Jesus Owned the Dinner Party

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. In the name of Jesus. All right so our gospel text today.

Wow what a text and you're gonna note here it starts off with the fact that Jesus is heading off to dinner at a house of a ruler of the

Pharisees. This guy's a church official. He's he's got a vote on the council. This guy's important.

He can make decisions and what we're gonna know here is that remember the Pharisees believe that you are saved by your law keeping.

They have taken the law of God and codified it and worked it all out and made it so that you know it's doable and when you do it you can say you're righteous and when you do it you can say you're saved by your righteousness.

But Jesus is gonna come into this dinner party like a gospel wrecking ball.

I mean and I gotta tell you working through this text I'm convinced Jesus was the only one who had a good time at this dinner.

I'm just saying because the rest of the group there just left befuddled is a good way to put it.

So let's walk through this text shall we and see what Christ has to say to us.

Now one Sabbath when Jesus went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees they were watching him carefully.

What a great setup. I mean so they invited Jesus to dinner in order to trip him up. In order to find some charge that they can bring against him and so what happens next

I mean you have to wonder if this was some kind of Sabbath sting operation. You know you ever seen the you know like the news stories where like they do a sting operation on people who are taking drugs or buying drugs and stuff like that and you end up buying drugs from an undercover officer and then they they bring the video cameras in and they show you being arrested with the yes they still have programs like that on television.

It's been a while since I've watched. Haven't you guys seen cops? Bad boys? What you gonna do? Never mind.

Tough crowd today. Anyway so I kind of think this is like the dinner from Hades it you know because the whole goal is to trip

Jesus up. So what happens next? Behold there was a man before him who had dropsy. Doesn't say where he came from.

Makes you just wonder did they kind of decide to bring this guy in because remember the Pharisees believed that if you are suffering from an illness if you are poor well the reason why that this has happened to you is because you deserve that because you have sinned against God and you are getting your just punishment from God.

So I can't I can't exactly say that the Pharisees would be good friends with somebody with dropsy.

It's a terrible disease. You know you end up having different parts of your body filling up with water and people with dropsy usually die from congenital heart failure.

So this guy's like a cardiac arrest waiting to happen. And so there he is. It just says behold he's there.

And so Jesus responded to the lawyers and the Pharisees. So he first begins and says hey guys you know listen

I know pass the chicken but when you're done passing the chicken I got a question I need to ask you.

Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not? There's the question that's hanging out there in outer space.

And the text says they remained silent. No answer given.

Consider the options if you would here. Remember the Sabbath the prohibition is that you shall keep the

Sabbath day holy and no one is to labor. No one is to do work on the

Sabbath. This is a day off from the office. This is a day off from the vocation. And so the question is it lawful to heal or not on the

Sabbath. Now if you were a doctor if you had gone to medical school taken the medical boards done your internship and now are legally practicing medicine somewhere and it's a

Sunday or we should say Saturday because the Sabbath is on a Saturday and you are at work and people are coming in and you're healing them.

You're bandaging up their wounds. You're sewing up their cuts.

You're giving them and prescribing the medicines and all that kind of stuff. Would you be working? Yes you would.

So we all know that. But if God healed somebody on the

Sabbath would that be work? No nobody nobody would think that is work.

But here's the thorny question. What if God is healing people through you on the

Sabbath? Is that work? And see the Pharisees basically cross their arms and say nothing.

We're not going to say nothing. We don't know. So we're not going to answer your question Jesus. So Jesus took him healed him and sent him away.

And you can just see Jesus going praise the Lord man I'm just so happy for you the guys I'm healed

I'm healed and we'll see you and sends him off his way. And there the

Pharisees are just kind of left flat -footed. Their sting operation isn't going as planned.

So now Jesus decides you know what I'll ask you guys another question. So let me ask you this. 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? And they could not reply to these things.

Now note before they were just being silent. Now they are completely checkmated. They don't even have the ability to answer such a question because every one of them knows if their son fell into a well and consider the wells of the ancient world they're not those really cute things that we like to see in like the storybooks you know with the brick you know circle wall and the little kind of thing over it and and the crank with a really cute bucket and the butterflies and stuff you know it's not like that at all.

