Sermon for the 17th Sunday
after Trinity
September 27th, Year of Our + Lord 2026
Our Savior’s and Our
Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
Not a Bad Seat in the House
Based on Proverbs 25:6-7
and Luke 14:1-11
Audio of the sermon is available HERE.
Shelee and I had tickets to a concert in Rapid City a couple weeks ago,
part of the Rapid City Concert Association 2026-2027 series. We bought our series tickets from Sue Bruer,
a member in Custer, who sells them on behalf of the Hot Springs Concert
Association. There is an affiliation
between four associations in the area, Newcastle and Belle Fourche being the
other two. However, in year’s past if
country folk wanted to attend a series concert in the big city, one had to pay
a per concert supplemental fee. More
money to attend the Rapid City concerts.
This year, the associations offered full reciprocity between all the
locations. If you have the time and the
gas money, you could attend 15 or 20 concerts with tickets to just one
series. Rapid is a lot closer for us
than Hot Springs, Newcastle or Belle. So,
we bought tickets from Sue and marked our calendars.
As
the first Rapid City concert, which was called “Jazz that Rocks,” drew near,
Shelee and I were discussing when we needed to leave. The tickets are general admission, no
assigned seats. Did we need to get there
early, to make sure we got good seats?
Then I checked the venue, which was the Performing Arts Center of Rapid
City, the Historic Theater inside the High School on Columbus St. We had attended a concert there before, and I
remembered that it is a spacious room, and there really isn’t a bad seat in the
house. From the balcony to the
undercroft to the wings to the front row, every seat has good sight lines to
the stage, and the sound fills the whole room.
No worries about good seats, we just needed to get into the room, get
into the party. And, we had our
full-reciprocity tickets, so we could relax, and eagerly anticipate the
concert. Which was great, by the
way.
common human angst of worrying about good seats, about the prestige of sitting near the head table. First we heard of this in our Proverbs reading, and then in Jesus’ parable about vying for seats at a wedding banquet in Luke 14. And say, have you ever noticed how often wedding banquets play a big part in our Lord’s teaching?
Our
access to good seats at the Historic Theater was a simple financial
transaction. But some special events are
by invitation only. You could be the
biggest fan ever of Travis Kelce, (tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs), or of
the pop singer Taylor Swift. I’m not suggesting
you should be their fan, nor that I understand why anyone
is. Still, they have a lot of fans. But just being a passionate fan would not have
gotten you into their wedding, held in Madison Square Garden last July. By invitation only, thank you very much.
Have
you ever been left out of a big event you so much wanted to
attend? Or, maybe worse, have you ever
gotten into that big party, but once there, found you couldn’t get next to the
star? Getting close to whomever you thought was the coolest
kid there was a huge competition, and you didn’t compete well enough. Nor were you someone the most popular kid
thought to call over close. Now, we may
think this is just a teenage phenomenon, but the same dynamic is at play in
both Proverbs 25, written almost 3,000 years ago, and Luke 11, whose events
happened almost exactly 2,000 years ago.
Human nature has not really changed.
The important and popular people, those with power or wealth or
perceived importance, still love to have lesser souls vying for their
attention. And people, including those
same important people, still have a perverse need to get the best seats, to be
seen as someone popular, important. Or
at least close to important.
Which
is a sad commentary on us humans. And,
in regard to the most important parties, also unnecessary. At the very best parties, at the wedding
banquet that you really must get into, there isn’t a bad seat in
the house. All that matters is that you
get in the door; the rest is joy and glory, no matter where you are
seated.
Again
this Sunday Jesus is waging theological combat with the Pharisees, that Jewish religious
party of experts in the Law of Moses, who really loved to be seen as important
and pious. They were also terribly
caught up in rule-following for the sake of rule-following, and the personal
prestige they believed it gained them.
So much so that over the years the Pharisees had added hundreds of extra
laws to the already long list of rules that God had given Israel through Moses. To be sure, many of their new laws had some
connection to some law from Moses.
