A Head Table Mentality Series

This evening’s message is entitled “A Head Table Mentality,” and it’s taken from a parable that discusses the valued position of the meek and lowly. This parable promotes Christ-like leadership over the worldly model of leadership in which power and control seems to be the normal style. Kenneth Gangel states of Christ-like leadership that it “rejects that kind of authoritarian control. As a matter of fact, in defiance of the culture of the time, our Lord says that the one who is greatest in the church actually behaves like the younger, and the boss behaves like a worker.”(1)

Robert Dale says, “The statement that the person who wishes to be greatest must become a servant, appears at least seven times in the gospels.”(2) This information tells us that Jesus felt it important to emphasize the attitudes of meekness and humility. He wanted to reveal something important concerning Christian leadership. So, what did Jesus want us to take to heart that’s so important to our ministry in the kingdom? Well, that’s what we are going to find out!

Don’t Take the Place of Honor (vv. 7-9)

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.”

Verse 7 shares how Jesus told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted that some of them chose the best places. The question arises as to who was invited, and to what were they invited? Luke 14:1-3 tells us that Jesus was eating bread in the house of a Pharisee, and that there were many lawyers and Pharisees who were present. Therefore, we understand that Jesus was speaking to the lawyers and Pharisees; and what they were invited to was a Sabbath day meal.

Now, if Jesus was eating a Sabbath day meal, then why did He begin in verse 8 telling the lawyers and Pharisees about a wedding feast? Jesus wasn’t implying they were eating a wedding meal, but that they were sitting in the presence of the groom. Jesus’ time on earth was drawing to a close, and He would soon ascend into heaven. Once in heaven, the very next time Jesus returned would be when He gathered the wedding guests for the marriage ceremony of the Lamb, when He would finally be wed to His bride, the Church.

In verse 8, Jesus said that when a person is attending a wedding meal, he shouldn’t sit in the best seat. He was talking with the lawyers and Pharisees, who were very pompous and arrogant. The “Pharisees” were prideful in their strict adherence to God’s law and in their own religious works. The “lawyers” were boastful of their knowledge of the Scripture and Mosaic Law. Both the lawyers and Pharisees were supposed to provide religious leadership for the people, but they weren’t going about it the correct way.

Jesus was sharing an important message concerning pride, arrogance, and dominance in leadership. Pride and arrogance were not just leadership problems in the New Testament world, but they also exist in today’s time. The visible religious leaders of today are pastors, deacons, Sunday school teachers, missionaries, etc. These are the religious leaders seen in the forefront, but we must not dismiss the fact that all Christians are leaders. Believers are called by God to perform a very critical function; which is to abide in the presence of the Lord, receive revelation from Him, and then feed the spiritually hungry and the lost.

When Jesus was speaking to the lawyers and Pharisees about being invited to a wedding meal, He was saying that religious leaders are called to stand in the presence of the groom in order to fellowship with Him. We, as Christians, need to realize that we are to be continually standing in the presence of the groom. Also, Jesus is more honorable than we are, so we need to be careful about attempting to exalt ourselves to the status of God. We are not heads of the table; for the head of the table is Jesus Christ. We need to remember at all times to behave as humble guests of the King of Kings. If we aren’t humble, then we will be humbled and put to shame, as verse 9 reveals.

Wait Until You Are Asked (vv. 10-11)

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.”