Luke 14:9

And he that bade thee and him shall come and say to thee, Give this man place; and then thou shalt begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when thou art bidden, go and sit in the lowest place; that when he that hath bidden thee cometh, he may say to thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have glory in the presence of all that sit at meat with thee.

It should be noted that in Luke 14:8 preceding, Jesus begins with the postulate of being invited to a "marriage feast"; and since the feast where this admonition was spoken was not that kind of feast, it is not amiss to look for the analogy Jesus had in mind. Was the Lord merely passing out some advice, or is there a deeper meaning? In watching the selfish scrambling for the chief seats, it suddenly appeared to Jesus that the unseemly thing going on in his presence was typical of a far greater sin on the part of that same class of people. Had they not indeed usurped the chief seats in the theocracy for themselves, the honor always going not to the worthy, but to the arrogant usurper? Furthermore, note the inference in "When he that hath bidden thee cometh"! Who is this, if not Christ? The Master of the messianic banquet was indeed before them, and he was confronted with the harsh necessity of demoting the proud, arrogant, and unspiritual priests from the chief seats they had usurped and conveying them to "publicans and harlots" instead, such persons being more honorable than the usurpers. A decent humility on the part of the ruling priesthood would have saved them the shame which came upon them.