True Humility (Luke 14: 1, 7-14

Trinity 13 (29^th August 2010)

Theme: “True Humility (Luke 14: 1, 7-14)

 

Jesus at a Pharisee's House

 ¹One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched.

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."

 

Our lesson this morning is entitled “True humility”.  For the sake of clarity I shall try to explain it to you verse by verse.  The first part of verse 1 says that on “one Sabbath Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee”. 

The Pharisees, as many of you know, were religious people who went to synagogue every week.  Most of them belonged to what we consider “middle-class” people, and they were not born in rich homes.  They became rich through hard work, and they were proud of that fact. They were also proud of their moral status in society. They observed the Jewish Law meticulously, in order to achieve the highest level of moral uprightness. 

Many people might be impressed by their external piety or their moral uprightness.  But they didn’t impress Jesus: he considered it to be self-righteousness rather than godly-righteousness.   Yet, he did not shun them. When they invited him to their homes for a meal, he accepted the invitation.  In spite of his dislike of the Pharisees’ religious practices, Jesus did not exclude them.  But at the same time, Jesus did not play their games.  When they tried to lure and trap him into some error, Jesus would turn the situation around and expose their evil intentions, and hypocrisy.  The story we have just heard is one of them

It was customary to invite the “visiting preacher,” to a home for a meal.  It is true even today.  So on this occasion, after the synagogue service, Jesus and some of his disciples were invited for dinner.  However, the later details in the same verse indicate that this occasion was staged.  The verse tells us that “he was being carefully watched.”  In other words, the purpose of inviting Jesus to the function was not to honour him but rather to find something they could accuse him of.  Then in verse 2, which is not part of our reading this morning, a man suffering from swollen arms & legs came to Jesus, requesting to be healed; it seems more than coincidence.  It looks like an obvious setup by the Pharisees to trap Jesus into making a mistake, so they could have a case against him.  

We note that when Jesus asked them whether it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not, they refused to answer. And Jesus healed the man.

We move on to verse 7.  As the dinner was about to start, Jesus noticed how some of the guests were choosing the best places.  The Pharisees were there to trap Jesus, but they could not resist the temptation of trying to be seen as great by the people.  So the situation ended the other way round; instead of trapping Jesus, the antics of the Pharisees were exposed as they were jockeying for position and scrambling for the seats of honour.  I need to explain this a bit. In those days people would dine around a low table. Couches would be arranged around this table and the guests would recline on their left elbows on these

couches (see the above diagram).  The place of highest honour was the central position on the couch at the base of the U. The second-important place was to the right of the centre, and third place was to the left.  When Jesus saw some of the quests scrambled for the places of honour, he used the situation to comment and teach.

During the time of Jesus the seating positions of the diners depended on the rank and distinction of the guest.   Usually the most important guests tended to arrive late for dinners: perhaps to be noticed.  If it so happened that somebody had already occupied the important seat, he would have to move in order to give way to the more important person. The last man to arrive would be made great, while the person who thought that he was great ended up being humbled.

It must have looked funny as these Pharisees fought for the most important seat.  As you think about it, you realize how sad it is that people can be so insecure within themselves that a chair’s place or a place in line is so important to their self-worth.  

And Jesus went further than just talking about the embarrassment it could cause to someone who promoted himself prematurely. He used the situation to teach the people present about life’s situations.  So as you look at verse 11, Jesus repeated his teachings about being humble and exalted, and about being first and last, or being small and great.

Jesus is certainly not recommending that we pretend to be humble, all the while remaining proud undercover. I know that this is something we Asians are good at.  But that is not true humility.  What Jesus wants is for us to be truly humble.  What does that mean? It means that we need to see everyone’s self worth in the light of God’s estimation.  It means looking at ourselves and other people as how God sees us.  Remember, God does not look at our social or economic status.  All his children are important to him and are worthy in his sight.    So our real position does not depend on what we think of ourselves: it depends on God’s opinion of us.   Here Jesus was reminding the Pharisees about God’s kingdom - that attendance at God’s banquet in God ‘s kingdom depends upon God’s invitation, not upon what a person thinks of himself or what people see of him, or what his achievements or social standing is.