The wells of the ancient world were pretty much just these really large holes in the ground and falling into them was a real possibility especially at night.

So can you imagine your your son wandering playing around by the well and just happens to fall right into it and you know what's gonna happen next because it's a long fall if he didn't break anything on the way down he's now got to tread water while everyone grabs a rope and pulls him out because if you don't grab the rope and pull him out he's gonna get really tired of treading water and he's gonna go down to the bottom of the well and he will cease to be.

So everybody knows that nobody says to your son son I'm sorry can't help you you know it's the

Sabbath hang in there hang in there son sun sets in seven hours you can make it because we don't want to sin it's the

Sabbath none of them are thinking like this at all and so Jesus calls him out and points out in his question that if they had a son or an ox that had fallen into a well they would immediately pull it out no matter how difficult the task so they could not reply and so there's

Jesus the house of the ruler of the Pharisees and conversation has gone totally silent no one's talking you can tell that everything's really awkward and so Jesus decides you know what

I'm gonna fill in the awkward pauses here no one's talking so hey I got I got a story to tell you guys and it's all about how you guys are always picking the places of honor when you show up at somebody's house for dinner so this is good teaching moment for you

I thought I'd offer some some constructive criticism to you since none of you guys are talking so Jesus told a parable to those who were invited when he noticed how they chose the places of honor saying to them when you were invited by someone to a wedding feast do not sit down in a place of honor less someone more distinguished than you be invited by him and he who invited you you both will come to you and say give your place to this person and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place now when

I was a kid and in the Nazarene Church and I would hear sermons and lessons along these lines I couldn't really make heads or tails of this particular parable and the reason why is because the few weddings

I had attended as a kid I mean there weren't like super duper seats of honor pretty much there was one table and you got the bride the groom the best man the bridesmaids and you know the you know they sit at that table facing everybody and then it's pretty much you know fill in as you go so I don't really understand how this places of honor thing worked and so usually when people would preach on this text they would kind of really drill into the importance of not really trying to be too arrogant or something like that but maintaining a humble posture before other people but the problem is is that it was always kind of put forward is that's a necessary step if you want to be saved so this it becomes a work that you've got to do and so that's how the parable was usually taught and it really didn't make any sense but I would note here as we continue the parable that Jesus taught there's something in here that alerts us to what this parable is really about and here's what it says so when you are invited you go when you 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 the table with you for everyone who exalts himself and watch the future tense will be humbled and he who humbles himself future tense will be exalted ah this is an eschatological thing this is pointing to the end in other words how much you want to bet that this parable has something to do with the wedding feast that we have all been invited to you and I have both been invited to the same wedding

I don't know if you know this but we've been invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb God the Father has invited us personally and and we are to show up so the idea here is is in talking about that great wedding feast that we are all invited to you'll note that the right thing to do is to take the lowest place to sit with the chiefs of sinners to not exalt yourself in your own self -righteousness in your self -importance and go and take one of the precious few seats of honor at that particular wedding feast because you'll note then taking a seat of honor is not only presumptuous it is well just flat out arrogance because the idea is this each and every one of us know that none of us deserve to be at that wedding feast not one instead what

Jesus is calling us to do is very much modeled by the Apostle Paul as the

Apostle Paul was finishing his course as he was getting ready to be martyred for the

Christian faith he wrote letters from prison one of those letters or two of those letters were actually to young pastor by the name of Timothy who pastored a congregation in the city of Ephesus and you'll note the

Apostle Paul this is the guy who wrote more than half of the New Testament this is a guy who planted so many churches that I don't think there's a human being alive who's planted more churches than he has and so this is a fellow that if there was ever anybody who could just presume he's got a place of honor among the

Christians at the wedding feast of the Lamb that he would be the dude but as he's finishing his course he says to Pastor Timothy this is a trustworthy saying

