9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place.
Have you ever been taken over by shame? That is exactly what humiliation is. Shame takes over and the shame moves from the act that caused the shame, and suddenly it becomes personal. I no longer did a shameful act I am now a shameful person. We internalize the shame. We own it as a part of our character. It is no longer what we did, it is who we are. Of course humiliation does not have to stay permanently in our character. Sometimes we are humiliated in the moment, and later we move up and out of the feeling. But sometimes the humiliation settles into our spirit and soul. We can choose to learn a lesson from these feelings of humiliation. We can learn to not do the things that cause us the humiliation. We can use the feelings to guide us away from these actions. But we can also internalize the message and come to believe that we as a person are a shameful person. The first reaction can be helpful in forming a healthy character. The later is destructive. We are created in the image of God and as a result we are made for something other than shame. We are made to reflect His glory in our lives. There is nothing shameful in God’s character. He wants to lift us up, not push us down. Jesus’ story is about someone who thinks they deserve to be lifted up because of their own position in society or because of their own merits. They think they deserve the best seats in the house. They deserve to cut ahead in lines. They deserve the best parking places. And because they think they deserve the best, they take it. But then when a really important person arrives they get a dose of truth. They are not the most important. Truth can hurt sometimes. We are not the most important person. The Lord deserves the place of honor. We don’t! So the question arises, in what areas of your life are you taking a seat that does not belong to you? Where are you taking credit for something someone else has done? Where are you pushing the Lord out of His rightful seat?
The Arnold Journey 