"Take a Back Seat"
"Every person that makes himself important will be made humble. But the
person that makes himself humble will be made important." (v.11)
I can remember always wanting to ride "shotgun" when
anyone was driving me around because it was a better place to sit. In our
passage today, Jesus noticed that some of the guests, invited to dinner, were
choosing the best places to sit. So He told this story.
"When a person invites you to a wedding, don't sit in
the most important seat. The person may have invited someone more important than
you. And if you are sitting in the most important seat, then the person that
invited you will come to you and say, 'Give this man your seat!' Then you will
begin to move down to the last place. And you will be very embarrassed.
Therefore, when a person invites you, go sit in the
seat that is not important. Then the person that invited you will come to you
and say, 'Friend, move up here to this better place!' What an honor this will be
for you in front of all the other guests!
Jesus wants us to give up on our self-promoting ways.
He calls us to be humble and then let God do the exalting. We shouldn't be
surprised when the apostle Paul held Jesus up as the perfect example of
humility—didn't cling to position, emptied himself of self-promotion, was
obedient to God and God exalted him at the proper time (Phil. 2:5-11). Pride is
destructive, selfish, and poisonous to Christian service and maturity.
Let's humble ourselves before God and trust that He
will lift us up.
The Truth
"Humble yourselves before the Lord,
and he will lift you up." (James 4:10)
