Friend, Move Up Higher (Luke 14:10)

 


Friday, March 21, 2025


Psalm 50

Genesis 45:1-15

Luke 14:1-14


Observance: Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, martyr and liturgist (d. 1556)


Friend, Move Up Higher (Luke 14:10)


Since we touched on biblical gender roles yesterday, perhaps we could lean into them a bit more today. We are reading through St Luke’s gospel verse by verse, so there is a bit of context that allows us this liberty. However, Jesus is not giving us explicit doctrine like, say, St Paul does. Rather, we have here some general rules that can help us.


We know that we have been given license, as Christians, to lean into whatever makes us men or women; God is the fullness of that which makes us his image, after all. But lest we get carried away with the darker urges that fight inside us, let us take to heart what Jesus is saying today.


Jesus likes a good feast; this much we know. And so he puts our relationship with God and one another in the context of a grand feast. This is what it means to be in the kingdom of God, and for it to be near: we celebrate in the wedding feast of the Lamb, to whom we are wedded by faith by virtue of the blood with which he bought us. And, when we each pass through the veil of death, we will be brought to the fullness of this feast.


So, both now and then, we are to humble ourselves. Take the lower seat; fellowship with the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. Do not accrue glory on our own terms, but receive it from others.


It is a good principle for the Christian and unbeliever alike; we all get a warm fuzzy feeling when others see something good in us. But when Jesus says it, we know that it is a principle that runs all the way up to the highest heaven. Jesus himself, though he was rich, for our sakes became poor. Though he is God, he veiled his divinity and put on human flesh, humbling himself. And, being humbled, gave himself for us, even dying, so that whosoever believes in him may not perish, but, upon appearing at the judgement seat of God, hear those blessed words “friend, move up higher”.


Man may be as masculine as they like; but be humble, and receive praise from others. Women may be as feminine as they like; but be humble, and receive praise from others. Go into the great feast of life, both in this world and the next. Be just as happy as a fellow guest of city leaders as you are with the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind; for those who humble themselves will be exalted, and Christ is exalted above all, and we are his.


Where do you indulge in excess? Where might your pride in that indulgence come from? How might Christ’s humility inspire you in your own humility?


Host of the heavenly banquet, God Almighty: give us a sense of humility in the pattern of our Lord Jesus, so that we may sit ourselves in the lowest seat, and only be raised by you alone, whose glory alone we seek.

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