Sermon Tone Analysis

Scripture Introduction:

If you’re writing a television scene and you want to tell your audience that your main character is a kid who doesn’t fit in, what setting do you place him in?

You put him/her in the lunch room.

The lunch room is where you learn your place in society.

Have you experienced the anxiety of this?

New to a community.

Here you are at the doorway, tray in hand, looking around....who is my person....which table do I belong at?

What we are going to be introduced to in Luke 14 is a dinner scene.

Now a dinner table is one of those places where your social standing is on full display.

If you’re a nerd—it’s exposed at the lunch table.

This was even more the case in the ancient world.

The seating arrangement was huge.

To be invited to the party means something…there are rules of hospitality that must be followed…rules with accepting invitations…rules with returning invitations…who sits by the host?

Who is the most honored guest?

The tables would have been in kind of a U shape, honored folks right next to the host, and those less honored on the wings…It’s important where you sit.

Status matters.

Have we really moved that far away from this scene?

Keeping up with the neighbor down the street.

We might move battle grounds in the church…seen as the most holy, the most spiritual, or even the guy who doesn’t care about all this material stuff---I’m the best at being humble.

Fighting for identity.

To matter.

To be significant.

To be part of certain groups.

All this stuff is still very much present.

And it can also be incredibly exhausting.

We can become just absolutely wore out—or maybe not—maybe there is an adrenaline rush that comes with this.

To go to that gathering and to be seen as somebody, to get the accolades you want, to be seen as the one with the cool car, the biggest muscles, the smartest brain, the prettiest dress, the most successful kids, the most Bible knowledge.

Maybe you’re succeeding in some measure and so you aren’t feeling exhausted.

Or maybe you’re exhausted with the whole thing…laboring and laboring to be somebody.

As we join our scene this morning we’re going to see the hustle and the bustle of powerful people still jockeying for position.

To be the best…and then when you are the best it’s not enough…you’ve got to keep that position, and so there is strategy there too.

And what we are going to see is a dinner scene where there are a couple people who don’t really belong—Jesus (who is the guest but he’s going to pop a hole in this system) and then another guy…he’s sick, he’s swollen up, not looking the part…clearly doesn’t belong in this scene…but he’s there for a reason.

Listen in...

Imagine that you are at the Grand Canyon looking at a beautiful sunset and you’re tasked with painting a picture to try to capture some of it’s splendor.

There are so many beautiful hues of color…but you realize that the only colors you have a black and white.

That’s kind of how I feel with this passage.

It’s absolutely beautiful but I feel so inadequate to describe it.

What we have in these 24 verses are two completely different ways to view the world—to view things like power, prestige, privilege…it’s two different ways really of viewing your place in the world.

And I think if we’ll embrace it it’ll help us rest in Jesus—but at the same time motivate us to labor for others.

I believe Andy Crouch might help us to get started.

The best test of any institution, and especially any institution’s roles and rules for using power, is whether everyone flourishes when everyone indwells their roles and plays by the rules, or whether only a few of the participants experience abundance and growth.

What he is saying is that if an institution—and that would include the church, a family, a football team, the place you work…you get the picture…if an institution is firing on all cylinders is everyone benefiting or just a few?

Or is the rich get richer…and the poor getting all used up?

But not everyone would agree with Crouch.

I think there’s another competing vision…and this one is exemplified by that great thinker of our time Ricky Bobby...”If you ain’t first, you’re last.”

Asking questions about whether or not others are flourishing isn’t something that needs to be asked…if they want to flourish…well they need to step up their game.

To each his own.

Survival of the fittest.

Dog eat dog world.

You should pursue as much power, prestige, and privilege as you can.

It’s just yours for the taking.

Climb that ladder.

Get what’s yours.

If you ain’t first, you’re last....so be first.

These two competing visions of the world are what is at stake in this passage.

Why does that matter to you?

For one, it matters because I think its an answer for why we are so exhausted and so depressed and at times can be very miserable as a society.

It can explain much of our anger and fighting and such.

It’s jockeying for power…but not power to be used for others to flourish…power to be used for ourselves.

But it’s also important that we wrestle with what Jesus is saying here because followers of Jesus are going to want to view the world how Jesus viewed the world.

We believe His way is always better.

And there is also a message in here for those who feel poor and powerless—or even ARE in some situation poor and powerless.

There is great news for all of us in this passage…so let’s get to work and see the beauty of what Jesus is saying here.

Using the power and powerless vs seeing yourself as the poor and powerless.

(1-6)

The first thing we see is a Sabbath day meal.

The food would have been prepared the night before and it’s not uncommon to have a large gathering.

And we see that this is a ruler of the Pharisee.

He’s a big deal.

Powerful dude.

And so who would have been at this part would have been a bunch of other social elites.

But what doesn’t belong here is this man with dropsy.

What is dropsy?

If you use an NIV you can help us out.

There it says “abnormal swelling of the body”.

And that’s what the word means.

Today we might call it edema.

It’s where the body retains fluid and you’ve got abnormal swelling in your body.

The thing that’s significant about this, though, is that many considered this particular issue a result of personal sin.

Let me set this up for us, then…it’s the Sabbath…tons of rules regarding that…and it’s a dining scene.

Purity rules, hospitality, honor/shame, so why in the world is this guy there?

We get a clue in verse 1. “They were watching Jesus carefully”.

That guy is a plant.

Not that he’s in on it.

He doesn’t know.

He’s been invited to a dinner party.

But he’s there in order to trap Jesus…Here’s how we also know.

Look at verse 3. “And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees....”

Responded?

Who said anything?

Jesus knows exactly why this guy is here and he responds…Will Jesus heal a guy with a non-emergency issue on the Sabbath?

Edema is a serious deal—probably means his organs are failing…but this can wait for tomorrow.

But redemption shouldn’t wait.

And so Jesus…heals…Look at the words used here.

Look at the words used of the Pharisees…they are passive, they are silent through pretty much the whole ordeal, but listen to what it says of Jesus...

Took him.

That’s a grabby word.

He seizes the guy, grabs him, takes action…heals him…and sends him away.

Then Jesus silences them by saying that if you have a son or an ox who falls into a well you immediately pull him out…and so it’s not strange that Jesus immediately helps this guy.

Okay…I really really want to tell make some application points…but I think it’s more effective if we hang onto it.

Let me sum up the scene.