“Demonic Dropsy Healed by Living Water”
Saint Luke 14. 1-11
The 17th Sunday after Trinity: 16 September Anno Domini 2011
Father Jay Watson S.S.P.
The Lord was sent to seek and to save the lost. The broken are the lost but so too are the broken ones that don't know they're broken. Jesus came to the house of a Pharisee to gather in the hypocrite. He continues to come this very day to gather sinners, such as we; old-Adam hypocrites such as we.
The Christ came for all of us with the dropsy. The man in our story who was so afflicted suffered from an abnormal and debilitating (life-threatening) over accumulation of fluid in his body. The over-retention of water around the heart and lungs can kill, but even excess fluid on the knees, hips, ankles and other joints can be painful and crippling. One is fed on the Bread of Life; one' thirst is slaked by the Water from The Well; but one eating the world's garbage is poisoned, and one drinking from Satan's shot-glass is being bloated and puffed up with unbelief.
How fitting for Jesus to go into the house of one who is distended and disfigured by arrogance and pride (the Pharisee) only to be confronted by a poor soul (the believer with the dropsy) who is likewise crippled and mangled by a physical excess of fallen, broken, diseased, and wrong liquid. Dropsy literally means hydro-pikus, that is, water-logged or water held. Sin holds one in bondage. The ravages of the flesh bind on in pain and breakdown.
What is more important the Law or the Gospel? The answer is yes.
Both God's work of slaying and God's proper and joyful work of life-giving are part and parcel of His total and complete Word. "The Lord killeth and the Lord maketh alive." [1 Sam. 2. 6a] To refrain from healing on the Sabbath was never the Lord's intention when the Law was given to Saint Moses on Mount Horeb. To do good is in fact the end and purpose of the two tablets. To love God is to heal the breach of Adam's disobedience. To love, to do good, to heal ones neighbor is to heal the breach of Adam's disobedience. The Pharisees and all of their man-made rules and regulations had lost sight of both the real purpose of the Law and the real gift of the Gospel of Forgiveness.
Jesus is the Sabbath in His very Flesh and Blood. Jesus is eternal rest, restoration and peace in His very Word.
The Pharisees "held their peace." That's what sin, death, the devil, and your fallen natures does…it covets, steals, hoards, and selfishly holds peace, that is, love. The Pharisees, and your own inner Pharisee, held back from both obedience and from love. REPENT!
Peace was in their midst. Jesus is the Peace of God in the Flesh that passeth all understanding. Peace and Mercy are outgoing and over-flowing.
Peace is in your midst o ye of the dropsy of sin and hypocrisy. You are + baptized. Not only has the old leaven been purged from you, but also the old salt water of sin in your bones, joints, heart and lungs, been bailed out and forced out by the clean, crisp, pure springs of living water from the side of the Lord, from His mountain brook of Holiness, from His Altar of the cross then, and from His altar of Sacrament NOW!
Christ's life for you and in you is nothing else but the Holy Baptismal life. Your sanctification, that is, your holiness is nothing else but the Holy Ghost active in you through the Word - - washed on, placed in, eaten and drunk.
Jesus fasted and went without water in the desert so that you might be credited with obedience; so that you might be restored to the Paradise of the Banquet eternal in Him; the feast where the good wine is reserved for the end. Jesus had the filth from you and all sinners washed on to Him at the Jordan, at the Praetorium, and at the Cross so that you might be washed with the water of regeneration at the font and the every + day font of the Living Word in you by the Word.
The held their peace, but He Who is the Prince of Peace gives His peace to you this day. "And He took him (you), and healed him, and let him go." You are baptized. You are free from dropsy, and rather rise to be lead to the choicest seats at the Wedding Feast. You are exalted…
In the Name of The Father and + of The Son and of The Holy Ghost