Sermon for Pentecost 15(c)
Hebrews 13:1-8 + Luke 14:1,7-14 + Proverbs 25:6,7
Our text today is from the letter to the Hebrews, chapter 13. It’s the last chapter of this deeply theological letter, in which the author – whichever apostle it was, we’re not sure – details for the Hebrew Christians how Jesus Christ is superior to everything and everyone. As the eternal Son of God, the radiance of his glory, he is superior to the whole creation – superior to angels and to men. As the high priest of a new covenant between God and man, Christ is superior to Moses, the law-giver. As a perfect sacrifice for sins, Christ is superior to all the works of man and all the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament put together. And by God’s grace, through faith in Christ, everything that’s his – is now ours.
So what does someone do who has everything that Christ has? What does someone do who has been given all things and raised above all things? Well, of course! He lowers himself beneath all things and renders humble service to all people.
The verses of our text in Hebrews 13 seem to be a bunch of random commands and encouragements by the apostle. They actually cover all Ten Commandments pretty well. And they seem to have little to do with today’s Gospel of Jesus in the house of that Pharisee on a Sabbath day. But the key to understanding all these commands at the end of the letter to the Hebrews is in our relationship to Christ Jesus and our place in his kingdom. We almost need to add in the verses right before our text: Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship – or, “serve” – God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” It all ties together around thankful, reverent, humble service – THE HUMBLE SERVICE OF THE HEBREWS.
It was anything but humble service that Jesus encountered in today’s Gospel, when he stepped into that Pharisee’s house on that Sabbath day. You remember what you heard a few moments ago? What did Jesus observe there among those Hebrews? He looked on as all the invited guests, as soon as they walked in the door, made a beeline for the seats of honor. There was nothing humble about their behavior. What Jesus also observed there was that the host wasn’t throwing this party to be hospitable and generous to the guests. He had invited those who were most likely to invite him back to their parties. There was nothing humble about his behavior.
Jesus condemned that self-seeking behavior in those Hebrews, their selfishness, their arrogance, their attitude of superiority. He condemns it wherever he finds it. “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.” As Peter says, “God opposes the proud.” He sees that pride in every sin, because in every sin, we exalt ourselves above God’s law and fail to serve him humbly. It’s not all right to seek your honor or your pleasure at the expense of others. It’s not all right to get angry at the people around you because they did something foolish that made your life harder, or because they told you the truth you needed to hear, even though you didn’t want to hear it. It’s not all right to be so self-absorbed that you barely give your brothers and sisters in Christ a second thought throughout the week, much less a helping hand or a sincere prayer for their wellbeing.
Don’t cling to behavior like that and attitudes like that. Our God is a consuming fire, and what that fire consumes is the sinner who dares to make himself more important than others.
Which brings us back to the superiority of Christ. The only one in the universe who truly is more important than any creature in the universe – made himself nothing, taking on the form of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and made himself obedient to death, even death on a cross. The Book of Hebrews pictures Christ as the perfect Hebrew – perfect because he humbled himself to live a human life under God’s law, made perfect through suffering, perfect because he so perfectly represents who God is – by nature superior to all, but by choice the humble servant of all.
And through the humble service of that perfect Hebrew – our God who is a consuming fire has been reconciled with sinners. Humble yourself by repenting of your self-centeredness – by repenting of all your sin. And look to Christ, the humble servant. He is the high priest who presented his perfect sacrifice before the Father and holds it up before his eyes. Because of that sacrifice of Christ, the perfect Hebrew, God has promised forgiveness of sins to the one who trusts in Christ. He has promised to exalt the one who humbles himself in repentance and faith in the goodness of Christ.
Faith in Christ brings you into Christ and makes a Hebrew out of you. Baptism seals the deal and makes you God’s child, and as God’s child you are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, the kingdom of the saints, the kingdom of the Hebrews.
Because of Christ’s merits, you have a gracious Father in heaven. Even so, our relationship with him is never to become “buddy, buddy.” Our God remains a consuming fire, who does not terrify those who are in Christ Jesus, but who still deserves our reverence and awe and commands a healthy respect.
It’s only fitting, now, that you become like the Son of God in how you view the world, in how you view your brothers and sisters in Christ, in how you offer your whole self in thankful, reverent, humble service to God.
If you would do this, if you would serve God in reverence and awe and humility, what things would you do? What does a life of humble service look like?
