to climb out of the well of sin on our own, but no matter what we do, no matter how many ways that we try to exalt ourselves, no matter how many of our manmade laws that we keep, we remain trapped at the bottom of the well. After all of our best efforts, we’re humbled with the reality that we can’t climb out of the well of sin on our own.
Knowing this, there are times when we can fall into despair. Even though we know what Jesus has done for us to save us from our sins, we remain all too aware that, in our pride, we fail to rightfully obey God’s Law time and time again, so we don’t think that there’s any way we could have a spot at God’s table. In fact, we know that we rightfully deserve a place in hell. When we put our hope in ourselves, there is no hope for us, but, thankfully, we can put our hope in Jesus, who came down into the well of sin to pull us out.
Jesus came down by putting on our flesh and going to the cross, where he performed the most miraculous healing of all. On the cross, Jesus took all of the times that you pridefully judged others for not living their lives like you do and all of the times that you failed to rightfully obey God’s Law by humbly loving your neighbors as you love yourself—He took all of those sins, even the ones you have yet to commit, and put them on himself. By his innocent death on that cross, all of your sins were paid for, opening the gates of heaven for you. You can never earn a place at God’s table through your own actions, but because of all that Jesus did for you, he didn’t just earn you a place at God’s table; he also earned you a place of honor.
While we were trapped at the bottom of the well of sin, Jesus reached out to us through his Word and Sacraments. By doing so, he didn’t just grab a hold of us and pull us out of the well of sin; he also washed all of the filth of sin off of us through the waters of baptism, making it as though we never got trapped at the bottom of that well of sin in the first place. Because Jesus cleansed us of our sins, God the Father no longer sees us as the helpless and trapped sinners that we once were and happily welcomes us to his table at the eternal feast in heaven.
We’re already getting a foretaste of the eternal feast in heaven while we’re here on earth. We get that foretaste in the Lord’s Supper. While we’re here on earth, Jesus welcomes us to his table to give us the blessings that he won for us with his perfect life and innocent death, those blessings being the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Our sins are completely forgiven, thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf, but we have yet to enter eternal life in heaven. Therefore, when we enter the gates of heaven, we will experience the culmination of the blessings that Jesus won for us, finally entering eternal life. So, not only did Jesus earn us a spot at his table but he also already welcomes us to his table every time we receive his true body and blood for the forgiveness of sins.
Through the Sacraments, Jesus strengthens us to humbly show love to our neighbors. Thanks to him, we no longer feel the need to pridefully exalt ourselves over others, like we’re passing over them to get a higher place at the table, but we now desire to boost our neighbors up, like we’re giving them a higher place at the table by sitting at a lower seat. Because we now rightfully obey God’s Law by humbly loving our neighbors as we love ourselves, Jesus exalts us to a place of honor. And yet, we can take no pride in this, for it’s only though Jesus that we can rightfully obey God’s Law in the first place. Jesus truly has done everything for us.
We haven’t done anything to deserve a place at God’s table at the eternal feast in heaven, but, thankfully, we don’t rely on ourselves to earn a seat. We rely on Jesus, who already did everything necessary to earn us a seat. He never exalted himself, even though he’s the only one who obeyed God’s Law perfectly. Rather, he humbly loved his neighbors and showed the ultimate example of his love by miraculously healing us of all of our sins on the cross. Thanks to the perfect life that Jesus lived and the innocent death on the cross that Jesus suffered for our benefit, we not only get a seat at God’s table; we’re also exalted to a place of honor.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture of Jesus healing a man with dropsy)
The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Luke 18:9-14
In Christ Jesus, who rewards us not because of what we have done, but because of what He has done, dear fellow redeemed:
The opening words of today’s reading state: “[Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt.” Is this parable really for you? Is it for me? Are we people who trust in our own righteousness? Do we treat others with contempt? We find the Pharisee and his praying to be offensive. We admire the humility of the tax collector. So do we really need to hear this parable today?
Let me change the characters a little, make it more personal, and see if it gives us a different angle to consider it. “Two people went up into the temple to pray, one of them was you and the other Jesus.” In that comparison, we know which one is the prideful and arrogant one, and which one is humble. We might not step out and boldly say the things the Pharisee did, but Jesus wants us to examine the pride we have in our hearts and minds.
We can hardly imagine saying the things publicly that the Pharisee said. But we certainly have thought them. We have looked around us at the extortioners, unjust, adulterers, and cheats and stood a little taller—“I’m glad I’m not like them!” On the other hand, we have counted up the good things we have done and thought we were in pretty good shape.
Our natural tendency according to our sinful flesh is to get the object of our love wrong. The Commandments direct us to love the Lord our God with all our being and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Our love should be focused outward, not inward. And yet, what motivates us is often what pleases us, what makes us feel good, what benefits us. That’s the attitude that puts us in the place of the Pharisee.
