At a convention of biological scientists, one researcher remarks to another, “Did you know that in our lab, we have switched from experimenting on mice to experimenting on lawyers?”
“Really?” the other replies. “Why did you switch?”
The researcher says, “Three reasons. First, lawyers are far more plentiful. Second, the lab assistants don’t get so attached to them. And third, there are some things even a rat won’t do.”
(https://www.rd.com/article/lawyer-jokes/)
I got that joke from the Readers Digest website. They have a whole page full of lawyer jokes-over 100 of them! I don’t think there is any career that is derided in our society as much as lawyers. There are good reasons for that. Lawyers can cause you a whole heap of trouble, even if you’re innocent of any crime. There are lots of unscrupulous lawyers out there who will use their powerful position for personal gain. And there are good ones too, but even with them the matters that we’re dealing with when we talk to a lawyer are not pleasant ones—crimes, accidents, injuries, settlements. These are matters that people do have to deal with in this life. Like it or not, in this world we’re always going to need lawyers, no matter how much we might wish it would be different, no matter how much we might say, “Why do we need all these laws? Can’t we just love each other?”
When we think of the Pharisees in Israel in the first century, during Jesus’ ministry, we typically envision people who were at least somewhat wealthy and had a very high opinion of themselves. There was an air for false piety about them. They acted very religious, but, as Jesus said quoting Isaiah, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” That general description fit a lot of the Pharisees really well. But what you might not think about with the Pharisees is that they were also expert lawyers. In Israel there were essentially two legal systems and two courts. Since they were ruled over by the Romans, they had to submit to Roman law and the Roman court. That’s why when they wanted Jesus crucified they took him to the Roman governor and Pontius Pilate. But there was also the Jewish court, the Sanhedrin. And here the Pharisees were expert lawyers wielding their traditions, the prophets, and especially the law of Moses.
In 1985, New York Chief Judge Sol Wachtler famously said, “A grand jury would indict a ham sandwich, if that’s what you wanted.” If you knew that lawyers were out to get you, watching your every move, you probably wouldn’t spend any more time around them than necessary. But in our Gospel for today from Luke 14 we find Jesus going right into the lion’s den. He went to eat at the house of a leader of the Pharisees. And not only that, but while he was there he challenged them on the law. And he stumped them! These experts couldn’t give him an answer. But what Jesus does here is he teaches all of us an important lesson about the law. We might feel overwhelmed and burdened by these things. We might throw up our hands in frustration and say, “It’s too much! Why do we need all these laws? Why can’t we just love each other?” But that is what God commands. God’s law is that we love. The heart of it all is selfless, humble love.
It all began with a man suffering from the swelling of his body, a condition known as dropsy. We aren’t told how he got there, but some commentators note that with the man’s serious condition and the Pharisees watching Jesus, they might have brought the sick man there themselves as a test. You see, it was the Sabbath, the sixth day of the week, a day on which Moses commanded that no one was to do any work. Jesus had been around long enough that the Pharisees knew that often healed the sick. They knew that he had pity on those who were suffering. So what would he do? Would he heal this man right in front of them even though the command says he must not do any work? Would his love lead him to break the law? Well, what does Luke say?
Jesus addressed the legal experts and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?”
4But they were silent. So he took hold of the man, healed him, and let him go. 5He said to them, “Which of you, if your son or an ox would fall into a well on a Sabbath day, would not immediately pull him out?”
6And they could not reply to these things.
Jesus openly asked the question that was on all their minds. But they didn’t answer him. They couldn’t answer him. They would have liked to say, “No, it is not lawful to heal on the Sabbath. That’s work, and work is forbidden. Jesus, you are no righteous man. A righteous man would follow the law of Moses. You despise and trample the law of Moses.”
But they couldn’t say that. And Jesus healed the man, as easy as you please, and he asked them who among them would not pull his son or even an animal, his ox, out of a well if he fell down it on a Sabbath day.
And they couldn’t answer, because they didn’t know what to say. Were they going to argue that no, they really were that merciless, that lacking in pity, that empty of love? Like a lawyer in court who has accidentally proven his opponent’s case, their devious argument against Jesus had come around to bite them. Who was really keeping the law of Moses here? Did they all believe that laws exist to be broken? Or was it that this whole time these Pharisees had been thinking that they could pit obedience against love, when all God’s commands are fulfilled by love?
The thing is, true righteousness demands a love that goes far beyond the letter of the law. As these Pharisees, these men who were proud of their own righteousness, grabbed their seats for the meal now Jesus was the one watching them. They were all grabbing the seats of honor, each man vying for the best place he could take for himself. And so Jesus remarked on this and said,
8“When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline in the place of honor, or perhaps someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him. 9The one who invited both of you may come and tell you, ‘Give this man your place.’ Then you will begin, with shame, to take the lowest place.
10“But when you are invited, go and recline in the lowest place, so that when the one who invited you comes, he will tell you, ‘Friend, move up to a higher place.’ Then you will have honor in the presence of all who are reclining at the table with you.
11“Yes, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
That’s some good practical advice, right? Who wants to be shamed in front of everyone, kicked out of your seat, stripped of the honor you grabbed for yourself? Honor is given, not taken. So humble yourself.
This isn’t just practical advice for wedding banquets though. This is a little picture of our relationship with God. It might be embarrassing to be kicked out of a seat at a banquet, but how much worse is it to think yourself deserving of honor before God and to be told, “You don’t belong here. Get out of here. Give this man your place!”
The Pharisees looked at righteousness before God the way that lawyers analyze civic statutes. They were looking for loopholes and lawsuits. They were looking to prove their case and win the day. But if they thought that they were going to come into the courtroom of the Lord on Judgment Day and win their own case by their clever arguments, they were in trouble. If Jesus’ gentle questions now were leaving them speechless, what will they say on the day when every sin is laid bare?
And what does this say about us? Do we ever pit God’s law against love? Do we think ourselves righteous because we go through the motions? “I did my duty for God. I went to church. I gave my offerings. I put in my time of service. What more could God want from me?” We might not know the law half as well as the Pharisees did, and yet we still think of ourselves as twice as righteous. When we sneer at the Pharisees as the worst kinds of lawyers, aren’t we claiming that we deserve more honor than they?
But we haven’t kept all of God’s law, not even close. Do I think I deserve a place of honor at the wedding banquet of heaven? I don’t deserve even the lowest place. I don’t deserve to be there at all.
But as low as the place I deserve is, Jesus made himself even lower. He came and took the very lowest place, the last place. He took your sins of self-righteousness, your sins of haughty legalism, your sins of lovelessness and together with all the sins of the whole world he suffered and died for them on the cross. He took the lowest place and gave you his place and his perfect life, so that the decree from the Father in heaven to you is “Friend, come up here. Move up to a higher place.”
Jesus has been exalted. He rose from the dead. He ascended into heaven. And yet even now he comes to us in humble ways in order to raise us up. He comes to us by the proclamation of his holy Word. He comes to us in water, a washing in his name. He comes to us in humble bread and wine which he makes the most glorious meal of our salvation. He calls to us who are drowning in the regulations of the law and our sins against it and says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Jesus doesn’t send us out as lawyers. The law of God is not our burden anymore. Instead, with our sins forgiven and our salvation firmly grasped with two hands, God’s law is our delight. It’s how we love. Motivated by the cross, guided by God’s word. Whatever our vocations are in this life, even for lawyers, we do it out of love for him who first loved us, who fulfilled the law with his humble, selfless love. Amen.
— Pastor Seth Georgson