In his sermon 'A Parable About Humility,' Robert Bosley explores the teachings of Jesus in Luke 14:1-14. Jesus attends a Sabbath meal at the house of a Pharisee, where he is closely watched by the religious leaders. He heals a man with dropsy, challenging the Pharisees on whether it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath. Jesus then shares a parable about choosing seats at a wedding feast, emphasizing that those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. The parable underscores the virtue of humility and criticizes the Pharisees' pride and hypocrisy. Jesus further applies the parable to the host of the meal, encouraging him to invite the poor and needy, who cannot repay, instead of seeking reciprocal favors from the wealthy. The sermon highlights that true humility is a Christian virtue that affects both social behavior and one's relationship with God. Bosley concludes by urging listeners to humble themselves before God, as humility is essential for entering God's kingdom.

Go ahead and be seated. This afternoon we're going to continue the series looking at the parables taught by our Lord Jesus during his earthly ministry. And we're going to be in the gospel of Luke chapter 14 so you want to take out your copies of the Word of God and open up to Luke chapter 14 I'm begin reading in verse 1 and go through verse 14. Verses 1 through 14. Now, it happened as he went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath that they watched him closely.

And behold, there was a certain man before him who had dropsy. And Jesus answering spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? Bethaeus kept silent, and he took him and healed him and let him go. Then he answered them, saying, Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day? And they could not answer him regarding these things.

So he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noted how they chose the best places, saying to them, When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him. And he who invited you and him come and say to you, please give place to this man. And then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place so that when he who invited you comes, he may say to you, friend, go up higher. Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you.

For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Then he also said to him who invited him, When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just. Let's pray. Our father, we thank you for this opportunity we have to be again in your word.

We pray Lord that in these precious words of our Lord Jesus you would teach us wonderful things. Help us Lord to understand this passage. May we grow in what it means to be like Christ and may we see the goodness of this great virtue laid before us here, the virtue of humility. May we grow in it that we may become more like our Savior. In his name we pray, amen.

So as I said, we're continuing the parables series this afternoon, and this parable is gone by various names. If you see in your Bible or in commentaries, there are different names attached to this. Sometimes it's called the parable of the wedding feast, parable of the guests, parable of humility, something like that. I think the driving force of this is it is intended to instruct us on humility. And so I'm going to consider it a parable about humility.

And it is one of the more interesting of the parables. When we come to the parables, obviously the parables are set in very real world situations, very earthy situations are presented in these stories, but they're intended to teach very spiritual and heavenly matters. This parable is somewhat unique in which that heavenly emphasis, that spiritual meaning is not immediately apparent. It may not even be a direct meaning at all. We can take an application, I think we can and we will, but we look at this and we see that there is a very this world concern with this parable.

And so I felt very appropriate that this came today. I didn't plan on this, but it came very appropriate that it comes after our morning message about all the words of this life we have here in this parable, one of the words of this life. How do you live in this world as a follower of Jesus? But before we get to the parable itself, I do want to look a little bit at the setting of the parable, which again is very appropriate considering what we heard this morning. It is the Sabbath day and Jesus is at a meal with some Pharisees.

And that immediately can strike us as odd. Aren't those the bad guys? Well, usually, yes. In the gospel narratives, the Pharisees are usually the bad guys. But we can read throughout the gospel that clearly there was division among the Pharisees.

There was dissension and disagreement about their perspective on who Jesus was. Now That being said, I don't think we give these guys a pass just because they invited Jesus to dinner. I think the context itself shows that they intended this to be another time where they were trying to entrap him, or at least that was the intention, I believe, of the host of the meal. But it is interesting that when Jesus gives his parables, often they're in the context of his preaching, his intentional sitting down, teaching his disciples, teaching the crowds. This one is a very different circumstance.

