Jesu Juva
“A Room Full of People with Dropsy”
Text: Luke 14:1-14
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Hey, how are you? How’s it going? If someone asks you that question, you know better than to actually start telling them! They’re just being polite. They don’t really expect an answer, and probably don’t really want an answer. Fine, or good, is the conventional response. And if you go on with more than that, things get uncomfortable pretty quick.
Same with: Can I do anything for you? You’re supposed to say, No, that’s alright. But if you say, Well, yes! Would you do this and this and this? you’ll probably get quite the surprised look on their face! Followed by: um . . . oh look at the time! I wish I could! They were just being polite. They didn’t want to. They didn’t really expect to. They didn’t think you’d actually ask!
And if you gave a dinner in Jesus’ day, you’d leave the door open so that anybody could come in, but it was really for show. You didn’t really want them to come in! So those in need . . . you weren’t shutting them out, but you didn’t invite them either. Maybe they could get a scrap or two at the end. But if any of them were fool enough to actually come in, it might go something like this: the conversation would come to a stop, everyone would stare at them and make them feel conspicuous, uncomfortable, and out of place, and they’d quickly leave, learning their place.
Except if you invite Jesus to your dinner.
We’re not told if this man with dropsy had come into the house or not - but it seems like he did. For he was before Jesus, in front of Him - maybe standing, maybe humbly bowing or kneeling. And it was silent. It was silent because after Jesus asked His question, Luke tells us they remained silent. The conversation had stopped. They were staring at him. You know, the What are you doing here? stare! So, looking at them looking at him, and in the midst of this deafening, uncomfortable silence, Jesus asks: What about this chap, boys? Shall I heal him? And the man with dropsy is probably thinking: Oh, don’t ask them, Jesus! Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?
They don’t answer, not only because they didn’t want to answer - they just wanted this man to go away. But because they couldn’t answer. If they said no, it would reveal them as hypocritical frauds without compassion. But if they said yes, they would be advocating breaking the Sabbath - at least, their understanding of it. (Which wasn’t the right understanding at all!) So they remained silent. Unable to answer. Afraid to answer. And a little peeved at both this man and Jesus for putting the shoe on the other foot! For putting them in such an uncomfortable and awkward position.
I wish Luke would have told us Jesus’ reaction here! Did He shake His head at those smart people who couldn’t answer Him? How long did He make them squirm? Did He turn and smile at the man with dropsy? Well, that’s all beside the point, I suppose. We’re told what we need to know: Jesus took him and healed him and sent him on his way.
Seems like the silence continued . . . or maybe they began to murmur a bit. When Jesus says, basically: Y’all would have done the same thing! For 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? They probably had. They would do it for themselves, to benefit themselves, but not for others. And you know what Jesus saw at that moment? Not just a room full of Pharisees and “important” people - but a room full of people with dropsy.
You were probably wondering what dropsy was. Well, I don’t know if we know for sure, but from the word itself, in the Greek, the prefix seems to be from the word water and so have something to do with water; so something that would cause a disfiguring swelling and puffiness, maybe even to the point of being quite grotesque-looking. . . . And as Jesus looked around that room, that’s what He saw: spiritual dropsy. People puffed up and full of themselves; people swelled up with pride in their own virtue and goodness. And to God, that’s more grotesque-looking than any physical dropsy, or any other physical disease.
And let’s be honest . . . that’s what God sees here too, isn’t it? People who compare ourselves with others and usually come out on the better side. People who look down on others for the very same sins we do ourselves. People who take pride in our church attendance, our giving, the good we do, and who conveniently ignore or excuse all the times we don’t. People who are quick to bemoan society’s ills but slow to admit our own. People who are quick to ask: Are you really sorry? without examining our own repentance. People quick to seek the approval of others while starving those looking for it from us. And on and on . . . How often are our eyes like those carnival mirrors: one mirror making the sins of others look bigger, while the other making our own sins look smaller?
A room full of people with dropsy. You know why that’s good news? Because when Jesus holds a banquet and opens the door, He really wants all people to come in! The least, the lowest, the most disfigured and disgusting, the vile, the criminal, the abuser, the adulterer, the thief, the idolater, the slanderer, the coveter, the murderer, the liar, those who rebel against their father and mother, those so filled and puffed up with pride that one more thing will make us burst! And if I missed you in that list, raise your hand and let me know and I’ll add you! ‘Cuz that’s us! Maybe respectable in the eyes of the world, good even. But to God, a room full of people with sinful, spiritual dropsy.
