Positively Negative - Luke 14:7-11

The Pharisees that Jesus is having dinner with are in dire need of more counsel from Him, so he continues teaching them with a parable. Jesus is teaching proper manners with a message of humility and not thinking that you are the most important person in the world. A summation of the parable is, when you go to a party, don’t assume that you are the most important person there and sit in the places of honor because you are going to be very embarrassed when someone comes along that is more important to the host and they have to ask you to move so the other person can have the prominent place. Like, don’t sit next to the bride at the wedding reception. He says that it is better to sit in a less prominent place and have the host ask you to come sit with them if they want to, there is less embarrassment in that case. Jesus ends the parable with this lesson, “for whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” The IM says, “The Savior used this setting to teach an eternal principle about the relationship between humility and exaltation.” This is something has to be considered in the eternal perspective, because clearly that’s not how it works here in this life.

I think that there is a difference between being in a position of importance and demanding respect and honor. Let’s compare President Monson with Donald Trump for a second, both very prominent men but with different audiences. Whenever President Monson goes somewhere, he stops to talk to the people, he literally gives the shirt off his back to someone who is less fortunate. I heard a story once about someone who got to meet President Monson in an airport when he was coming home from one of his trips, and the person marveled at why on earth an apostles of the Lord was walking around in the airport with no coat and wearing bath slippers instead of shoes. Someone in President Monson’s entourage told the person that President Monson had given his overcoat, his suit jacket coat, and his shoes to people in the country where he had just visited, thus why he was wearing not coat and slippers.

I wrote a paper on President Monson in college and it was a very eye opening experience for me because I just assumed that because he was born and raised and lived in Utah, that he was a friend of a friend and got into church leadership that way, but that is the furthest things from the truth. The truth is, as a 22 year old bishop, President Monson oversaw the care of 80 widows that he had in his ward boundaries. Most days after working at the printing company, he would spent the evenings visiting those widows and making sure that they were cared for. He personally served them, he didn’t just delegate that responsibility to someone else. Listening to his general conference talks over the years, he is clearly well-read, usually citing major literary works in conjunction with the scriptures to convey his messages, but he doesn’t proclaim himself a scholar or a scriptorian. I have heard humorous anecdotes and even a little bit of self-depreciating humor, but never self-aggrandizement, never anything other than the will of the Lord and how to apply it.

Let’s contrast that to Donald Trump. I really don’t want to get into this very much because I’m really learning how to not get too involved with what’s going on that I can’t control, I’m learning to scale back and let Jesus take the wheel, so I’m not going to get into too much here. But just going by his public speeches in the last couple of years, the negativity is overwhelming. I hadn’t considered that being a part of humility and pride but I guess if we look at it, that’s exactly what it is. When we are humble, we admit that we are just as flawed as everyone else, and forgive others for their shortcomings just like we hope others will forgive us. When we are proud, we are critical of others implying that their weaknesses far outweigh our own. It puts us in a place of judgment, it allows us to put ourselves in the place of God really. I had never considered this before. Negativity in any form says that what we have isn’t good enough, grudges and ill-feelings towards others says that the atonement isn’t good enough. Negativity comes from pride, what I have isn’t good enough, who I am isn’t good enough, God’s timeline isn’t fast enough, God’s grace is not sufficient, it’s a rejection of all that God offers in exchange for self-pity. Positivity comes from humility, what I have is enough, who I am is enough, God’s timing is perfect, and God’s grace is sufficient for me. Positivity is a trust that good things will come, a confidence that with Jesus’ help I can become like him. Positivity is rooted in the eternal perspective, which is where Jesus spent most of his time focused on in mortality. He lived in the present but focused on the eternal. This has really been eye opening to me, I had never considered this perspective before and I am really grateful.