Text: Luke 14:1-14
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10 But when you are invited, go and sit in 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 table with you. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
An Admirer once asked Leonard Bernstein, celebrated orchestra conductor, what was the hardest instrument to play. He replied without hesitation:
“Second fiddle. I can always get plenty of first violinists, but to find one who plays second violin with as much enthusiasm or second French horn or second flute, now that’s a problem. And yet if no one plays second, we have no harmony.” - Andy Cook
(Source: James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, Tyndale, 1988, p. 450, Brett Blair, Sermon Illustrations, 1999.)
Humility, or pride and arrogance can drive who we are and the decisions that we make and though sin can cause you to try at times to reach places of honor for yourselves in this life. You can be comforted that:
The humble will be exalted in Christ!
7 Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him,
In our lesson today, Jesus was in the house of a Pharisee.
And as a guest Jesus had noticed just how those who had been invited, Pharisees and lawyers, were looking to have the seats of honor at this dinner. Ordinary, feasts of the Jews were usually attended to in a more casual and informal manner, but with this diner and in the wedding feast of Christ’s illustration, rank and status among the guests was important.
… do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, Jesus says.
I always found the irony in Jesus statement here, as an invited guest to this diner, as the only begotten Son the God … who could be more distinguished? Here, God in the flesh is among them, but as was read earlier in the Gospel, the ruler of the Pharisees and the lawyers who were in attendance had another agenda.
There just so happened to be a man with dropsy in attendance at this diner.
Now, I looked up this medical condition reference and dropsy could be understood as the equivalent of congestive heart failure today.
We've all seen this condition in many of our friends, neighbors and relatives and Jesus, knowing the Law better than the Pharisees and lawyers, knows that it is quite alright to show acts of mercy on the Sabbath, so He heals the man, saying to those whose intent was to trap Him as a violator of the Law:
“Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?”
6 And to this question, they could not reply to these things.
So the intent of their false feast is crushed by Christ’s healing of the man with dropsy, but He doesn't stop there. He now points out the true arrogant nature of their sitting in the place of honor when one truly more distinguished than they … has been invited … and is now sitting among them.
The arrogant sinner will stand before the throne of grace covered in their own righteousness but:
The humble will be exalted in Christ!
You and I also exalt ourselves at times; taking too much credit for things we’ve done in the world or in the church. You do … and I do. The sinner always minimizes sin and exaggerates virtue. It’s what sinners do. The sinner sees the sin of others clearly … in view … with no distractions. But their own sin remains masked in a veil of acceptance, false piety - which is nothing more than the quality of being religious or reverent - or indifferent.
Last weekend in the epistle we read of God’s chastening and discipline.
The Lord disciplines those he loves.
I don’t know about the Lord who is slow to anger, but I do know I have wearied people in my life. My boss of many years had a hard job.
When I began working with him, he was 23 and I was 25. We worked side by side for his dad. We were coworkers, piers and friends. This relationship lasted for over 20 years. Eventually he bought the company from his dad and became the boss. At one point he even asked me to be a signer on the company checking account placing his trust in me. But he was the boss and I the worker. We still had a great relationship and respect for each other.
But … he was the boss.
Each year we had job performance reviews and at one review, my boss was pointing out something I said or did that offended the customer. My perspective and memory of the incident was different than his because it was some time ago and he only had heard the customer’s side of the story.
It was minor and a misunderstanding and wanting to defend myself, I brought up a similar incident that had occurred where he was the offending party and the customer had come to me as the manager of the store to complain.
Here’s the point.
My boss said, “Russ, this is hard enough for me and you need to let me just be the boss and listen.” I did, and I apologized. The Lord humbled me to be mindful of his position as owner of the store and how he needed to run his business.
11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 14:11
The truth of sin taking a place of honor in your life is nothing new. Luther called it the Bondage of the Will. That our will is bound to sin and that is all it can do, but thanks be to God that because you have been raised to newness of life by God’s Holy Spirit, there is truly Good News that:
We will be exalted in Christ!
So, Jesus goes up to the host, the ruler of the Pharisees, who had invited him and He says:
12 “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
Those who Christ came to redeem are the poor sinners, crippled from birth and lame, blind to God’s saving work in Christ if not drawn to believe through the invitation and working of God the Holy Spirit in them by faith.
You too, dear friends, have received this blessed invitation to His banquet feast and the Marriage Supper of the Lamb by faith. And you receive a foretaste of this feast when you receive Christ’s true body and blood in the blessed table of the Lord, the Sacrament of the Altar – given and shed for you!
It matters not which seat at the table you occupy because the host of this feast comes to where you are – bodily – in, with and under the bread and wine so that you truly receive Him, who is and was and is to come, in a real and tangible way – for the forgiveness of all your sins.
Even though these sins, sill at times work havoc in our lives, they are forgiven as far as east is from the west … not to be remembered by the Father ever again.
We will be exalted in Christ!
Christ humiliated himself so that you might be redeemed. At times we too are humbled so that another can be served, just as Booker T. Washington did in service to his neighbor.
You have a defense and a protection that will never fail because it is God Himself, not you, who will protect you because He came to live, suffer and die for each one of you and as a result you are his, the table is set, and you are invited, in fact you have already received all that is promised … rejoice!
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
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