Be neither self-seeking nor self-deprecating, but humble

Sermon for Trinity 17

Ephesians 4:1-6  +  Luke 14:1-11

You’ve heard the voice. “Every man for himself. Do what you have to do to get ahead. Go ahead and trample on the rights of others if you think it will help your cause. Look out for yourself. Focus on yourself. It’s your opinion that matters most. What do you need? How do you feel? What will benefit you? You don’t owe anyone anything. Is that little baby growing in your womb getting in the way of the future you want? Kill it! Remember, you’re the most important person in the room. Surely everyone, including God, must agree!”

You recognize that voice, don’t you?, those little gems, those little pieces of advice. It’s the voice of the devil, urging you to focus on yourself and think highly of yourself and look out for Number One. It’s the voice of the world, too, and also the voice that rises up from your sinful flesh. Look out for yourself! Be self-seeking!

Now, there is another voice out there, just as evil, equally diabolical. It’s the voice of the Communist, the voice of the collectivist, the voice of the socialist, and, ultimately, also the voice of the devil, the world, and the flesh. “Don’t be selfish! You don’t matter at all! You’re just a cog in the wheel, a tiny, tiny part of a much greater society. Society is what matters, not you. Your duty is to not get in the way of society’s progress, of society’s health, of society’s purpose. Your place in life is to make sure the collective thrives. It would be better for you to go away, crumple up, and die rather than jeopardize the well-being of society. So mask up and get vaccinated for the good of society, or else we’ll find a way to get rid of you.”

Isn’t it amazing that the devil, the world, and the flesh can speak two opposite, seemingly contradictory messages at the same time? “Be self-seeking! You’re the only one who matters!” on the one hand. “Don’t be selfish! You don’t matter at all!” on the other. But both are wrong. Both are lies.

Today’s Scripture lessons, the Epistle and the Gospel, dispel the devil’s lies and reveal the truth about how God would have us view ourselves in relation to our neighbor, and most importantly, how we should view ourselves in relation to God. Be neither self-seeking nor self-deprecating, but humble, like Jesus.

Jesus was attending a Sabbath-day supper at the home of a Pharisee. The Pharisees are perfect examples of that self-seeking mindset. Even the invitation to this dinner wasn’t for Jesus’ benefit, but for the purpose of “watching Him closely, to trap Him.

A man was there who had dropsy, a painful swelling of the legs. No one could help with that except for Jesus. But the Pharisees had been condemning Him for doing the “work” of healing on the Sabbath instead of “resting” as He was “supposed to.” Well, there were some lawyers sitting right there, experts in the Law. So they should be able to give an answer to Jesus’ simple question: Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? Is healing a sick person one of those “works” that God forbids? Or not? And yet no one would answer Him.

Why? Because they didn’t actually care either about God’s Law or about the man who needed healing. They weren’t interested in either. All they sought was their own glory, their own popularity, their own honor, their own self-interest. And it wasn’t in their interest to answer Jesus’ question. Clearly the Sabbath law was not intended to prevent doing good; but if they said that, it would legitimize Jesus’ whole teaching, and that wasn’t in their self-interest. If they said that the Sabbath law did prevent healing and helping a man, they would reveal themselves as hypocrites, because they would most certainly pull their own ox or donkey out of pit on the Sabbath, without thinking twice, so to deny such help to a fellow Israelite in need would be both hypocritical and cruel, and it wasn’t in their self-interest to appear that way.

Well, Jesus didn’t need their permission or their approval. He healed the man. He did it, not in violation of the Third Commandment, but in accord with it. Because the prohibition against work was a prohibition, not against every form of work, but against self-seeking work, against work that was for the goal of providing for yourself, against work that would hinder your attention to God’s Word and the ministry of it. Helping a brother in need—or for that matter, helping an animal in need! —was not against God’s Law.

