Sermon - Trinity XVII 2018 - Luke 14:1-11

“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” With these words Christ instructs us to regard humility as far more valuable than we typically do. Because we are united as one body in Christ, we are to live in humble service to each other, just as Christ lives in humble service to us. 

We’ve already heard Jesus instruct us to be humble towards outsiders when He told the parable of the good samaritan. But here in today’s lesson Jesus teaches us to be humble in our relationships with other Christians. Rather than glorifying ourselves, we ought to humble ourselves. These words of Jesus are spoken to the congregations of Christians who sit in the pews every week without fail. These words are for us.

Humility is a difficult concept to grasp because it’s so far outside of how we regularly think and operate as a society. In athletics the team that scores more points, has a stronger defense, runs faster, hits harder, makes fewer mistakes is better than other teams. They win the trophy, they’re on the front of the paper, they’re the talk of the town because they’re objectively better than others. I can swim, but not nearly as a fast as Michael Phelps. He is better than me at swimming. 

In the business world, the only way you get ahead of the competition is by being better than them and taking their business. In fact, if you don’t toot your own horn to make yourself look better than others, you’ll go out of business. If you’re looking for a job, you write a resume that lists all of your strengths and accomplishments to make yourself appear better than other job-seekers.

In the world of psychology and counseling and self-help books promoted by Joel Osteen and Oprah Winfrey, the goal is to raise your self-esteem, to make you feel good about yourself. The better you feel about yourself, the happier and more successful you’ll be. The goal of being confident, having self-esteem, winning, succeeding, and other such things is to glorify yourself above others.

This is simply the way that the world operates! If you’re going to get ahead, you need to glorify yourself. But this is not the way it works as a Christian. Instead Jesus teaches us: “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor... But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place.” 

It’s so very tempting to consider yourself a better Christian than others because this is the way the world works! It’s tempting to compare yourself to other Christians and think of how much better you are. You go to church more regularly, your kids are better behaved or still believe, you read your Bible or devotion more religiously, you sing louder, and pray more devoutly. 

While all of those things are good things to be doing, and in fact we should all be doing them, we ought not to glorify ourselves. Just because you’ve been a member for x number of years, your grandparents literally built this building, and you’ve got the right name you shouldn’t find your glory in yourself.

“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” We are to walk in humility because Christ walked in humility.

Although Jesus is the Word made flesh, although He is the Christ the Son of the living God, although He is the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made, although Jesus is God, He did not consider equality with God a things to be grasped. But He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, taking the form of a human, and becoming worse than us.

Jesus began His ministry by being baptized in the Jordan river. In His human birth and human baptism, Jesus took all of our sin, guilt, shame, and mortal weaknesses in His body. He spent His earthly ministry among the sick, the diseased, and the sinful. 

On the night when Jesus was betrayed, sitting in the upper room with His apostles, He arose from the table, took off His outer garment, wrapped a servant’s towel around His waist, knelt down and washed His apostles’ filthy disgusting feet, wiping their feet off with the towel around His waist. The next day, Jesus was beaten, stripped, and nailed to a tree. Upon Him wasn’t just some nasty foot washing filth, but upon Him was laid the sin and guilt of all the world.

In that moment when Jesus hung there bloodied and bruised, dying the most humiliating and lowest death imaginable, He was the most sinful, wretched man to have ever lived because He carried our sins upon His heart. He humbled Himself not just to death, not just to the cross, but to the point of taking all of our shame. He became lower than the lowest. He became lower than you and me.

From these depths of His anguish and humility, the Father exalted Jesus to sit at His right hand in the kingdom of heaven for eternity. But Jesus didn’t do it for Himself. Jesus didn’t humble Himself so that He would later be exalted above all. Jesus humbled Himself so that You would be exalted, so that you would be lifted from out of your sin to stand before the throne in heaven. Jesus abased Himself so that you would be exalted in the heavens.

Now therefore, because you’ve been united with Christ in your baptism and rebirth, His humility belongs also to you. For, “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Therefore, as fellow Christians there are no classes among us. You are either a Christian or you’re not. You’re either in or you’re out. You, my friends, are in. 

So in your dealings with fellow Christians, don’t lord yourself over anyone, after-all, you’ve all already been abased along with Jesus together. You’ve already been crucified with Him and have been taken lower than low. Instead, if you wish to be a Christian and follow Jesus, deny yourselves and take up your cross. 

Your value, your identity, your glory cannot be found in your actions. Rather your value is found in Christ alone. He gives your worth. Together as Christians you share the same value of one another. Your race, your income, your housing, your job, your car, your education, all of it is of no consequence because who you are is determined by Jesus and in His eyes you’re all equally His. It doesn’t matter if you’re a pastor or unemployed, if your rich or your broke, if you live on the street or in a mansion, together we are all one body in Christ Jesus.

As such, all being members of that one body, we have different duties and stations in life to serve one another using our own unique gifts and talents. We don’t serve each other so as to outdo one another in our humility, as if look at me, I’m more humble and serve more people than you! But we serve each other because we all belong to the one body of Christ who is our head and master and guides us to serve each other. For we are all united in Christ.

But this unity that we have is not ours to determine and declare. But this is the unity of the Spirit, the Spirit unites us as one body, and the Spirit defines what it takes to unite us. As such, we are united in that one hope, that one Gospel message of Jesus Christ as it has been revealed to us in His Word. 

So far as all Christian denominations are united in His Word they are united in Christ. But should some Christians disconnect themselves from the Word, and follow after other teachings, distorting God’s Word in order to draw others after them, we aren’t united with them. The visible church on earth doesn’t have complete unity because some have fallen away from the truth and followed after myths. Even in our midst, within the LCMS, there are those who aren’t united in the Spirit because they have left the one message of hope we have in the Gospel.

So the unity that we have as Christians is found in the Word of God. Humble yourselves so that your feelings, your rationalizations, your superstitions are subordinate to Christ’s Word. Whether we have unity with all or not, treat one another as Christ treats us. He lays down His life for us and all people, so that He may take our lives from the pit of this sinful world to be exalted with Him in the joy of paradise eternal.