Text for the Week: Humility in Luke 14

Scripture: Luke 14:7-14

⁷ When Jesus noticed how the guests sought out the best seats at the table, he told them a parable. ⁸ “When someone invites you to a wedding celebration, don’t take your seat in the place of honor. Someone more highly regarded than you could have been invited by your host. ⁹ The host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give your seat to this other person.’ Embarrassed, you will take your seat in the least important place. ¹⁰ Instead, when you receive an invitation, go and sit in the least important place. When your host approaches you, he will say, ‘Friend, move up here to a better seat.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. ¹¹ All who lift themselves up will be brought low, and those who make themselves low will be lifted up.”

¹² Then Jesus said to the person who had invited him, “When you host a lunch or dinner, don’t invite your friends, your brothers and sisters, your relatives, or rich neighbors. If you do, they will invite you in return and that will be your reward. ¹³ Instead, when you give a banquet, invite the poor, crippled, lame, and blind. ¹⁴ And you will be blessed because they can’t repay you. Instead, you will be repaid when the just are resurrected.”

Questions

1. What is the implicit setting for Jesus’ comments in verses 7-11 and how does that setting help us understand the wisdom of Jesus’ parable?
2. What does it mean to be “highly regarded” and what does it mean to be “low” and why does Jesus advocate for being low?
3. Do these two paragraphs (vv7-11, vv12-14)  have a related theme, if so how do they work together?

Background

Related Scriptures: Matt. 5:9, 18:4, 23:12; 2 Cor. 11:7; Jas. 4:10; 1 Pet. 5:6; Rom. 12:16;

Luke 14 is set at a Sabbath meal thrown by a Pharisee, a leader in the community who had a great deal of social prestige.

Luke 14:7-24 is divided into three paragraphs 7-11, 12-14, 15-24 Each of these paragraphs is an independent teaching but there is a common theme of invitation to a party and how social structures impact relationships within the party.

The word Jesus uses for “low” or “humble” means someone who is in a servile position or of low state, it refers to placing oneself in a low social standing. It is the same word Mary uses of herself in Luke 1 to describe how God had lifted her from her low status.

Rome functioned on an intricate system of patronage, the giving and receiving of gifts to show social standing. Banquets were a way to show honor and respect to people as well as establish positions within society. Who a person invited to a banquet and who attended one’s banquets displayed that person’s social standing and how a person was treated in the community. Inviting the poor or outcast like the man Jesus heals in verses 1-6 would harm the social standing of anyone who would invite them.

A person who could not reciprocate a banquet invitation would be expected to decline the invitation and not attend.

For more background you can watch my video here

Reflection

“If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realise that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.” C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity

Lewis is entirely correct, it is not often I, or most people, think of ourselves as proud or arrogant, but that is often because we tend to think of only the most extreme notions of arrogance. For us an arrogant person is one that thinks far too much of their own abilities and believes they deserve to be recognized as more important than they are. Thus, for us a humble person is someone who rightly evaluates their abilities and place in the social hierarchy. Our concept of humility begins in not overselling ourselves or thinking too highly of our own status. It is easy for us to see how the person Jesus chides in verses 8-9 is wrong, he is trying to inflate his social standing by taking a place of honor and is ultimately humbled. This fits well into our understanding of arrogance and humility, if you think too highly of your place you will be knocked from it. But this idea of pride and humility only serves as the backdrop of Jesus’ teaching, he is using this scenario to illustrate something everyone already knows. Conventional wisdom is to not seat yourself too highly because it will be embarrassing when you are brought down, Jesus’ wisdom goes beyond this to establish a new expression of humility.

The first thing to notice about Jesus’ teaching here is the word often translated “humble” or “low” relates to social standing, it literally means “servile”. When Jesus says to humble yourself he is not talking about your attitude about your abilities, he is saying that when you are in social settings take the position designated for the poor, useless, and servants. Yes, there is some level of hyperbole in this passage but if we take Luke 14 as a whole we see that there is less hyperbole in these passages than we might think. First Jesus goes to a meal at a religious leader’s house (the setting for the chapter) where he reproaches the host and friends for not healing the man who needs attention, they view him as a sinner and beneath them socially. He then tells a parable of taking the place of the lowest when invited to a banquet and follows that with a message to the host that he should be welcoming the poor and needy instead of friends and benefactors. Finally, Jesus places all of this in the context of a banquet where those who were socially good enough for the banquet are left out and the poor are welcomed because they do not share the priorities of the host.

All of this is to help us lay aside our priority of “self”, and being caught up with the concept of “I deserve”. Most of us if we walked into the banquet Jesus was attending would think to find a seat in the middle of room, not too high not too low. Jesus is saying go to the lowest spot look for the people who society has left behind and work to lift them up with you, this is humility. Jesus asks the host to not think about who can benefit him with a reciprocal invite to a party, but who needs food. He tells the guests to sit in the back with those who have no influence rather than fighting for a seat that proves your prestige. This is an active step toward pulling ourselves out of our clique and into situations where we can become more aware of our self and surroundings, learn about and empathize with others, discover our true self-contentedness, and learn to become grateful for the privileges we have.

Takeaway

Humbling ourselves means to be thankful we are included in the party, and to take the spots of least privilege expecting that God will elevate us. And when we are in a position of privilege use it not to elevate friends or those who can benefit us, but to help those who otherwise are outcast from the social structures of our world.