He's reclining at a table with other religious leaders on the Lord's Day, on the Sabbath day. And his parable doesn't spring from an exposition he's giving, it's a response to what he sees them doing and what they are trying to do to him. So as mentioned this is on the Sabbath day. This seems to be some sort of a Sabbath feast which would have been very common at this time. Their religious leaders would often invite other authorities, other powerful men to join them for a Lord's Day meal.

They were very strict to keep the letter of the law so the meal would be cold. It would have been prepared the previous day, but they would have been very careful to lay out the best of everything. The finest decorations, the finest of foods, everything was top-notch. I'm not opposed to having a good feast on the Lord's Day. It's probably a good thing to celebrate God's day of rest with good food.

But what is the heart behind it? And I think the heart here is one of pride. Often these Sabbath feasts were great occasions of ostentatious displays of wealth and prestige, especially likely the case here with a man that was called a ruler of the Pharisees. Now what exactly does that mean? Either he was simply a highly respected Pharisee, so his word carried a little bit more weight, or he could be actually a member of the Sanhedrin, the council that governed Israel underneath the Romans, who happened to be a Pharisee.

As we saw the council in the passage this morning and we dealt with a Sadducee, here we have one of the Pharisees. And this man has invited Jesus to this feast but seemingly for disingenuous reasons look again at sorry look again at verse 1. He went to the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, they watched him closely. They were watching him closely. They were paying attention.

They were likely trying to entrap Jesus into breaking their laws regarding the Sabbath. And I put emphasis on, I say their laws because we must remember that Jesus never broke God's law, not even one time, but he seemed to go out of his way to break the Pharisees' interpretation of the law and their additions to the law of God. The Pharisees had piled on tradition after tradition and manmade doctrine after manmade doctrine, and Jesus kept the true law of God but he would poke the Pharisees by violating their so-called commands over and over again And I believe that's what we have here. It seems probable that this man even invited, this Pharisee even invited this sick man, the man with Dropsy or edema, in order to see what Jesus would do. Because it seems that with the language, it says that there was the man with Dropsy, there was a certain man before him.

It almost gives the impression that they are seated at the table right across from one another. And as the parable goes out, these seats are arranged. It's not just a free form you come in and sit down. It's arranged by your status or your relationship to the host. So it seems intentional that this man with the sickness was put in close proximity to the Lord.

And so the whole thing it seems to be a setup from the word go. Now what? Quickly I do want to look at the healing and Jesus' response and rebuke of them there. Now this man has a disease or a sickness called dropsy or what is commonly called edema today. In other words, he has a swelling of part of his body that was due to fluid retention under the skin.

Luke, very characteristic of him, he uses a very technical term. That's the only time this word is used in the entire New Testament. Luke, as a physician, kind of nerds out in his craft and he uses technical terms when diseases come up. But this man is put right before him, seemingly in an effort to stir a conflict. It's the Sabbath.

Jesus has already gotten in hot water with the Pharisees for healing on the Sabbath. Is he going to do it again in my own house? Might be the mentality of this Pharisee. And if he does it with surrounded at the table with other Pharisees and religious leaders can we get him this time? I think that's probably the mentality behind what's going on here.

But Jesus has none of it. He looks at them and he immediately says to them, is it lawful to heal in the Sabbath? He just goes straight to the heart of it. Is it lawful? Does God permit this or does God forbid it?

What does the law of God say? And if you know your scriptures, the law of God never once forbids healing anyone or doing good to anyone on the Sabbath day. The Sabbath is a day of rest. It's a day of worship. It's a day of delight.

You're to turn away from your own works, your own normal routines and labors, but it never says you can't do good to other people. In fact, Jesus makes it explicit, That's one of the purposes of the Sabbath, to do good. Jesus points out their hypocrisy by saying how quickly would they go and rescue one of their animals who had fallen into a pit, even though it's on the Sabbath day. And he doesn't say that that's a bad thing. You should.