What about the man with dropsy? Should he have realized that he didn’t matter? That he wasn’t important? Should he have slinked away so that he didn’t bother the Pharisees at their dinner, or bother Jesus with a Sabbath healing that might get Jesus in trouble? No, God’s law didn’t require him to be self-deprecating, either. The Lord wanted him to understand that he did matter, that he was important to God, and that the Pharisees should have cared about him, too, instead of being so self-absorbed and self-seeking. So Jesus kindly healed him and sent him on his way.

Then we come to the second part of the Gospel, where Jesus observed more of this self-seeking behavior on the part of the Pharisees and their friends. As people arrived at the dinner, everyone made a beeline to the highest place, to the seat of greatest honor at the feast. Why? Because they were steeped in this self-seeking mindset. Each one exalted himself or lifted himself up in his own eyes. In other words, each one thought he was the most important person in the room, the most deserving person in the room, so each one grabbed the most important seat in the room, with no thought to the other guests—and with no thought to the host.

So Jesus tells this parable about choosing places at a wedding banquet, and it’s obvious that He isn’t really concerned about where they sit at a wedding banquet, but with how they view themselves in relation to God and to their neighbor. When you are invited by someone to a wedding, do not sit down in the place of honor. Otherwise, if someone more honorable than you has been invited by him, the one who invited you both may come and say to you, ‘Give this man your place.’ Then, with shame, you will proceed to take the last place. But when you are invited, go and sit down in the last place, so that, when the one who invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher!’ Then you will have honor in front of all those who are sitting at the table with you. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled; and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

What is the problem Jesus is addressing? As you focus on yourself, and evaluate yourself, you tend to see the good and ignore the bad. Oh, you may identify the bad in other people well enough, but when you look at yourself, you say, “I’m a good person. I’m a decent person. I try hard. I do my best. Surely I’m worthy of respect, honor, good treatment by others, and recognition by God!” You rank yourself pretty high in God’s kingdom, in God’s Church. You. You. You. You. It’s all about you. And while you are focused on you, you forget that God is the One who created you, God is the One who commands you, and God is the One who judges you, and that’s dangerous, because, I guarantee you, God isn’t nearly as impressed with you as you are, and that goes for everyone who is at all impressed with him or herself.

It’s much, much safer to let God be the Judge, to rank yourself in last place in your heart, as the “chief of sinners,” where the Apostle Paul ranked himself. It’s much wiser to seek God’s approval than to assume you already have it because of how decent and honorable you are. Seek God’s approval, not in yourself, but in Christ. Look outside of yourself, away from yourself, to Christ, who ranks #1 in the Father’s estimation. Don’t seek to honor yourself; seek instead to be honored by God for the sake of Christ alone, and you will be exalted. You will be lifted up. You will be forgiven and accepted and even honored when you seek all those things in Christ, and not in yourself.

But notice, there is nothing self-deprecating about choosing the last place. Jesus isn’t commanding people to think of themselves as nothing, as worthless, as people who don’t matter, as people who only exist for society’s sake, so that other people can be honored more. No, what does Jesus promise to the one who takes the lowest place? That the One who invited you, that God Himself will honor you and raise you up. That’s a far cry from the socialist claim that you exist to serve the collective. No, you exist to be honored by God. You exist to be glorified in God’s kingdom. You exist to be loved by God and chosen by God and accepted by God.

It’s just that the way to that honor and glory and acceptance isn’t by seeking your own honor or by looking out for yourself first, or by ignoring the needs of your neighbor, or by buying into the lie that you matter less to God than others, or that your life is expendable. It’s by humbling yourself before God and men, which means intentionally looking away from yourself, toward the needs of your neighbor, and toward the judgment of God. You don’t have to look out for yourself first or seek your own good first, because God is already looking out for it for you and will raise you up in due time, without any effort on your part. So be neither self-seeking nor self-deprecating, but humble. As Paul said in the Epistle, Walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all humility and meekness, with patience, bearing with one another in love. Acknowledge your sins and unworthiness before God, but also acknowledge His great love for you, which frees you to care about your neighbor while you wait for God to lift you up to glory. Amen.