Grace mercy and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text today is the Gospel lesson (Luke 14:1-14), just read, especially verse, 11, "For Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Thus far our text.
Dear friends in Christ. Little Billy had his very first day of school, beginning kindergarten. When his mom picked up, she nervously asked the five year old how his first day had gone. Billy looked at his mom and said, "Great mom, I am the best looking person in my class." His mom, caught off guard asked him, "How do you know that Billy? Who told you?" "Duh Mom," Billy replied, "I could see everyone else there; no one had to tell me."
Pride is everywhere, and while in Little Billy's case, it may seem amusing; in reality pride is no laughing matter. Pride is ugly, pride is hurtful. Pride is a sinful deadly problem. In our text today Jesus shows that those who are prideful will have no part with him in his kingdom. "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who is humble will be exalted." The problem is that pride often times lies hidden beneath the surface, only sneaking out when we will least pay attention to it. Often we don't even realize that we daily struggle with this sin, but it is there lurking in our lives, and in the lives of those to whom Jesus spoke in our text today.
In our text today, Jesus addresses people who were full of pride. Our text tells us "Jesus told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor." The people in our text today were honoring themselves by making sure they were sitting in the place of honor, the head of the table. They wanted to make sure that everyone else could see them, and that everyone else would be jealous of where they were sitting. These people thought that they were important, and they wanted to make sure everyone else could see it and know it. After all, there is no point in being superior if you don't get recognition for it, is there?
But is anyone of us more superior to any other? Can we actually be better than another person? We think so. How often do we point at another saying, "Yes lord, I may sin, but not as badly as that person. His sin is worse than mine"? We all do this. We judge others based solely on human standards. In our pride, we like to put one sin below another, saying "The sin of premarital sex is worse than the sin of gossiping, but better than murder." In human eyes we can justify this, but not in God's eyes. In God's eyes a sin is a sin is a sin, and we are all guilty of them.
And that is where our pride is really strongest isn't it? In our sin. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were tempted by the serpent that lied to them and told them that by eating of the forbidden fruit, their eyes would be opened, and they would be like God. Ever since, every single human has been trying to exalt himself to the place of God. We like to decide which things are right or wrong, rather than trusting in what God's word clearly says. We take what God's word says is wrong, and warp and twist it until we convince ourselves that it really is ok.
In this, our sinful nature, our pride often fall victim to the very first sin again and again, asking the same question Satan asked in the Garden of Eden "Did God really say?" Did God really say that homosexuality is a sin? Did God really say that marital unfaithfulness is wrong? Did God really say that I should always speak well of my neighbors rather than to slander them behind their backs? Did God really say that apart from Him I am a poor miserable sinner? Dear friends in Christ, the answer is yes. You and I are horrible, foul, rotten sinners, even when we in our pride cannot see it.
That truth is always hard to hear isn't it. It really strikes a blow to our pride to hear that we are poor miserable sinners in our thought, our word, and our deeds, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. Some times the truth hurts, but that is exactly what our text says. "Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled." In our sinful pride we have exalted ourselves. But in response, God's word clearly and faithfully humbles us. To Satan's question, did God really say, there is a resounding answer, yes, and you are guilty.
But what now? Are we left humbled in our sin by God's word? Dear friends in Christ the answer is no. For your humiliation is but a sharing in the humiliation of Christ. Yes our text says, "He who exalts himself, will be humbled." But it also goes on to say, "He who humbles himself will be exalted." This one who humbled himself is none other than Jesus Christ. IN the book of Philippians, St. Paul clearly tells us this saying that "Jesus Christ, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth."
Dear friends, Jesus humbled himself, and became obedient to death on a cross for you. Jesus took all your pride and your false self worth and killed it. Just as we in our pride are humbled, so Jesus in his humility on the cross is exalted into everlasting life and joy.
And that joy and exaltation is for you too. For we who are humbled by God's word also will be brought to exaltation through that word made flesh. In Jesus, we are brought to that everlasting wedding feast mentioned in our text. In our sin we are left sitting alone in the lowest place, seemingly with no where to turn. But with Jesus' humble life, death and resurrection, we are called to move up to the wedding feast. Even here, today, we hear the Word call to us, "Dear friends, you who are humbled by your sin, do you not see Jesus has died for you, come up to the place of honor, and sit and dine with Jesus."
The Small Catechism says it this way, that Jesus has "purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, in order that I may be [wholly] His own, and live under Him in His kingdom." In this, the death of Jesus, you are free from sin, and exalted into the marriage feast of the lamb in His kingdom which shall have no end. There we will be forever separated from all our sin, including selfish pride. There will we feast in joy, boasting in our God who has saved us by humbling himself.
While we are here on Earth, at times, our pride may still sneak out in to the open, we may still judge and condemn as if we are a god, but in the end, Christ has overcome it all.
THOUGH OUR PRIDE LEADS TO HUMILIATION AND DEATH, HUMBLENESS IN CHRIST LEADS TO ETERNAL EXALTATION.
And nothing that we do can separate us from this eternal joy. May this peace be yours always, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
