Luke 18: 9 - 14; 1st Peter 5: 5 – 7; Luke 14: 7 – 24 (Sermon)

Humility is not exactly the most popular commodity in our world culture today. For example not long ago there was a country song entitled "Lord, it's hard to be humble when you're perfect in every way." and that's not far removed from Ted Turner's statement, "If I had a little more humility I would be perfect" (New York Public Library Book o f Twentieth-century American Quotations, ed. Stephen Donadio et al. [New York: Warner Books, 1992], 272).

However, the apostle Paul commands us as Christians to have the same attitude as Jesus had. As Christians we are to think the same way, act the same way, and to live the same way as Christ Jesus did while He was on earth, and our scripture lessons tell us Jesus "humbled himself."

Our lesson from The Gospel according to Luke contains two separate but related parables about humility. The Parable of the Presumptions Dinner Guest and The Parable of The Great Banquet. As you know, a parable is a story within a story – an earthly story with a heavenly meaning, a story that teaches a spiritual lesson.

Jesus used a common event such as being invited to dinner at a friend’s house as an opportunity to teach us about humility. We read that as Jesus was attending a banquet "he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table." This first parable is a parable of contrasts, "do this and don't do this". First, Jesus said, don't be like the dinner guest who acted as if he were the guest of honor. That person went straight to the head table and took the best seat in the house.

I can readily identify with this parable. Remember I told you I had to leave right after our Music Celebration because I was to speak at a banquet in Washington last Sunday evening. I had been asked to give the Invocation at a large convention. When I got to the banquet hall I did not see anyone I knew. You see I did not know the Master of Ceremonies and I had not been told where I was to sit so I took a seat at a table in the rear. As the banquet was beginning the Master of Ceremonies called out over the loud speaker asking Ed Terry to please come up and take his seat at the head table. When I stood up I was escorted up front and seated with The Congressmen and Presidential Appointees.

Jesus said "Go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, "Friend, move up higher"; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you". Boy this was really true for me because I was treated as if I was really somebody important. Jesus concluded this parable by paraphrasing an Old Testament proverb: "For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted" (Proverbs 29:23).

We saw this same theme in our lesson about the Pharisee and the tax collector who went up to the Temple to pray. A Pharisee, meant he was a law-abiding, rule-keeping, tithe-paying man, stood, looked up to heaven and told God how good he was. The tax collector, meant that he had betrayed his Jewish countrymen to work for the occupational Roman Empire and he was a crook. The tax collector would not even lift his head toward heaven but instead beat upon his chest and prayed, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" Jesus said " I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted". (Luke 18:14)

If we are perfectly honest with ourselves, most of us would probably admit that there is something about the word humility that turns us off. It is loaded down with all sorts of damaging images from the culture around us. But when the Bible talks about humility, it's not talking about being a doormat upon which everyone else wipes his or her dirty feet. When Jesus calls us to humble ourselves, Jesus is not describing phony piety in which we pretend that we do not value our own life, or that we do not value our talents and gifts; Jesus is not turning an inferiority complex into a virtue. When the apostle Paul challenges us to live with a mind-set of humility, Paul is not talking about some sort of neurotic self-hatred that keeps people as prisoners of abusive relationships. The humility that the Bible teaches is light years removed from that understanding of humiliation.

The humility that the Bible teaches is a call for us to be be real about who we are. The humility that the Bible teaches is an honest and objective reflection of our real relationship to God. Recognizing the fact that we are not self sufficient but rather we are all totally dependent upon God. Recognizing that everything that we have comes from God; including our life, our salvation, our hope, our Christ. God has given us everything; our brains, abilities, our talents as well as the opportunities that have allowed us to be where we are today. Life is not a hap-stance; our lives were planned and ordained by our creator God. We came into this world with nothing and we will leave with nothing. Nothing is our own. Humility is a simple, objective recognition of the reality of God. ("Proud to Be Humble," Christian Century, February 28, 1979, 207)

Jesus’ instructions for us are not to think of ourselves more highly than we should but rather we are to treat everyone else like royalty. Treating every other person as if he or she were the guest of honor at your table. Jesus makes this point by giving some rather odd instructions for the invitation list for a dinner party: When you give a dinner, do not only invite your friends, relatives, or rich neighbors who will invite you in return. But instead when you give a dinner party, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then you will be blessed, because those people cannot repay you. Then, Jesus said you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. Jesus is not teaching that we should not invite friends, family, and influential people who can and probably will return the favor. But what Jesus is teaching is that God rewards us when we include the people who can never return the favor.

