7 Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, 9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
12 He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers1 or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
Section Overview
The dinner party with the Pharisee is evidently a lavish affair with many guests (Luke 14:1–6), and Jesus remarks on how those who were invited chose to sit in the places of honor (vv. 7–11). What is addressed here is the fierce jockeying for honor in an honor/shame culture. People should not take honored places, for they might experience the shame of being demoted to a lower place. Instead people should take the lower places, and then the host might promote them to a higher place. The point of the parable is that those who advance themselves will be humbled, whereas those who humble themselves will be raised. Jesus proceeds to speak to the Pharisee who invited him (vv. 12–14). Dinners can become occasions on which the rich and well-connected and friends and families are invited, with the entire purpose of the meal being to receive a return invitation. Instead the poor and the disabled should be invited, and those who invite them will be blessed because they have not invited others in order to receive a return invitation. They have invited them in order to show the gracious love of God, and they will be repaid on the day of the resurrection.
Section Outline
IV. Galilee to Jerusalem: Discipleship (9:51–19:27) . . .
B. The Journey Continues (13:22–17:10) . . .
2. Discipleship on the Journey (14:1–35) . . .
b. Meals and Humility (14:7–14)
Response
Jesus’ words speak to our culture today, which places such emphasis on self-promotion. Social media often become a means of pointing people to ourselves and what we have accomplished. Perhaps we find ourselves saying something like this: “I don’t want to brag about myself, but . . .” Or we can even make it more spiritual and say, “The Lord has really worked in my life to make me a leader. Of course, he gets all the glory.” Our culture encourages us to boast in ourselves and equates it with a healthy self-image. Still, this is nothing new. Cicero wrote, “Nature has made us . . . enthusiastic seekers after honor, and once we have caught, as it were, some glimpse of its radiance, there is nothing that we are not prepared to bear and go through in order to secure it” (Tusculan Disputations 1.2.4; 2.24.58).162 But Proverbs 27:2 counsels, “Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.” Of course, Jesus is not talking about a false humility by which we wring our hands and piously say, “I am nothing. I am just a worthless worm.” When we are complimented by others, we can thank them for encouraging us and acknowledge that God has used us.
Still, we ought not to miss the truth that Jesus teaches here. Those who enjoy the heavenly feast do not exalt themselves but rather humble themselves. Richard Sibbes, in his book The Bruised Reed, lists some of the characteristics of those who are humble in heart, who are poor in spirit, who are bruised reeds.163 First, they are especially conscious of their own sin. Second, they view sin as the greatest evil and God’s favor as the greatest good. Third, they would rather hear of mercy than of a kingdom. Fourth they have poor opinions of themselves and think they are not worth the ground on which they tread. Fifth, they are not judgmental of others but full of mercy and compassion. Sixth, they know that those who walk in the comforts of God’s Spirit are the happiest people in the world.
We also see here that one sign that we are believers is that we minister to hurting people, to people not attractive initially to us. William Law, an eighteenth-century Anglican, applies this truth well:
No one is of the Spirit of Christ but he that has the utmost compassion for sinners. Nor is there any greater sign of your own perfection than you find yourself all love and compassion toward them that are very weak and defective. And on the other hand, you have never less reason to be pleased with yourself than when you find yourself most angry and offended at the behavior of others. All sin is certainly to be hated and abhorred where it is, but then we must set ourselves against sin as we do against sickness and diseases, by showing ourselves tender and compassionate to the sick and diseased.164