The Wedding Feast

Luke 14:7-11 Jesus notices the pride of those around him and addresses a key concept of kingdom living. The world will always tell us to increase ourselves and do what is best for own selves but Jesus teaches us today that the self seeking heart of sinful man is exactly what initially led to our fall in the first place. When we place God first, then we place ourselves last. Jesus uses the backdrop of a wedding feast, not coincidentally considering the imagery of Christ and Church to come later on, and says that when we are invited we should seek the lowest place of honour. Note that only those who are invited can enter, obviously, and when we do we should humble ourselves instead of seeking public honour. Otherwise, the host may ask us to move down to another seat. Jesus teaches us to instead be humble always and seek not to exalt oneself but be in the lowest place. Remember that earlier Christ said, "...some are last will be first, and some are first who will be last." Jesus exemplifies this humility and as he came into this world, although fully God, in the form of a man. He went from the throne of heaven to an animal manger and chose to die on a cross. We must learn to lower ourselves and allow all honour only to come as a result of the host's will.