The Rewards of Humility”
Mary worked for the Joint Economic Committee of Congress when I was in seminary in Virginia. It is very easy to get what is called “Potomac Fever” in the Washington area, where it becomes your aim to know and then to be one of the “very important people.” The JEC was a very interesting place to work. Mary told me about an event that happened one afternoon, when the chief of staff of the committee came back from a meeting. He walked in and started barking orders at everyone, making everyone leave what they were working on and giving them new assignments. After ten minutes, the office was in an uproar, with people dashing to filing cabinets, copy machines, and so on. And Jack stood in the middle of the chaos he had created, rubbing his hands together in glee and saying, “Now I’ve got’em going!” The chief of staff had no reason to give those orders other than an exercise in his own power. He wanted to prove what an important person he was. He wanted self-esteem, and he got it at the expense of others.
In our Gospel reading, Jesus warns his fellow guests of the dangers of seeking self-esteem at the expense of others. Society in Jesus’ day was rigidly stratified and there was a very clear “pecking order.” In a large public banquet, people of different social classes had definite places to sit, and a member of the lower classes would not be anywhere near a member of the upper class. Indeed, at private banquets, where the guests were all from the same class, there were still little signs of one person being more valued than another, and there was great anxiety over the smallest indication of rank or value.
We are not so rigid about social standing now, but there are times and places where status matters a great deal - ask any Middle School or High School student, and they will tell you of the groups and the boundaries at school. Or talk with someone who works for a large company, and you will learn of the almost-invisible groupings at the office. Some will feel special because they are part of a ‘superior” group, while others know they are not, and labor with a burden. It is still a case of self-esteem at the expense of others, where the way to feel good about yourself is to compare yourself to other, lesser mortals, and to make a case for your superiority. The fact that so much humor on TV and in life is “put-down” humor is evidence of self-esteem at the expense of others; “If I can put him in his place, then I am better than he.”
II. TO BE HAPPY, TAKE THE DOWNWARD PATH
When Jesus saw how people were seeking to take the most honored seats at the banquet, he gave some advice: “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, 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. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 14:8-10)
I imagine that the advice Jesus gave was met with horror - take the lowest place? Admit that others were more valuable than you? Unthinkable! In a culture where people valued position and status, Jesus’ advice was a dreadful idea. But Jesus had a whole different plan in mind. Jesus knew that if people knew their own worth to God, then they would not struggle to prove their worth to others. There would be no reason to gain self-esteem at others’ expense. If you knew your own worth to God, you could cheerfully take the “last place,” because you knew that God had already said to you, “You are my child, and I love you.” And perhaps you might well be honored in the sight of others, as the host said, “My friend, come sit at the head table.” If the host did, then well and good - but if not, you were confident of your own worth no matter what.
There is an interesting story that comes from the two-man bobsled competition at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck. A British team driven by Tony Nash had just completed its first run, which had put them in second place. Then they made a most disheartening discovery. They had broken a bolt on the rear axle of their sled, which would put them out of the competition.
At the bottom of the hill, the great Italian bobsled driver Eugenio Monti, who was in first place, heard of their plight. Without hesitation, Monti removed the bolt from the rear axle of his own sled and sent it to the top of the hill. The British team affixed it to their sled and then completed their run down the mountain, winning the gold medal. Monti's Italian team took the bronze.
When asked about his act of sportsmanship, Eugenio Monti deflected any praise, saying, "Tony Nash did not win because I gave him a bolt. Tony Nash won because he was the best driver."
The story of Monti's selfless act spread . And because of it he was given the first De Coubertin Medal for sportsmanship. The award, named after the founder of the modern Olympics, is one of the noblest honors that can be bestowed upon an Olympic athlete; in other words, the most precious hardware any Olympian can own.
Eugenio Monti loved the sport more than he loved winning. There is not doubt that he was a competitive person, because he never would have made the Olympics otherwise. But he was confident enough of his own worth to love the sport more than he loved winning.
