Luke 14:7-24

Humility or Humiliation, Part Two

Luke 14:7-24

One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. ² There in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy. ³Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” ⁴But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away.

⁵Then he asked them, “If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?” ⁶And they had nothing to say.

⁷When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: ⁸“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. ⁹If 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. ¹⁰But 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. ¹¹For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹²Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. ¹³But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

¹⁵When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”

¹⁶Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. ¹⁷At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ ¹⁸“But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ ¹⁹“Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ ²⁰ “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’

²¹“The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ ²²“‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ ²³“Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. ²⁴I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”

The first time I met Stacy Smith was in the summer of 2000 when I came to Viroqua for a first casual interview. One of the first questions Stacy asked me was if I had a favorite chair I sat on at home. Because of his work as a lawyer, Stacy had read a recent article that demonstrated an association between men who have a favorite chair, kind of like Archie Bunker, and those who are authoritative and potentially abusive.

Luke tells us that Jesus noticed how the prominent Pharisees chose the places of honor at this dinner party—kind of like their “favorite chairs”. This is a cultural phenomenon that is not very common today. The closest comparison I could think of is a wedding reception. The bride, groom and wedding party sit at the main table, which is kind of a seat of honor. Imagine what would happen if the best man and the maid of honor insisted on sitting in the middle of the table which is traditionally reserved for the bride and groom? That would be a strange sight, would it not? What is strange to us was an everyday experience for first century Pharisees. They were accustomed to getting preferential treatment wherever they went. There were designated seats of honor closest to the host which everyone knew were reserved for the highest ranking man. Not only did everyone know the order of proper seating, but each man would have been keenly aware of his place in the order of hierarchy. If you were third from the highest, you would want to make absolutely sure that the number one man and the number two man were not going to be there before you dared take the top spot.

Jesus was watching this pecking order play itself out as the guests arrived to the dinner party. The Pharisees thought they had set the perfect trap for Jesus by inviting Jesus and a sick man to the same dinner on the Sabbath, but he turned the tables on them and had already humiliated them three times. The first humiliation came when they refused to answer his question about the lawfulness of healing on the Sabbath. The second humiliation came when Jesus actually reached out and healed the man with dropsy and the third humiliation had come when he asked a second question about pulling a son or an ox out of a well on the Sabbath. How would you like it if one of your guests humiliated you three times in a row?! But Jesus wasn’t done yet.

If you did not know Jesus very well, his words sounds a bit like advice from Dear Abby or Miss Manners about how to conduct oneself at a dinner party. Advice like: make sure you use your salad fork, don’t slurp your soup and never take the place of honor lest you be humiliated. Jesus was not giving directions on dinner party protocol. He was not advocating false humility by taking the lowest seat and then being rewarded when the host elevated you to a higher seat. Rather Jesus was rebuking his host and the guests for their prideful self-seeking. This type of self-promotion is so foreign to our culture that it is hard to relate. The Pharisees were not attempting to hide their prideful position. They thought they deserved special treatment and they let the watching world know how important they were. In our culture, other than celebrities who love having their picture taken, most of our pride hovers below the surface hidden from public view. Anyone who elevates themselves in an obviously pompous manner is looked down upon in our culture, so our pride is driven deep below the surface.

On the surface we might think we are less prideful than these Pharisees, but in reality our pride is of a more dangerous type. The Pharisees knew they took pride in the seats of honor, so when Jesus exposed their pride, not one person could deny his accusation. They certainly did not like what he was saying, but they could not deny it. That is why our stealth pride is more dangerous because we may not even be aware of it. The person who is most prideful is usually the one who is least aware of it. Tony reminded me of the story of the pastor whose congregation thought so highly of him that they presented him with a button that said, “The most humble pastor”, and then the next week they fired him for wearing it! As we said last week, pride is the mother of all sins—just about every sin could be traced back to pride. Pride develops into hidden thoughts like, “I deserve—I want—I need—I am right—what’s wrong with him.” Pride seeks to protect our reputation at all costs. The masks that we wear so that no one can see the real us are attached by pride. The hypocrisy by which we behave a certain way in public and a different way in private is driven by pride.

I’ll give you an example from my own life. By the way, I don’t mind sharing my sins with you, but you are always free to offer me your stories of failure so I don’t always have to tell mine! J How many of you have bought or sold things on Ebay? If you have, then you know the importance of positive feedback and conversely, the curse of negative feedback. Positive and negative feedback form your online reputation, and when it comes to Ebay, all you’ve got is your reputation. I have worked hard to maintain a good reputation. I have bought and sold over 120 items on Ebay and I had a 100% positive feedback rating—the holy grail in the world of Ebay. Last December I paid for a purchase that never arrived. Finally I filed a complaint with Ebay and after a month of trouble, my money was refunded. Naturally the seller who tried to rip me off deserved a negative feedback for this transaction, so I gave him one. A day later he has the nerve to give me a negative feedback and accuses me of being a liar and a cheat. Just that easily my perfect 100% positive feedback rating was destroyed. My online reputation was dragged through the cyber-mud by an unscrupulous seller and there was nothing I could do about it. Or was there? I was so ticked off by this foul-mouthed crook that I began to think of ways to get back at him. I checked into other lawful ways to punish him though Ebay, but came up empty handed. Then my twisted pride devised a dastardly solution. I could create a false Ebay account, buy 40 or 50 of his products and not pay for them. He would spend weeks trying to collect money and straighten out the mess. Now that would be justice in action, don’t you think?! Just so you know, my plan never got past the conception phase. I swear to you, I am not a vengeful person. There are no dead bodies buried in my backyard of people who tried to rip me off! But my sick story shows the awful power of pride.

