Pastor Slaughter

Pentecost 12

8-28-2022

Theme: Pride & Humility

Text: Luke 14:1, 7-14

Pride and Humility. On the one hand I don’t think we need to be confronted with topics of pride and humility. I think most people in this world would agree that one is a good character trait and the other is a negative one. Pride really leads us people to exalt themselves for their interest. We see it, don’t we? At times it irritates us. You know those times where someone is trying hard to please someone else especially someone in a position of authority. Maybe they want to be recognized or want that promotion. And its just irritating because they are just doing it to get ahead. We recognize when it happens. And it is irritating. We recognize that pride and exalting oneself is a negative trait.

As I look out in the pews today, I see a group of people who are humble filling up the church from the back and saving the best spots up in front! Exalting ourselves, taking the best seats really are issues of pride. However, pride is one of those things that is much easier to spot in others and much harder to see in ourselves. That is what makes pride so dangerous that we may not see it in our lives. And Jesus says in our lesson, “Yes, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Jesus will humble the the proud and exalt the humble. Today we will be looking at issues of pride and humility.

Jesus received a special invitation to a party. The whose whose were there. We are told it was at the house of a leader of the Pharisees. It wasn’t an invitation to come over, hang out and watch the Vikings play that weekend. No. They invited Jesus over and our lessons says, “They were watching him closely.” They were watching him to see what he would say or do. Just maybe, maybe he would mess up this time and they would have something to use against him.

Jesus doesn’t just turn down an invitation for food and opportunity to share God’s Word. As he was there, he noticed conduct that needed to be rebuked. When it was time to recline for dinner, the guests were trying to get the places of highest honor. They didn’t have a problem of treating each other poorly if it served their own interest. To make themselves look good, powerful, important, they didn’t care if it made other people look bad, weak, unimportant.

How could the Pharisees do that? How rude could they be? I would never do that, I mean I am the kind of guy that sits in the back of church! I don’t want to exalt myself. I haven’t talked bad about someone else to my friends to make me feel better about myself that I am not like them. I haven’t withheld information from my boss about something good my coworker did, so that I can look better for that promotion.  I haven’t done something just so that it could be recognized by others or to be viewed as a better person. No no I would never do that. Or have I? (Spoken in a sarcastic way to make it obvious we have)

The danger of pride is that we may not be able to see it in our own lives. We live in a culture that wants to elevate ourselves where it normalizes it so that we don’t see it. People post things online but what’s the point? To share or to show off? We say things or do things to elevate ourselves so that we come out ahead. And even if we don’t say or do things in front of others, where do our thoughts gravitate? Do we exalt ourselves by comparing ourselves to others to make us feel good about ourselves?

What’s the purpose of having the seat of honor? What’s the point tearing others down in order to exalt/build ourselves up? What’s the point of sizing up the room and comparing myself to others? Isn’t it pride. Yeah as Christians we probably would say we don’t want to be number one but well as long as I am bottom of the barrel so to speak I am doing good. It stems from a heart that says, “I am better than… I am more deserving than…” and it makes us feel good.

This is what this makes this sin of exalting ourselves so dangerous, because it makes us feel so good and it is so hard to spot in our own lives. It’s so deceptive. Because the false feeling that that it provides is what excludes us from actually receiving what truly gives what we long for. Jesus said, “Yes, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

This lesson is in the context of Jesus talking about life after death. Before our lesson we hear Jesus talk about the Narrow Door and then after our lesson Jesus talks about the Parable of the great banquet and people made excuses not to go talking about heaven. And Jesus is at this party with Pharisees trying to get the place of honor, for what purpose? To come out on top. To make themselves look better in front of others? To fill that longing in their hearts that they are good enough for God. It’s like Jesus is saying “Stop it guys! Don’t you see what you are doing. You are not going to enter the narrow door by your won works. If you exalt yourselves in this life you will be humbled in the next.”

It’s like Jesus is speaking to me and saying, “Stop it. Stop it Daniel. Stop trying to fill yourself up, stop trying to make yourself feel good enough by comparing or tearing others down. You don’t need to think about yourself all the time, because I have done that for you. Look at what it means to be truly humble. I became a man for you. I was not dependent on the approval of theist prominent and powerful people in my day. I thought about you. I humbled myself so I could go to the cross for you. I give you forgiveness. I have proven that you matter to me. Now my Father has exalted me to the highest place. Because of my exaltation delivered at my resurrection, you can be confident that a similar exaltation is waiting for you! So quit trying to fill yourself with things that you already have!

Isn’t this cool? That Christ has freed us from pride which shows itself by exalting ourselves. He gives to us the longing that pride can never fill. He shows we matter by dying. He shows he loves us by forgiving us. He will exalt us by taking us to be with him in heaven. Our exaltation doesn’t need to be our responsibility because Jesus as already made it his. He has freed us for a life of true humility that seeks to serves others.

Jesus noticed something else at the party. He looked around at those who attended and saw that the guest list, it sure seemed like those who people who were there are people that would be able to return the favor and pay him back. Jesus said to the one who invited him, “When you make a dinner or supper, do not invite your friends, or your brothers, or your relatives, or rich neighbors, so that perhaps they may also return the favor and pay you back.” Jesus goes on, “But when you make a feast, invite the poor, the cropped, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. Certainly, you will be repaid in the resurrection of the righteous.”

Think about it pride leads us to exalt ourselves to get something: status, likes, false sense of feeling good about ourselves. When we exalt ourselves the focus in on ourselves. But the life of humility focuses on others. The focus is not on what you get but what you give. What you don’t get on earth as repayment for generosity will be enjoyed at the banquet of salvation.

As you live your life of humility, you look for opportunities to serves. You can look for people who genuinely need your help and not just someone you like or you know will repay you. A phone call to see how they are doing, a letter in their mailbox, a donation to help in times, or a dinner invasion.

Why care for the poor, the crippled, the lamb, the blind, those that will not repay the favor back? Because that is what Christ humility demonstrated and did for us. He paid the debt for our sins that we could never repay. He heaps one blessing on top of another for us. His grace his mercy and forgiveness. And if that were not enough, he says when we serve those who can’t repay us back, “you will be blessed,.. Certainly, you will be repaid in the resurrection of the righteous.”

My family in Christ. As I look out in the pews today, I see a congregation of humble people. And not just because you left open the spots in the front of Church. I see a congregation of humble people because you have seen How Christ humbled himself for you and empowers you to live a life of humble service. As we struggle with the sin of pride, instead of exalting ourselves, let us humble ourselves by looking to Christ and see what he has done and gives to us, and let us seek to lives our lives in humble service to others. Amen.