For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (14:11)
Last week I wrote about Luke as a trustworthy reporter of the momentous events of Jesus’ life and ministry, and the birth of the early church. Now I’d like to zoom in on a theme that stands out vividly throughout Luke’s Gospel.
Luke’s writings uniquely highlight ethical concern for the poor, the outcast, and the sinner, amplifying God’s love of a humble heart and his hatred of a proud spirit. Humility was a huge issue for Jesus and is appropriately emphasized in Luke’s gospel from beginning to end.
Starting with the narratives surrounding the births of John the Baptist and Jesus, the Gospel reader sees the contrasting of humility and pride. This is evident in the prophecies about Jesus, his teaching, his parables, his actions, and his responses to self-righteous religious teachers who harassed him constantly.
Mary, the humble servant chosen to carry the Son of God, responds to the angel’s message with a prayerful song we call the Magnificat. She marvels that—
…he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed.
Holding a humble opinion of herself and a high view of God, she continues:
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. (Lk. 1:51-52).
The birth of Christ continues on this theme. Mary rides a beast of burden to Bethlehem, where she gives birth to the Savior in a barn. The first people to visit were not nobles or priests, but shepherds out in the fields at night, alerted by an angel.
The first individuals to publicly recognize Jesus as Messiah at eight days old were two elderly prophets and prayer warriors, Anna and Simeon. They had lived hidden lives of prayer and worship. We wouldn’t even know them if they hadn’t been on the scene that day. Where were the “experts” on biblical prophecy that day? Elsewhere. God often entrusts his most important messages to his most humble servants.
When Jesus had grown up and was ready to start his public ministry, the Spirit led him to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Satan’s approach was to try to appeal to Jesus’ pride. It failed because Jesus was never moved by pride, or lust, desire for material things, or any other sinful impulse. His only impulse was to obey his Father and fulfill his will. I must jump to Philippians for a moment:
He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! (Phil. 2:7-8).
Moving into his ministry years, Jesus prioritized spending time with the ordinary people most in need of his saving, healing, delivering power. Any time the high-status, self-righteous people showed up, they opposed him in every way they could.
Sometimes Jesus directly rebuked the religious big shots, but more often he used parables to confront their pride, unbelief, and hard-heartedness.
• In the parable of the great banquet, the A-listers invited have other more important things to do, so they decline the invitation. This opens the way for the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ (14:21).
• In the Good Samaritan, it is the lowly, despised foreigner who brings aid to an injured man, and not the proud supposed representatives of God.
• In the Prodigal Son, the younger son comes home after humbling himself and coming to his senses about his depraved condition, while the older brother is confronted about his arrogant, resentful attitude toward his returning brother.
• When a sinner and a Pharisee stand together in the temple praying, it is the sinner who walks away justified; all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (18:14).
Humility pushes against our prevailing cultural value system. To be poor and needy is despised, and yet, this is the very condition Jesus calls blessed.
Nowhere is illustrated more beautifully than in Luke’s account of Jesus’s visit to the home of Simon the Pharisee. As he dines with the assembled guests, a notoriously sinful woman barges in. She bows down to Jesus and begins pouring tears mixed with expensive ointment on his feet while the host watches in disgust.
If God truly sent this man, Simon thinks, he would know how defiled and unclean this woman is. He wouldn’t let her come near him, much less allow her to perform this broken, messy display.
Jesus knows Simon’s thoughts and teaches him an important lesson, again through a parable. The parable shows that we all have different-sized sin debts to pay, but it doesn’t matter their size, because we cannot pay them.
When we humbly acknowledge that it is the master’s forgiveness that matters, we can’t help but pour out our love for him, as the woman had done. Her act of worship saved her and freed her from her sinful condition in Jesus’ presence.
This is what humility does. This is what Jesus wants from us.
Thank you, Luke, for making this truth so abundantly clear.
