Question: Is taking the lowest seat at the feast a wise thing? Is Jesus teaching humility to His disciples when He tells them to take the lowest seat at the feast? Does giving feast to the poor makes a person heavenly rich? Jesus teaching a spiritual lesson both to those invitees and the inviter shows the importance of humility, and further reveals how to collect eternal treasures in our afterlife?
Answer: Greetings in the most precious name of Jesus Christ!
So here we go with the Parable that Jesus teaches us,
Luke 14:7-14 - "7 So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places, saying to them: 8 “When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; 9 and he who invited you and him come and say to you, ‘Give place to this man,’ and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’ Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. 11 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” 12 Then He also said to him who invited Him, “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”".
The parables of Jesus are earthly stories that Jesus usually shares to reveal the mysteries of the realities and the truth of heaven to His sacrificially sincere seeking disciples, and screen off the unbelievers from the spiritual treasures that lay within the parables, and then send them back with a good laugh and a intellectual stimulation to just feed their unseeking heart. The unseeking heart is a unsaved heart, that seeks for earthly benefits from Jesus and will do the same even if Satan is ready to give them something. A seeking heart is a saved heart that repents for their sins and seeks for eternal treasures from God.
A saved man seeks the truth, and will reject the lies of the evil one, while the unsaved men are deceived to believe the lies to be condemned (Jer 29:13-14; John 8:44; 2 Thess 2:9-12; John 3:18-21).
Are You Now On Earth Working Yourself For The Lowest Or Highest Place In Heaven?
"7 So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places, saying to them: 8 “When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; 9 and he who invited you and him come and say to you, ‘Give place to this man,’ and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’ Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. 11 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
This story is all about how the Kingdom of Heaven operates, in this world when we all go to a feast, we seek the place of honor and to be the most visible of all. But heaven works in ways totally opposite to how the world works. There those who have taken the lowest place on earth while they have lived here, are those who are invited to the best place of honor by God there in heaven because God sees the heart attitude while man sees the outwards appearance (1 Sam 16:7).
The first section of the Parable of Jesus is told to those who were invitees to the feast, just like God has invited his children to the feast in heaven after the Rapture of the Church (Rev 19:7-8, 9). Clearly all the believers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ are included in this feast and therefore they must walk worthy of Him in humility now in their lives to be glorified by God then in the life to come (Matt 22:1-13, 14; 1 Thess 2:12; Eph 4:1).
God weighs humans based on their motives or the counsels of their heart which usually gives them a right attitude or wrong attitude, a man who does things with expectation of a reward usually does it wrongly while a human who does things out of love for God and His Kingdom people usually end up in the right side of God because of doing it without expectation (Prov 21:2).
Usually a man who seeks honor from men is like a person who desires to be the bridegroom in a marriage function, and a dead body in the funeral service, (i.e.) to be the center of attention of all people.
A man who seeks honor from men (John 5:41-42, 44), cannot be able to seek the honor of God and live for His Glory. Even when Jesus went to a feast being invited, he sees the way humans act in this world and he gets so drowned in the thought of the world to come, that he immediately wanted to convey to the earthly men to seek for the heavenly character and nature that only God in His grace and mercy can provide to the mortal men.
More honorable men are recognized in heaven not by their external appearances but rather by how much of the nature of God which is humility they have learned and lived and practiced it to make it their own in their earthly lives (1 Pet 5:6). God gives grace to the humble (Jam 4:6), which means the character of God itself is His nature that we have inherited by choice of receiving Jesus as our Lord and Savior (John 1:12; 1 Cor 12:3; Rom 8:9), but we become "partakers of the divine nature" only when we by humility begin to acknowledge our inadequacy of our self and the Adamic nature to overcome sin, but instead receive more and more of God's nature in our soul through depending on God's strength by believing His "exceedingly great and precious promises" (2 Pet 1:2-4).
