by Dr. Jeffrey F. Evans

Scripture:

I Corinthians 13:1-8a

Matthew 18:1-4

Luke 14:1-14

It's been said that Jesus was the world's greatest teacher. And that's true. In fact, in today's passage we get to see TWO of the THREE basic ways He instructed people. In terms of those three, the:

1st) (And this is the one He does NOT use here though it is the most common) is instruction that occurs through the basic sharing of facts or information, in either a formal or an informal setting. It's the type of instruction we see in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus is speaking to a group of people and tells them they should love their enemies / and how to pray / and how they need to forgive anyone who has done them wrong / and so forth and so on. / It's plain and simple instruction that helps us see what Christian people should and should not do. Simple information given to help inform our consciences and calibrate our moral compasses.

2.) Is instruction given through confrontation and challenge. That is, by having someone see and point out things we do or attitudes we have and then privately or publically challenge their appropriateness or inappropriateness. This is what Jesus does in today's passage when He notes that He is being, "carefully watched." The word "watched", as Barclay points out, is the word used for "sinister espionage." That is, they were "spying" on him! Just waiting for Him to do something wrong!

In fact, with most commentators, I also believe the sick man was purposely placed "right in front of Him" as a set up to see if Jesus would heal him on the Sabbath. Yet Jesus actually uses the situation they provide Him with to confront and challenge their ungodly attitudes and the obvious lack of love that underlies and feeds them.

Last) Jesus also teaches by open public rebuke. It's something He does in v. 12-14, where He tells His "host" or this "prominent Pharisee," "When you give a luncheon, do not invite friends and relatives and rich neighbors who can pay you back, but the poor, crippled, lame and blind." People who couldn't pay him back or return the favor even if they wanted to. It's open, public rebuke which surely left his host upset and a bit red in the face!

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Those are THREE most common ways Jesus teaches or instructs in the Gospels. And in terms of remembering and internalizing what He taught, the last two are the most effective. Classroom type instruction which conveys facts, helps, but it is often easily forgotten. Being challenged about personal attitudes and actions we exhibit sticks with us better, since it's something in us or done by us which is actually being used as the source material for the instruction! / But open public rebuke is by far the most unforgettable, since it strikes at our pride and ego and prods the unsettling emotions of embarrassment, anger, and shame. That's why open rebuke is rarely forgotten.

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And I know I've been trying, in the last few weeks, to do what the passage does! So, just to PUT YOU AT EASE for the rest of the service, I want you to KNOW I'm NOT going to use those last two forms of instruction today! I'm going to use the form of instruction that Jesus doesn't use in this passage (instruction through shared information) and let the Lord be the One who challenges, confronts, or rebukes you, if such a thing be necessary!

Because I've found it to be the case that when sinners (like myself) point out the sins of other sinners in a direct, public and rebuking way (as Jesus does in this text) it usually leads to nothing but bitterness, animosity, hurt feelings, and attempts by the accused to find similar faults in the accuser!

And understandably so, since "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" – some in one area and others in another; some in more noticeable ways and others in less noticeable ways-but none being entirely guiltless.

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That's why these last two styles of instruction, which Jesus avails Himself of in this passage, are best left to Him! Because He, unlike us, was sinless, and thus could legitimately address and rebuke sin in others, without being hypocritical in any way by doing so! Thus, unlike Jesus, I will NOT be calling out the names of specific individuals, or pointing to specific people, and saying (as He does in vv. 12-14 to His esteemed host): "When YOU give a luncheon or dinner, don't invite… "

That's not my place! That's not for me to do! That's for Jesus and the Holy Spirit to do, as I merely do what he's called me to do - explain and apply the text in a general way, leaving it to God to do the personal confrontation and challenging or conviction of guilt and open rebuke for sin, if any needs to be done!

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So, having set you at ease in that regard, let's look at these THREE ungodly vices that Jesus confronts, and the THREE godly virtues He encourages us replace them with, remembering that all of them are really little more than the Fruit of God's Grace actively working within us to conform us more and more into the image and likeness of Jesus.

And the FIRST virtue we come to is LOVE. Or maybe more appropriately in this instance, COMPASSION for the hurting, the suffering or the struggling. If there is one characteristic which set Jesus apart as being different from most of His religious contemporaries, and should set us apart from many of our religious contemporaries, it is having the com-passion of Jesus become more and more prominent in our own lives. Compassion for the hurting, struggling and suffering people of this world.

You see, of Jesus it was frequently said: "Seeing the crowds, He had compassion on them…" "He had compassion on them, and healed their sick…" "Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes," "Filled with compassion He reached out His hands," and again, "He was filled with compassion." One of the most prominent characteristics of Jesus was that He was a person of compassion.

And it's because Jesus so exemplified compassion, that a lack of such compassion in the people of God (as is so blatantly evidenced in this text) stands out as being so noticeable, so sad, and so wrong!

And the prominence of compassion in Jesus life also explains why both Paul can call us (as Christ-followers) to "Be kind and compassionate with one another" (Eph. 4:32) or "clothe ourselves with kindness and compassion" (Col. 3:12). Or as Peter can go on to tell us, "love each other as brothers, and be humble and compassionate."

