“A Humble Heart”

Luke 14:1, 7-14A

Jesus grew up in Galilee, which meant some might have called him a hick.
The sophisticated city folks in Jerusalem looked down on Jesus. On one
particular Sabbath, Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee.
When Jesus noticed how the guests worked their way to places of honor at
the table, he told them this parable: “When someone invites you to a
wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more
distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited
both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ Then,
humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you
are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will
say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in
the presence of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will
be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. ”This concept is
totally opposite of the way the world thinks. The world says if you want to
be successful and be somebody you've got to push, fight and work your
way to the top. But Jesus says just the opposite. He says if you try to
promote yourself, you’ll end up humbled. James 4:10 says “Humble
yourself before the Lord and He will lift you up.” So, on one hand we have
pride. On the other hand, we have the concept of humility. Let's talk about
the problem with pride. Pride is basically the attitude that says, “‘the world
revolves around me.” As Jesus observed these men, He detected the
poison of pride in their lives. Pride wasn’t just a problem back then, it’s a
problem today. Two things that make pride such a problem. First, it’s hard
to recognize it in yourself. Someone once said pride is the only disease that
makes everyone sick except the one who has it. We are usually blind to it
in our own lives. Those of you of my generation will remember the song by
Carly Simon, “You’re So Vain.” Carly Simon never revealed who she was
talking about when she wrote it, but she did date Warren Beatty, who
dumped her. And he did call her up after the song and thanked her for
writing it about him! The words say:“ You’re so vain; you probably think this
song is about you. You’re so vain....”And you can thank me later for singing
this to yourself all afternoon. Apparently Carly Simon never revealed who
the song was about, but rumor has it that she dated Warren Beatty and he
dumped her and after she released the song, he called her up and thanked
her for writing a song about him.
2Pride and vanity lurk just below the surface of your life and you aren’t
even aware it's there until someone or something brings it to your attention.
Another problem with pride is that it leads to ruin. The greatest warning
about the danger of pride can be seen in the devil himself. Before the
creation of the world, Satan was a beautiful angel named Lucifer. He let
pride and ambition take over his personality until he rebelled against the
Most High God. We read about it in Isaiah 14:12-15: How you are fallen
from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the
ground—mighty though you were against the nations of the world. For you
said to yourself, “I will ascend to heaven and rule the angels. I will take the
highest throne. I will preside on the Mount of Assembly far away in the
north. 1 will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.” But
instead, you will be brought down to the pit of hell, down to its lowest
depths. Satan wanted to take God’s place. He wanted to be his own little
God. He said, “I’m moving on up!” God said, “No, Satan, you’re going
down.” God kicked Satan out of heaven and he’s been going down ever
since and one day, he’ll be cast into the pit of hell. Why? Because he
exalted himself and tried to misplace himself above God and he continues
to do it every day. In the Garden of Eden, Satan said to Eve, “If you will eat
that fruit, you will be like God.” That was a lie, but Eve swallowed it. People
today still believe the lies of our spiritual enemy: "you don’t need God, you
don’t need Jesus; just be your own God!" By eating the fruit, Eve thought
she was moving upward to a higher stage of consciousness, but it led to
being kicked out of the beautiful, perfect environment of the Garden of
Eden. Why? Because pride always leads to ruin. You don’t find a lot of
people who are asking the question, “How can I be more humble?” They
are asking, “How can I succeed?” Or “How can I climb to the top?” I did a
search on Amazon recently for “how to be more humble.” The first two
books that came up were "How to Stay Humble When You're Smarter Than
Everybody Else" and "The Know It All: One Man's Humble Quest to
Become the Smartest Person in the World." The Bible speaks over and
over about the value of humility. Proverbs 29:23 says, “A man’s pride will
bring him low; but the humble in spirit retains honor. ”There are three