C’mon on in, He says. And let me heal you. On this Sabbath. Right now. I forgive you all your sins. For I died for them all on My cross. All of them. None excepted. So that forgiveness I gave you in your baptism and promised I would continue, I do. I forgive you. You are mine. And you don’t have to sneak in or sit in that seat in the back - come up to the altar, come up to My Table, come up to the very front. Not in shame, but because I want you here! I want all to see not how much your sin but how much I love you! And that I do so much that I give you here, I feed you with My Body and Blood. The same Body and Blood that was born for you, and died on the cross for you, and rose from the dead for you, and ascended into heaven for you, because I want that for you. That when you die, you too will rise and ascend and enter the door of My heavenly banquet, which will have no end. I don’t care who you are. I care who you will be. Who I make you. My child, and an heir of heaven.
That’s pretty awesome, don’t you think, fellow dropsy-folks?
Which is why Jesus told the parable He did. It wasn’t to teach them what to do - they already knew that, and Jesus told them again right after the parable. It was to reveal to them what Jesus had come to do - and was doing right before their eyes! They all thought they had the highest seats, that these were rightfully theirs. But who did Jesus single out? Who did Jesus gift? Who did Jesus raise up to the highest place? The man with dropsy. The man who according to their convention shouldn’t have even been there! Who should have known better. But Jesus wanted him there. Was thrilled that he was there. And honored him, served him, healed him, loved him.
And Jesus wanted to do so for all the others as well. As I said, Jesus’ open door really is open! And the Sabbath . . . it’s not only a day on which it was, in fact, lawful to heal - but that day which from the beginning God set aside for healing! The Sabbath is a day for us to rest so that we can be served by God. Not that God doesn’t serve and do for us all the other days, He does! But the Sabbath is especially for us to hear the Word of God, His Word of forgiveness, His Word of healing, His Word of life, and be healed and raised and loved. It is for us to enter the door of His house, sit at His Table, eat at His banquet, and be honored by Him. And if you’re full of sin, grotesque, unworthy, and rejected by the respectable . . . He especially wants you here. And not just here, but all the way up, next to Him.
That’s pretty awesome, don’t you think?
Because usually, those seats, we think, well they’re reserved for Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, Paul, maybe Athanasius, Luther, people like that. But are they? Remember when James and John asked for those seats of honor, the ones on His right and on His left? Jesus said, well, not so fast. And last week we heard once again about the first being last and the last being first, just as Jesus said today that everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Things aren’t always as we expect in the kingdom of God. God just doesn’t think like us or do like us. And what a relief that is, right? ‘Cuz our thinking and doing just makes a mess of things. Thank God He knows better than that.
But if God doesn’t think or do things like us, the opposite can, and is what Jesus is working in you. That you begin to think and do as Him. That when you give a dinner or a banquet, it’s not just for your friends or relatives or those who will pay you back. Not only for the good people and those who will be of some advantage to you. Now, to a certain extent, I think Jesus means that literally; for us to take care of the poor. To have true mercy and compassion on others, and not just feigned open doors. But even more is it to be true of our churches. That all those in our world disfigured by sin, we welcome them here. That there be no really bad sinners and not-so-bad sinners here. But that we all, with one voice, standing side-by-side, confess our utter sinfulness, our complete unworthiness, and God’s unfathomable and limitless love and forgiveness. And confess that’s why we’re here. Not because we’re good, but because that’s what this day is for. It was lawful to heal on the Sabbath. It is Gospel as Jesus comes to us today with His healing forgiveness.
So if you’re a sinner, and a really bad one? Thank God you’re here! Welcome. Repent and be healed. And if you’re not, or don’t think you are? Well, we’re glad you’re here as well. But you might want to take another look at your life . . . hold yourself up to the same standards you hold others up to . . . and if that’s not enough, take a good, hard look in the mirror of God’s standards, and realize how diseased you are, too. And then don’t slink away in shame, but know that Jesus wants you here, and loves you here, and has forgiveness for you here.
So if Jesus were here today, He might say: What about this one, Christians? How ‘bout the seat of honor for this one? And what else can we say but Yes! Amen!
In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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