Then Jesus also had a word with the host, as well as everybody who was there.  Jesus told the host not to invite his friends lest they invite him back and he be repaid.  This verse can be misunderstood to imply that you cannot invite your friends to your functions, if you don’t understand the Semitic way of expression. Jesus is not saying that you cannot have a party for your friends or family members.  Even Jesus himself had dinner only with his disciples and close friends. So he could not be referring to private functions like birthday or wedding parties.

Remember the host was just opening his home to invite people for dinner.  It was not for a special occasion.  It was simply a good deed done for others.  Now the Pharisees had another problem.  They tend to overestimate their worth. In their self-righteousness minds, they started to compare themselves with others; thereby, underestimating the worth of the poor, the disabled, the outcast and even the sinner. They would never think of having such people for dinner or associate with them in any way whatsoever.

So that was why Jesus told that host that if he wanted to do something good for others, he should not be just doing it for people who could pay him back.  Jesus was also reminding the Pharisee about himself. He was in effect saying, “I’m homeless and I owned nothing. It is good that you include me in your list of guests: so why not invite more people like me into your homes so they can also join you in your meals?”  

As you read through verse 13, you see the list there: the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.  You see - the four unfortunate types, poor, crippled, lame, and blind are contrasted with four affluent types in verse 12: friends, brothers, relatives, and wealthy neighbors. The first group cannot pay back your good deeds. If you help those people, it means that you will not be repaid because they can’t pay you back. This is true generosity.

On the other hand, if we spend money on people who will invite us back, that is not real generosity or real charity. It might look wise from the point of view of the world, but if that is the level and quality of our generosity, it is no better than a business deal. You have heard the saying, “You scratch my back and I will scratch yours.”

The story also reminds us that real generosity will actually be repaid.  In verse fourteen, Jesus says, “…and you will be blessed.  Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."   The Greek word is “makarios”, which means “heavenly bliss.”  When we do real charity and practice real generosity, the result will be eternal bliss.  The good things we do for people will not be for nothing: there is such a thing as “pay back” after all.  Everything we have given away will be returned to us in a different form in eternity.

Now, what can we learn from this story?  There are a few important points to learn here:  First, remember that the theme is true humility; so it means that there is such a thing as false humility. In other words, we can pretend to have a lower opinion of ourselves. How would we know whether we have true or false humility?  It is really by the way we treat others.  Remember that humility is simply having the same opinion of ourselves as God has of us.  It is also having the same opinion of others as God thinks of them.  

Jesus has also told us that true greatness consists in service to others.  However, if we serve the poor but still look down on them as less worthy, less important, less human than ourselves, we are not truly humble.   Many people help the “poor” but also look down on them.  Some people help the poor because it gives them good publicity.  I can tell you that even churches are doing it. Take, for example, some of our public generosity acts that we do at Christmas.   Why is it that some churches decide to invite the poor and sponsor them big meals at Christmas?  Are not the “poor,” hungry every day?  What happen after Christmas and all the days after that?  

It is true that we cannot help everybody in need every day because there are so many of them.  But each one of us needs to see to it that we are supporting some of those who cannot return the favour. They could also be relatives and friends, or people we don’t know personally.  In our newsletter today we are given an opportunity to be generous and to be charitable to the 40 families that were rendered homeless after fire destroyed their houses at Kampung Sealine, in Lutong.  This is a time for us to give helping hands to people who cannot even say thank you to us because they don’t know who we are..    

Finally, this passage helps us also to deal with hypocrisy. We should not just talk about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees: this story also points out the same hypocrisy in ourselves.  But note also that Jesus does not reject the hypocrite.  Jesus judges behaviour, but not people.  He wants us to do the same because if we condemn hypocrites, then we are condemning ourselves as well.