Reading for Sunday August28, 2022
by Annette Allen
On Sunday, we will hear from Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 14, which begins, “On a sabbath, Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, and the people there were observing him carefully.“ The Pharisees were trying to trip Him up, to hear something they could use against Jesus to make their case that he was a blasphemer. Instead, they heard a parable about the difference between pride and humility. Jesus said, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Gems:
Throughout the Bible, we see examples of pride and unbelief. Think of the great men from the Old Testament, who then made fatal decisions because of pride, the pride that leads to all other sin.
What is pride in the Bible? It’s when God becomes smaller in our minds and we become larger, we become the center of our world. All honors, all glories, all “wins” are through our own efforts, with God conveniently moved aside, either through denial of his existence or distortion of his character.
Self-importance and godless self-confidence are different from the self-confidence we gain from the use of the gifts God gave us. We acknowledge that every gift comes from God, to be used in service of God and others. Jesus acknowledged this in John, Chapter 5, verse 30: “I can of mine own self do nothing….I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me.”
We exalt God, even though He doesn’t need us to. We exalt others with sincere compliments and appreciation of their specialness. It’s up to them and up to each of us whether or not we want to give that glory to God or to ourselves.
There are many examples of Jesus’ humility to be found in the New Testament. If you look, it’s easy to find them. The ultimate example was the incarnation. GOD became man to save us!
How do we humble ourselves? We will need to make a firm decision to adopt Jesus’ way of thinking. What are his values? What was his attitude toward others? He put a strong emphasis on humility in dealing with others, to sit at the lowest place at the table, “so that when the host comes to you, he may say, ‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’” Wouldn’t we be grateful to have our Host lead us to a higher place at His table?
For this to happen, we need to earnestly pray for the Holy Spirit to change our hearts, because it's impossible to do it in our own strength.
