The Christian kind of humility

Sermon for Trinity 17

Ephesians 4:1-6  +  Luke 14:1-11

Our Gospel today highlights the contrast in how people view themselves. There are essentially two ways. Do you view yourself highly or do you view yourself lowly? To view yourself highly means you think you deserve to be honored by God and man. We might use the word haughty to describe such a person. If you were paying attention, you saw this attitude once again on display this week a big part of our country looked down their noses again at our nation’s president when he was diagnosed with coronavirus. Some laughed. Some mocked. Some came right out and said they hoped he would die. But one comment I read was really just as bad. It read simply, “Zero sympathy.” Why do people react that way? Well, hatred ultimately is behind it, and the demons are behind that. But people react that way because they think of themselves highly, as being far better, far more godly, far more honorable than the president of the United States. He deserves to be humbled, while they deserve to be exalted.

On the other side, the “conservative” side, you may rightly be appalled at such a reaction. But watch out! Because what’s the natural reaction to such hatred? “Those terrible people! How could they be so hateful? I certainly would never hope death on anyone. I’m much better than those people.” And, you see, the high, haughty view of oneself has simply taken a different form.

Then there’s the lowly view of oneself. To view yourself lowly doesn’t mean you don’t recognize bad behavior in other people. And it doesn’t mean you think you’re worthless. It means you aren’t thinking about yourself at all. You aren’t thinking about how honorable you are, about being honored by anyone, by God or man, but about how you might serve and honor both God and man. We might use the word humble to describe such a person, humble in the Biblical sense. What a difference in perspective! And a what a difference your perspective will make! It will have an enormous impact on how you behave toward God and man. And ultimately, it will mean the difference between being eternally condemned or eternally saved. In the words of Jesus, whoever exalts himself will be humbled; and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Let’s meditate on God’s Word this morning and consider the end of the haughty and of the humble.

The whole Gospel takes place at a Sabbath meal to which Jesus had been invited. There are two parts to the Gospel, two “events,” the healing of the man with dropsy and the parable Jesus told about the invited guests. But both parts teach us the same lesson about haughtiness and humility.

The meal took place at the home of a prominent Pharisee, and we’re told that the invitation wasn’t out of the goodness of the Pharisee’s heart. They were watching Jesus closely. Not watching Him to learn from Him, not watching Him to see how they might serve Him. But watching Him in order to find a way to condemn Him, watching Him as those who were above Him. That’s an example of haughtiness on their part, a high view of themselves as Law keepers, guardians of the Law, champions of tradition, men who deserved to be honored by God and man for how good they were.

But Jesus exposes their haughtiness, their high view of themselves with a simple question. Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? Is it lawful to help your fellow man, your Israelite brother who is suffering, if you have the power to help him? Their silence spoke volumes. Now, of course it was lawful. The Sabbath law requiring rest on the Sabbath day didn’t prevent helping a man in his time of need, and they knew it. And Jesus proved that they knew it with the example He gave: Which of you, if your ox or donkey fell into a pit, would not immediately pull it out on the Sabbath day? But they said nothing, because they weren’t thinking about helping their neighbor. “Zero sympathy.” And they didn’t want to say anything that might make Jesus look good, because that would make them look bad. They were thinking only about themselves and how to preserve their own honor and reputation, and that way of thinking prevented them from doing good, toward God and man.

Jesus, on the other hand, the very Son of God who deserves glory and honor from all men, wasn’t thinking about Himself at all. He was thinking only of God, His Father, of bringing glory to His Father’s name, and about the man who was suffering with His illness and needed help, and about the Pharisees who were there, how He might open their eyes to see their own sins, so that they might look to Him and be saved. That’s the humility that God seeks in us all. And there was Christ, showing it perfectly in our place, as our Substitute. As a result, His humility is now part of the righteousness that covers all who believe in Him.

In the second part of our Gospel, Jesus picks up on this theme of haughtiness vs. humility. He watched as the guests at the dinner chose the seats of honor for themselves, the highest, most important seats they could find. Why? Because they thought they deserved to be honored by the host of the dinner and by their fellow guests. So He spoke a parable to them. Notice, Luke calls it a parable, a story with a deeper meaning. He wasn’t just teaching people about haughtiness and humility at a wedding reception. He was teaching them—and us—about haughtiness and humility before God and the consequences of both.

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.

That makes sense, doesn’t it? You may think pretty highly of yourself. You may think you deserve a place of honor. But it isn’t your opinion that counts, is it? You’re not the host. You’re not the judge. It’s the opinion, it’s the decision of the one who invited you that counts. And knowing God, He doesn’t like it when people think highly of themselves, when people think they deserve to be honored by Him. It’s very likely that when He comes and sees you’ve chosen a place of honor for yourself, He’ll strip you of your self-assumed honor and send you away in shame. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled.

Instead, Jesus says, 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. Go sit down in the last place. In other words, when God invites you into His Church, acknowledge before God that you are a sinner who deserves nothing from Him but temporal and eternal punishment. But at the same time, trust in Him to deal with you according to His mercy, not according to what you deserve. Go and sit down in the last place. That is, don’t for a moment consider your worth in relation to other people. Don’t consider yourself at all. In humility look away from yourself, and look to Christ instead! For whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Such a view of yourself, such an attitude toward God will  lead you to focus, not on how your fellow guests are treating you, but on how you might serve your fellow guests. This is what St. Paul calls on all members of the one, holy, Christian, and apostolic Church to do. I, the prisoner in the Lord, implore you to 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. The calling with which you were called is the call of God to poor, undeserving sinners, to repent and believe in Christ Jesus, who humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even the death of a cross, in order that God may lift you up from condemnation to acquittal, from the devil’s family to God’s family, from darkness to light, from despair to hope—again, not because you deserved His help, but precisely because you didn’t deserve His help, and so He took pity on you. As Paul writes to the Ephesians, By grace you have been saved, through faith—and this, not from yourselves. It is the gift of God. Not by works, so that no one may boast.

Since that’s the calling with which you were called, to walk in a manner worthy of it is to walk with the same humility and meekness you had when you acknowledged your utter unworthiness before God, when you were first called to faith, lifted up by God, and brought into God’s holy Church. Now, as you live in this Church, with all its members, continue in that same humility. Continue in that same view of yourself where you don’t look for any honor for yourself, where you don’t think about what you deserve, but about how you can serve your fellow Christians.

Why does Paul need to write this to Christians? Because the sinful self, the Old Man, still clings to us, and that self still wants to be honored, still wants, not to serve, but to be served, still wants to be acknowledged, thanked, recognized, and respected. But that’s not what we learned from Christ. From Him we’ve learned humility, true Christian humility that doesn’t shrink back from speaking the truth to our brother or sister, even if that truth hurts, but it speaks the truth in love. It speaks the truth as one who isn’t interested in showing off or in being proved right or in appearing to be better than anyone. It speaks the truth in service to one’s fellow Christian.

And if we are to be humble and to behave humbly toward our fellow Christians, then it only makes sense that we practice the same meekness in our dealings with the world, to show the world what the humility of Christ looks like by imitating Him in this world. Let people see that kind of humility and meekness in you, the lowly view of yourself and not the high view. Be different, be separate from the world in that way. Oh, you’ll still be hated by the world, no matter how humble you are, just as Christ was, no matter how humble He was. But just as He was exalted in the end by His Father, so will all those be who followed in His steps.

Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Therefore, as St. Peter writes, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Amen.