characteristics of true humility: First, true humility is seeing yourself as God
sees you. Humility is not having a poor self-image and thinking you are a
doormat. It’s having an honest evaluation of who you are–as the Bible
describes you. On one hand I am a sinner who deserves death and hell–
yet I am a child of God. Humility is found in the tension and the balance
between those two realities. Paul writes in Romans 7 about what a
wretched creature he is who cannot refrain from sin. He says the good
things he wants to do, he doesn’t do them. And the bad things that he
doesn’t want to do, he does them. That's messed up. But in the very next
3chapter he writes about how we are deeply loved as children of God–heirs
of God with Christ. Was he confused? No, he understood the balance.
There's a short story about the donkey Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm
Sunday. The donkey was so overjoyed at being chosen, he held his head
high as they entered the city. He drank in the songs of praise and enjoyed
walking on the palm branches underneath his hoofs. He relished the
attention directed toward them. A week later, the little donkey wanted to
enjoy it again, so he pranced out to retrace his steps–but this time, the
people didn’t pay him any attention. He said, “Where are the palm
branches, don’t you know who I am?” The people who heard him threw
rocks at him instead. The donkey neared the city of Jerusalem, and said,
“Where are the songs of praise for me? Don’t you remember me?” Inside
the city, nobody paid him any attention, they just shooed him away from
their stalls in the streets. The little donkey went home dejected and
humiliated. When his mother saw him she said, “Foolish child. Don’t you
know without Jesus you are nothing?” That’s true for each of us. Without
Jesus we are nothing, but in Christ, we can do all things. That’s humility.
Second, true humility is revealed by how I treat others. Humility is not some
kind of ribbon or medal you wear on your uniform. The only way to reveal
your humility is if you treat others more highly than yourself. Scripture says,
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider
others better than yourselves...your attitude should be that of Christ Jesus
who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God
something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very form of
a servant...” (Philippians 2:3-6) Jesus humbled Himself to step down from
the throne of heaven to become one of us–a human being. The night
before Jesus was crucified, all of the disciples were too full of pride to
perform the slave’s job of washing feet. Jesus humbled Himself and went to
the disciples and washed their dirty, dusty, stinking feet. He humbled
Himself again and became obedient unto death–He died the death of a
common criminal. What did God the Father do? Scripture says, "God highly
exalted Him and gave Him a name that is above every name.” That’s still
the way it works. The way down is up and the way up is down. May God
teach us to humble ourselves and treat others with kindness and respect.
Third, true humility is refined through adversity. I think sometimes when
God sees we are getting a little proud, He allows some humbling
experience to come our way. That’s what Jesus meant when He said,
“everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled.” Paul knew that. He wrote,
“To keep me from becoming conceited, there was given me thorn in my
flesh...” (2Corinthians 12:7). God allowed Paul to suffer some ailment to
keep him humble. I believe God still does that today. A pastor of a very
large church in Florida tells about the time a few years ago when he was
invited to his alma mater to receive a prestigious award. He said he was
sitting on a stage outside as part of the graduation exercises. He was
dressed in his finest black suit, and just before he was called up to
4receive his award, he began to think about how important he had become.
He said, “I was remembering that when I went to college there nobody
even knew me very well. I washed dishes in the cafeteria to pay my way
and couldn’t be involved in many activities, but now look at me! They know
who I am today!” He said he was feeling really good about himself, and just
at that moment–splat! A bird flew overhead, and covered him with
droppings, all over his shoulder and nice black suit! He was horrified for a
moment, then he began to laugh as he realized he was full of pride and to
this day, he thinks God sent that bird to give him a little humility! Has God
been sending some birds your way? Have you been going through a time
of adversity and struggle? Maybe God is trying to teach you some humility.
When trouble comes some people become bitter; others pray and bow
before God and become better. Which one are you?
My family sits down together at dinnertime most evenings.