You should care for your beast. The law of God commands it. And even on the Sabbath, yes, you should exert yourself to rescue your animal that's fallen into a well. How much more should you do good to a fellow image bearer of God on the Lord's Day? So Jesus takes him, he lays his hands on this man, he heals him and he lets him go, whether the man stayed at the feast or he went home, doesn't really say, doesn't really matter, but he heals the man and the Pharisees remain silent.

They could not answer him regarding these things, verse 6 says. Now I don't believe that their silence was a sign of their conviction. I don't think they received the rebuke. I don't think they saw it and said, yeah, that was a bad idea. That was wrong of us.

Rather, I think their silence is merely wounded pride. They wanted to catch Jesus, and they've been shown to be hypocrites. They've seen that he has a power they can't even touch, that they wouldn't have done this on the Sabbath and he did it anyway and he has exposed them as hypocrites and ultimately false teachers. And so their silence is not one of repentance, but it's one of wounded pride and probably anger. And I believe that's why Jesus then tells this parable on humility.

So again, I'm going to briefly go through the parable and then we can consider what it means for us. So he told a parable to those who were invited when he noted, and this is key, when he noted how they chose the best places. So when you would have a feast like this, often you would have the head table, you would have the host or the master of the feast, he would be at the head table, and your closeness, your proximity to the master of the feast, indicated your standing among that group of people, and often society at large. And so this is a ruler of the Pharisees. This man is the top of the food chain in the society at that time.

And Jesus has been watching these men, who knows when he came in, but he has been watching these men as they've arrived for the feast, and they're all seeking the best places. They're all seeking to be as close as they can to get to the host. So their prestige, that their image can be increased with their fellows. It's all about how can they build up their pride and their image with the rest of the Pharisees and whoever may else be invited. Jesus then gives them this parable.

When you're invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him, him being the host, or the one who invited, and he who invited you and him, the one who's more honorable, come and say to you, give place to this man, and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. Now remember, this was a very much a shame and honor-based culture. We don't really have much of a grasp of that anymore, but it was a major thing to be publicly shamed and humiliated in that day. It would be better if it was a big deal to be publicly shamed today. We'd probably have a much more reasonable society if shame meant something still.

And so it should among the church. But Jesus has been, Jesus gives this parable and he says, when you go, you're invited to a wedding feast, it's time of celebration, a great feast, go, but don't immediately go and try and find the most honorable place to make yourself look like you're something. Else when the host of the feast comes in and someone who is a higher rank than you comes in and says, well, that's his seat, you need to go down there. That'll shame you in front of everybody. All the people who thought you were hot stuff sitting up there at the head table, now they're going to see you're an imposter.

You're a fraud. Rather, he says, When you're invited, go and sit down in the lowest place so that when he who invite you comes, he may save you friend, go up higher. Then you'll have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you." So he says, when you go in, take the more humble seats. Come in with an attitude of humility, that you are not something great. Come in with a right recognition of who you are.

Take the lower seats. If the host sees fit, he can elevate you. And you will truly be honored then, not presuming this honor on yourself. In other words, This parable is essentially about not only promoting humility, but also how to maintain a good reputation among your community, among the people around you. As I said, it's kind of an odd parable in this sense.

Most of the parables are very focused on salvation, the forgiveness of sins, or eschatology, the end of the age, and things like this, and teaching these, what we consider the more spiritual things. This is very much this life focused, but there is clearly a spiritual element to it. There are good reasons for the Lord to use this parable and to teach on humility in this way. First, humility is a truly Christian virtue. We look around at the world around us and the unbeliever has no thought to humility.

We have a society based and built and founded on pride and exaltation of self. But Christianity says, well no, you need to have a sober and realistic assessment of who you are. You must be humble. Humility is a Christian virtue. And true humility calls you to have a realistic assessment of yourself and how you fit into your society around you.

And this parable calls Jesus' hearers and us reading it today to this same kind of realistic assessment. Where do we fit in? Who are we? And what what is our state? What is our status even in society?