I left off last Sunday with the question—“why is it so hard to choose humility?” Jesus warns us that every person who exalts himself will be brought low. These Pharisees were brought low—they were humiliated—the very thing they feared the most and the complete opposite of what they were used to. This is exactly what happens to each of us—eventually we are humiliated and humbled by God. But the pursuit of humility is just the opposite. Humility brings a reward. ¹² Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. ¹³But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

According to Jesus, what happens when we invite our peers to dinner? We get repaid by being invited to dinner at their house. Even if that is not your motive, the reality is true because the favor is often returned. But of we ask people to dinner who can never repay us, then we don’t receive a reward from our guests, but we do receive a reward from God.

Let me put this into some principles we can hold on to.

1. Pride brings immediate reward. I invite you to dinner and then you invite me. I scratch your back and you scratch mine.

2. Pride brings delayed humiliation. Jesus has sternly warned that all pride will one day be humiliated.

3. Humility brings delayed reward. God promises that you will be repaid, but it may not happen in this life.

4. Humility brings immediate sacrifice. If we are to serve others who cannot serve us in return, then our sacrifice comes first.

Let’s put this all together now to see why the path of pride is so easy to walk and the path of humility is less trod.

Pride brings an immediate reward, but the pain of humiliation is far off. Humility is just the opposite—the sacrifice comes first and the reward is far off in the future. Do you see how this works against us choosing humility? The path of least resistance is pride and the more difficult path is humility. Every natural force works against us, but there is a way out. In order to break this cycle, we have to make two choices—the same two choices that were available to the first century Pharisees.

First, we must choose to believe that God humbles the proud. A few weeks ago Ethan asked me why robbers keep robbing people—do they think that they won’t get caught? I told him if they rob ten times in a row and don’t get caught, then maybe they start to think they will never get caught. That is really the problem with pride. Jesus says that all prideful people will be humiliated and brought low, but it usually doesn’t happen right away. Like most sins, we are prideful because it works and we like the results. So we must choose to believe that pride is an offense against God and that some form of humiliation awaits us—even if it is far off.

Second, we must choose to believe that God rewards the humble person. Jesus’ words could not be more clear—Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. Do you believe that God will repay you? It’s a difficult concept for us because we imagine that it is wrong to seek a reward. It is true that we really don’t deserve a reward for doing good, but God is so generous that he wants to pay us back. That is what Jesus said—he will pay you back for your acts of humility. So we have two choices—to believe that pride will eventually bring humiliation and humility will eventually bring reward, but it’s a gamble—it’s a step of faith. Why should I do something difficult now with the hope that good comes later when I can have good now and perhaps the bad part can be avoided. It all comes down to a choice to believe. Do you believe that God humbles the proud? Do you believe that God rewards the humble?

Let’s use a real life illustration and run it through our grid. Let’s assume, as is often the case, that you are struggling with forgiving someone. From your lofty position of pride you assume this person doesn’t deserve to be forgiven. If you follow our grid, you have an immediate reward and a delayed humiliation. Your reward is that you get the privilege of punishing this person by withholding your forgiveness. Similarly, your other reward is that you avoid the pain of offering forgiveness. So what if you haven’t forgiven them. Maybe you will be able to avoid being humbled by God—who knows for sure? Now from this point forward, what will motivate you to forgive? Almost nothing! All of the forces are pulling in the direction of holding onto your pride and nothing is pushing you to forgive.

Now take that same illustration and add a healthy dose of the future reward of forgiveness and the future humiliation by God. If you don’t forgive God will painfully humble you and you will lose your reward. Do you believe that God humbles the proud? Do you believe that God rewards the humble? If you don’t chances are you will never forgive. This example is not as good as the one Jesus gave because we know that there is also a present reward for forgiveness. When we forgive, a great burden is lifted from us and the root of bitterness is removed from being entangled in our hearts. Oftentimes we do receive some form of reward in this life, but we have absolute assurance of payment in the eternal kingdom.

The main application I want to draw from this passage is that humility can be cultivated. You see, it’s not enough just to say that pride is wrong—we need positive to put in its place. We need to weed out our pride and cultivate our humility and I think Jesus presents a compelling application for any church. Let’s read it again from v.12. ¹² Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. ¹³But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” Jesus did not mean that we can’t invite friends and family for dinner. He is not forbidding such gatherings, but he is asking us to do something where there is no possibility of being repaid.

Here is a wild idea—why don’t we take Jesus at his word and invite people who cannot repay us to dinner? Here is hoe we could do it. Last week someone offered to donate toward a fund to buy tables and chairs so that we can have potlucks here at the Landmark. I thought this was an excellent idea and had planned to announce the start of our tables & chairs fund this morning. But then it hit me—why don’t we take that same idea but also plan to invite al kinds of people to our potluck? As it was we usually had 3-4 people from outside our church who would mysteriously show up when we had a potluck. Why don’t we just go out of our way and invite 30 or 40 people? We could treat them as special guests—let them get their food first, sit with them at our new tables and carry on a conversation. We could invite everyone from the Fortney. We could invite our neighbors. Most churches plan such meals as fundraisers for their own church, but we would be doing it as a gift to our community. We would be doing a service in the name of Jesus Christ with no expectation of being repaid. We would have the opportunity for great conversations during the meal. We would develop many new relationships. I told this idea to one person and he said, “It doesn’t sound safe.” I love that! Who here this morning only wants to do ‘safe’ kinds of ministry? I know our heads might be telling us this idea sounds crazy, but I hope your heart is saying something different. So far this is just my idea. We can talk about it further at the congregational meeting a week from tomorrow, I know Jesus had more applications than this in mind for his parable, but he didn’t have les than this, did he?

Rich Maurer

February 5, 2006