Pride is Not Our Friend
“When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden of him; 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.” Luke 14:8-9
This was a statement made by Jesus while, on a Sabbath, He was dining in the home of one of the Pharisees. As Bible students know, the Pharisees were always trying to trap Jesus into violating the law, and I am certain that this invitation to share a meal was only issued in the hopes that Jesus would make a serious, religious “faux pas” so that they could accuse Him of being a counterfeit. However, Jesus had this way of turning the tables on His foes every time.
There was a man at the dinner who had a disease which caused fluid to accumulate in parts of his body. Jesus asked the Pharisees if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath. Considering what sticklers they were for the letter of the law, how would they answer that question? If they said, “No”, they would look like cruel people with no compassion. If they said, “Yes”, then they would be breaking the law of the Sabbath. They were certainly caught between a rock and a hard place. Their response: they said nothing. Jesus then healed the man. We don’t know if this man was one of the religious leaders, a servant, or some other invited guest, but I am sure that he was filled with gratitude to Jesus for His healing touch. Jesus then turned to all those other guests and asked them if they had an animal which fell into a ditch on the Sabbath, would they pull it out? Of course they would, but no one answered.
Jesus saw this as a good opportunity for a teaching moment and told them a parable about a man who held a wedding. Many folks of different socio-economic levels were invited. The ones who considered themselves the “elite” would naturally fill the best seats. But Jesus warned against relishing in their own self-importance. Suppose one of them took the best seat in the house, but the host had another guest in mind to fill that seat and thus asked the one sitting there to move to a less favorable seat. That would be very embarrassing for the one asked to change seats. It would also be embarrassing for the host, and, if the one who was selected to move to the better seat had any humility at all, he would also be embarrassed. It would end up being a source of gossip for all the attendees. However, if the one who had chosen the best seat considered himself a “big shot” he would discover that not everyone agreed with his opinion of himself. Jesus’ point was to show that humility should be a character trait among all those who follow Him. There’s no place for pride in God’s kingdom. Jesus ended this parable by stating that those wo honor themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be honored.
On a personal note, many years ago before I met the man who would become my husband, he had been asked to be a groomsman in a wedding of a friend that he had know for over 20 years. However, the couple who were to be married decided that there was another young man whom they preferred to be a groomsman so they disinvited their first choice. My husband politely bowed out, but was deeply hurt. In Jesus’ parable we saw how the guest hurt himself by his pride and selfishness. In my personal story, we also see how we can hurt others by our pride and selfishness. I think that we can all learn from these two accounts.