Take the Lowest Place

Many of Jesus’ parables are so famous and familiar, yet there are many of his parables that for one reason or another are not as well remembered. One is a parable I have rarely ever heard preached on or written about. It is recorded in Luke 14:7-11.

Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, “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, 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. 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. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” 

One of the things I love about this parable is that it is applicable on multiple levels. The first level is the most obvious surface level. Jesus is offering the parable as an illustration about the behavior he’s seeing play out in front of him.

Jesus notices this game that people were playing at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees (Luke 14:1, where this parable is told). People were trying to take for themselves places of honor, presumably to make sure everyone else knew how important they were compared to the other guests. Jesus remarks on the vanity and social danger of such presumptions. If you are at a party held by someone important, and you look out at all the other guests and think, “I’m better than everyone else here, obviously I’m meant to take this place of honor,” then you’re setting yourself up for a potential embarrassing moment when an Olympic gold medal winner or an astronaut walks in and you must publicly give up the place you presumed to possess for them.

Better, Jesus says, to take the lowest place and wait to be invited higher. In doing so, you allow the host to properly place you where you belong. Notice this is practical wisdom even for the completely self-centered looking out only for their ego. It would still be the best move: Better to take a low place and be lifted up in front of everyone else, than to presume to take a high place and then be chastised before everyone else.

We do not typically have seats of honor at our dinner parties (at least not the ones I attend), but this wisdom can be easily applied to our modern life. This is a parable I have reminded myself of often throughout my life. I am a person who likes to believe I know how a lot of things should be done. I have opinions on how to improve things, how a system should be reorganized, what people in authority should say or do. And I’ve found that when I force myself into a situation, believing I’m the answer to everyone’s problems, I’ll find someone else smarter or more capable than me to set me straight. I end up looking and feeling like a fool.

Conversely, I have found that if I quietly do my work to the best of my ability, then over time people will recognize my abilities. Eventually they will ask for my help or my opinions. I’ve even been promoted to leadership positions without even asking. Not only does it feel good to be entrusted like that. It’s so much easier and stress-free to be asked to fill a roll than to scratch and claw for one.

This wisdom Jesus gives means that I need to have a certain amount of humility about myself and my abilities. Even when I think highly of myself, it may be wise to step back and allow others to act, because they may be better than I. It also means having the humility to believe that your time will come in due course, that you do not need to demand it or fight for it. This mindset of humility has given me peace of mind and reduced my internal stress greatly throughout my life. I offer it to you to consider as well.

I had mentioned there are multiple levels to this parable. Here is another level. Did you notice the irony of the Son of God, who came down from the right hand of the Father, the greatest seat of honor there could be, watching these Pharisees and scholars bicker over who should have the seat of honor at this party? As they were bickering over who is the most preeminent, the Messiah was standing there. They should have been bending over backwards to offer him the seat of honor. Yet Paul tells us in Philippians 2:6-9:

[Jesus], though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name…

Jesus was the perfect embodiment of the wisdom he preached. Deserving honor more than any other, he took the lowest place. And in taking the lowest place he was exalted by the Father. So let us follow the path of humility laid out to us by our Savior, trusting in our Father, rather than men, to exalt us for his glorious purpose in his glorious time.