CLICK HERE to view the sermon video. My apologies for the blurriness. It’s hard to tell on the small screen on the video camera.
Exalting the Lowly
Grace
to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. Amen.
Today you have been invited to a Feast. You are invited
to be an honored guest at the marriage Supper of the Lamb. You have been
invited to take a seat at the Lord's Table. Though not a lesson in table
etiquette, it is true that Jesus teaches that we should take the lowest place when
we are invited to such a Feast, so that, when the Host comes, He may say to
you, “Friend, move up higher.”
I have already said that this is not a lesson in
manners. So what does this mean? How do we take the lowest place at the Lord's
Table? This is a meal for sinners, and we are each one invited to take the seat
of lowest honor by crying out to God and confessing that we are the chief of
sinners. Examine yourself according to the Ten Commandments, and you will find
that you are full of death and sin. Confess your sin to Him. Hold nothing back.
Every indiscretion you think you have kept hidden behind the closed door of
your room or in the silence of your heart, lay it bare before Him. Beat your
breast and say, “Lord, have mercy on me,
a sinner!” Approach the Lord's Table in humility and with the shame that
ought to accompany someone as dirty and disgusting as you know you are. Take
the lowest seat, the seat of dishonor. You know it is yours. You know you
belong there—if, indeed, you belong at the Table at all.
It is then that the Host of the feast, the Lord
Himself, comes to you and calls you “Friend.”
That one word alone is worth the price of admission. The Lord of Heaven, the
righteous King of kings, calls you, a poor sinner, His own friend. “Friend,” He says, “move up higher.” That's what is happening in this Feast of the
Holy Sacrament. The Lord Jesus Christ calls you His “friend” and showers ever-increasing honor on you. While any seat
at this Table is an honor and a gift of grace, He lifts you from the lowest
seat, the place of dishonor and sin, the place of those who show up late or who
have tried to honor themselves and have been humbled. He invites you to sit in
a higher place. He takes your hand and starts leading you up along the length
of the banqueting Table, your honor increasing with every seat He passes. Still
He leads on. Angels look on in wonder. Any minute the Host will decide that
this seat is high enough for you, but He just keeps leading you closer and
closer to the head of the Table. Finally, there are no seats left, except one.
It is His seat, the seat of greatest honor at the Father's right hand. “I want
you to have My place,” says your Savior. “I have won it for you.” Once again He
fulfills His mother’s words: “He has cast
down the mighty from their thrones and has exalted the lowly.”
Jesus earned this privilege for you by
fulfilling His own words. He put Himself in the lowest place in order to save
you. He who is the Almighty Son of God, having taken on your humanity, was
born in a lowly manger, lived as a poor and humble carpenter, had no home of His
own during His ministry and no place to lay His head. He finally died the
way the worst of criminals died: by being executed on a cross. Christ didn't
claim glory and honor for Himself; He laid aside His majesty as King of
creation to be crowned with thorns and to be made the Lowest of the
low. All this He did for you. He received the punishment you deserved
so that you would be released from your sin and set free. In Christ, the
humble Redeemer, you now are forgiven. Jesus has fulfilled these words for
you: “He who humbles Himself will be
exalted.” In Christ, you are always welcome at this Table; you are His
honored guest. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep
your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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