CMLC 2025-08-31 Sermon

Grace mercy and peace be to you from God our

father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Amen. Would you pray with me, please? Lord God,

we thank you that you build faith in our hearts

through the power of your word and the working

of your Holy Spirit. As we consider the word

you bring to us this day through your servant

Luke, we pray that you would open our minds to

understand and transform our spirits in our hearts

to believe. Let your spirit guide us in living

in the way you have chosen for us so that we

might serve you and serve others humbly and joyfully

Amen Up is down and down is up in the kingdom

of God or So it seems to those of us living here

in this world From God's perspective the way

things are in his kingdom are the way things

ought to be. The kingdom of God is all about

turning things right side up. It's just that

right side up often looks upside down to those

of us living in this sinful world. Our gospel

text for today shows Jesus making one of those

paradoxical statements that he often makes. statement

that may sound upside down but in reality is

right side up from a kingdom point of view. Jesus

said everyone who exalts himself will be humbled

and he who humbles himself will be exalted. This

is so typical of Jesus. If you happen to remember

the gospel text from last Sunday Jesus said,

there are those who are last who will be first

and first who will be last. Later on in the book

of Luke, Jesus will say the very same words that

we heard in our gospel text for this morning.

And in fact, we find this idea throughout the

Bible. For instance, Mary, the mother of Jesus,

said this about God. He has scattered those who

are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought

down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted

up the humble. Both James and Peter in their

epistles quote the very same verse from the book

of Proverbs when they write God opposes the proud

but gives grace to the humble. This theme runs

throughout the entire Bible. Theologians call

it the great reversal. The idea that in the end

God is going to turn everything around from the

way it is right now. That He will set things

right side up from His perspective. And He is

already at work doing exactly that. You and I

are by very nature sinners. In our frail and

faulty human wisdom, we hope that we can be good

enough, that we can be moral enough to earn God's

favor. We spend our days going through life living

in a way that seems right to us. But the Bible

says that is the way of death. Faithfully living

under God's precepts does not come easily or

naturally to mankind. No one is able to do it

without God's power at work in them and without

the Holy Spirit's guidance for humble obedience.

And who better to demonstrate that for us than

the one whom God sent into this world in a very

humbling fashion. Jesus came into this world

through a virgin's womb, maybe the greatest paradox

of all. God as man. Born in a stable surrounded

by noisy, smelly animals. Born into a lowly carpenter's

home. Having to flee to Egypt to escape the hateful

infanticide inflicted by Herod and then only

being able to return to live in Galilee after

Herod's death. This humbling was done for us

and for our salvation. Jesus gave up the glory

of heaven to take on human flesh. And if he did

not take this lowly place, then he would not

experience hunger and thirst. He would not be

a man of sorrows. He would not be one who had

no place to lay his head. If he did not lower

himself. He could not be under the law and therefore

he could not perfectly fulfill the law on our

behalf so that he could take the punishment that

is meant for us for breaking God's law. And who

could whip, beat, and crucify God if he did not

first humble himself and allow them to do so?

So then who better? to teach a lesson in humility.

In our gospel reading for today, Jesus had been

invited to a dinner party at the home of a prominent

Pharisee and the text tells us that their intent

was to watch him very closely. Most likely with

the intent of embarrassing or humiliating him

and even better, to find a reason to get rid

of him. And present at this gathering was also

a man who was affected by dropsy, a disease which

causes the body to swell with fluid. Disfigured,

ceremonially unclean, certainly not an appetizing

sight or presence. And the host seated Jesus

across from this man at what would have been

the lowliest seat at the table. Certainly a humiliating

snub to a teacher who had become well known by

this time. The Pharisee not only placed Jesus

in this lowest seat to embarrass him, but he

also did it to put a challenge before him. And

then he and all of his guests watched Jesus closely.

waiting for him to rise up in outrage and to

demand to be moved. But Jesus turned this challenge

upside down. He asked the guests gathered around

the table, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath

or not? And none of them answered. So Jesus answered

by healing the man with dropsy. From that humiliating

seat at which he had been placed Jesus used his

divine power to heal a man who was humiliated

By the devastation and the ravages of his disease

But this healing Was only an outward sign of

what Jesus had truly come to do God would use

the blood sweat tears pain and death of his son

to heal and redeem the spiritually sick, the

sinfully disfigured, the morally humiliated.

