Field Dalling 02-09-01
Luke 14:1 and 7-11 Pride before a Fall
Story:
John Wesley and George Whitefield - the two great preachers of the 18th Century Evangelical Revival - were both great men of God.
Sadly having been great friends at Oxford, they fell out over the Arminian/Calvinist debate.
Basically the Calvinists say that God chooses us and the Arminians basically say that we are saved because we choose God - and the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
There was quite a bit of animosity between their followers.
Once one of Whitefield’s followers said to him:
"We won’t see John Wesley in the heaven, will we?"
To which Whitefield humbly replied "Yes, you’re right, we won’t see him in heaven. He will be so close to the Throne of God and we will be so far away, that we won’t be able to see him. !" .
What a lovely attitude Whitefield had. His humility was real
Despite profoundly disagreeing with Wesley, Whitefield recognized John Wesley as being a man of God.
Indeed the respect for the other was so great that when Whitefield died in The USA, John Wesley preached at George Whitefield’s memorial service in London.
This morning’s Gospel reading is also about pride and humility – in other words our attitude about ourselves.
And I would like to focus on one verse - Luke 14:11
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled - and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
Pride in ourselves should have no place in the Christian’s life. Paul puts it well when he says in Phil. 3:8 that he considers everything his standing in the world – his achievements and social status as loss compared to knowing Christ
What is the context of Jesus’ comments?
Jesus had been invited to attend a meal at the house of a Pharisee and he watched how people were jostling for the most important places at the table.
And he makes a comment on what he sees by way of the parable of the arrogant guest.
Now it seems to me that Jesus is not really interested about who got the best place at the meal.
Rather he was using it as an opportunity to get people to examine ATTITUDES about themselves.
I think Jesus is speaking about two attitudes in this passage.
The first is fairly obvious - their attitude about themselves.
The second attitude might not be so obvious.
It was their attitude about.others.
1. Let us look at the first attitude - their attitude about themselves
Throughout the Gospels, we see Jesus being more interested in ATTITUDES. For Jesus it is attitude that shape ACTION.
For example in Luke 6:45 Jesus said
The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.
Quite the reverse of how the world sees things.
Many today think that the end justify the means.
If we are going to be men and women of God – who really make a difference in this world, then our view of ourselves have to be different.
Story: In the 18th Century, Selina Countess of Huntington invited the Duchess of Buckingham to come and here George Whitfield preach.
The Duchess wrote to the Countess of Huntington about the Gospel that Whitefield and his fellow “Methodists” preached as follows:
“ It is monstrous to be told that you have a heart as sinful as the common wretches that crawl on the earth.
This is highly offensive and insulting; and I cannot but wonder that your Ladyship should relish any sentiments so much at variance with high rank and good breeding.” (George Whitefield and the Great Awakening – John Pollock p.95).
That letter tells us a lot about her for even one of her easygoing acquaintances found her obnoxious.
Her pride closed her ears to the Gospel. For it is when we realise that we are “sinful as those common wretches” that we can be open to the Gospel
Pride is one sin that a Christian should not have.
2. Let us look at the second attitude that Jesus alluded to – their attitude about others.
Their attitude about their own self-importance about themselves reflected their attitude about others.
By pushing and shoving their way to the more important places at the meal, the guests of the Pharisee showed what they thought of the others present.
As they jostled their way to the top of the table, they were indirectly saying – you are not important enough for the seat that I am going to take.
And Jesus said that if we do this we will fall. Someone will put us in our place. I wonder if any of the guests that day were in the crowd that cried for Jesus to be crucified on the first Good Friday. Sadly for some, their pride may have caused them to miss out on the grace of God for salvation.
God’s ways are completely different to the world’s.
It is the humble that are successful in God’s world – for it is by acknowledging our sinfulness that we receive the grace of God.
Story: Maximilian Kolbe:
In contrast to the Duchess of Buckingham, one man I admire greatly is Maximilian Kolbe (1894-1941)
Maximilian Kolbe was a Catholic priest, who was put in a Nazi concentration camp for his faith.
On May 28, 1941, he was transferred to the concentration camp at Auschwitz.
During his time there, he would share his meagre rations of food with those around him who were hungry.
Despite the evil in the camp perpetrated against the inmates, Kolbe pleaded with the prisoners to forgive their persecutors and overcome evil with good.
A protestant doctor who treated the patients in Kolbe’s block said that Kolbe would not let himself be treated before any other prisoners in that block.
He sacrificed himself for the other prisoners. The doctor said about Kolbe:
"From my observations, the virtues in the Servant of God were no momentary impulse such as are often found in men, they sprang from a habitual practice, deeply woven into his personality.
One day a man in Kolbe’s block escaped.
All of the men from that block were brought out into the hot sun and made to stand there all day with no food or drink.
At the end of the day, the man that had escaped was not found and so Fritsch, the Nazi commandant told the prisoners that ten men would be selected to die in the starvation cell in place of the one that had escaped.
One man, a polish sergeant ( Francis Gajowniczek)was one of those selected. He begged to be spared because he was worried that his family would not be able to survive without him.
As he was pleading with the commandant, Maximilian Kolbe silently stepped forward and stood before the commandant.
The commandant turned to him and said asked, "What does this Polish pig want?"
Kolbe pointed to the polish sergeant and said, "I am a Catholic priest from Poland; I would like to take his place, because he has a wife and children."
The commandant stood silent for a moment in disbelief.
He then allowed the sergeant to go back to his place in the ranks and Kolbe took his place in the starvation bunker.
Each day the guards removed the bodies of those who had died.
However instead of the usual sounds of screaming, all they could hear was the sounds of Kolbe and the others in the bunker singing hymns and praying.
When Kolbe couldn’t speak any longer due to hunger and lack of energy, he would whisper his prayers.
After two weeks, the cell had to be cleared out for more prisoners. Only four prisoners were left and Kolbe was one of them.
The guards injected each with a lethal injection and on August 14, 1941, Kolbe paid the ultimate price.
Kolbe viewed others as more important than himself. And in that he was following the Master.
St Paul, in Philippians 2: 5-11 put the matter well when he said:
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, 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,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Conclusion.
I would like to leave you with a thought this morning:
Jim Eliot, a missionary who was killed in the late 50’s while bringing the Gospel to the native Indians of Ecuador said:
“He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep - to gain what he cannot lose.”
In our Gospel reading this morning, Jesus said:
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled - and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
It is not a Uriah Heep humility that Christ is looking for but a humility that seeks the best for others ahead of ourselves – even to the extent that Maximilian Kolbe did.
