Day 300: Proximity to Power (Luke 14:7-11)

⁸ “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, ⁹ 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. ¹⁰ But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. ¹¹ For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 14:8–11 (ESV)

Through the Bible: Luke 14-15

In Washington DC, power follows the same cardinal rule as real estate: It’s all about location, location, location. In the White House, everyone knows that the closer your office is to the Oval Office, the more important you are. Even before the East Wing was demolished to make way for a ballroom, nobody who was anybody wanted an office there.

On Capitol Hill, it’s the same thing. The shorter your walk to the Speaker’s suite, the more clout you carry. And in the Senate, those with offices in the Russell Building don’t have to remind you how long they’ve been around.

Proximity to power is the coin of the realm.

The Low Places at the Table

Two thousand years later, not much has changed. We still measure our worth by how close we can get to the powerful. But In Luke 14, Jesus flips the script. While He is at a dinner party watching people scramble for the best seats, He tells His disciples to take their seats at the far end of the table.

He doesn’t mean we should fake humility to get noticed. He means the kingdom of God operates by an entirely different logic: the way up is down. The way to honor is humility.

At that same meal, Jesus goes further—telling His host to invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. The people who couldn’t possibly repay him. That’s where grace shows up: not in the seats of power, but in the low places where no one else wants to sit.

The Low Places of the Heart

Luke 15 continues the theme. The story opens with Pharisees muttering that Jesus “receives sinners and eats with them.” In other words: He sits too low.

But Jesus tells them three stories—about a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son—and in each one, the lost thing is found, lifted up, and celebrated. The shepherd goes after the one that wandered off. The woman gets down on her knees to search the floor. The father runs to embrace the son who fell into the mud.

God goes to the low places because that’s where His children are. With apologies to Garth Brooks, God has friends in low places.

Grace Stoops Lower

C.S. Lewis once said that pride is “spiritual cancer.” It keeps us from ever realizing how much we need God. But humility clears the way for grace. The moment we take the lower seat, the moment we stop pretending we’ve got it together, God comes close.

Grace is not just for the broken—it’s for the broken who know they’re broken.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re too far gone, too unworthy, too low—remember this: grace stoops lower still. The God who took on flesh and knelt to wash feet is not afraid of the low places. In fact, that’s where He loves to sit.

The Seat Closest to the Savior

In Washington, the closer you get to the Oval, the more your name matters. But in the kingdom of heaven, the closer you get to Jesus, the less your name needs to. The low places aren’t punishment; they’re proximity. The brokenhearted, the humble, the repentant—they are seated nearest to the Savior because He’s chosen to dwell among them.

Jesus has friends in low places, and that’s good news for the rest of us. It means we have a Friend in the highest place.

So don’t fear the small seat or the hidden corner. That’s where grace gathers. That’s where joy begins. That’s where the God of heaven kneels beside you and whispers, “This seat’s taken—by Me.”

Lord Jesus,
You who left the throne for the manger,
teach us to love the lowest places.
Deliver us from the hunger for recognition,
the scramble for the best seat,
the need to be seen.

Give us hearts that notice the forgotten
and hands that reach for the ones on the margins.
When pride tells us to stand tall,
remind us that You knelt down.
And when we feel small or unseen,
remind us that You are near—
because that’s where You’ve always been.

We thank You, Lord,
for having friends in low places,
I’m so thankful to be one of them.
Amen.

Related Content for this Day

• Day 300: What Does “Prodigal” Actually Mean? (Luke 15)
• Day 308: Feast (A Poem Based on Matthew 22:1-14)
• Just Like My Dad (Father’s Day 2025)

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