This Week's Sermon
August 28
"Behold, the Man"
By John Wiederholt
A reading from: Luke 14:7-14
On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely. When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. "When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, 'Give this person your place,' and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at 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 all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." He said also to the one who had invited him, "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
After the Scripture is Read
Heaven and earth will pass away, but the word of the Lord stands forever. Thanks be to God.
SERMON - “Behold the Man”
I truly believe that Jesus is Lord and I try however imperfectly to live by His teaching, but in today’s lesson he gives some advice that has never worked for me. He tells us to take a place at the lowest table that someone might come and ask us to move to the front. I don’t have any trouble sitting at the lowest table, but no one has ever asked me to move to a place of greater honor. Ever.
Even so, there are benefits to sitting as far as possible from the head table. Some of the people sitting around you are probably other people who take Jesus’ teaching seriously and they are people you certainly want to meet. Most of them are people who do not care about looking important and that’s good too. Of course, the rest probably just got there late, but they will have interesting excuses for not being on time.
Humility, which is what Jesus is talking about in this illustration, is a major theme throughout the Bible. Micah 6.8 is makes walking humbly with God one of the three main things that God expects of us.
Mankind, he has told each of you what is good and what it is the LORD requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God. (CSB)
It is a common theme in the Psalms, for example:
Psalm 149:4
For the LORD takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation. (ESV)
Jesus’s illustration of the theme follows Proverbs 15.33 almost exactly
Wisdom’s instruction is to fear the LORD, and humility comes before honor. (NIV
The Letter of James says,
And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble….
Paul points to the example of the humility of Jesus in his letter to the Philippians.
Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death--
even death on a cross!
Along with the example of Jesus Paul gives us this definition of humility in Philippians 2:3
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves. (NIV)
That is the point of Jesus’s example. He humbles himself to the cross for the sake of everyone else.
As with many other things, practicing humility is more difficult than preaching about it.
Jesus not only preaches about humility, but he practices it at a level which no one else could possibly reach. As Paul realizes, there is power in Jesus’s humility and great benefit in following his example. Jesus’s humility is complete and perfect. It is the most important evidence for God’s perfect love.
Paul is doing his best in Philippians 2 to encourage the Philippians to maintain their faith and he hopes that many others will find faith through the steadfastness of their faith and through their acts of humble service. He knows that there is great power in Jesus’s nature and in his example.
You can feign humility to make people think you are better than you are. But you can also be too humble. Putting other people before you when they are in need is one thing, a good thing to be sure. But actually believing that you are the least of all people can easily become unhealthy and even dangerous. People who are severely depressed, for example, may well believe that they are the least valuable of humans, but that believe leaves them emotionally crippled to the point that they are unable to care for anyone else.
Jesus says something else important that applies here. He says “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Being healthy and having healthy relationships is a balancing act between your own needs and the needs of others.
The most important kind of humility throughout the Bible is humility before God.
Isaiah hears God saying
My hands have made both heaven and earth; they and everything in them are mine. I, the LORD, have spoken! I will bless those who have humble and contrite hearts, who tremble at my word. (NLT)
All of these words are meaningful, but I find myself searching for examples in order to understand them better.
Someone I know very well did come to faith in part through the power of Jesus’s divine humility. “Early in my life,” he says, “I saw Jesus as the embodiment of perfect love. God is only truly Godly if God loves in this way. I came to believe that of all the possible candidates arrayed before me in the world, only Jesus was truly worth following. And so I began to follow him. I came to believe that only Jesus was worthy to be the model for who I wanted to become. And, so, I began to imitate him as best I could. I have never for a moment regretted that decision. Sometimes my imitation of him has been laughable inadequate, but insofar as I have been able to follow his example it has enriched my life beyond words.”
The church today has, I think, overlooked the power of presenting Jesus as the only person worthy of being followed. Modern people, especially young people sell their allegiance so cheap. People, not just young people, choose to follow leaders who are unworthy of their trust. Glamorous stars and scheming politicians whose personal lives range from fallible to dreadful grab up followers desperate for some direction even if it is the wrong one. They follow people who will inevitably lead them to a bad, even evil end. This situation was true in Paul’s day just as much as in ours. Paul wants to show them the one person in all of human history who is truly worth following. If they begin to follow, then they will begin to understand the mysteries, the power of the cross to grant forgiveness and the power of the Spirit to create loving fellowships. These things come in the course of following Jesus.
The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer believed Christians need to approach the non-mystical, secularized modern world, with a message which it could comprehend. “Behold the man!” should be our opening line. That line was first spoken by the very secular and materialistic Pontius Pilate momentarily overcome by respect for the willingness of Jesus to sacrifice himself. “Behold the man,” Bonhoeffer says. The picture of Jesus which we find in the gospels is something that can grasp the attention of a faithless world unable to relate to the mysteries expressed in its mysteries and the ceremonies, songs and worship. If a person just grasps who Jesus was and begins to follow him, to try to imitate him, the other essentials of the faith can be encountered along the way.
The paths to this end are multiple no matter what a person’s age, but if a person comes to see the human Jesus clearly as the preeminent example of perfect humility self-giving love, it is often the beginning of a life-long journey of faith.
The most important thing that the church needs to do as it faces the materialistic secularity of the world around it, is to show people clearly what Jesus was like. We should by all means avoid portraying a nationalistic Jesus who equates country with God. That is just the characteristic that Jesus came to change in Judaism. We must avoid the self-centered Jesus who promises us riches. We must show people the perfectly loving Jesus who alone is worthy of being followed. It is that picture of Jesus that created the church in Philippi and continues to create the church in our day.
