Getting to Know Jesus Even Better #6

As we saw yesterday in Luke 14, Jesus is having dinner with a Pharisee, who had invited a number of his friends who were scribes and Pharisees.  He shut them up when He healed a man with a serious illness, even though it was the Sabbath, pointing out to them that their hearts had grown cold to people in need. They had totally ignored the man.

verse 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.”

The biggest problem this group of men had was pride.  Even though they were all there together for dinner, they were all vying with one another for position, popularity, and power. They were deciding for themselves who was most important. In God's kingdom, that system does not work. He is the Host, and He will decide who gets the positions of honor. What He is looking for is totally different: it is humble service.  That one difference will make all the difference in the world in how one lives life.