We are told all of our lives to look out for number one.  Our history is full of tales about the lone cowboy or explorer who set out on his own and overcame all kinds of obstacles to find his or her place in the world.  It’s the entrepreneur who is looked up to.  We idolize the stars and celebrities who are consumed with themselves.  It’s all about me.  We are taught to ask what is in it for me.  What do I get out of anything I do or participate in?

On the job it’s every msn for himself.  How do I get ahead?  The fear is that if I don’t look out for me who will.  This is a legitimate fear given the condition of the world.  Selfishness is sin and when push comes to shove it’s probably a safe bet that most everyone is looking out after their own interest.

Yet we have been called to faith and that means we are asked to trust God in every situation.  We are not to look around and base our judgments on what we see the people doing around us.  Our focus is on God and what he would have us to do.  As Christians we believe that God will sustain us and that we can rest in the confidence of his care.

Jesus tells a story about a wedding banquet.  In our culture we get assigned seats at the feast.  Everyone is placed at a table and that decision is made ahead of time by the bride and groom.  The closer you get to the dais the greater the honor.  The closest tables are usually set aside for the family members and then close friends and the furthest away are left for acquaintances.

In our story today that does not seem to be the case.  Apparently as guests arrived they found their own seats and true to human nature people would come in and look for the best seats positioning themselves as close to the bride and groom as possible.  Not only to be able to see what was going on but more importantly to be seen by others as important.  After all everyone knows that the best seats are reserved for the most important guests.  This seems like a good plan, don’t you think?  Arrive early and position yourself where everyone can see you and you will be seen as important. 

Jesus says, not so fast.  “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast,” Jesus tells us.  “Do not sit down in a place of honor.”  Why not is the question?

Let me step back a minute.  Why do we strive to sit in the seat of honor?  We think we are important?  We think that we deserve to sit there.  We want others to think we are important.  It’s a matter of pride on our part.

Paul tells us not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought.  We must use honest judgment when we consider who we are.  As a culture we are obsessed with the idea of self-esteem.  It seems schools are more concerned with students feeling good about themselves than they are about them getting the right answer.  Those who run organized sports down play winning because the team that loses might not fell good about themselves if they get beat.  It’s not about achievement or excellence or striving to do better its all about feeling good about yourself.

Jesus warns that when you push yourself forward when you shouldn’t you might get a dose of reality shoved in your face.  God is about truth and not about us feeling good.  Don’t sit in the place of honor, “lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him (the groom), and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.”  When you put yourself in the place of honor that you don’t deserve you will be shamed when you are asked to move.

Jesus tells us to always take the lesser seat.  God resists the proud and give grace to the humble.  If you take the lesser seat the one who invited you might ask you to move up to a place of honor.

The principal here is that he who exalts himself will be humbled.  This flies in the face of all that we are taught and I think the reason is that we are this world focus and not focused on Jesus and the life to come.

When this world is viewed as all that you get you strive to get all that you can.  Meaning is found in what one possesses, the job one holds and the amount of money one makes.  Pleasure is the goal and one spends their time seeking to advance themselves at whatever cost.  One’s self worth is tied to one’s status here and status is defined by the standard of this world.  Jesus calls us to something else.

As Christians we are called to die to self and to live for Christ.  It is a theme we see over and over again in the Scriptures.  Our self worth comes from being redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.  We are reminded that all our righteousness is filthy rags before the Father.  “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling,” is our anthem.  In spite of the warning that the first will be last and the last first we still strive to be found in the place of honor.  How unchristlike.

Jesus goes on to make his point further by turning to the man who invited him saying, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or you brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid.”  Not only does Jesus challenge the guests to humility but he also challenges those who throw parties.  We are fascinated by the parties of the rich and famous.  The gossip columns might be the most read section of the paper.  Bouncers stand outside the hottest clubs to pick and choose who is worthy enough to get in.  The people who throw the parties exercise power over the quest list and they invite only those they deem worthy knowing that they will be repaid somehow for their kindness.

We surround ourselves with the people we like, those most like ourselves.  We move in circles that support our worldview and reinforce what we believe and value and Jesus as always says hold on.  When you have a party, don’t invite your friends.  But that’s how it works.  I invite them and they invite me.  You see it all the time, at work, at church.  People gather around the people they know and like and they go out together and invite each other to parties and Jesus says don’t do that because it’s self interest and not sacrificial love.  When Jesus is caught at dinner parties he is usually in the home of some social outcast or someone who apposes his ministry.  Don’t invite your friends.

Don’t invite your brothers.  I would like to take the liberty if I can of applying this to the body of Christ, brothers and sisters in Jesus.  Don’t spend you whole life with the people in the church.  What kind of impact will you have on the world if all of your time is spent with the redeemed?  Jesus spent time with the sinners in order to win them for the kingdom.  He said that the sick not the healthy need the doctor.  Hanging with the church people is easy, but we have been called to bear witness to the truth.

Don’t invite your family over.  Jesus always gets to meddling.  Family is a wonderful gift from God, but I know people obsessed with family.  Every minute of their lives is spent around family.  Jesus tells us move out.  When you have a party don’t invite family they will only invite you back and around and around you go.

Don’t invite your rich neighbors.  It used to be called sucking up, and now its called networking.  Associate with the rich and powerful and doors will open up to you.  There is a whole industry of people who make a living holding pep rallies for people.  You know the motivational speakers.  I always marvel at how many Christians are taken in by these people.  People made rich by telling other people how to be successful.  Our self worth is found in Jesus.  Yet Christian’s feel the need to be told over and over again how good they are and how they can prosper.

Jesus says to the guest take the lesser seat, but to the one throwing the party he says, “But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you.”  The blessing comes in service.  We don’t invite these people for a whole slew of reasons.  We are afraid of them on some level.  They make us uncomfortable.  But mostly we think they have nothing to offer.  To invite people who cannot repay us means we are reduced to the roll of servant.  Its like taking the lesser seat, a position of humility.

Paul puts it this way to the Philippians, “Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in the spirit, intent on one purpose.  Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard on another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.  Have this attitude in yours4elves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.  Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death on a cross.”

We are to be heaven focused.  Jesus promised that if we will follow after him and have his mind we, “will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”  What impacts the world is not our success, but the collective humility and service of the body of Christ.  Let us go for the in obedience to Jesus and live our faith out loud.