Luke 14:7-11 - The Parable of the Guests
1.
Some of you will remember that old country song by Mac
Davis with the chorus that says:
Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble
when you’re perfect in every way
I can’t wait to look in the
mirror ‘cause I get better lookin’ each day
To know me is to love me, I must
be a [heck] of a man
Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble,
but I’m doin’ the best that I can.
2.
Not only is it hard to be humble, it is also not
cool. Actually, it never has been. The basic biblical word that is translated humble or humility in the New Testament was never used in classical Greek
literature with a positive connotation.
Because of that, it has been said that humility is a virtue created by
Christianity and introduced to the world through Christianity. In the New Testament the word humble (which means to make low or to bow before as
opposed to exalting or building up) is always used in a positive connotation. The Scripture teaches that we are to desire
humility.
·
Zephaniah 2:3 instructs us to “...seek
righteousness [and] seek humility...”
·
Colossians 3:12 tells us to “...put on a heart of ...
humility...”
·
I Peter 5:5 tells us to “...clothe yourselves in humility
toward one another...”
·
I Peter 5:6 instructs us to “...humble yourselves under the
mighty hand of God...”
Humility is
such an important virtue that Jonathan Edwards, the great early American
preacher, described humility as “...one of the most essential things that
characterizes true Christianity.”
It ranks right up there with love as the highest of Christian virtues.
3.
In this study we are going to focus on another of Jesus’
parables found only in the Gospel of Luke.
This parable, found In Luke 14:7-11, has much to teach us about
humility. It was a Sabbath day
(Saturday, the Jewish day of worship) and Jesus had been invited to the home of
one of the leaders of the Pharisees for a dinner.
T.S. – To understand that story you have to
understand something about the dining customs in the first century. The homes of wealthy, influential people—and
certainly the leader of the Pharisees who was hosting this dinner would be in
that category—generally had a spacious room which was used for large
dinners. The tables in the room were
arranged in a horseshoe configuration.
There were no chairs; instead guests would recline on pillows on the
floor around the low tables. Generally the host would sit at the head of the
horseshoe, sometimes in the middle and sometimes toward one of the ends. The seats closest to the host were considered
the most honored seats. Generally, the
seats were not assigned. The people in
that culture knew their status in relation to other people, so they just knew
where to sit. But it was always
dangerous to take a seat before the other guests arrived. For there was the possibility that someone
with a higher status than you would show up and you would have to give up your
seat. To avoid this embarrassing
situation, Jesus said, “Play it safe.
Take the lowest place at the table, then you can only move up!”
Of course, this
story is not just about table etiquette; it’s about life. Jesus is saying, “Choose to live in humility. And
if you do, you will discover that your life will be better.” But the question is, “How do we do that? How do we
bridle our ego, our deeply engrained desire to be praised, our constant struggle
for recognition and choose a way of living that, on the surface, seems so
unnatural to us?” It seems
impossible, but fortunately the Scripture gives us some clear direction about
this. Look at I Peter 5:5b-6. Those
verses tell us a couple of very important things about how to choose to live in
humility.
I. We choose to live in humility by
recognizing our dependence on God
1. It is important to
understand where humility begins and what humility is. Humility does not begin with us; it begins
with God. And humility is not about
self-depreciation; it is about God appreciation. The truly humble person is not the person who
is always talking about how bad or weak or inadequate he or she is. Being humble does not mean that we spend our
time and energy—
·
Putting ourselves down
·
Beating ourselves up
·
Viewing ourselves as lowly creatures who have no
worth.
- Instead, humility is the kind of spirit that
recognizes who we really are. It
recognizes that we are not God. We
are not the Creator; we are the created ones. It’s the kind of spirit expressed by the
psalmist when he exclaimed, “Know that the Lord Himself is
God. It is He who has made us, and
not we ourselves. We are His people
and the sheep of His pasture. [Psalm 100:3] And understanding who we are keeps us
from living a life of arrogant self-centeredness and reminds us to live
with a quiet confidence, a steady trust in God. To choose humility essentially means to
place our lives in God’s hands with a spirit of utter confidence and
complete trust. And, the truth is,
that is very difficult for us to do because we just naturally trust
ourselves more than we trust God.
- Notice the command of I Peter 5:6. It is not merely “...humble yourselves...” That is not enough. The command is to “...humble yourselves under
the mighty hand of God...” And that phrase makes all the difference
in the world. “The mighty hand of God...”
is a common Old Testament phrase that is used to describe God’s protection
over and deliverance of His people.