The character we gain on earth is the only thing that we will take with us in to the life to come, to receive the equivalent glory of heaven which will be with us forever and ever eternally. Heaven has no much honor to give for fleshly men who live for earthly gain and honor of fellow men. These fleshly men receive glory of men through doing charitable deeds while they live, will make a big show of their fastings and prayers, but will not forgive others of their mistakes, will lay up treasure for themselves on earth (Matt 6:5-15, 16-18), thus that will be the only honor they will ever receive and will not receive anything further from God when they meet him in heaven even if they are saved (Matt 6:1-4; 1 Cor 3:11-15).
What a pity to feel ashamed when we are not honored in the sight of God and be resisted by him for our pride in our eternity (2 Cor 4:2, 7; Jam 4:6), in other words, those who have stubbornly lived for their own glory will take the lowest place in heaven, but those who have walked in humility before God on earth will take the best place of honor in heaven just like Jesus (Php 2:5-11; Rev 3:21)!
To take the lowest place in a feast is to serve everyone who has come there to eat, and thus Jesus himself has taken that lowly place as a bondservant of God to serve all humans, and have not come to earth from heaven to be served, even though He is the creator God and is the King of all Kings on earth (Matt 20:26, 27-28; Luke 22:24-27)! Jesus later washed his disciples feet in order to show them that it is the one who serves others with humility before God is truly greater than all the men who lord over others before fellow humans. He also had taught the disciples at that instant, the one who serves is greater than the one who is served in the Kingdom of Heaven (John 13:13-17).
The life you live on earth is so important to God, that He evaluates it all by the humility you have practiced and prepares to reward you in heaven in the life to come. So it is not inside of the four walls of the Church you are receiving honor that matters for eternity, but in the sight of God are you living in humility and are increasing in it more and more, day in and day out in the nature of God that matters because that Character of God that is increasing within you through humility is going to stay with you for eternity, and will also decide what kind of honor that you are going to get from God in your eternity, (i.e.) lowest place or the highest place of honor! Hallelujah!
Jesus teaches us not to think less of ourselves, but to think ourself less, by knowing who we are as a child of God and whom we belong, (i.e.) to our Heavenly Father in heaven (1 Cor 2:16; Php 2:5-8). To walk in humility is to take the lowest seat on earth which is heavenly wise and earthly foolish. We might not know, when we walk in such humility, God himself may honor us even on earth to make the inviter call us to the seat of honor even though we might not even expect that for ourself. Don't ask God to humble you, because He can only humiliate you to become humble, but it is you yourself who take a renewed mind to think the way of Jesus to walk in humility and be honored by God. In other words, Jesus never cared for the honor of men or sought it in his life, so he took the lowest seat on earth but God honored him to be the greatest human among all humans. Hallelujah!
Only those friends of God who live on earth in faith through humility are those those who will be invited in heaven to go up higher in the Glory even as He gives to them all His felicitation gifts of honor which will stay with them for eternity ahead, along with His nature that they have inherited on earth by their humble walk with God (Isa 41:8; Jam 2:23). In the earthly realm of the Kingdom of God, many who exalt themselves before God now will be humbled in heaven, many who humble themselves before God now will be exalted before Him in heaven then. GLORY TO GOD!
Remember saints, the life you live on earth before God is a test which places you in the hierarchy of heavenly glory and honor before God. What happens on earth before men means nothing of any value to the eternal life that God has set before you. So if you are too concerned for the honor of men, you cannot be a bondservant of God which is the highest title for true humble men who walk with God in the center of His will for their lives now (Gal 1:10; Matt 22:14).
When You Invite People For A Feast, Invite Them Who Cannot Repay Back To You, So That You May Be Rewarded In Heaven?
"12 Then He also said to him who invited Him, “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”".
In English language there is only one word used for love, but in Greek language, the same word does mean so many different love like parental love, friendship love, marital love and unconditional love. Only the love of God is unconditional, every one who practices that kind of love can only do to others good things without expecting anything in return. Only this type of 'Agape love' which is unconditional by nature will be rewarded by heaven.
