August 31, 2025
Michael Mitchell
From Luke 14:1,7-14
When I was in grade school, during recess my friends and I were part of a group of kids who played games together, and we had teams. All of us wanted to be on one particular leader’s team, and we thought it was a real honor and place of great status to be chosen by him for his team. The experience of being picked last, or worse yet, not being picked at all was devastating. You didn’t want to be “that kid.” Wanting to be the in group or in the place of honor over everyone else is a common human trait, and being left out tends to leave unpleasant memories.
Luke records an event in his Gospel in which Jesus has been invited to have Sabbath Dinner with a group of Pharisees in the home of the Pharisee leader. Jesus notices that many in the group are trying to gain the most honored seats in the house, behavior he finds to be problematic. Jesus even had this issue arise among his disciples when two of them came and asked Jesus to receive the places of honor at his right hand and at his left hand in his Kingdom. It is common human behavior to wish for special honors.
Jesus does not directly criticize the Pharisees, but rather, appeals to their egos. He knows they want to be held with the highest respect among their peers. So, he tells them: if you want to be held in highest honor, seek out the places of least honor, and when your host sees you, the host will call out to you to come forward to the place of highest honor, and everyone will see with what great respect your host has for you. But if you take the place of highest honor, you risk over-valuing your standing and being asked by the host to vacate your seat while placing another in that place of honor, while you suffer humiliation at having to take a seat of low status–. Jesus points out that seeking the place of least honor is the best way to, in the end, be most honored among your peers and pleasing to God.
Jesus appeals to the Pharisees’ egos as motivation for practicing humility. So why practice humility? Jesus knows that such practice might in fact help them to value and develop a sense of humility, and thereby, gain ability to express loving kindness and realize the presence of God more clearly. It might curb their demanding religiosity and sense of self-importance, thus also reducing the harm they were doing to their fellow Jews.
Father Thomas Keating, in his writings, suggests that all those painful experiences in our childhood with our peers, and even painful adult disappointments, often leave painful and humiliating memories, and can hinder our ability to realize the presence of God. It is from those hurts that our anxieties and fears of not being valued often come. Seeking respect and honor in the world, as well as a variety of addictions, are ways we compensate for needs not met or emotional pain not healed. Healing from those painful losses is the work Father Keating says God does accomplishes in us when we turn our awareness to God. Jesus suggests in our Gospel reading today that practicing humility may bring healing to some of these painful memories.
Luke portrays the Pharisees in his Gospel stories as aggressively religious, judgmental, and self-serving. Not a good way to develop loving kindness. But it also clouds their spiritual vision, reduces their awareness of God’s presence, and reduces their ability to have compassion on their fellow Jews. Often, Jesus told his disciples he wanted them to love each other as Jesus loved them. For the Pharisees to accomplish loving each other and their neighbors, Jesus encouraged them to “practice humility.” Practice anything and it becomes a part of our skill set. Practice humility, and it becomes a part of us. Practice loving each other and we become people of loving kindness.
Our issue may not be a need for humility. Maybe you already have that lesson down. I’m still working on that one myself. Your woundedness may be something different that hinders your ability to love as Jesus loves, but the process is the same: God brings about healing in us, we become more open and aware of the presence and love of God for us, and we practice loving more effectively. God is preparing us to love more.
Now, the Pharisees did not take to humility as a rule, though maybe one of them grew that day at Jesus’ urging. Jesus put them into a circumstance where they would get a taste of the value of humility. Yet, these are some of the same Pharisees who kept trying to harm Jesus and eventually contributed to his death. The healing of our suffering and resulting personal changes in our lives does not happen all at once. And it requires our willingness to be healed. New skills take practice. I used to tell my therapy clients to make small moves toward the changes they wanted to make. Small moves, small moves, and patience. But, the Gospel, the Good News, tells us the God of love and wholeness resides in us, and the process toward our transformation is underway in us.
Luke tells us at the end of this story Jesus had a goal for the Pharisees: to attend to the needs of the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Learning humility was a step toward fulfilling such caring. The goal of loving as Jesus does is caring for each other and our neighbors, and especially those who’s resources are nonexistent. This is the work of the Kingdom of God; this is the work of the Church. Our church is already engaged in this work. You are already engaged in this work. We are preparing, by the intervention of God, to love more.