Feast With Me

Luke 14:7-11 When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited.  If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place.  But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests.  For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
 
This parable is more than just good social advice.  Jesus is communicating the Gospel in this parable.  We don't even deserve to be invited to the banquet because we are the poor, lame, and blind he describes in the next parable in this chapter.  Each one of us needs God's grace because there is nothing we can do to earn or deserve a place of honor.  Jesus, who deserved the place of honor at the banquet, took the low place - the place we deserved - and offered us His position at the table as his gift of grace.
 
Those of us who were raised in the church sometimes really don't get that we are the poor, lame, and blind - the ones needing salvation just as much as the prostitutes and junkies.  Our righteousness is but filthy rags in God's sight.  Only when we truly understand our need for a Savior do we understand the value of Jesus' gift of grace that takes us from our filth into the banquet and seats us at a place of honor with the Father.
 
In Him,
Pastor Boyd