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Jesus never went to eat bread with righteous and good people. There were none. There are none today either. You are neither righteous nor good. Jesus is good. Jesus is the Good Physician. Jesus came to bring back to life the dead and to heal the sick. You were dead. You were healed at the moving waters of Holy + Washing. At the Font the Spirit hovered over the deep of everlasting forgiveness in three small cupfuls of the Son's Blood and Water. At the Font the Angel of the Lord stirred the waters and entered into you, filling your parched dead corpse with living Water. You remain sick, chronically be-deviled by daily trespasses. You are healed and given remission at the Confessional and at the Communion Rail wherein you ears hear those Gracious Words that are beyond all understanding: "I forgive you." Those are the Christ's Words, and in reality, it He Who is speaking them through the mouthpieces He calls His apostles, His ministers.

Jesus went to the houses of dead and dying people to eat. He ate with publicans, prostitutes, cripples, widows, zealots, fishermen, and yes Pharisees. Jesus wants all Pharisees to repent and believe on Him. Jesus wants all hypocrites to be saved.

It is hypocritical to think that the Lord is anything but good, even when it appears that things are going horribly bad all around one. It is hypocritical to put Jesus to any test or to watch Him critically in an attempt to see if He follows the "rules," (or your expectations).

There were many rules which the sinful Pharisees had self-constructed which got in the way of God's Law and most especially of God's Grace. You do the same thing. Your sinful nature constantly tries to re-make the Christ into someone who better fits your ideas of how things ought to be done. Oh, you don't think it's sinful to heal on the Sabbath, but don't deceive yourselves, there are plenty of selfish idiosyncrasies you indulge and wallow in. You loathe those of a differing political or world view than you. You delight in backbiting and slandering the public and famous personalities that our sad "newspapers" and fake networks parade daily. You think poor people are poor because they're lazy and irresponsible. You take triumphal joy in having correct doctrine but are not willing to try and share this honest teaching of Jesus with those who err through the fault of their dishonest shepherds. You may not try to actually "trap" Jesus into healing on Saturday so that you've got "one up on Him" but have you ever tried to "trap" one of Jesus' own hand-picked under-Shepherds (we call them pastors) by hurting their Holy Ghost inspired ministry? Yes you have. Yes you have. Yes you have.

If a first century Pharisee had a donkey that fell into a pit, even on a Saturday, that Pharisee would have broken the "legal rules" and rescued his poor dumb beast. Jesus understood that type of action, and had no problem with that kind of care and concern for private property, or for a valued animal and family fixture. Love God that is the Law. The Pharisee's thought they did. Love your neighbor. And while the Pharisees thought they did, the very fact that they could excuse breaking the rules for an ass but not for a fellow man, one for whom God the Redeemer was about to lay down His life for, marked them as not obeying the first Law either. You gathered here today need to know this truth: you don't love God the way that you need to because you don't love your fellow sinners the way you must. If you know this and feel sorry for this sin, praise God for His blessed conviction, and praise Him even more for His work on your behalf and His mercy which covers your damning shortcomings. You don't get to sit at the head table, or even at the table itself by anything you do. You don't get to act lowly and meek; you don't get to practice humility and gauge how well you're doing in abasing yourself. You will never place yourself low enough. You can never exhibit the proper deference and mildness. Only Jesus can make you an honored wedding guest at the banquet table. Jesus didn't come to rescue donkeys trapped in crevices and sink holes, He came to liberate you from the 6 foot deep pit of death and the bottomless hole of Hell. Jesus, God in the flesh, abased Himself in His "Humiliation." It isn't that taking on flesh and blood was humbling, for it was not. It wasn't that obeying the Commandments of the Father was abasing, for it was His joy to be the obedient Son and the perfect Israel. It was in not using His Divine Nature for almost the entire period of His visible presence that marked Him as the silent Lamb, the suffering servant. Jesus, God in the flesh, abased Himself when He allowed sinners, such as you, to arrest Him falsely, try Him unjustly, beat Him unmercifully, and crucify Him most wickedly, all for their own guilt. He bathed in your stink and shame so that now, this very morning, you are perfumed in His "Sonly-scent," His Godly Grace. For this morning, He has come and raised you from the worst spot in the hall, and carried you to His bosom at the head, head table. Today you eat and drink as royalty and kin. You fare on that same Divine & Human Body and Blood. Jesus comes now to eat bread with righteous and good people. You are those people through faith in Him. There is nothing higher in all creation than to be at the Holy Communion rail. You are healed forever on "this" Sabbath.

In the Name of The Father and of The + Son and of The Holy Ghost