On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely. When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. "When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, 'Give this person your place,' and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at 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 all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." He said also to the one who had invited him, "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
After the Scripture is Read
Heaven and earth will pass away, but the word of the Lord stands forever. Thanks be to God.
SERMON - “Behold the Man”
I truly believe that Jesus is Lord and I try however imperfectly to live by His teaching, but in today’s lesson he gives some advice that has never worked for me. He tells us to take a place at the lowest table that someone might come and ask us to move to the front. I don’t have any trouble sitting at the lowest table, but no one has ever asked me to move to a place of greater honor. Ever.
Even so, there are benefits to sitting as far as possible from the head table. Some of the people sitting around you are probably other people who take Jesus’ teaching seriously and they are people you certainly want to meet. Most of them are people who do not care about looking important and that’s good too. Of course, the rest probably just got there late, but they will have interesting excuses for not being on time.
Humility, which is what Jesus is talking about in this illustration, is a major theme throughout the Bible. Micah 6.8 is makes walking humbly with God one of the three main things that God expects of us.
Mankind, he has told each of you what is good and what it is the LORD requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God. (CSB)
It is a common theme in the Psalms, for example:
Psalm 149:4
For the LORD takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation. (ESV)
Jesus’s illustration of the theme follows Proverbs 15.33 almost exactly
Wisdom’s instruction is to fear the LORD, and humility comes before honor. (NIV
The Letter of James says,
And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble….
Paul points to the example of the humility of Jesus in his letter to the Philippians.
Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death--
even death on a cross!
Along with the example of Jesus Paul gives us this definition of humility in Philippians 2:3
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves. (NIV)
That is the point of Jesus’s example. He humbles himself to the cross for the sake of everyone else.
As with many other things, practicing humility is more difficult than preaching about it.
Jesus not only preaches about humility, but he practices it at a level which no one else could possibly reach. As Paul realizes, there is power in Jesus’s humility and great benefit in following his example. Jesus’s humility is complete and perfect. It is the most important evidence for God’s perfect love.
Paul is doing his best in Philippians 2 to encourage the Philippians to maintain their faith and he hopes that many others will find faith through the steadfastness of their faith and through their acts of humble service. He knows that there is great power in Jesus’s nature and in his example.
You can feign humility to make people think you are better than you are. But you can also be too humble. Putting other people before you when they are in need is one thing, a good thing to be sure. But actually believing that you are the least of all people can easily become unhealthy and even dangerous. People who are severely depressed, for example, may well believe that they are the least valuable of humans, but that believe leaves them emotionally crippled to the point that they are unable to care for anyone else.
Jesus says something else important that applies here. He says “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Being healthy and having healthy relationships is a balancing act between your own needs and the needs of others.
The most important kind of humility throughout the Bible is humility before God.
Isaiah hears God saying
My hands have made both heaven and earth; they and everything in them are mine. I, the LORD, have spoken! I will bless those who have humble and contrite hearts, who tremble at my word. (NLT)
All of these words are meaningful, but I find myself searching for examples in order to understand them better.
Someone I know very well did come to faith in part through the power of Jesus’s divine humility. “Early in my life,” he says, “I saw Jesus as the embodiment of perfect love. God is only truly Godly if God loves in this way. I came to believe that of all the possible candidates arrayed before me in the world, only Jesus was truly worth following. And so I began to follow him. I came to believe that only Jesus was worthy to be the model for who I wanted to become. And, so, I began to imitate him as best I could. I have never for a moment regretted that decision. Sometimes my imitation of him has been laughable inadequate, but insofar as I have been able to follow his example it has enriched my life beyond words.”
The church today has, I think, overlooked the power of presenting Jesus as the only person worthy of being followed. Modern people, especially young people sell their allegiance so cheap. People, not just young people, choose to follow leaders who are unworthy of their trust. Glamorous stars and scheming politicians whose personal lives range from fallible to dreadful grab up followers desperate for some direction even if it is the wrong one. They follow people who will inevitably lead them to a bad, even evil end. This situation was true in Paul’s day just as much as in ours. Paul wants to show them the one person in all of human history who is truly worth following. If they begin to follow, then they will begin to understand the mysteries, the power of the cross to grant forgiveness and the power of the Spirit to create loving fellowships. These things come in the course of following Jesus.
The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer believed Christians need to approach the non-mystical, secularized modern world, with a message which it could comprehend. “Behold the man!” should be our opening line. That line was first spoken by the very secular and materialistic Pontius Pilate momentarily overcome by respect for the willingness of Jesus to sacrifice himself. “Behold the man,” Bonhoeffer says. The picture of Jesus which we find in the gospels is something that can grasp the attention of a faithless world unable to relate to the mysteries expressed in its mysteries and the ceremonies, songs and worship. If a person just grasps who Jesus was and begins to follow him, to try to imitate him, the other essentials of the faith can be encountered along the way.
The paths to this end are multiple no matter what a person’s age, but if a person comes to see the human Jesus clearly as the preeminent example of perfect humility self-giving love, it is often the beginning of a life-long journey of faith.
The most important thing that the church needs to do as it faces the materialistic secularity of the world around it, is to show people clearly what Jesus was like. We should by all means avoid portraying a nationalistic Jesus who equates country with God. That is just the characteristic that Jesus came to change in Judaism. We must avoid the self-centered Jesus who promises us riches. We must show people the perfectly loving Jesus who alone is worthy of being followed. It is that picture of Jesus that created the church in Philippi and continues to create the church in our day.