Secondly, it can kind of seem unspiritual with the idea that Jesus is basically using public shame to promote humility. That can seem odd. Like, Wouldn't it be more spiritual for Jesus to say, well, you should be humble because God loves humility? It's true, but that's not what he uses to teach it here. And this is, I think, an important truth for us to grasp.

Virtue is good even if that virtue is pursued for less than purely spiritual reasons. It's not a bad thing to see that true virtues have a real effect and real is not even the best word for that, that have an earthly, even a worldly effect in your society. It's not bad to recognize that virtue matters to those that you're around, and that you can pursue virtue for the sake of these other good benefits, not merely, not simply because God commands it. Now, that's a good enough reason, But it's okay for us to recognize there are other good reasons to pursue virtues. We're not purely spiritual beings.

We are body and spirit. And so we pursue virtue for the good of our spirit, but also for the good of our body and our body's interaction, we could say, with the world around us. For instance, we could say, and this may make a little bit more sense for us in our more modern setting, It's admirable to pursue purity because God requires purity. That's obviously primary. But it's also admirable and good for you to pursue purity so that your spouse is not offended and angered and sinned against.

It's good to pursue purity by prayer and by fasting and by meditating on the goodness and glory of Christ. Absolutely. It's also good to pursue purity by putting safeguards on your devices. These things aren't opposed to one another. They work together.

We are embodied, and so we live in a world where the physical matters. And here, humility can be promoted when you recognize your pride can bring you great shame among your people. These things are not in conflict. But also I believe it's good that Jesus teaches this about maintaining a good reputation through humility here, because your state, whether you are a humble person or not, does reveal your spiritual state. The two are connected.

If you cannot be humble with your fellow creatures, how will you humble yourself before your Creator? If in pride you elevate yourself above fellow man How will you humble yourself before God? The two are connected. And Jesus gives us the interpretation of the parable in verse 11. He says, Whoever exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Now this kind of language is brought up again later in Matthew chapter 23 when Jesus in just a blistering rebuke of the Pharisees pronounces several woes one after another, destruction on you, and he says whoever exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

The Pharisees were all about exalting themselves in the eyes of men and Jesus absolutely blasts them for that. And this is not merely a New Testament idea. Proverbs 29, 23, a man's pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor. Same idea here. What you do, your attitude towards other people, whether you are humble or proud, will determine whether you're honored or shamed among your people.

And obviously this humbling and exaltation motif is true among men, but as I mentioned earlier, it is also true with God. The two are connected. The proud man finds it very hard to kneel before Christ. The proud and self-righteous will not easily turn from themselves and throw themselves fully on the mercy of God. Those who think that they are the masters of their own destiny, that they are the ones in charge of their lives and all their plans, they will have a very hard time humbling themselves under the hand of God.

As our brother Paul preached a few weeks ago, the first of the Beatitudes reflects this. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. This heartfelt humility, That is a characteristic of those who inherit God's kingdom. Isaiah 66 2, God says, has not my hand made all these things? And so they came into being, declares the Lord.

This is the one that I will esteem he who is humble and contrite in spirit who trembles at my word We see this over and over again throughout the scriptures, humble yourself, God will exalt you. You're a creature, how can you think so much better of yourself than fellow man? You are another creature. You are not better. Humble yourself so that your creator may exalt you.

But if you exalt yourself, your creator will humble you. Because God will exalt the humble and God will humble the proud. No one will stand arrogantly before God on that final day. No one's pride will last past death. No one's prestige, no one's position, none of that will matter at all when they stand before that throne.

Every knee will bow, either willfully and joyfully in humility and faith or in shattered pride being made to kneel and confess that Christ is Lord before being sent to their condemnation. Every knee will bow. The pride of man will be broken. And so is it going to be broken today in repentance and faith? Or will your pride be broken on that last day when God says depart from me I never knew you Jesus takes the parable in verse 12 and he applies it now to the host.

