Scripture Daily

Context No. 710 of 4322 · Luke

Context · Reflection

Luke 14:6-11: in context

6They couldn’t answer him regarding these things. 7He spoke a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the best seats, and said to them, 8“When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, don’t sit in the best seat, since perhaps someone more honorable than you might be invited by him, 9and he who invited both of you would come and tell you, ‘Make room for this person.’ Then you would begin, with shame, to take the lowest place. 10But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes, he may tell you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. 11For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Jesus is at a dinner given by a leading Pharisee, and he is watching. He notices the guests angling for the best seats at the table, and he turns what he sees into a parable. When you are invited to a wedding feast, he says, do not take the place of honor. Someone more distinguished may have been invited, and the host will come and ask you to give up your seat, and you will have to move down to the lowest place in front of everyone, ashamed. Instead, take the lowest place, and then the host may come and say, friend, move up higher, and you will be honored before all the guests.

It sounds at first like a shrewd tactic, take the low seat so you get promoted. But Jesus closes with a line that will not let it stay a tactic: everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. That maxim quietly ruins the strategy, because a low seat chosen as a maneuver to be moved up is just self-exaltation wearing a costume. The point is not where you sit but what you are actually reaching for. And it is drawn from an old proverb, that it is better to be told come up here than to be put lower before a prince. The whole room was competing for honor, and Jesus named the one way to lose it: grabbing for it.

Jesus saw through both the scramble for the high seat and the low seat taken to be promoted. When I make myself small, am I actually low, or just angling to be told to move up?

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