This is a story of what Jesus was talking about. Monti took the lower place and was honored far more than if he won by not giving a needed part to the British team.
III. THE FOUNDATION FOR SELF-ASSURED HUMILTY
Eugenio Monti had what I will call a “self-assured humility.” That self-assured humility is what Jesus wants those who follow him to have. With such self-assured humility, one can cheerfully take the lowest place, without being worried over status in the social order. But the question comes, however: how can we have this self-assured humility?
The answer comes in having a perspective that is far larger than simply the world we live in. In the closing verse of our Gospel reading, Jesus says, “you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” God will see what we do now, and he will act accordingly at the end of time. If we exalt ourselves at the expense of others by putting them down or acting as though we alone are worthwhile, then the Lord knows that we are full of ourselves. Jesus warns us that those who seek to have self-esteem at the expense of others are in danger. But when we honor others as good and worthwhile, the Lord knows that we love and trust him. He will raise us up to sit by his side.
One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Ephesians 2:8,9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God - not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” If we thought that it is up to us to earn our acceptance by God by doing what he commands, we would be very tempted not only to hide what wrong we have done, but also to knock down “the competition.” If God's love comes because we deserve it, then we want to make sure that we stand out among all others. We will inflate our accomplishments and try to make the accomplishments of others seem to be less, so that when God looks at the whole of humanity, we can be in the top 50 percent.
But God's love is a gift to us, completely undeserved, utterly unearned. His love is so great that to bring us to himself, God gave us Jesus Christ, his only and perfect son, to be a ransom for us. In Eph. 1:5-8a, Paul speaks of this vast mercy of God: “He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us.”
And that love will never, ever change. In Hebrews 13:8, we hear the constancy of God's love: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, and forever.” The basis for a self-assured humility is not thinking so little of ourselves that we continually put ourselves down - that is neither self-assured or really humble. The basis of self-assured humility is the fact that God loves each one of us with an everlasting love - a love so great that God the Son would take human flesh and live the life of a simple craftsman and die the death of a notorious criminal. If our standing with God is utterly secure in Jesus, then where we stand with everyone else is no big deal. We can take the lowest place, confident of our own great worth - and we can be elevated to some high position in society and know that is simply God's assignment for us to do some ministry for him, not the validation of our worth.
IV. LIFT OTHERS UP
We human beings have a natural need to know that it is a good thing that we exist. We all want to be assured of our value. And one very common way of seeking that sense of value is to strive for self-esteem at the expense of others. In Jesus’ day, one way to do that was to take the highest seat at a banquet. Jesus warned people that such a move was dangerous - you might well be sent to the foot of the table.
In these days, we don’t have banquets often, and there is no rigid seating order. So following Jesus teaching is not a matter of sitting in the lowest place on the rare occasions we attend a formal dinner. In Phil. 2:3, Paul gives us a good guideline on how to live according to Jesus’ teaching: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.”
We don’t often attend formal dinners, but we do meet people every day, in work, school, shopping, around the neighborhood. We can follow Jesus’ advice in these meetings by affirming the people we meet. You can decide each day to offer a compliment to two or three people you meet that day. Then follow through by noticing a special quality or action of those around you, and telling the person, “That was a great job you did on the project,” or “I appreciate the way you greet others with a smile.” It can feel awkward to build affirming statements into your day, but it can make a big difference. When you honor others, you let them know that it is a good thing that they are alive. They gain a greater sense of self-worth - and they gain self-esteem without causing anyone else pain. The are not increasing in self-esteem at the expense of others.
The Christian’s sense of self-esteem is founded on the love of God in Jesus Christ. We know that we are valued beyond all measure because of Jesus. And the interesting thing is that if we affirm others in their actions and qualities, we not only make a positive difference in their lives, we make a positive difference in our own. Tear others down, and you will tear yourself down - build others up, and you will built up. You will know that you have been a channel of God's love and an agent of his Kingdom.
To the Lord who stooped down to lift us up be glory now and evermore. AMEN.