Love focuses outward

Sermon for Trinity 17

Ephesians 4:1-6  +  Luke 14:1-11

When God made Adam and Eve, He made them in His own likeness and image, which means, as we discussed recently in Bible class, that they had true knowledge of God and were truly righteous and holy like God. One of the key components of that righteousness is love, and one of the most basic traits of love is that it focuses outward, away from oneself. Love focuses, first, on God—who He is, what He thinks, what He has said and done, what He wants done. And love focuses, second, on the neighbor—what he or she needs, what would benefit him or her. That doesn’t mean we’re to have no concern at all for ourselves. After all, God says, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” But the focus is outward, toward God first and toward the neighbor second, so that we spend very little time thinking about me—what I think, what I want, what I’m suffering, or what I might suffer if I serve God and my neighbor. Love doesn’t waste time dwelling on how great I am, or what a failure I am. It doesn’t have time to dwell on those things. There are too many other people to focus on. “What does God say? What would help the people around me?” These are the questions God would have us focus on. To live like that is to live in love, which is also to live in humility. That’s how God made us to be.

But since the fall into sin, it isn’t who we are, by nature. One of the main effects of sin on our race is that it has taken that outward focus of love and curved it inward, so that by nature we spend most of our time worrying about what I think, what I want, what I need, what I’m suffering, what I’m going through, how great I am, or how worthless I am. I think I’ve told you before that one of my teachers used to call this, “navel-gazing,” staring at your own belly button, focusing on yourself. We’re all prone to that. It’s one of the defining characteristics of sinners, in fact.

But Jesus wasn’t—wasn’t a sinner, wasn’t prone to navel-gazing. His focus was always outward, toward His Father in heaven, and toward the rest of humanity whom He came to save at great cost to Himself. He shows us in today’s Gospel the importance of an outward focus for God’s people.

It was a Sabbath Day. Jesus was invited to a meal at the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees. The Pharisees were notoriously focused on themselves, how obedient they were, how much godlier they were than others. There was a sick man there, a man who had dropsy. Jesus planned to heal him, but first, He wanted to guide the Pharisees and the other guests to understand this outward focus. Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?, He asked. They remained silent. Not a word. They didn’t turn first to God, to see what He said about it in His Word. (If they had, they would have realized that God never forbade helping your neighbor on the Sabbath Day.) Instead, they turned inward. They made the Sabbath to be about themselves, their obedience to God’s commandment to rest on that day. They didn’t want to see anyone healed on the Sabbath. But they couldn’t come right out and say that, or they would have looked just as self-centered and mean spirited as they actually were. So they remained silent.

Jesus healed the man and let him go. Then He asked them, Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day? And they could not answer Him regarding these things. Of course, all of them would have helped their own animal on that day. But, again, they couldn’t admit that, because it would show that they had more concern for their animal than they did for their fellow Israelite who was suffering.

The fact is, God made the Sabbath day to emphasize that outward focus, on God, on His Word, and on the neighbor. The Sabbath rest was not designed so that the Israelites could look at themselves resting, could focus on themselves obeying the commandment, but on their workers who needed a break, on their family members who needed a break from work. My neighbor needs rest! My animals need rest! God’s Word must be heard! The ministry must be used! The needy must be helped! Every other day, the focus, by necessity, perhaps, was more about, my work, my chores, my needs. But one day a week, they were to focus exclusively on God’s word and their neighbors need. So not only did the Law permit healing on the Sabbath. It actually required it—if healing were in your power.

So Jesus’ kindness and compassion for the man with dropsy show us what true, humble, outward-focused love toward the neighbor looks like, and at the same time it highlighted the self-centeredness and inward focus of the Pharisees.

Then we come to the second part of our Gospel. At the same meal, Jesus noticed how the guests chose the best places for themselves. In their culture, the seating arrangement at a banquet said something about how important or how unimportant a guest was. And all these guests seemed to think of themselves as more important than the rest, as deserving of the best spot available. Again, focused inward, on their own importance.

But where should they have been focused? On the one who invited them! Gratitude toward the host for inviting them at all! And deference to the host’s decision about where each guest should sit. He’s the one you should be focused on. And since God is the Host of the heavenly banquet, and the King of His kingdom, which is the holy Christian Church, He will determine where each one belongs. And Jesus tells us here what pleases Him and what displeases Him.

It displeases God when we exalt ourselves, when we raise ourselves up in His presence, when we put ourselves ahead of others, when we make ourselves the judges of ourselves. Leave that to Me, He says. Leave it to Me to decide. Let Me be the Judge, because I am the Judge and I will determine where each one belongs. As for you, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’

How do you choose the lowest place before God? You admit, as you did in the confession of sins today, that you are a poor miserable sinner who has justly deserved His wrath and punishment. That means you admit that you’re no more worthy of His grace and mercy than anyone else. In fact, you see yourself as “chief of sinners.” That goes contrary to what our sinful nature wants. The most natural thing is to choose a place in the middle. No, I’m not the most deserving out there, but surely I’m not the least deserving! I’ll go over here to the middle and choose a place for myself. But no, Jesus says. That’s wrong, and dangerous, too. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled. No, go and sit down in the lowest place. Admit before God and man that you are the least deserving, because you haven’t maintained that outward focus toward God and your neighbor that God demands. Not even close. You’ve spent more than a little time focused first on what you need, how you’ve been treated, how you’re suffering, what you deserve, how great you are, or how wretched you are. It’s time to let God be the Judge, and that means lowering yourself all the way down to the bottom of the heap before Him.

For those who do, Jesus makes an amazing promise: He who humbles himself will be exalted. There are no if’s or maybe’s about that promise. Admit your unworthiness before God, confess your curved, inward focus. Look to God, not for recognition of how worthy you are, but only for His mercy in Christ Jesus. And God will exalt you. He will lift you up. He will forgive you your sins and give you a place of honor in His kingdom, a good place, the right place, a place of His choosing, a place with Him.

And He’ll do all this, because Jesus, your Substitute, maintained His outward focus on God and on His neighbor for you, in your place. He maintained it all the way through Holy Week and up to the cross, never flinching, never crying out, “What about Me? What about what I deserve?” It was all, every moment of it, every drop of blood, spent yearning to fulfill His Father’s will, yearning to earn mankind’s salvation.

As a new person in Christ, that is the example you have also been called to imitate. Walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There it is, the outward focus on your neighbor, and especially on your fellow Christian. It’s hard not to worry about yourself. It’s hard not to focus on your own successes and on your own failures. It’s hard to look up, away from your own belly button. But God, right now, is gently lifting up your head to stop worrying about yourself, to stop complaining, to see only the people around you—your family, your church, your neighbor. And He lifts your head even higher, to see Him, and to know that Christ, your Savior, and God, your Father, is not focused on Himself at all, but on you. One Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. You, focused on Him, He, focused on you, with the promise to raise you up and give you all you need—what need do you have to focus on yourself? Amen.