Parable of the Wedding Feast Meaning
The meaning of the Parable of the Wedding Feast has to do with finding honor, respect, and significance in this world versus finding it in God’s Kingdom.
We all desire to be respected and honored in some way. Having respect brings significance and meaning to our lives. It gives us purpose.
And many of us will go to great lengths in this world to gain the respect, honor, and status we long to have, including using other people.
We see people who have more money, notoriety, fame, and status than us, and we scheme up ways to use them to get us more of what they already have.
Jesus saw this kind of thing going on at a dinner party that He was invited to by a Pharisee, and he took this teachable moment and told the Parable of the Wedding Feast.
Here’s what it says in Luke 14:7
7 When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable:
SEATING AT 1st CENTURY DINNER PARTIES
In order to understand the Parable of the Wedding Feast, we need to know a little bit about why the place a person sat at a dinner table was such a big deal.
This was a world that was all about jockeying for position and prestige. You paid attention and worked hard to structure your whole life around trying to convince others of your honor and to get their respect.
And where a person sat at a meal in relation to the host was a public advertisement of one’s status in their culture.
It would have been typical to have a U-shaped table with a host sitting at the center of the bottom of the U. The seat immediately to the left of the host was seen as the most honorable seat to have and the seat immediately to his right was the next most honorable seat to have.
And if you were sitting in one of those seats then that would serve as an advertisement to all the other people there that you were one of the most respected and honored there.
So, Jesus sees that there is this jockeying going on among the guests to try and get to these seats of honor and so Luke says that he told them this parable in response, beginning in Luke 14:8.
THE PARABLE OF THE WEDDING FEAST
8 “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. 9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. 10 But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. 11 For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
This statement along with the parable Jesus just told is a basic picture of the gospel and entrance into His Kingdom.
If we choose to live in such a way that we are chasing after honor, status, and recognition, then we may find ways to be exalted in this world, but we will be humbled when it comes to entrance into God’s Kingdom.
We aren’t going to die one day and show up at the entrance to heaven and say, “Hey I was a big deal down there so I deserve to be in.”
And the reason why is that however much of a big deal we become here in this world is nothing to how big of a deal God is.
Finding respect and honor here in this world means that we are basing that off comparing ourselves to other people. However, other people are not the ultimate standard. God is the standard, and God is holy and perfect. So no matter how much of a big deal we become, we’ll never measure up to God.
The only proper response when coming face to face with God is to humble ourselves before Him. We say, “I get it. You are God, and I am not. I am a sinner, and I don’t deserve to be in your presence and in your Kingdom.”
But as Jesus said in the parable, if we do humble ourselves before Him, we will be exalted.
EXALTED STATUS IN GOD’S KINGDOM
The moment that we receive God’s forgiveness by placing our faith in Jesus for salvation, we are made into new creations and seated in a place of honor in His Kingdom.
In Colossians 3, the apostle Paul is writing to a group of people who have humbled themselves before God and received His grace through faith in Jesus, and this is what he says in verses 1-3.
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
Talk about being exalted! Paul says that they are already spiritually seated in Christ at the right hand of God, and the same is true of you and me if we’ve said yes to Jesus.
In other words, the honor, recognition, status, and significance, we were craving in our lives, God gave to us in Christ.
That is why Paul says to set your hearts and minds on things above and not on earthly things. He knows that when we set our hearts and minds on earthly things we will recognize what the world truly values – exalting ourselves before others. We’ll spend our lives trying to get honor and recognition here when we have already been given those things by God.
So, if we can keep our hearts and minds on what we have in Christ, then now in this world we can quit trying to exalt ourselves and simply sit in the low places of society and serve others.
This is what Jesus brings us next.
INVITING THE INVISIBLES TO THE TABLE
After Jesus tells the Parable of the Wedding Feast, he says this in Luke 14:12…
12 Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid.”
This was a culture of reciprocity. Gifts were not true gifts in this society. You gave someone something because you were wanting something from them in return. You served someone because of how they could serve you back.
When you were thinking about whom to invite to a dinner party, you would invite those who could bring you more honor and status. If you invited someone who had a lot of recognition in society and they reciprocated by inviting you back then you would be recognized with even more honor and status by others.
But Jesus tells them to not do that. He says not to invite those who could reciprocate. He even goes on in verse 13 and says whom they should invite instead.
13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed.
Now that would have been seen as crazy by those who were listening to Jesus. There is no way you would be blessed if you invited the “invisibles of society” to a dinner party. In all reality, you would be committing social suicide!
If you invite people who cannot reciprocate then you would not gain any recognition, honor, or status which was everything in their world.
And in all honesty, the same is probably true in our world too.
But Jesus says as He continued in v. 14…
Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.
Jesus is saying to them that if they quit using people to try to gain status, honor, and recognition in this world, but instead invested in people’s lives, Jesus would use that to pay eternal dividends.
What a blessing to know that Jesus can work in us and through us to reach people and make an eternal difference in others’ lives.
What a blessing to know that many of those who are “invisible” and humbled by this world, could be highly exalted in God’s Kingdom as He works through us to show them that He sees them and loves them.
Who is Jesus leading you to invite to your dinner table and into your life?