4th Tuesday of Lent (April 1). HUMBLE YOURSELF

  Prepare to Listen.  I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
 
Prayerfully Read Luke 14:1-11
On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely.  2Just then, in front of him, there was a man who had dropsy.  3And Jesus asked the lawyers and Pharisees, ‘Is it lawful to cure people on the sabbath, or not?’  4But they were silent.  So Jesus took him and healed him, and sent him away.  5Then he said to them, ‘If one of you has a child or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a sabbath day?’  6And they could not reply to this.  7When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honour, he told them a parable.  8‘When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honour, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; 9and 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.  10But 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 honoured in the presence of all who sit at the table with you.  11For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’
 
Prayerfully Wonder and Reflect
Jesus, an invited guest, was under scrutiny.  Why do you think they all watched him closely?
 
Another sabbath, another meal, another Pharisee and guests.  All watched Jesus closely.  They knew his habit of breaking sabbath rules to show mercy to the needy.  Arrogantly they waited to rebuke him if he stepped over the line.  Instead, Jesus rebuked them.  When a man with dropsy (edema) appeared, he asked, “Is it lawful to cure people on the sabbath, or not?”  The answer seems obvious: YES!  “But they were silent.”  Jesus healed the man and sent him away.  He then asked a second question: Would you save your child or ox?  Another no-brainer.  But “they could not reply to this” either.
 
In response, Jesus turned their focus away from his acts of mercy to the lowly, to their acts of pride that ignored the lowly.  He told a parable based on teaching from Proverbs (25:6-7).  If taken superficially, the parable might seem like social advice to avoid embarrassment.  But Jesus subtly focused on a specific fault of Pharisees and lawyers, who arrogantly believed they belonged in places of honor.
 
The parable isn’t a lesson on how to get yourself exalted.  Taking the humble seat isn’t “a new strategy for self-exaltation,” a way to get promoted in the sight of God and people.  As Craddock notes, “Taking the low seat because one is humble is one thing; taking the low seat to move up is another.”[1]  We know Jesus was calling for the former—acting with humility.  We know this from his concluding words, that leave us thinking about humility: “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”  Echoing the words of his mother: “God has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly.”

How can you humble yourself, and remain humble when God exalts you?
 
Prayerfully Respond
Lord, guard me from the easy road of pride.  Help me always live your harder way of humility.  Amen. 
 
Live obediently.  Humble yourself.
[1] Craddock, Fred B.  Luke.  Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.  1990, p. 177.