The Pharisee said the words, “God, I thank You,” but it’s obvious he was really thanking himself. His “prayer” does not read like a humble offering but as a prideful recounting of all the reasons God should be pleased with him. What do our lists look like? “God, I thank You that I’m not lazy and dishonest like my co-workers are—that I’m not mean like my classmates—that I’m so good to my family—that I do so many wonderful things for others.”
It is not the good works that are the problem, but where we think the credit belongs for those good works. Why are you a hard worker? Why are you nice? Why are you good to your family? Why have you done so many wonderful things for others? If you think it is because you are such a good person and better than most, then you are most certainly the Pharisee. But if you humbly confess that the good you do is not really from you but is a gift of God, then you are the tax collector.
Now the tax collector was undoubtedly sinful. Tax collectors had the reputation of charging more taxes than required. We get a sense of this from Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector whom Jesus spotted up in a sycamore tree. When Jesus went to Zacchaeus’ home for a meal, all the people grumbled that He had “gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner” (Luk. 19:7). But Zacchaeus’ heart had changed. He stood up and vowed to Jesus, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold” (v. 8).
The tax collector in the temple was also troubled by his sins. He stood way off to the side. He didn’t want to draw any attention to himself. He kept his eyes downcast. It’s as though no one were there except him and God. He struck his chest and said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Notice what he did not do. He did not put on airs, as though he were too important to show any weakness. He did not point out the Pharisee’s pride or exchange words with him: “Oh yeah, well what about when you did this and this!” All he could see was his own sins and God’s faithfulness.
That is the model for humility and repentance that Jesus sets before us. But we never do this perfectly. I have mentioned before the lesson my classmates and I learned from a college professor, who asked if we thought we were more like the Pharisee or the tax collector in this parable. Of course, we identified with the tax collector. “If you think you are more like the tax collector,” he said, “you are probably the Pharisee.” Yes, we can be proud even of our humility.
Jesus says, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” We are humbled not by our own doing, as though it were a good quality in us. We are humbled by the Holy Spirit working on us through the Law of God. We are humbled by being shown we are not as good as we want to think. We are humbled by having our self-focused love exposed. We need the Holy Spirit to continue to do this humbling work, because the old Adam in us always thinks he knows best. But that fruit is still rotten to the taste.
The second Adam never tasted that fruit. He never sinned. He humbled Himself completely, perfectly. The apostle Paul writes that God’s Son, Christ Jesus, “made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phi. 2:7-8). Jesus humbled Himself all the way. He did not maintain any dignity or honor for Himself. He never put Himself first. He put Himself right in our place and accepted all our sins as His own. He was no sinner, but He appealed to His heavenly Father to consider Him the sinner.
And the Father did. “For our sake [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin” (2Co. 5:21). Jesus was cast outside the city, ridiculed by self-righteous men, and forsaken by God. There would be no mercy. He had to be the object of the Father’s wrath, so we sinners would not be. He had to make the payment, because we had nothing to offer. He had to atone for all sin with His holy blood.
His perfect humility, His perfect sacrifice, means that God no longer condemns us. Jesus did the work in our place that we could not do. He fulfilled God’s holy Law of love for us, and He cancelled the whole debt of our sins that we could never pay. Because of these works of Jesus, we are justified before God, pronounced righteous, declared innocent of any wrongdoing.
Comparing the results of Adam’s sin and Jesus’ righteousness, Paul declares, “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:18-19). What Adam did, Jesus undid. What Adam ruined, Jesus restored. You are just as guilty as Adam because of your sin, and you are just as righteous as Jesus because He credits His righteousness to you.
There is no need to boast in your own works like a Pharisee. Far better works are yours by faith in Jesus. Everything He obtained by His humble work, He shares with you. He even shares His glory with you. That glory is hidden now while the world seems to be king and the members of Christ’s Church seem so lowly and powerless. But that glory will be revealed when Jesus returns with a shout and the sound of a trumpet on the last day.
Then we who are justified by the grace of God will also be glorified. We who are humbled will be exalted. We walk in our Lord’s footsteps. We live the life He has laid out for us. We take up our cross and follow after Him. It may not be a life that seems very impressive. We may be looked down on as those whom no one would desire to be. Accusing fingers identifying our faults will be pointed our way.
We don’t have to play the world’s game, a game in which everyone loses. It is not for us to sling mud with the self-righteous Pharisees. We carry out our humble callings, off to the side, eyes looking down with compassion on our neighbors in need, always with a prayer for God’s mercy on our lips. He hears these prayers. He does have mercy on us. He sends us to our homes and to our work justified.
Knowing that we are right with God makes us joyful in our work and eager to serve. We don’t need to prove our worth to God, to others, or even to ourselves. Our worth is firmly established in God’s Son, who took on our flesh, suffered and died for us, so that we would have life and purpose and fulfillment in Him.
Let us pray: God, we thank You that though we are just like all others in our sin and have not lived the life of love You commanded, yet You have had mercy on us poor sinners. You have judged us righteous by faith in Your Son, who humbly gave Himself in our place and is now exalted above all things. To You alone be the glory.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(woodcut from “The Pharisee and the Tax Collector” by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1794-1872)