Ritual cleanliness was a Mosaic requirement; certain washings were
required before priests did certain things in the Temple. Well, cleanliness is good, right? So, why don’t we say that every time we eat,
we must wash our hands? In fact, let’s
imply that failing to wash before eating is a sin!
Now,
I think handwashing before meals is a good thing. But it is one thing to encourage a healthy
habit, and another thing altogether to declare that good people always do it,
and those who do not are basically ungodly, on the precipice of eternal
damnation. And by the way, we shouldn’t
imagine that these tendencies of the Pharisees are no longer around. Didn’t we see similar self-righteous
proclamations about a variety of cleanliness practices during the recent
pandemic? Remember wiping down the
canned goods from the grocery store? Or
being told to wear a mask when you were walking by yourself in the woods? Again, I’m not suggesting we shouldn’t choose
good hygiene. I am saying, because God
the Holy Spirit says it again and again in His Word, that God’s goal is to save
souls. So, anyone who seeks to bind consciences
and create fear and guilt in souls with rules that God Himself has not given is
inviting the anger of the Almighty.
Which
is what we see at the beginning of our Gospel reading. Jesus’ anger is unspoken, but smolders under
the surface in His question concerning healing on the Sabbath. Listen again: One
Sabbath, when [Jesus] went to dine at the house of a ruler of the
Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. 2 And
behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. 3 And
Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful
to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4 But they
remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. 5 And
he said to them, “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?” 6 And
they could not reply to these things.
The
LORD, which is to say, Jesus, along with His Father and the Holy Spirit, gave
the Sabbath for the good of people. God,
after the six day Creation, did not rest on the 7th Day because He
was tired. No, He rested because He knew
we would grow tired, physically and spiritually. Once sin ruined us, the Sabbath rest needed
more details, to help us truly rest. God
gave these details to Israel through Moses.
And healing and restoration was always the point of the Sabbath. So the Pharisees should have answered Jesus’
question with, “Of course, healing is what the Sabbath is for.” But they could not, because they believed the
Sabbath was for impressing God. They
twisted the idea of not working, and so had added to the LORD’s Law. The Pharisees had declared the “work” of
healing to be included in the “do no work” restriction of the Sabbath. But really, is a miraculous healing the work
of a man?
Only
if that Man is also God. Bottom line,
the Sabbath is for promoting health and life, which come from God. So, if you happen to be able to work
miraculous healings, please feel free to do so, seven days a week.
Now,
we should note that the Pharisees allowed for other exceptions to their strict
interpretation of the Law. For example,
some Jewish men and women no doubt prepared and served their fancy Sabbath
banquet to which they invited Jesus. That definitely seems like it could be
considered work.
As you can read in Matthew 23, in His famous
“Seven Woes” to the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus could get really angry with
Jewish religious elites who twisted God’s Word to control the people and make
themselves look good. And, in His
overall plan of salvation, Jesus needs to get the Pharisees to seek His
death. So, He is more than willing to point
out their hypocrisies and make them angry.
Still, at the same time, He is truly reaching out to them in love. Jesus seeks their conversion, just like
everyone one else’s. But the Pharisees
can’t see this. They can only see Jesus
as a rulebreaker, a rulebreaker who makes them look bad.
In the face of their silence, Jesus tells
them a parable, trying to shine a light of truth to free them from their
legalistic blindness. “Now he told a
parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the
places of honor,” You probably
noticed how Jesus is paraphrasing and expanding on Proverbs 25:6-7: Do not put yourself
forward in the king's presence, or stand in the place of the great, 7 for it
is better to be told, “Come up here,” than to be put lower in the presence of a
noble.”
Jesus gives good practical advice. It is better to not obsess over popularity
and personal honor; if you join in that game, sooner or later you’ll end up
getting publicly shamed. But if you
lower your self-importance and just enjoy it when you get invited to a nice event,
your life will be better.
Jesus gives good practical advice, but that
is not all that He is teaching. There is
a reason Jesus specifically uses a wedding banquet as the special meal in His
parable. Jesus is always trying to penetrate
dull, proud hearts. He wants everyone to
understand that He, Jesus, is talking about getting souls into the eternal
wedding feast that is heaven. And, that
Jesus Himself is their entrance ticket.