Well, here we are, finally getting to our text in Hebrews 13. We couldn’t start with it, because it’s one of those texts that assumes that those who are comfortable in their sins have already been afflicted by God’s law, and that those who are afflicted in their conscience have already been comforted by his Gospel in Christ Jesus. Now how does that gospel teach us to spend the remainder of our days on earth until we fully receive that kingdom God has promised?
Keep on loving each other as brothers. Literally, “Let philadephia – brotherly love – remain!” We’re talking about fellow church members here. In Christ, no one is better or worse than another, no one superior or inferior to another. We have a special relationship with one another, not as brothers and sisters by DNA, but as brothers and sisters by faith in Christ, by Christ’s Hebrew DNA. We are not separated by race or color or gender or age. It’s time to get rid of all notions of superiority or inferiority, of being standoffish, or rude or mean. Instead, love one another – care about one another – warts and all.
And show it in tangible ways. The letter to the Hebrews gives some examples. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it (probably referring there to when Old Testament Lot took those angels into his home in the city of Sodom). Christian hospitality is one way to show that brotherly love. You may show it in your home. We ought to show it here in God’s house, too. Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. It’s talking here specifically about fellow Christians who are imprisoned for being Christians, or those who are mistreated unjustly, unfairly. If you don’t know a brother or sister in Christ who is imprisoned – since we don’t have as much of that kind of persecution as they did back in the first century – think about other ways in which your brothers or sisters in Christ may be suffering under the cross. Remember them in your prayers. Offer them your support, your humble service.
How does a Hebrew live in humble service to God and his brothers? Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. You see, God’s commandments, like the Sixth Commandment – you shall not commit adultery – still serve as a guide for God’s people on earth. Living a moral life, a chaste life, is still part of a life of humble service to God – humble, because our sinful self would like nothing more than to set aside God’s rules about sex and marriage and make up its own rules and do what it wants and seek its own pleasure. Not married yet? So what! You can’t be expected to wait for marriage to hook up with someone. Married but frustrated? So what! Look for love somewhere else. Oh, married life is hard? Well, then. Get a divorce! No, no, no. Don’t let self get its way. Remember your God and his commandments, and give him thanks for curbing your sinful nature with these reminders of his judgment on the adulterer and the sexually immoral.
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” It can be a hard thing to keep your life free from the love of money, because it seems so necessary, and it can provide so much comfort and enjoyment and security in life. That’s why it’s so important to keep a heavenly perspective on things. Money doesn’t provide for you. God does, and he’s promised to give you all you need. Money can’t save you from disaster or from sin or from death. God can. Money doesn’t love you. But God does. Christ is the proof! So don’t love money. Love God. Don’t trust in money. Trust in God. Don’t make your life about making money. Make your life about humble service to God.
Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Who are these leaders? A few verses later it will encourage God’s people to obey their current spiritual leaders. But here, it’s talking about those who preached and taught God’s Word before and are now dead. It would include pastors who led you in God’s Word when you were little. It would include apostles and prophets and martyrs and those we refer to as saints – not because they’re closer to God than we are, but because they led lives that serve as examples for us to imitate their faith. In humble service to God who provided for us spiritual leaders like that, true Christian role models like that, we don’t consider ourselves to be better than sliced bread. We don’t pretend that the Church never existed before we entered it. We don’t discard the wisdom of our spiritual leaders from the past. We remember it. We honor them as God’s gifts to us. We read their writings, we sing their hymns – Augustine, John Chrysostom, Luther, Melanchthon, Chemnitz, Gerhard, Walther, Hoenecke. We keep the Western Rite in our divine service – the liturgy, because it’s a treasury filled with God’s Word, handed down to us by our leaders, who spoke the word of God to us.
And what has always been at the heart of that Word? Jesus Christ – the same yesterday and today and forever. Jesus Christ, who has always existed as the Son of God, who lives now, even though he died, and who will outlast this universe. Jesus Christ, the Hebrew of Hebrews, whose humble life of service means the forgiveness of our sins, who is our righteousness before the Father, and who will come again to bring us into his heavenly kingdom. At the end of the day when you look back and see all the ways you did the sins you didn’t want to do and didn’t do all the good you did want to do, all the ways your service was less than humble – there is Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever. There’s the same body and blood, the same water, the same Word. With the same old forgiveness and mercy, which is new every morning. The humble service of THE Hebrew continues forever. Let his faithful, humble service inspire the humble service of these Hebrews. Amen.
