Opening Prayer
Lord, heal us, and teach us. Amen.
Text: Luke 14:1-11
Now it happened, as He went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, that they watched Him closely. And behold, there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy. And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” But they kept silent. And He took him and healed him, and let him go. Then He answered them, saying, “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. So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places, saying to them: “When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; and he who invited you and him come and say to you, ‘Give place to this man,’ and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, 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.’ Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. For whoever exalts himself will be abased, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Devotion
God’s Spirit warns us against being like the proud Pharisees who used the Sabbath to test Jesus. How should we keep the day of rest holy? The Lord used it for deeds of mercy and for teaching the Word. The world uses Sunday for entertaining the flesh, the Pharisees to strengthen themselves in their self-righteousness and to judge others, but Jesus uses it for love, so that many thanks rise up to God. “If you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the affiicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday. … If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken” (Isa 58:10,13,14). “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world” (Jam 1:27). This is the proper use of the day of rest. Look after someone who is sick or sad or a widow, someone who is going astray spiritually, or a fellow Christian who is suffering. First go privately and pray the Lord for love; take God’s Word with you, above everything else in your heart. Hear about the poor, and put yourself in their place, enter into their circumstances, take their weaknesses on your soul, and in return lay the healing of the Word upon them. Whatever else you can do for them, the Lord will teach you and strengthen you to do.
But if Sunday is to be for us a day of works of love, then first and foremost it must be for us a day of rest. Our soul always wants to have rest in God’s Word, this is “the one thing needful” (Luk 10:42); blessed are those who like Mary choose “this good part.” Jesus calls to Himself all who labor and are heavy-laden, but He is in His Word, and Sundays and festivals are given to us especially for the use of the Word. Don’t neglect God’s Word; don’t miss church except for the most necessary reasons. Many stay away from church and for almost no reason at all are absent as often as they are present. It grieves me so much that so many young people leave the church after confirmation. How will it be for such people who forsake God’s Word, the only thing by which they can keep their way pure (Psa 119:9)? Defenseless against the devil, they soon become his prey. If parents and guardians really consider this, if for no other reason, they would keep bringing the young with them to God’s House and diligently attend the Divine Service3 themselves. But if parents are careless about going to church, the young become like them, and turn to wickedness even sooner. I beg you: Do not neglect the Divine Service! From the heart I beg you. Take it to heart! Promise the Lord that you will come when He calls you to meet with Him, and keep that promise! Let it be a given that you go to church on Sunday, just as you go to work each weekday and to the table when it is dinner time. Go to meet the Lord with simple heart, and look to Him who looks on you. Then you will forget the pastor’s weakness and in fellowship of the Spirit with the saints, as the least of all, you may receive the heavenly High Priest’s blessing hands upon yourself. For the Divine Service is the congregation’s festive communion with Christ. We come to Him as His people, as His flock and followers, with prayers and hymns of thanksgiving, and He comes to us in Word and Sacraments with grace and blessing. As one whole nation, assembled before their king, praying and giving thanks and receiving His blessing, so the Christian congregation in the Sunday Divine Service stands in the presence of the Lord Christ. Do you want to stay away, dear brethren? Or do you share the thinking of the Pharisees in our Gospel? Believe the truth that the Lord is there, and receive His love with humble heart, – leave with joy in service of love, and bring the blessing of the Divine Service to those who could not attend.
Closing Prayer
Lord God, give us humble hearts, so that we gladly hear Your Word and keep it as our best treasure. Give us rest therein for our soul and power to mortify the lusts of the flesh, but to practice works of love. Grant us finally a part in the Sabbath rest that awaits Your people. Amen.
Hymn
That blessed day, O Savior kind,
When You rose from death’s prison,
Then on the world the true Light shined,
A new dawn then had risen,
That day You greeted them in peace,
Who sat in deepest sorrow,
The Holy Spirit to release
On that blest Sunday morrow.
O Sun of Righteousness divine,
Light of the world, we pray You,
Your name we praise; O grant to shine
Your Morning Star, and also
Your holy Word within my heart
To turn from evil ever
And to do good upon this earth,
Your will offending never.
Palladius: Den signed’ Dag, o Frelser blid! L 533:1.4 tr. DeGarmeaux;
tune: Frisk op, min Sjæl (LHy 282) or Was mein Gott will (ELH 261); alternate hymn: O day of rest and gladness ELH 485