These are the ones that Jesus came humbly into

this world to heal, to rescue and to save. Jesus

then proceeded to challenge the men sitting around

the table to further adjust their thinking by

comparing his act of healing on the Sabbath to

a different situation, but one which presented

the same ethical issue. If one of you has a son

or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath

day, will you not immediately pull him out? The

question Jesus was really asking is, is it lawful?

to show mercy, to help, to rescue on the Sabbath?

And again, no one answered. They could not answer

because their answer would demonstrate how their

man -made idea of keeping God's law turned the

intent of God's commandment regarding the Sabbath

upside down. And then having witnessed the guests

arriving and eagerly choosing places of honor

at the dinner table, Jesus began to teach by

means of a parable. He spoke about a wedding

feast and the choosing of seats there. He didn't

tell them that he was responding to their own

actions earlier during this dinner. He simply

taught them about true humility and how it might

also lead to true honor because choosing seats

stood for something totally different in this

parable. The parable was not intended to instruct

men how to choose seats at a banquet in hopes

of their own glorification, but about who and

how God chooses to lift up and glorify. How God

does things radically different in his kingdom

than men do in their world. Jesus turned their

finite understanding of these things upside down.

And in this passage, Jesus clearly demonstrated

the contrast between being humble and being humbled.

He was teaching how to live in God's right side

up way of living by faith. And one of the people

attending the Pharisees' dinner party got it.

One of them understood that Jesus wasn't just

getting instructions on how to throw or pick

seats at a banquet. We know this because the

verse that follows immediately after today's

gospel text says this when one of those at the

table with him heard this he said to Jesus blessed

is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom

of God apparently this man had been watching

Jesus very closely how about you The lesson for

us in Jesus' teaching today is that humility

will lead more surely to honor and glory than

will pride. Self -importance most often leads

to humiliation. We who are citizens of the Kingdom

of God are not to be seeking places of position

or honor for ourselves. We are not to presume

that we are better than others. Rather, we are

to understand and to confess that we are sinners

seeking God's forgiveness and salvation and guidance

for living our lives of faith. And to that end,

the Lord invites us to the feast which is set

before us today, to His holy supper. And the

places of honor at this table do not belong to

those who choose them. They belong to those who

have been chosen by God. In reality, each one

of us here deserves to be outside. We are nothing.

We deserve nothing from God. We're not here on

account of our worth, our wealth, our status,

our intellect, our skills, or our cunning. We

are who we are. and where we are by the grace

of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ sits at the head

of this table and we are here by his grace alone.

So let us come to this table today delighted

that we have been invited and prepared, rejoicing

in his goodness and grace and mercy. Let us not

look for a place of honor or position rather

let us take the lowest place and count each one

of us here as being more important than ourselves.

Let us be humble. And then we can await together

the ultimate invitation of the Lord to come up

higher to that glorious wedding feast in heaven.

God is at work turning things right side up.

by bringing fallen, broken, lost sinners like

you and me to faith. Christian faith truly is

a divine work. It has to be because everything

about faith runs contrary to human nature. It

is unnatural to us and to our natural proclivities.

It is upside down to us. And as we prayed, God

opens our minds to understand. He transforms

our hearts and our spirits so that we may believe.

And then He guides us every step of the way in

order for us to do what is right and what is

good and to remain faithful. So let us come before

our God with humility. And this humility is found

only by living outside of our worldly selves

and living in Christ Jesus. Only in Christ are

we set free from that upside down world's ways

and thinking. Only in Christ are we free to show

real love to those around us, to do good for

them. to be a source of joy and happiness for

them without any concern for their worthiness

or what we might gain in return. As God's people,

let us walk humbly toward one another and walk

humbly before our God to take the lower part

or the lower position and let God exalt us. This

is the way of greatness and honor in God's right

side up kingdom. That's what the apostle Paul

encouraged in his letter to the Ephesians when

he wrote, as a prisoner for the Lord, then I

urge you to live a life worthy of the calling

you have received. Be completely humble and gentle.

Be patient, bearing with one another in love.

The kingdom of God. is all about turning things

right side up. It is all about the great reversal.

Jesus became sin for us so that we might become

righteousness in him. Our sinful, haughty, arrogant

hearts are changed and renewed so that we might

joyfully take the most humble place and joyfully

serve. others. On the last day death will be

life. The judge will be our savior. The humiliation

that we know here will be exaltation in heaven.

The poverty we experience here will be riches

in heaven. And there will be no last seats. Only

seats of the highest honor for those who are

forgiven and redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ.

That's how things are in the Kingdom of God.

Right side up from His perspective. Just right.

Just the way it ought to be. And how good and

gracious is our God who invites us in. Amen.

And may the peace of God which passes all understanding

keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our

Lord. Amen.