Usually every one of us who would want to give a dinner or a supper, we want to give to whom we know, thus when we invite our friends, brothers, relatives, rich neighbors...they usually remember us to invite us back to express their gratitude with a feast.
But Jesus says to the inviter, we should not invite to whom we know, because we get invited back to be repaid of our generosity. When humans pay us back, we have received our reward on earth and God has no opportunity to pay us in heaven for our work on earth.
Therefore Jesus says to the inviter, "when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind" who are so poor, so that they do not even have anything left with them to pay you back for the generosity you have shown them. Thus by doing good without expectation for the sake of sharing God's love to these poor and differently abled people, we directly do to God and lend to Him who never forgets to pay us back many more times eternally for the good things we did for the sake of His name (Prov 19:17; 22:9; Matt 10:40-42; Heb 6:10; Jam 1:27; 2:2-9; Gal 6:10).
Jesus wants us to focus ourselves towards 'eternal treasures' and not just temporal 'earthly treasure'. Every marriages conducted on earth will have a feast, at least in a small way according to each one's ability, and that too as Jesus has foretold in these end times that the frequency of these feast will increase to such an extent that many will become insensitive to the spiritual things and the after life when the coming of the "Son of Man" Jesus Christ will take place (Matt 24:38). So we should make every opportunity for the poor in some way to give to them a share of our earthly treasure in one way or the other, and to take care of their day to day needs, so that each and every one of us can store without fail in the heavenly treasure bank (Matt 6:19-21, 24), so that when we get resurrected "at the resurrection of the just" which will be the rapture for the Church and the first resurrection for the Tribulation saints (1 Thess 4:14-18; 1 Cor 4:5; 3:14-15; Rev 20:4-6), in which we will be fully repaid without fail by God. Hallelujah!
Are We Listening To Heaven's Mysteries Revealed To Us By Jesus Or Is It Falling On Deaf Spiritual Ears? Wake Up Saints Before It Is Too Late!
Are we really living God-like by revealing His unconditional love and benevolent nature to people who live around us in our day to day lives? Are we really loving the poor people or are we sinning by showing partiality towards the rich and despising the poor who are mostly rich in faith? Have we really shared our feast, dinner or supper with the poor, maimed, lame and blind in our past times as a Christian and a follower and a disciple of Jesus Christ, or are we still living to invite only our friends, brothers, relatives and rich neighbours only to invite and live selfishly without God's love in practice?
These are times to repent and introspect our own lives based on the revealed mysteries of heaven which we have heard from Jesus who has shared with us who are His disciples, the above parable of taking the lowest seat at the feast and inviting the poor to the feast who cannot repay us. Take a decision today and ask God's help to practice what Jesus has taught now to you, so that you might not end up poor eternally but rather be rich and honored by God for eternity ahead. Praise the Lord!
If we do not humbly take the lowest seat in the feast when we are invited and care not for the poor and the differently abled people, then totally we have missed the will of God to reveal His nature to neighbors around us which does not honor God and also makes us poor eternally. May God help us now live rich with God's abundant grace received on earth through humility and also become rich in our eternity by loving people unconditionally just like God without any other motives for His name sake! GLORY!
Never be afraid to let go of those things that you can lose for the things that you cannot lose forever. Truly he is no fool who loses what he cannot gain and gains what he cannot lose. Earthly things will soon be lost, but the heavenly character of God in which we grow through humility and practice through living it through loving others unconditionally will keep us eternally rich for the Glory of God!
Every time you have become a fool to the world for the sake of being wise towards God, you have chosen to reveal to the world that the foolishness of the immortal God is much more wiser than the mere wisdom of mortal men, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength (1 Cor 1:25). Soon the world will realize very late to regret for its condemned life of sin and self in hell fire, while your investment done in to the building of the Kingdom of God will become fruitful enough by that time to have made you wise and strong and rich and honored in the sight of God for eternity in your eternal life with God! Truly there will be many who will give you a rich welcome in to eternity when you have lived a life worthy of God. Hallelujah. Jesus Lives!
Much Blessings....
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