NUUUUUUUUUUUUUDITY … and stuff.
Luke 14:7-14; Hebrews 13:1-8,15-16; Psalm 112; Proverbs 25:6-7a
A long, long time ago, there was an Emperor who absolutely loved clothes. To him, clothes were more important than anything else in his kingdom. He had different robes for every hour of the day, and everyone in the kingdom knew about the emperor’s obsession. One day, who scoundrels came to town and said to everyone they saw that they could make a magnificent cloth that was not only beautiful, but invisible to anyone who was stupid or otherwise unfit for his post.
The Emperor thought this would be an excellent idea, as it gave him an easy way to discover who was or wasn’t fit for his job. So the Emperor gave large amounts of money and thread to the scoundrels, and they set to “work” making the fabric. But there was nothing on their looms, and instead the pocketed the money and thread for themselves.
After a few days, the Emperor was curious how much work was done, but he was worried that he would be unable to see the cloth, and thus be unfit to be Emperor. So instead, he sent his most trusted minister to go and check on the progress. The minister went to where the scoundrels were “weaving” and discovered that there was nothing on the looms!
The minister was of course troubled that he couldn’t see anything, buying into the scoundrel’s hype, and so played along, commenting on the beauty and magnificence of the cloth. Luckily for him, the scoundrel’s described in detail everything they were doing, and he relayed it all to the king.
Sometime later, the Emperor sent another minister to check on the cloth, and the same thing happened. Afraid of being found out as incompetent, he relayed to the Emperor the same story as the previous minister. In the meantime, everyone in the city was talking about how amazing the beauty of the cloth was.
Finally the Emperor, becoming slightly concerned about the expense, visited the scoundrels with his ministers, including the two who previously visited. The two ministers fawned over the beauty of the material, but the Emperor could see nothing at all! Frightened that he was incapable of being Emperor, he of course commented on the beauty of the fabric, along with all his ministers, all afraid of being though incompetent. They advised the Emperor to have a new set of clothes made, and to wear it in the procession the next day.
The next morning, the Emperor and all his retinue went to the scoundrels for his fitting. The scoundrels fitted the “clothes” on the Emperor, all the while explaining how light and beautiful they were. Everyone was afraid to mention that there was nothing there, for fear of being found out as incompetent.
When the time came for the procession, all the people of the town cried out at the splendor and beauty of the Emperor’s clothes. Never had one of his outfits garnered such success! All of a sudden, a small child cried out, “He hasn’t got anything on!” People overheard, until finally the whole crowd was saying that the Emperor was wearing nothing at all! Finally, the Emperor understood that he had been swindled, but he chose to continue the procession and continued naked through the city.
This story is one I’m sure we’ve all heard before. Hans Christian Anderson published it in 1837, and it really illustrates how far people will go simply to avoid embarrassment. The whole town was too fearful of being humiliated to see the con for what it was, and the person who ended up humiliated was the Emperor. In our Gospel lesson, Jesus uses this principle to teach a lesson about humility. The idea is put for rather simply in Proverbs 25: “Do not exalt yourself in the king’s presence, and do not claim a place among great men; it is better for him to say to you, ‘Come up here,’ than for him to humiliate you before a nobleman.”
All too often we worry about “saving face”. We all see celebrities and politicians do it; after one scandal or another there’s always a press conference where that person will spend more of the time backpedalling trying to save their own ego and image from further damage. Kids think they’re good at it, and are often trying to shift blame somewhere else to avoid punishment. But in some way or another, we all worry about our appearances. None of us want to be humiliated, but we all want to be exalted.
It’s always been interesting to me that Jesus plays on that part of our nature. The way he phrases this parable is not in terms of being humble for humility’s sake, but being humble for the sake of being exalted later. Or rather, be humble so that you don’t get embarrassed. I think Jesus knows us better than we like to admit. I’d have a much harder time accepting “be humble” because deep inside it feels like there isn’t any reward. On the other hand “the humble are exalted and the exalted are humbled” feels a lot better. There’s a reason for humility. And we all know it’s a lot better to be humble than to be humbled.
If the Emperor and his advisors had just said in the beginning, “There’s nothing on the loom” instead of being so worried about their image then the Emperor would not have been humbled at the end of the story. It’s precisely the example Jesus gave, of people covering for themselves and in the end losing out. Because it seems like that’s how it works, “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”