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"Humble Yourself" Luke 14:1-14 Year C, Proper 17

by Clancy Nixon

September 2, 2007

Church of the Holy Spirit

Ashburn, Virginia

www.HolySpiritAnglican.org

Jesus said, "He who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself

will be exalted." (Luke 14:11) This is one of many times that Jesus presents a paradox

designed to teach us spiritual truth. You remember he also said, "The first shall be last;

the last shall be first." That is similar to this one - "He who exalts himself will be

humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Take the seat of honor you don't

deserve, and you may be asked to step down. Take a humble place, and you may be asked

to step up.

There is a part of this that you and I get in our natural man. There is something

in us that likes to see the mighty fall, don't we? Particularly the mighty who toot their

own horn? When watching football, I admit that the natural man in me wants to see

loudmouth receivers like Terrell Owens get crushed I mean, to see him drop the ball.

That's not just because he plays for the Cowboys! In our first meeting or our Life

Transformation Group, Amir, Nathaniel and I had to answer a standard question: Did you

desire to see misfortune come to another this week? It is a very human desire to see

blowhards deflated, but it is not a virtue. Jesus is saying, if you puff yourself up, you will

be brought down to size. But if you consider yourself small, and do not insist on a place

of honor for yourself, then you will be exalted, in due time.

In Luke 14, Jesus arrives at a dinner party and discovers that the Pharisees are

vying for the places of honor at the table. Dominican scholar Albert Nolan says that in

the society in which Jesus lived, money was the second most important value. The

dominant value was prestige. (Jesus before Christianity, Maryknoll, 1978) Why? In

those days, everyone had an established place on the social ladder. Nothing was done

without taking into account the status or rank of the person. That included seats at dinner,

honor at the city gate, pecking orders for marriage choices, and even the seats in the

synagogue. That status was based on four things: first, ancestry a documented pedigree

as a Jew so important in the book of Ezra; second, on wealth; third, on education in the

law of Moses and in the tradition of the elders, in which the Pharisees shone; and fourth,

on virtue. Jesus upended that social order by taking the lowest place and eating with poor

people, prostitutes and tax collectors, and calls us to do the same.

One difficulty with Jesus' teaching on verse 11is that it does not always appear to

work out that way. It seems that the ones who exalt themselves in our culture are the ones

who are exalted! This is often true in sports and in business. In baseball, we admire the

humble hard work of Cal Ripken, but Barry Bonds, who has puffed himself up in a

variety of ways, is better known. The elaborate displays of some football players after

they score a touchdown are exercises in self-exaltation. Donald Trump has made a career

in real estate and now in television, by trumpeting his own abilities. Paris Hilton is

famous for what?- for nothing more than being famous. As our culture has become post-

Christian, self-promotion has become socially acceptable, even expected. Humility is a

Christian virtue, not a Greek virtue, or a pagan one. In our culture, if you take a seat

designated for someone else, you may not be told to move, either because people don't

want to hurt your feelings, or because they don't want to create a scene. I noticed that

such a self-promoter went un-rebuked at a formal dinner recently, so self-promotion was

rewarded.

Look again at what Jesus says in verse 11 he says, "He who exalts himself will

be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Jesus doesn't say, this is what

might happen it's not what we wish would happen - he says, this is what will happen.

The parable he tells of the dinner party where seats are exchanged is a sign of the justice

that will come in eternity. In this entire passage, Jesus is talking about justice in the

afterlife.

This becomes clear with the next advice Jesus gives in Luke 14, verse 13 when

you have a dinner party, don't invite your friends, relatives, or rich neighbors; but instead,

invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind, and you will be blessed. Though

they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. This is not

advice on how to prosper in this life; it is advice on how to prosper in the afterlife. Jesus

is saying, pursue earthly things, and you may have earthly rewards; pursue eternal things,

and you will have eternal rewards. Jesus knows about eternity. He created it!

Most times when we do the humble thing, no one else notices. Most times when

we help the poor, the lame, no one else notices. Let me assure you: the lame notice. The

poor notice. Most important, your Father in Heaven notices.

Because I am married to her, I have noticed that Ginger often does this. She

practices radical hospitality, serving anyone who walks in the door. One time when we

were in Seminary, Ginger was driving to the movie theatre church we served in

Woodbridge, called Christ our Lord Church. She and I took separate cars, because I

would stay after church for meetings, so she had our young sons with her. A couple of

men in the car behind her collided with her car. When she got out to investigate, it turned

out that these two men were drunk at 9:00 in the morning, having been up all night. The

damage to the cars was barely noticeable, but you know what Ginger did? She invited

them to church with her so that they could get some coffee, sober up and drive safely

home. These two men were so embarrassed, or so overwhelmed, that they agreed to

follow Ginger to Church! Turns out that they did not follow her to church, and as soon as

they turned away, Ginger saw them pulled over by a police car. She invited them to the

feast, but they declined.

Most of us will never be recognized in this life for the little acts of hospitality to

the needy that we do. When we take the lowest place at the party, often we stay there.

You can go too low, however - beyond humility to humiliation. Humiliation is an

attitude that says, "Poor me, I am worthless. My whole life is a big mistake, and I can't

do anything right!" Humiliation produces people who act like doormats, believing that

they deserve to be walked upon. This can result from overly critical parenting, or from

bad theology. In psychological terms we call it low self-esteem, and it is a real problem

for some people. This is not what Jesus is talking about when he tells us to humble

ourselves. Jesus starts with the assumption that we are all precious in God's sight. We

are not just dust in the wind, not just a vapor that passes. Jesus sees each person as an

immortal being of infinite worth - worth dying for. We are fearfully and wonderfully

made in the image of God. We are only a little lower than the angels, but at the end of

days we will reign over them, as you and I reign with Christ in glory. True humility is

not about denigrating the glorious possibility that God created in each one of us, but in

recognizing that our potential for glory will become a reality only when we humble

ourselves, and admit we need God's help. Admitting our inadequacy is our first

qualification.

Have you admitted your inadequacy to God?

Let's look again at Luke 14:11. "He who exalts himself will be humbled, and he

who humbles himself will be exalted." This verse contains the whole gospel message!

Look with me. It begins, "If we exalt ourselves" this is like saying, First John 1:8, "If

we say we have no sin." It's like saying, "I have no need of God." If we say that by our

own efforts we can save ourselves, then we will be humbled. "If we say we have no sin,

we deceive ourselves." Just look at your own behavior with whom you invite to dinner

are you righteous? Do you exalt yourself by comparing yourself to others? If we trust in

our own righteousness to save us, then one day, we will find our righteousness to be as

filthy rags. Jesus says, "He who exalts himself will be humbled." We are sinners in need

of a savior.

The next part of the verse says, "He who humbles himself will be exalted." We

humble ourselves before God by confessing that we have sinned, and that we need a

savior to rescue us and a Lord to guide us. True humility is coming to the end of your

self, and telling God and others that you need a savior. If we confess our sins and our

need, and acknowledge that there is nothing we can do to help ourselves, then Jesus will

say to us, Come up higher, come into my presence. Jesus says, enter my Kingdom: not as

an executive or a scholar or with any list of accomplishments, but as a little child, with

simple faith. When you humble yourself, you admit that you can't save yourself, you

can't do it alone, you need God to help you. Humble yourself by submitting to God, and

you will be exalted, you will be glorified, and enter your inheritance with the saints in

light.

Where do you sit? You can fight for your place with the powerful or you can sit

with the powerless. You can battle your way up the ladder of success or you can invest in

those who can never repay you in this life. If you humble yourself, you will be exalted.

If you'd like to pray with me, join with me now.