Parable of the Wedding Feast (Part 1)

Luke 14:7–11

7 And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them,

8 When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him;

9 And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room.

10 But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.

11 For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

This is an interesting message. Is he telling us we shouldn’t strive to be in the best places or positions? Isn’t it bad to get too down on ourselves? There are many problems and challenges that come from having a low self-esteem. But is Jesus really talking about self-esteem here? Or is he talking about how we show or exalt ourselves in front of others?

I believe part of the message is that we need to constantly check ourselves. While we should believe in our abilities, seek to be better and when appropriate, market or sell ourselves so that we can obtain jobs we are qualified for, it is important to never let our self-belief turn into a hubris where we think we are better than others. It’s when we do so, we can set ourselves up for embarrassment later when it turns out we were wrong and were too blind, self-righteous, or prideful to realize it.

I think the message is simple and easy to over-analyze. The last verse is the message and it is a clear one. If we seek to raise ourselves up above others, a time will come when we’re lowered or abased. And it’s when we humble ourselves that we become great in the eyes of God. (We will see a repeat of verse 11 in another parable in Luke).