It’s a time to catch up with the activities of the day, as well as just a respite from the busyness of
life. No texting is allowed at the table. It’s important for us to touch base with one another in this
way to ensure that all is well with, in our case, our four sons.

When our oldest son is home from college, the noise level is loud and the six of us are usually
talking at the same time. There’s a lot of laughter and if one of us has a good story or joke to
share, then all of us tune in. On the more serious side, it’s a time to make decisions as a family
and, on occasion, to put family pressure on one of our sons who may be about to make a serious
ethical decision. Character building and value shaping are central, even if not plotted, to the time
we share together around the evening meal.

Commentary
Jesus, too, is interested in mealtime. Jesus loved the gatherings around meals; at least, that’s
what we are led to believe in the Gospel of Luke. This was one of the primary distinctions
between him and his ascetic mentor John the Baptist. He doesn’t even deny the charge that he
enjoyed more than his share of wine at many meals (cf. 7:33). In our story, Jesus is at a banquet
and tells a “parable” about the meal setting, which is followed up by another story about another
banquet. He can’t get enough of what happens at meals.

On another note, it should not be surprising that Jesus shares a meal with some of the Pharisees.
Once we remove the negative impressions we have of this formidable group and recognize their
influence on many people during the first century, we should not be surprised by this encounter.
Just a few verses earlier some Pharisees actually assisted Jesus by informing him of Herod’s
plans to locate Jesus (cf. 13:31). This suggests a more neutral relationship between “the
Pharisees” and Jesus in Luke’s Gospel.

By chapter 14, Luke has established a pattern of Jesus’ freer activity on the Sabbath. These
Pharisees, not surprisingly, are “watching him closely” (14:1); perhaps it is due to what they
have heard about Jesus’ Sabbath practices earlier (e.g., 6:6-11 and 13:10-17). Whenever this verb
is used -- “watching” from paratereo (“keep alongside”) -- the religious leaders do not do this
simply out of curiosity.

They are trying to trap Jesus, either in some activity like healing on the Sabbath (cf. 6:7) or
something inappropriate he might say (cf. 20:20). But, here, after Jesus heals someone on the
Sabbath, there is no little to no reaction to Jesus’ activity. Luke wishes to draw our attention
elsewhere in this short story. He would like us to think about “meals” in first century life.

In the Gospel of Luke, meals, in particular, provide central settings for Jesus’ mission. And, the
language of food, in general, serves as a basis for Jesus’ teaching (cf. 11:5-8; 15:14-17, 23;
12:16-21, 45; 17:7-10). Eating is a sign of life (cf. 8:55; 17:27-28; 24:43) and celebration (cf.
15:23). But it also symbolizes the harsh realities for the enslaved (cf. 17:7-10). Food has
religious connotations as well (cf. 6:1-4; 7:33; 14:15; 22:14-20); Jesus “blessed” it (cf. 9:16;
22:19; 24:30) and prayed for it daily (cf. 11:3).
Even though Jesus shared several meals with Pharisees (cf. 7:36), they often complained about
his choice of (other) table-fellowship companions (cf. 5:30) and about how his associates secured
food on the Sabbath (cf. 6:1-4). Unlike his possible mentor (John the Baptist), Jesus loved food
(cf. 7:33) and his disciples followed suit (cf. 5:33). Just as he expects to care for the physical
needs of others (cf. 9:13), he expects that others will provide for his disciples when they minister
among them (cf. 9:3; 10:7-8).

Indeed, he assumes that friends will share it (cf. 11:5-8; 24:30), which is a natural outgrowth of
first-century Jewish culture. Theologically, he believes that God will provide for the basics of
life, so he teaches and acts accordingly (cf. 12:29-31).

In Luke 14, Jesus is less interested in the actual food than in the composition of the banquet. So,
he tells a story about meals and honor. It’s an unusual “parable” in light of its clear references.
His story emphasizes two components of the banquet setting: (1) the selection of “seats”
(honor?); and, (2) the invitation list. In an honor and shame culture, avoiding shame is of the
utmost importance. This is not simply embarrassment. Public shame may have tangible
implications for the shamed. A family’s bartering practices or marriage proposals can be
negatively affected by a public shaming, if the shame is significant enough.

On the opposite end, public honor -- determined, in this story, by the host -- may come to those
who express public humility. Jesus expresses expectations for hosts (cf. 14:12-14). His words are
a challenge to the honor system embedded in first-century culture. To secure one’s place in this
system, it was appropriate to invite friends, family, and rich neighbors. Reciprocal requests
would ensue, as the public acknowledgement of an honorable person may bring its own rewards.

But Jesus calls into question this type of caste system, imagining instead hosts who choose to
associate with people who are “poor, crippled, lame, and blind” (14:13) as their new network.
The problem for hosts, however, as Jesus explicitly recognizes, is that no honor is forthcoming in
return. Rather, it’s an investment in the future.

So what?
“One does not live by bread alone,” as Jesus argues in the temptation scene (4:4). Nor is Jesus
only concerned about what happens at meals. His teaching is about the way we treat others,
especially those among us who unable to “pay us back.” In a modern democratic society in
which public political rhetoric emphasizes that all are (created) equal, it is easy to miss the
emphasis of Jesus’ teaching in his own status-oriented, honor-shame and hierarchical space.

Yet, we have our ways of distinguishing one from another, in order to structure our
contemporary world. Oftentimes, these distinctions among us hinder us from true fellowship
with one another. Jesus’ story is a reminder to us about the company we keep. As Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. understood, “Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a
qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.”