Luke 14:7-11

Luke 14:7-11 When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Luke 18:9-14 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men — robbers, evildoers, adulterers — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted, a warning to all. Sin will exalt self. The Bible says none are righteous, no not one, for we all have gone our own way like sheep in the pasture. Jesus laments over Jerusalem because they would not be gathered to him as chicks to a mother hen. No, they went their own way: they exalted their position of independence rather than seek God's ways. Such waywardness is endemic to man. Eve decided she wanted to partake of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; Adam followed her rather than follow God's directive. Cain murdered Abel because in his jealousy, he wanted HIS GIFT honored above Abel's. Sin results from honoring self above God's will. We tend to place ourselves in front of the room by our own will and effort. We desire to be the prince or princess in the crowd, not just one of the many, the nature of men and women when self rules. Jesus said, he who desires to be the greatest in the kingdom of God must be the least, a servant to ALL. Self-centered individuals do not even want to be servants in their own homes, how much less servants to all.

As we view the lives of Jesus and his apostles, we see them always on the move, constantly doing God's will, constantly putting others' needs before their own needs. We just do not hear much about their needs, their concerns. We do not find much of a record of their sicknesses, their troubles, their disappointments. They seemingly did not stand near the front of the room where everyone could view their personal lives. No, as we look at the early church, they took up the cross and followed Jesus, constantly pushing others to the front of the room where God waited to meet their needs.

Often people want to work in the church, but they come with fleshly motives, wanting to be the teacher, the worship leader, the minister, the one in front of people. They want others to serve them by showing deference to them and with their statements of praise. Many would not even attend church consistently if they were not in front of the people, for they are there for the wrong reasons. They have taken the seats of importance. But Jesus says, those who occupy the seats of importance here might find themselves placed in the back of room or in other less conspicuous places later on in existence when the Master asks them to move. I like Jesus' story about the widow's mite. As Jesus intently watched people giving their alms in the temple, He saw the rich sitting in the front of the congregation and gladly throwing in money out of their abundance. Yet He gives them little credit for their gifts of plenty, as his gaze falls on the widow who gives out of her meager amount, sacrificing that which she needs to sustain her own life, and He says, I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. (Mark 12:43) Jesus pushed her to the front of the room, and the others, the self-serving rich, took the seats in the back. Jesus promises that whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

When we serve God, we should serve him without expecting anything, serving him as He serves us. If we serve him to get something out of it, even eternal life, we are not serving him out of loyalty and love. Love goes the extra mile, love sacrifices, love binds. As we approach Valentine's Day, many of us expect others to serve us, to be all we need, to meet our every expectation. We serve expecting reciprocity, but that is not love; that is still occupying the front seats. But if we serve unreservedly, without expectations, Jesus said, I will move you to the front of the room where you can be honored by my Father. If we served with hearts of love, would we find so many quarrels, so much pain, so many wars? No, yet sin separates us: our desire to please self, to have our own way, to sit in the front seats, even in our homes, separates us from each other and from God. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That is love, divine love. May such love be our example, our goal in life. All things are possible to them that believe.