Honor, and who is honorable, differs not only across time but across cultures in our own time and among different classes even within our own culture. In certain subcultures, like academia or show business, a frivolous matter, like where one sits or when one speaks, can create honor. In some cultures a family’s honor is considered besmirched by behavior that would not create a whisper of dissent elsewhere. Just last month a young Pakistani Muslim woman was killed by her brother as she slept because her provocative (for Pakistan) social media presence on Twitter and Facebook had, to his mind, brought dishonor on the family.

The concept of honor carries relative cultural value; and yet we all understand something of the desire to be shown respect, to be affirmed and valued. Jesus, however, turns human notions of honor upside down when he claims that it is humility that brings honor in the eyes of God. This indicates that although human notions of honor change and shift, from the horrific to the benign, there is genuine honor grounded in the teachings of Scripture.

Sirach, like Jesus, speaks of humility as the central factor in honor before God: “The greater you are, the more you must humble yourself; so you will find favor in the sight of the Lord.” Why is this the case? The need to seek out honor is a greater temptation among those with human accomplishments. But those who have accomplished great things also have honors bestowed on them even if they have not sought them out, so the need to keep one’s eyes focused on God’s true greatness becomes even more significant. “For great is the might of the Lord; but by the humble he is glorified.” When people turn to God and not their own achievements, their humility draws people to the source of true greatness.

Psalm 68 also indicates where God’s favor rests, as the psalmist praises God with an image drawn from ancient Near Eastern images of the storm god: “Who rides upon the clouds—his name is the Lord—be exultant before him.” The psalmist offers us an anthropomorphic image of the might of God, creator and controller of the natural world and all that is in it, and then turns to give us an example of God’s great power: “Father of orphans and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.” God’s power is manifested through the care of those who are most lowly and in need of aid. Human greatness, therefore, must model itself on God, not by exalting itself in honor but by caring for those most in need.

Jesus’ parable of a wedding banquet builds on the image of humility as true honor before God. Jesus notes how people were seeking out the first place of reclining, or the head seat at the table. Jesus warns his disciples not to sit there, because if someone with greater (human) honor arrives, the host would take you to the last place in dishonor. But if you go to the lowest place at the table and are then invited to go to a higher place at the table, you will have glory. For Jesus says all who exalt themselves will be made humble, while all who humble themselves will be made great.

Interestingly, the parable never uses the most common Greek word for honor, timē, but uses descriptions of behavior to indicate how human beings seek out respect, value and honor. The parable sets human honor in its proper place; it is arbitrary and based on shifting cultural considerations. God seeks out humility because humility is not intended to dishonor any particular person but to give glory and honor to God and to respect each person as a creation of God. And who we are as God’s creations is shocking, for as the psalmist in wonder recognizes in Psalm 8, we have been “made a little lower than the angels.” True honor is recognizing in humility our glory before God, not before human beings.

This article appears in August 15-22 2016.

John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn,where he teaches early Christianity and Judaism. He also directs the Master of Arts in Theology program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. He was born in Vancouver, B.C. into a Mennonite family that had decided to confront modernity in an urban setting. His post-secondary education began at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas, came to an abrupt stop, then started again at Vancouver Community College, where his interest in Judaism and Christianity in the earliest centuries emerged. He then studied at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, and McMaster University, with stops at University of Haifa and University of Tubingen. His writing often explores the intersection of Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman culture and belief, such as in "let the little children come to me: Children and Childhood in Early Christianity" (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009), but he is not beyond jumping into the intersection of modernity and ancient religion, as in "The End of the World: The Apocalyptic Imagination in Film and Television" (Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford Press, 2003). He blogs at  www.biblejunkies.com and at www.americamagazine.org for "The Good Word." You can follow him on Twitter @biblejunkies, where he would be excited to welcome you to his random and obscure interests, which range from the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Timberwolves, to his dog, and 70s punk, pop and rock. When he can, he brings students to Greece, Turkey and Rome to explore the artifacts and landscape of the ancient world. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and has two sons. He is certain that the world will not end until the Vancouver Canucks have won the Stanley Cup, as evidence has emerged from the Revelation of John, 1 Enoch, 2 Baruch, and 4 Ezra which all point in this direction.