Christ died for sinners of whom I am the chief chief of sinners though I be

Jesus shed his blood for me so the idea here is that to take the lowest place is to recognize that there may be only one error in all of Scripture and that error may be along the lines of I don't think the

Apostle Paul is the chief of sinners I think that I am that's the right way to look at it and so that posture doesn't come by mere stark well

I'm gonna humble myself so that I can be exalted kind of thinking instead that kind of thinking comes by being fully aware that when you consider your life in light of what

God's law says and what God's commandments command that you and I all fall woefully short terribly short so short that we don't even deserve the lowest place the lowest place at the wedding feast of the

Lamb because we are saying that we are by nature sinful unclean that we've sinned against God and thought and word and indeed by the things we do by the things we don't do and we truly deserve hell as a result of that we are rebels but God has pardoned us so when it comes to the wedding feast of the

Lamb we all then soberly willingly it's not even a thought that we would even contest will take our place among the lowest at the wedding feast of the

Lamb but note this Jesus who is the bridegroom at the wedding feast of the

Lamb has loved his bride so much that he has gone to the cross and he has suffered and bled and died for her sins for your sins and mine truer love has no one than this true love in fact this is the greatest love story of all

Christ's love for his bride and so as a result of that she does not have to have the walk of shame or be cast out she can be forgiven pardoned cleaned and clothed in dazzling white the brightness and shininess of Christ's righteousness itself is placed upon her and all of this because Jesus languished crucified nailed to the cross for her he conquered sin death and the devil by his death and his resurrection and now he is able to pardon her and so Jesus says to you who are part of his bride come up to a higher place come up to a higher place and he will honor you everyone then who exalts himself will be humbled in self -righteousness and self -importance the one who exalts himself will be humbled and not only have to walk the walk of shame from going from a high place that they were they never really should have had but to actually being cast out of the wedding feast itself and thrown into the fires of hell but the one who humbles himself and recognizes that he is poor and needy worthless sinful and unclean

Christ will exalt by his death his resurrection and by his clothing us in his righteousness so this then calls us to sober -minded humility humility of repentance the true godly sorrow that comes from recognizing that we have fallen short of the glory of God and Jesus doesn't end there just doesn't end there like I said

Jesus is the only fellow here having a good time at this particular dinner and so he decided you know tell you what

I'm gonna tell give you some advice the guy who invited him the guy who probably set up the sting operation in the first place so he said to the man who invited him hey and when you give a dinner or a banquet watch what happens next don't invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid but when you give a feast invite and watch the list the poor the crippled the lame the blind all the people who the

Pharisees doctrine claim are cursed by God you invite them and then you will be blessed because they cannot repay you and you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just and so Jesus just gospel wrecking ball smashes their self -righteousness smashes their self -importance and he then calls the question himself and points out his hosts own hypocrisy his own false doctrine to his face in his own house and he calls him to repentance and he says so you invite these people whom you despise and think are cursed of God and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you in other words

God richly forgives you and so live out that forgiveness in richly giving to others who cannot give back to you as well because you'll note then that the gospel in the gospel itself what does

Jesus get in return for his death and his resurrection there's anything that we can give him and we repay him for what he's done for us on the cross not even close and in that same way then you invite people who cannot repay you and don't worry

God himself will repay those who do such things at the resurrection of the just but that kind of begs the question will you be part of that resurrection only the forgiven will be because they're just the righteous will live by faith we are justified before God by grace through faith as a gift and not by works and so you'll note then the gospel makes it clear that there is no room for boasting among Christians for we are all the chief of sinners so take your place at the wedding feast with the lowest where the tax collectors the sinners the prostitutes the attorneys even the washed -up pastors are and Christ himself will say friend move up higher and it's all grace all a gift for the one who exalts himself will be humbled and the one who humbles himself will be exalted in the name of Jesus if you would like to support the teaching ministry of comes very

Lutheran Church you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to comes very Lutheran Church 15950 470th

Avenue Northwest Oslo Minnesota 56744 and again that address is comes from your

Lutheran Church 15950 470th