Jesus tells us in the Kingdom of God all the so-called values of this world will be completely reversed. True humility comes from knowing for certain that God has accepted us into His Kingdom despite of who we are. The people God delights in honoring are the people who are quick to admit that they have no right to status before God and they are quick to get on their knees and pray for God’s mercy and forgiveness. Honors can never be taken; honors can only be received.

In the second parable Jesus goes on to tell the story of a man who was going to throw a great banquet. One commentary I read said it was customary to issue two invitations for important social gatherings. The first invitation was sent out well in advance to announce the occasion. The second invitation was a reminder sent out just prior to the occasion. In Jesus’ story the invited guests had apparently accepted the first invitation but when the reminder came, they insulted the host by offering flimsy excuses. All of those 3 excuses in verses 18-20 show a total lack of sincerity. Think about those excuses; people do not buy property without first seeing it, and people do not buy oxen without first testing them. Weddings are not a spur of the moment occurrence and the banquet invitations were sent out well in advance.

When the invited guest refused to come, the man sent his servants out into the streets to invite everybody they could find to come to dinner in order to fill up their master’s house.

The banquet in the parable is a picture of the Marriage Feast of the Lamb in Heaven we read about in the book of Revelation when Jesus establishes His eternal Kingdom. The application is crystal clear. No one can earn his way into heaven. No one is good enough to get into Heaven. We are all undeserving. Only those people who humble themselves before Almighty God and accept God’s grace will be at His great banquet.

The pre-invited guests in the parable refer to the Jewish people who had been told to be ready for the coming of the Messiah throughout the Old Testament. To be invited is not enough. We have to accept God’s grace. The Good News of Jesus is that we all have been issued an invitation written in the blood of Jesus to come to God’s table of salvation.

We need to be clear. The people who refused to attend the Master’s banquet were punished. The Master’s judgment in verse 24 was just and was brought about solely by these people’s own decision to refuse to come!

The first man’s possessions kept him away. The second man’s business kept him away. The third man’s family kept him away. These same three excuses keep people away from accepting Jesus as their Savior today. The Good News is the Lord is giving a party and everyone is invited. To be invited is one thing, but accepting God’s personal invitation to be saved is another.

Now the part that really hit me when I started studying this passage is this. If God is the host in this parable and we are the guest at His banquet, then there are only two options for us. We are either the snotty self-impressed guests who turned down God’s invitation, OR we are the motley crew that the servants dragged in from the streets. We are either like the self-righteous Pharisee who patted himself on the back, OR we are like the humble tax collector who knew he needed mercy. The point is that none of us deserve to enter into the kingdom of God. The only people who show up around God’s banquet table are those people who know they have no business being there. We are welcomed into God’s home and enjoy the benefits of His feast only because God is an extravagantly generous host who brings us in, not because we are all that good, but because God is loving and generous.

If that's the way God treats us, then we are called to treat everyone else the same way: like the guest of honor at the banquet. Paul describes our the Christian behavior this way: "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who ... humbled himself". (Philippians 2:3 - 6, 8)

Think back across your life for a moment. Think about some of the really great people in your life. I'll bet they are the people who treated you like royalty, people who acted as if you were the most important person in the room, people who made you feel that you really mattered. The great people in our lives generally are not those who try to impress us with their greatness, but are the people who release the greatness within us.

Exalt yourself, Jesus said, and you will be humbled. Jesus calls us to be humble people, to be real about who we really are; sinners in the sight of God. People who recognize that all we are and all we have are gifts from Almighty God. People who know that we are totally dependent upon Almighty God. When we truly humble ourselves Jesus promises that we will be exalted. Not necessarily exalted by people but exalted by Almighty God! And God is really the only person who matters! AMEN