Luke 14:7-11

Luke 14:7-11

7 And He began speaking a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them, 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him, 9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then in disgrace you proceed to occupy the last place. 10 “But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you. 11 “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Pride is one of those areas that seems to be at the root of every one of our sins.  It is ironic that self-promotion is one of the acts we despise the most in others and yet is one of our most common tendencies.  It is only by the supernatural work of God’s grace that we can be set free from the constant temptation to exalt ourselves.  Jesus warns us about the subtle ways we manifest pride in His parable of the wedding feast.  He noticed the guests at the breakfast He was attending competing for the most privileged spots.  He warns us about the dangers of presuming our own honor and shows us how the path to true honor is through humility, not self-promotion.

THOSE WHO EXALT THEMSELVES WILL BE HUMBLED: We tend to presume that we are more important than we truly are.  The Bible constantly alerts us to be careful not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think.  In this case Jesus uses a wedding feast as an example.  When going to a wedding, don’t go sit in a place of honor, presuming that you are one of the most important guests.  Those who take the places of honor run the risk of being asked to give up their place when a more distinguished guest arrives.  This would be a very humiliating experience.  We risk this kind of humiliation whenever we exalt ourselves or consider ourselves to be more important than we truly are.  Since this is a natural tendency in all our lives, we need to combat this thought process in our own minds.  Strive to dial your thoughts about yourself down.  This may be difficult, but it will help us avoid putting ourselves in humiliating situations.  It is far better to humble ourselves than to be humiliated by others.

THOSE WHO HUMBLE THEMSELVES WILL BE EXALTED: Jesus tells His audience what they ought to do when invited to a wedding feast.  His instruction is to simply go to the place of least importance and sit there.  Simply presume that you are the least important guest present at the wedding.  If that is not true, the host will come and insist that you move up to a place of higher honor.  This would be an honor in the eyes of all the other guests.  It is a very simple advice that sounds so easy to follow.  However, it is not nearly as easy as it sounds.  We begin to think about being stuck with the worst seat in the house if the host doesn’t happen to notice where we are sitting.  It is clear that Jesus teaches we should not be concerned if that were to happen.  His basic teaching is that we should be willing to sit in the lowest place because it will bless others who we consider as more important than ourselves.  Self-sacrifice is not nearly as natural as self-promotion.  God calls us to go beyond what is natural and do that which is supernatural in the power of His Spirit.  Simply put, we should go through life constantly asking ourselves what would be best for the other person and not ourselves.

APPLICATION: It may be hard for us to identify what the places of honor are in a wedding reception today, other than the head table.  However, we all find many ways to promote ourselves in subtle and not so subtle ways.  Be alert to tendencies to “fish” for complements.  Evaluate our motives for doing the things we do.  Are they for the glory of God or for the praise of men?  Seek for ways to practice “secret service” do things to help others when they have no idea it was you who helped them.