It is, or should be, one of the hallmarks of a Christian's character. We, like the Lord Jesus we follow, should seek to be people of compassion. People who notice and reach out in love to those who are hurting, suffering or in pain.

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That's what we see in this passage. Jesus going to a banquet, at the home of a "prominent Pharisee," and right "there in front of Him" (probably as a plant) "was a man suffering from dropsy."

And dropsy (for those who don't already know) is a very painful bloating (often of the legs or arms, though not limited to them) caused by excessive fluid build-up in the tissue. "It is usually symptomatic of more serious problems," says I. Howard Marshall, and "often indicates organ failure," says R. Kent Hughes, meaning the man "may have been very sick and probably terminally ill." Ken Gore says he may have had a "weak heart."

At any rate, the man is visibly suffering, in much pain, and possibly near death - placed there most likely as a way to bait Jesus into breaking the Law with suffering He would surely find impossible to overlook, ignore and not heal - even though it was the Sabbath.

Yet with one simple question He frees Himself from their trap and catches the trappers in their own net!

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You see, when He asks, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?" He traps them, because if they say "yes," they would appear to be agreeing with the Jesus they're trying to paint as a lawbreaker! It would make them appear soft, lenient, compromising or hypocritical in regard to the stringent law-keeping measures they demanded of others!

And if they say "no," then they could be accused of being unloving, inhumane, cold, callous unfeeling or indifferent in regard to this man, who is suffering and possibly dying right there in front of their eyes!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Thus, with a wisdom only Jesus possessed, Jesus goes from being the trapped to trapper! And to save face, and keep themselves from being seen as either hypocritical or unloving, they remain silent and say absolutely nothing!

But Jesus doesn't let it drop. Because He wants to drive home the point that they had misunderstood the purpose of the law, which was not to burden people with restrictions, or come up with rules to follow just to have rules to follow, and thus have a gage so as to see who is more spiritual or more obedient or more committed to God! That's not what the law was intended to do!

In the negative sense it was meant to humble us by showing us we couldn't keep it as God intended, and were thus sinners in need of a Savior, but in the positive sense it was given to help us know how to love God and love our neighbor! Or in relation to this text, it was meant to create people who were compassionate!

That's why Jesus can say (and assume any person knowing the purpose of the law would agree): "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?" Of course you will! God would want you to!

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You see, even the most basic knowledge of God's law would assure us of that since the greatest commands in the Bible (summing up all the Law and the Prophets) are commands to LOVE the Lord our God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength / and our neighbor as ourselves (and the two (rightly understood) are really never at odds with one another) it would only stand to reason that they would know that God would want us to do what Jesus did and heal and love others and show compassion – even on the Sabbath!

Mere common sense would affirm that. And their silence on this second occasion showed they all knew He was right! No loving person (which is the type person the law was meant to produce) would stand by and watch their child drown just because it was the Sabbath!

They'd plunge in and save them without even giving it a second thought, because that would be the reflexive response of any loving person! They would KNOW that's what God would WANT them to do, if they rightly understood God's law.

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So I ask you: What governs your heart? Compassionate, loving concern for those who may be suffering and in pain, or a stringent, meticulous adherence to religious rules? Is your eye trained to spy out violations and infractions of the rules, or spy out the tear, and the downcast spirit, and the painful grimace, and the struggling soul, or the lonely heart, so you can offer solace and encouragement and compassion and love and prayer and healing?

Remember, my friends, the greatest evidence of true spiritual maturity and sanctification of soul and closeness to God, is the fruit of agape love in a person's life (I Cor. 13/Gal. 5:22-23). It's not rigid enforcement of rules, but concerned, compassionate, merciful, caring, and tender love - like that of Jesus, who could not help but heal this man of his suffering, even if it meant breaking the rules most of his contemporaries uncompromisingly adhered to.

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The SECONDLY, Jesus points out another Christian virtue - HUMILITY. Not the tendency to think horribly of yourself (as some have suggested) but the tendency to think soberly of yourself, and not be concerned with social climbing or social status or getting recognition or having the best seats or being the center of attention (or near to the One who actually is)! In fact, Jesus gives us an idea of what humility is when he says in His parable: "Don't take the seats of honor" (near the head of the table), "but take the lowest seats." Going on to say in verse 11: "Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Mary gives us an idea of what "humble" means when she says in the Magnificat: "He has brought down the rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble."

"Rulers" being people of importance and social prestige, and the "humble" being the ordinary, unnoticed, regular people like her, who had little or nothing to make themselves stand out as being worthy of special recognition - and usually poor.

In Honduras that's what such people were actually called "humilde." They were your ordinary, poor, subsistence farmer or day laborer, who did his work, didn't complain, cared for his family, appreciated the little wooden or adobe house or shack he had, and had no desire whatsoever to make a name for himself.

Not boisterous or attention-seeking. / Not striving to exalt himself or draw any attention to himself at all or be anything other than what he was!

