Living Well: The Best Virtue - Humility

Proverbs 25:6-7; Luke 14:1,7-14

“Do not exalt yourself…” Proverbs 25:6

For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Luke 14:

This morning, we are concluding our series on Living Well as Christians as we examine our Lord’s teaching on the virtue of humility. He himself, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage.” (Philippians 2:6)

In our Gospel this morning, we hear and see Jesus offering some social and spiritual advice to the people at the banquet he was attending, but it was not advice that anyone asked for. They were going about their business and enjoying themselves when Jesus launched into a brief sermon on humility and exaltation, a sermon that perhaps no one wanted to hear.

In this teaching, Jesus focuses on how people perceive themselves. While sitting and observing the guests at dinner, he noticed several individuals who had a high opinion of themselves. They believed they deserved honor and, as a result, chose seats at the table that they thought were rightfully theirs. Jesus advises against taking places of honor without an invitation, as this can often lead to feelings of shame. If the host has different plans for those seats, you may be asked to move, which could result in embarrassment and the need to accept a less desirable position.

So, instead, Jesus says to take the lowest position. If you choose the humbler, lower spot, you might be “upgraded” to a higher position, one of prominence. When that happens, you'll gain honor in front of everyone sitting at the table with you. Even if you're not moved to a higher place, at least you've avoided the public shame of being told to move down to a lower position.

Jesus' teaching here sharply contrasts with the message from the world. The world claims that to achieve success and recognition, one must push, fight, and work tirelessly to reach the top. In contrast, Jesus states that those who focus on self-promotion will ultimately face humiliation. He addresses the attitude of pride within individuals. James 4:10 says, "Humble yourself before the Lord, and He will lift you up." Pride is essentially the attitude that suggests, “The world revolves around me.” When Jesus observed certain individuals, He recognized how pride could harm their lives. This issue isn’t just a relic of the past; it remains a problem today.

Pride presents challenges for several reasons. First, it is often difficult to recognize it in ourselves. Someone once said that pride is the only disease that makes everyone sick except the one who has it. We usually fail to acknowledge our own prideful tendencies. Second, pride ultimately leads to downfall. Adam and Eve fell victim to the devil's deception because they desired to be like God, resulting in their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. The Bible consistently stresses the importance of humility. As stated in Proverbs 29:23, “A man’s pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor.”

True humility is reflected in three key aspects: First, it involves viewing yourself as God sees you. Humility isn't about having a poor self-image or thinking you're a doormat. It’s about honestly assessing who you are, as the Bible describes you. On one hand, I am a sinner who deserves death and hell–yet I am a child of God. Humility exists in the tension and balance between those two truths.

There's a short story about the donkey Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The donkey was so overjoyed at being chosen that he held his head high as they entered the city. He drank in the songs of praise and enjoyed walking on the palm branches beneath his hooves. He relished the attention directed toward him. A week later, the little donkey wanted to experience it again, so he pranced out to retrace his steps — but this time, the people didn’t pay him any attention. He said, “Where are the palm branches? Don’t you know who I am?” The people who heard him threw rocks at him instead. As the donkey neared the city of Jerusalem, he said, “Where are the songs of praise for me? Don’t you remember me?” Inside the city, nobody paid him any attention; they just shooed him away from their stalls in the streets. The little donkey went home feeling dejected and humiliated. When his mother saw him, she said, “Foolish child. Don’t you know without Jesus you are nothing?” That’s true for each of us. Without Jesus (who embodies the virtue of humility), we are nothing, but in Christ, we can do all things. That’s humility.

Second, true humility is revealed by how you treat others. There’s an axiom that humility is not thinking less of yourself; it’s thinking of yourself less. To be humble does not mean hating yourself. Humility means putting others before yourself. The only way to demonstrate humility is to consider others more important than yourself, as shown by Jesus, who humbled Himself by stepping down from the throne of heaven to become one of us (Philippians 2:3-6).

The night before Jesus was crucified, all of the disciples were too proud to do the servant’s task of washing feet. Jesus humbled Himself and went to the disciples to wash their dirty, dusty, stinking feet. He humbled Himself again and became obedient to death – He died the death of a common criminal, and the result was that "God highly exalted Him and gave Him a name that is above every name.” That’s still how it works. The way down is up, and the way up is down.

True humility is often developed through adversity. Sometimes, when we become a bit too proud, I believe God allows a humbling experience to come our way. This is what Jesus meant when He said, “Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled.” The Apostle Paul understood this concept when he wrote, “To keep me from becoming conceited, there was given me a thorn in my flesh...” (2 Corinthians 12:7). God allowed Paul to suffer an ailment to help him remain humble. I believe that God continues to do this today. 

May we embrace Jesus’ teaching about humility as we live as Christians, treating others with kindness and respect.