Luke 14:7-11 And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them, (8) When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; (9) And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. (10) But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. (11) For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Humility is not a characteristic that is in over abundance in our society. Unfortunately, our society links humility with shyness, ignorance and weakness. I would go so far to say that our society encourages the opposite of humility. Our politicians assume they know it all and often presume to vote opposite of their constituent’s wishes. It is common to see athletes celebrate a play by pounding on their chest in a fashion that says: “Look at me..Look what great thing I have done”. Movie stars think that because they are in a movie, it makes them experts on different topics. And the examples could just keep coming.
The Bible, on the other hand has a completely different view of humility. Jesus certainly was a man of great humility and yet he was the most powerful man on the planet. When hanging on the cross, he had the power to bring vengeance on those that put him there instead he prayed: “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”. The Bible encourages followers of God to be humble, not to put them in a position of weakness but of strength.
Humility is a concept that is easy to understand, but extremely hard to practice. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus gave several examples exercising humility: “Turn the other cheek”, “Go the extra mile”, “Forgive those that have wronged you”, etc.
In our text today, Jesus gives us a great application of humility. If you are invited to an event, like a marriage, don’t automatically assume that you are the most important person in the room and take the prominant spot. I know several people that would do that. I am sure they would call that “confidence” or “inside knowledge”. Jesus called it “exalting himself”.
The key to this lesson is in verse 11. We need to realize that regardless of who we are, or how good we think we are, we are all beneath God. Only God is truly the one with the authority to exalt anyone. Jesus says that if we choose to exalt ourselves, we will be brought low. But if we keep the proper perspective of ourselves and realize that we are but mere servants, God will lift us up. When we are exalt by God, that is not the time to puff ourselves up. Instead, we must continue to be humble. Gain follow the example of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples in the upper room.
The problem with pride is that it prevents us from seeing our shortcomings. If I see myself as the “greatest”, it is going to be close to impossible to convince myself that I need to continue to develop myself into something better. On a spiritual perspective, if we view ourselves as being that great, we will have a hard time seeing ourselves as dying in our sins. We will only be able to see how good we are. If that happens, we will never realize that we need a saviour. We all need our savior.
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
We have all sinned. We have all come short of God’s glory. The only way that we can be repaired of that condition, is by accepting the fact that we are in that state. When we do, we will realize that we need to go to the great physician to get his cure.
May we all learn to get down off of our respective high-horses and learn to have the proper humility that God wants us to have.
Reflecting His SON,
Dennis Hogan
Minister, North Hardin Church of Christ
1804 Sam Stewart Dr.
Radcliff, KY 40160
Questions, comments or further explanation? Contact me at: dennis.hogan@icloud.com
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