The necessity of Humility
LUKE 14:7-11
In this morning’s reading from St Luke’s gospel JESUS chooses a homely illustration to point to an eternal truth and perhaps a hard lesson for us to learn let alone practice!
Those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
The former is embarrassing and the latter exhilarating.
Humility has always been one of the characteristics of someone great.
Do we not have the saying, ‘Pride before a fall’ - the higher we go the further we fall and when we are at the top we can only go one way - DOWN.
A well known author, Thomas Hardy was so famous that any newspaper would gladly have paid enormous sums of money to publish his work.
But when he submitted a poem he always included a stamped addressed envelope for the return of his manuscript, should it be rejected.
Even in his greatness he was humble enough to think that his work might be rejected.
There are many stories and legends of people who have influenced and impressed others by their humility, such an example is that of Principal Cairns.
He would never enter a room first. He always said, "You go first, and I will follow."
Once, as he step up on to a platform of a stage, there was a great burst of applause in welcome.
He stood aside and let the man after him come first and began himself to applaud.
He never dreamed that the applause could possibly be for him; he thought it must be for the other man.
It is only the small minded person who thinks that they are self-important and worthy of all praise.
So Jesus teaches us about humility but how can we maintain or retain that God given gift of humility?
1.. We can retain it by realising the fact that however much we know, we still know very little compared to the sum total of all knowledge – we are never too old to learn.
However much we have achieved in our lives whether at work, in Church or in society or whatever, we still have really achieved very little at the end of the day – after all there is still a lot to learn and do.
However invaluable our experience or important our status we may believe ourselves to be, when death comes or when we retire from our position, life and work will go on just the same.
No one is indispensable – Not even me !
We might be missed initially but the time will come when we will be forgotten and life will carry on just as it has since time began.
If we realise that we will never be conceited, arrogant or rude – we will be prepared to listen to the ideas of others and respect their views.
Humility is having respect for others and realising that we do not know it all!
2.. We can retain humility by comparison with perfection.
It is when we see or hear the expert that we realise how poor our own performance is.
Many a man or woman has decided to burn their golf clubs after a day at the Open Championship seeing how well the professional gets their hole in one.
Many have decided never to appear in public again after hearing a master musician perform.
Many a preacher has been humbled almost to despair when they have heard a real saint of God speak.
And if we set our lives beside the life of the Lord of all goodness, the Lord Jesus we soon realise our own short-comings.
We see our unworthiness in comparison with the radiance of His stainless purity, our pride dies and our self-satisfaction is shrivelled up.
That is after all what a Christian is – a follower of the Lord Jesus, one who compares their life with His, one who aims at such perfection but realises how much they fall short.
One who confesses that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Saviour.
Those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
Jesus let by example, He practiced what He preached and the best example is when at the last supper Jesus washed His disciples feet – what greater humility can there be than that?
The Master has a lot to teach us and what better teacher can we have than Jesus.