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In fact, its not only what Jesus advised, its what He practiced. Why was the man with the dropsy sitting right in front of Jesus? Because Jesus was sitting in the seat closest to the door! The seat furthest from the head of the table! The "lowest seat in the place."

In a wealthy Jewish home, the banquet table was set up in the fashion of a large U with the most important guests at the head of the table, and the less important people on the sides, with the least important people being furthest from the host, near the door, which was always left open to the streets so people could walk by and see or even stroll in and sit against the wall so they could listen to the conversation.

And the fact that this sickly man is "sitting right in front of Jesus," and leaves as soon as he's healed, tells us he wasn't an invited guest, and that Jesus was in the seat closest to the wall by the door. In fact, if Jesus had been sitting at the head of the table, or even anywhere close, who would have given any thought to what He had to say?! NO ONE, that's who!

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So what is humility? C. S. Lewis gives us a good idea when he says: "The first step toward humility is to realize one is proud (and it's a biggish step too). He will not be one of those smarmy people who is always telling you, of course, that he is a nobody… He will not be thinking of humility, because he won't be thinking of himself at all."

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And that's the whole point! The humble person is content to go unnoticed. / They're not looking for recognition or applause, so they don't get offended when someone forgets to give it to them. / They don't care if they're given the best seats or the seats of honor, or anything close. / Their not into social status or gaining notoriety or being famous or even being well known. / They're secure being who they are. Who God made them to be.

They've moved beyond culture's hankering to impress, and are so comfortable in their own skin, that as Lewis says, they not only don't think themselves to be "nobodies; they don't think of themselves at all." Their whole focus is not on them!

Unlike so many in this world, THE HUMBLE are NOT THE SOLE FOCUS OF ALL THEIR ATTENTION from dawn to dusk! They're content to stand off in the back-ground, and even be (for all intents and purposes) invisible.

In fact, one of my teachers once gave us a little quiz for humility. See how you do! "Would you be willing," he said, "to go and pour yourself into the lives of an unknown people group in the Amazon jungle, numbering only a couple dozen people, and live in there total obscurity all the days of your life, ministering to them, and then die and be buried there, content with the thought that no one would ever find out about the sacrifice you made. Many would do it, he said, if they could have a book written about it, or go on a speaking tour - but would you gladly do it if no one would ever find out?"

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Which brings us to our LAST virtue - SACRIFICE. Or what we might call TRUE GIFT GIVING. That is, giving with no desire whatsoever to get anything back in return - in this life. Because in the real sense, something is never really given as a gift, unless it is given with no conditions, no strings attached and no hoped for or required repayment of any sort. That's Jesus point in regard to this last virtue. Don't invite to a banquet people who can repay you, but invite people who couldn't even if they wanted to-the poor, crippled, lame and blind.

You see, most anyone will give people "gifts" if they think they will get a gift in return (even if that gift is nothing more than their affection, or gratitude, or appreciation, or care, or a gift of similar or lesser value). Or in this case, a return invite to a lavish banquet at their home! That's why Jesus rebukes this host (or rebukes the habit of people in general who give "gifts" with strings attached, expecting to get something, or anything, in return)! Because in that case it's not really a gift!

It's an investment or a down-payment or a way to make people feel indented to us. It's a way of purchasing favors or love or friendship or gratitude or affection or compliance or a future invite to their party!

It can even be a subtle form of bribery, as when special interest groups give "gifts" to politicians, certain their "gift" will purchase them favorable legislation or a government contract or tax breaks.

Jesus says to the Christian: "Don't do it. When you give a gift to someone, let it be a gift!" And how can we make sure it is? Elsewhere he says "give it in secret." And here He says, "Give it to people who don't even have the ability to repay you if they wanted to! Give it with no strings attached."

And let me tell you, folks, that type of giving (that expects absolutely nothing in return in this lifetime) is extremely rare! Because for most, we at least expect a "thank you."

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And I'm not saying we shouldn't be grateful people. We should! Of all people Christians should be the most thankful! Yet it's not the receiver that Jesus addresses here. It's the giver. He's zeroing in on those who give!

And to them (or to us) He says we need to give in such a way that we expect to get nothing in return - at least not from the people we give to - not even a thank you! Otherwise it's not really a gift; it's a purchase!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------You see, what Jesus is doing here is simply asking us to mimic or display in our lives the nature of the God we serve. And Jesus says that God, "makes the sun to shine on the evil and the good, and sends rain to fall on the righteous and the unrighteous."

That is, He gives gifts to those who not only do not acknowledge Him, but even those who blaspheme Him for His kindness to them!

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It's the same unconditional giving we see when he heals 10 lepers and only one comes back to give thanks. And the thanks is appreciated from that one, but He didn't do it to get thanks, nor did He withhold the healing or take it back from those who offered none!

Why? Because He's gracious, and the healing was a gift! And a gift is given regardless of whether one responds appropriately, with gratitude or not!

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So what is the challenge (not just to this host, but to us as well)? Practice giving true gifts. Give gifts with no strings attached whatsoever! Gifts that cannot be repaid. Gifts given honestly expecting nothing in return at all - in this life - not even a thank you!