This is the deepest meaning of the last
sentence of our Gospel reading: For everyone who exalts himself will be
humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Again, Jesus is giving good day to day
advice: live proudly, and sooner or later you will get knocked down a peg or
two; live humbly, and you may be surprised when you are unexpectedly honored
and blessed. Certainly, when the party
you are praying to get into is hosted by the LORD God Almighty, sinners like
you and me necessarily need to be humble, confessing our sins and throwing
ourselves on the infinite mercy of the Judge.
But even more than this practical truth
about living humbly, Jesus is proclaiming Himself and His Cross. For Jesus is the Christ, the anointed Savior
sent from heaven, the eternal Son of the Most High. God in His essence, Father, Son and Holy
Spirit, is definitely exalted, lifted up, worthy of
honor and praise forever and ever, Amen.
And yet, Jesus humbled Himself.
The Exalted One humbled Himself; this is the ever-surprising central act
of God’s eternal plan to fill His wedding banquet with souls. Jesus humbled Himself, taking on the form of
a servant, a man, born of a woman, born under His own Law, in
order to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the
adoption as sons, that we might be true heirs of God’s kingdom.
Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,
and He who humbles Himself will be exalted.
Jesus used the pride and jealousy of the Pharisees, and the contempt of the
chief priests, and the nervous fear of the Roman governor in order to reach the
nadir of humility, death on a cross, death under the wrath of God. And so, because Jesus humbled Himself in this
way, God the Father has exalted Jesus, raising Him from death and shame. God has revealed in the Man, Christ Jesus,
all the glory of heaven, as He seated Him at His right hand in glory, forever
and ever, Amen.
Shelee and I enjoyed the concert we recently
attended, it was a great show. But there
has never been a show, never been a spectacle, like the One Jesus put on in
Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. A crucifixion
was a public spectacle, intended by the Romans as a warning to anyone
who might think to exalt themselves against their power and authority.
But Jesus transformed the Romans’ horrible
crime-and-revolution-deterrence tool, making it both eternally awful, and eternally
wonderful. Awful, truly dreadful,
because there Jesus took into His own body and soul all the true rule-breaking,
all the sin ever committed against God and His Way. Wonderful, because this means your sins and
mine are washed away! All of them. By this greatest act of humility ever, Jesus
has made Himself our ticket to the eternal wedding feast, the eternal
celebration of God with all His beloved adopted children, gathered around His
throne, forever and ever, Amen.
You are invited, your ticket is secure, in
the resurrected Son of God, Christ Jesus.
Believe it, the Father is looking forward to having you seated at His
side, in a seat of honor. Rejoice in
this invitation, this gift, this future guaranteed by Jesus’ forgiving
blood.
Rejoice, and rehearse for the upcoming party. Rehearse by receiving the foretaste of the
feast to come that is God’s Word and Supper.
In the Word, the Spirit teaches you again and again how Jesus is your
Host, your Best Friend, your Savior. In
His seemingly simple and unimpressive Meal, Jesus gives you His Body and Blood,
for forgiveness and for the strengthening of your faith in His promises.
Believe, rejoice, rehearse. And recount.
Recount, tell again, this surprising story. That is, let the great reversal that Jesus
has completed for you be on your lips. Give
thanks to God for this Good News; speak it to one another, sing it out. Maybe you could even take Sue Bruer’s approach. Sue is a big fan of music and of the concert
series. So she talks it up, every year,
encouraging people to come and hear for themselves.
You and I are big fans of Jesus and His Good
News. So, you and I can speak this way
about God’s Gospel. You and I can simply
invite people to come and hear. You and
I can be ready to give the reason for our hope to anyone who asks us how we can
be so hopeful and happy, even when life hands us humble pie.
How humbling, and how wonderful is the
thought, the truth, the promise that sinners like you and me have guaranteed
seats to the greatest celebration anyone could ever imagine. Do we care if we are seated at the head
table, or in the corner? No, of course
not. For every seat in God’s house is
good, for Jesus’ sake, forever and ever, Amen.
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