He initially was talking to those who are going to the feast and now he applies it to the host, the man who invited him to this Sabbath feast. He says, when you give a dinner or supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they invite you back and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just." Jesus applies this parable on humility, and his application is that we should not seek to be honored or exalted, particularly here he applies it, that we should not seek to be honored or exalted by doing favors for the rich and powerful. In this time, as it still is in a sense today, the powerful would be invited to feasts and festivals and banquets and ceremonies and the like so that they might return the favor to the one that invited them. It was a quid pro quo.

I invite you to this thing, you invite me later on, I lift up your position in the side of everyone else, you do the same for me later on." It was all a back and forth. Everything was reciprocal. And Jesus rebuked this mentality, and he applied this parable to that. He specifically addresses the host. He says, this host had apparently invited the wealthy, the powerful, with the reasoning that one day they might return the invitation and do or do some sort of favor for him.

He was hoping to earn prestige and earn their favor. And Jesus corrects this and with a what I take as a very hyperbolic statement, a statement of exaggeration for emphasis, where he says, don't even invite your friends, your brothers, your relatives, your neighbors. I don't think he means that literally, that we should never invite these people to our home that would destroy fellowship that would be completely at odds with all the rest of scripture says about hospitality but he's making a point are these the only people you ever invite Are you only concerned with inviting the people that can help you climb the social ladder? Is that the point of your feasts, of your celebrations, of your banquets, of your get-togethers, of your parties? Is that why you do this?

So that you can be seen as something in the eyes of men? Or are you doing it to be a blessing? Are you doing it to serve your neighbors? Are you doing it to serve those who can't repay you? Those who barely or maybe not even at all have the food to feed themselves who are not even able to care for themselves Are you inviting them so you can be a blessing to them?

The Lord is teaching that genuine humility consists in serving, literally in this case, serving them by giving them food, serving those who can never repay you. That is what true humility looks like. It's basically an axiom in Jesus' teaching, a self-evident truth, that if your good works are rewarded in this life by the masses, then you have received a reward. They are good works that earn you nothing. They're self-serving and will not be rewarded in the eternal state.

But if you do good for those who can't repay you, If you do good and serve those who cannot serve you back, you will be rewarded. And just as before, it's not a bad thing to inculcate virtue with what we might consider earthly or worldly means. It's not bad for Jesus to say, you will get a reward. God gives his commands, but he doesn't just give bare commands, he also gives rewards. It's not bad to obey the commands of God knowing that you're doing it and you will receive a reward.

It's not less spiritual. It's obedience. So despite This world focus of this parable, there is a very real spiritual truth and application. Only those who humble themselves will be exalted by God on that last day. Humility matters in this life, absolutely.

But what will be your state when you stand before your maker? True humility of spirit must be present before the sinner can turn to Christ. All self-confidence, all self-righteousness, all of it must be forsaken and the sinner must come to Christ in repentance with a contrite spirit, a humble heart. Only then can the sinner be made whole and have their sins forgiven and be exalted by God to become a son and an heir of his kingdom. So yes, remember this when you're in social circumstances, don't exalt yourself, but also consider today you have been invited to a much greater feast than any wedding or any party or any banquet.

And this parable leads into another parable about that great feast that we will enjoy forever with our God. That is the invitation that has gone out. Have you humbled yourself so that you could be brought in? Have you put on, as another parable we'll show us later on, have you put on the wedding garment, taken off your filthy garments and put on the garment that has been offered to you that you may join the feast. Have you humbled yourself that God may exalt you?

It is only that kind of heart that can come to Christ. The proud will be turned away. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this time in your Word. We thank you, Lord, that you have given us these scriptures.

Lord help us to be a humble people. Help us Lord to not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. Help us Lord to consider others as more important than ourselves. And Lord may we have a real assessment of who we are in this world and before you. May we be humbled Lord that you may exalt us on that last day when we are revealed to be truly the sons and daughters of God.

Thank you Lord for your grace. Thank you for this day and may you be glorified in all that we do here and throughout the rest of our week. Go with us Lord and help us to serve you in humility and faith. Amen.