In Solomon’s great prayer of dedication for the Temple in I Kings
8, he spoke of the Temple as being a place where people would hear of
God’s “...great name...mighty hand...and outstretched harm...”
- There’s a beautiful promise here that I don’t want
you to miss. As we humble
ourselves, make ourselves low before God, we don’t become weak; we become
strong. We don’t lose; we
gain. We don’t find darkness; we
find light. We bow to God’s “...mighty
hand...” and find it completely adequate for all of our needs.
- I think that’s what Jesus meant at the end of the
parable in Luke 14 when He said in verse 11, “For everyone who exalts
himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.”
- Tom Elliff tells
about meeting with his friend, Ron Dunn, shortly after Ron Dunn and his
wife had come home to find the body of their son who had committed
suicide...Eliff said to his friend, “I
have no words that I can say to ease your pain. I just want to be with you. But I’ve got to know, what is that has
kept you going through all this?”
And there is what Ron Dunn said, “I’ve been to the very bottom and I have discovered that there is
rock down there and you can stand on it!”
- Choosing to live in humility means to stand on the
Rock -- to live in the recognition of our complete, utter dependence upon
God and our helplessness apart from Him.
II. We choose to live in humility by giving
ourselves away in service to others.
1.
The instruction in I Peter 5:5 is “...clothe yourselves with
humility toward one another...”
The word translated “clothe” comes from the word for “knot”
as in to tie a knot. It literally means to tie a piece of cloth to
one’s body. There is a graphic picture
behind this word that anyone who lived in the culture of the 1st
century would immediately see. In that
world, between one-third and one-half of the people were slaves. Slaves would tie on a white scarf or white apron
over their other clothing to identify themselves as slaves. What this verse is saying is that Christians
are to tie on the scarf or the apron of humility, and by doing so we show the
world that we belong to Christ.
2.
How do we do that?
There is only one way. By giving
ourselves away in service to others.
Service is the tangible, outward expression of inward humility. No matter how much we talk about humility, no
matter what humble demeanor we maintain, if we are not serving people we are
not choosing the path of humility.
3. There
is a sense in which we do not choose humility; it chooses us. We don’t really get humility by chasing after
it. Humility comes as a by-product of
serving others. In the 1700’s William
Law wrote a classic book entitled A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. He pointed out the relationship between
service and humility. He says that if we
want humility then “...condescend to all the weaknesses and infirmities of your
fellow-creatures, cover their frailties, love their excellencies, encourage
their virtues, relieve their wants, rejoice in their prosperities, [show
compassion] in their distress, receive their friendship, overlook their
unkindness, forgive their malice, be a servant of servants...” [Quoted
by Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline, p.131] That is the path to humility.
- There
is a beautiful story about D.L. Moody, the famous evangelist...he invited
a group of pastors from Europe to a Bible conference in the United
States...following the European custom of the time, each guest put his shoes outside his
room to be cleaned by the hall servants overnight. But of course there
were no hall servants in America.
Walking through the halls that night, Moody saw the shoes and
determined not to embarrass his brothers. He gathered up the shoes, and,
alone in his room, the world’s only famous evangelist began to clean and
polish the shoes. Only the unexpected arrival of a friend in the midst of
the work revealed the secret. When the
foreign visitors opened their doors the next morning, their shoes were
shined. They never know by whom.[Gary Inrig, A Call to Excellence, (Victor
Books, a division of SP Publ., Wheaton, Ill; 1985), p. 98]
5.
That is the kind of service that results in genuine
humility.
Conclusion
1. Does it really
work? Is it true ... what Jesus said
about those who humble themselves being exalted? Well, it certainly worked in His life! Jesus is the perfect example of humility
toward both God and others.
·
Jesus trusted the Father fully and
completely. He placed His life in God’s
hands, He perfectly obeyed, He never wavered from God’s plan. The Scripture says that Jesus “...humbled
Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross...” [Phil.2:8]
·
And in relation to others, Jesus served without
reservation. He said that He came “...not
to be served but to serve and give His life a ransom for many...” [Matt.20:28]
And
the result was that “...God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above
every name...” [Philippians 2:9]
2. And Jesus
says that principle is at work in our lives as well. “For everyone who exalts himself will be
humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” [Luke 14:11]
