Luke 14:1,7-14
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecostย -ย 28 August 2016
Rev. John Derme
What does it mean to be "humbled?" Do you know what it is like to "humble" yourself? Do you know what it means to show "humility?" This probably isn't the first time you've heard those words. But it's not as if they are the most common words in the average American's vocabulary. To be humbled is to lose one's prestige and power. To show humility means to act in a lowly way. Does our society see humility as a good thing? Sometimes a person will be commended for being humble. But for the most part, there is nothing worse than being humiliated.
If being humbled is to be lowered in stature, then being exalted is just the opposite. It means being raised up. It is much more desirable for us to be exalted than to be humbled. People like being elevated in power and praise. They don't spend their lives working to have less and less authority and prestige. They work to gain more and more.
You and I live in a world of people who like to exalt themselves. How does Jesus want us to act? Does he want us to suffer humility or to enjoy exaltation? What do you want for yourself? Do you want to be humbled or exalted?
We may think that the way people in this world exalt themselves is something that is happening more as time goes on. But Jesus started talking about being humbled and being exalted, because he saw the people around him exalting themselves. Jesus was invited to eat a Sabbath meal at the house of one of the Pharisee leaders. All the Pharisees who were there thought they could catch him doing something wrong that they could use against him.
When the people were taking their places to eat, Jesus saw them jockeying for the positions of honor at the table. So he told them a parable to teach them the foolishness of exalting themselves. When you are invited to a wedding celebration, he says, don't take the seat of honor. If you do, and someone else more distinguished than you comes, your host will tell him to take your place and ask you to move down to the only one that's still available โ the lowliest place. How humiliating that will be! Instead, take the lowliest place, and when your host sees you there, he will ask you to take a better place. Then you will receive honor. Then you will be exalted rather than humbled.
The guests at this dinner weren't the only ones exalting themselves. The host was, in a sense, as well. He had invited his friends and other influential people to eat, knowing that they would sometime return the favor. Then, he would receive his honor. Jesus told him, however, that he should seek honor in a different way. Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, he said, because they cannot repay you. But what they cannot repay, God can; and he will repay that kind of humility on the Last Day.
Imagine yourself in Jesus' parable to the guests that day. You are invited to a huge wedding reception. You arrive and waltz right up to the head table to take a seat. What is the groom going to say when the wedding party arrives? "You can't sit here!" By that time, the only spot left is in the back of the hall, where you can hardly see or hear the speeches. What a humiliating walk that would be as everyone watches you go from front to back! You would probably never do that, of course. You may never sit in the seat of the guests of honor. But, when you arrive and have your choice of seats, would you choose that lowly seat in the back? You might not humble yourself like that, either.
Now put yourself in the place of Jesus' host that day. Whom do you invite to your house for dinner? Do you humble yourself and exalt others by inviting people who probably don't receive many dinner invitations? Or do you invite your friends, relatives, and neighbors who are going to invite you to their house sometime? Do you exalt the people who are going to exalt you back?
Now, some of us would have to say, "Jesus is right. I'm guilty of exalting myself like that." But some of you would probably say, "I've never done that. I don't even go to wedding receptions and dinner parties. I don't invite anyone to eat at my house." Jesus' examples of guests and hosts were fitting for everybody in the house that day. What example would he use to highlight the times when you have exalted yourself?
Would he use the time that you exalted yourself at your job at the expense of the other workers, so that you would be honored with a promotion or raise in pay or just so that the others would see what good work you do? Would Jesus use the example of how you exalted yourself at home at the expense of your family members so that you wouldn't have to clean up after the meal or take out the trash or any number of other undesirable jobs? Would Jesus point out the time that you exalted yourself in the classroom over your classmates so that everyone would be amazed at how smart you are? Would Jesus mention the time that you exalted yourself at church over your fellow parishioners so that they would see what a great Christian you are? Think for a moment; what example would Jesus use to show you how you have exalted yourself and humbled others?
Our desire to be exalted is only natural. We like to be honored and rewarded. But when we exalt ourselves, Jesus says, that is not going to happen. Like the presumptuous wedding guest who sat at the head table, if we exalt ourselves, God will humble us. And you don't want to be humbled by God. From the law-breaking CEO who uses cheats others to get herself rich until she is exposed and jailed to the crooked politician who uses his authority to sell positions in the government until he is impeached and shamed, God knows how to humiliate people during this life. But even if someone gets away with exalting himself his whole life, the humbling that comes after this life is even worse. God will send people who have spent their time on earth raising themselves up to suffer never-ending shame in hell. Now does it seem like a good idea to exalt ourselves?
No, Jesus tells us, we ought to humble ourselves. But how do we do that, when we naturally desire to be honored? We cannot learn to humble ourselves until we learn how Jesus humbled himself for us. If there was anyone who deserved to be exalted, it was Jesus. He is the God to whom all honor belongs from all eternity. But Jesus humbled himself and gave it all up. He became a man to live a lowly life of sorrow, suffering, and pain so that he could exalt the poor and disabled whom he met in his world. But if he humbled himself in his life, then his death was the deepest depth of humiliation. Even though he had never exalted himself at the expense of another person, nor sinned in any other way, he was shamed as a criminal on a cross.
But if he didn't deserve it, why did Jesus humble himself in death? On that cross he was dying for your sins. He was suffering the humiliation that you deserved. He humbled himself so that he could exalt you. Spiritually speaking, we were the poor and the crippled and the lame and the blind, because we couldn't do a thing to heal ourselves from our sins. But Jesus has exalted us by taking our sins away and by earning for us an honored place in his kingdom!
What an honor it is to be exalted by Jesus! This is an honor that we could never have earned, and there is nothing that we can do to repay him for it. But even though we didn't earn our exaltation the first time, Jesus tells us that he wants to do it again. With his life and death, he has exalted us, and he has taught us how to exalt others. Indeed, it is he who is at work in us to give us the strength to humble ourselves for them. And he promises that he will exalt us again in heaven as a reward for humbling ourselves here. That is a mind-blowing promise, if you think about it, because we do not deserve any credit for the humility that we show. We can only do it, because of what he has done for us. Yet he promises to glorify us as a reward for it anyway, even though we can never earn that reward.
Jesus humbled himself to exalt you, and he plans to exalt you again in heaven. Aren't you willing to humble yourself for him? There is no way that we can ever repay him for what he has done to raise us from the humiliation of our sins. But we can show him our thanks by obeying his commands to humble ourselves and exalt others. When we honor other people rather than honoring ourselves, it is not only them that we honor. We are honoring Jesus.
Most people don't like to be humbled, but Jesus tells us that we will be humbled one way or another. Either we will humble ourselves, or he will humble us. On the other hand, Jesus doesn't say that being exalted is a bad thing. In fact, he wants us to be exalted โ just not in the eyes of this world. He calls us to humble ourselves while we live on earth, and he will exalt us in heaven. Do you want to be humbled or exalted? The answer is "yes!" Humbled here and exalted there.