“So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places, saying to them: “When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; and he who invited you and him come and say to you, ‘Give place to this man,’ and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’ Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 14:7-11
Lest anyone think I am using crude or inappropriate language in this title, a jackdaw is a type of bird in the crow family. I had never really known of them until reading with our children from one of their books full of life-lessons and practical wisdom packaged in cute and sometimes funny stories. I forget now which book it was in, but this discussion comes from a story called The Eagle and the Jackdaw. It is a rather comical story, but it illustrates an important moral point with biblical application.
In the story, a mighty eagle swoops down with its powerful wings, snatches a little lamb, and carries it off to its nest for dinner. The jackdaw, having seen this awesome display of predatorial prowess, is convinced that he too is powerful enough to emulate the eagle. So, barreling downward from the sky above with all his might, he sinks his much smaller talons into the back of a rather large ram. However, unlike the eagle, when attempting to carry his prey off for the feast, he learns he can neither lift the ram nor remove himself from it to escape the trap he has now sprung upon himself because his claws are stuck in the ram’s wool. The effort was so unimpressive that the ram barely even notices the little flailing bird.
While all this is going on, a shepherd sees the jackdaw hopelessly trying to free himself from the ram’s wool and rescues him from his own trap. Unfortunately for the jackdaw though, he does not set him free to fly away and recover from his embarrassing failure. Instead, he clips his wings, takes him home, and gives him to his children for a pet. His children laughing say to their father, “What a funny bird this is! What do you call it?” Their father replies, “That is a jackdaw, my children. But if you should ask him, he would say he is an eagle.”
What is the point of this humorous bird tale? Much like this little bird who fell victim to self-deception because of an inflated self-valuation, the scribes and Pharisees thought too much of themselves in comparison with their peers as illustrated in the parable of the wedding banquet in Luke 14 above. In their self-deception, they put themselves in places of honor in relationship to the Lord, only to be moved to a place of lower esteem by the one who invited them. In their self-aggrandizement, they set themselves up to be put to shame, much like the poor jackdaw who thought he could soar like an eagle, only to wind up with his wings clipped and stuck in a cage.
This point is well illustrated in Romans 12 when Paul urged the Romans not to think too highly of themselves but to measure themselves in reference to the degree of faith they have (vs. 3). Later, in his treatise on the mutual care of the various members of the Lord’s body, he warned against setting their minds on high things, being wise in their own eyes and urged them instead to associate with the humble (vs. 16). So, as we go about our efforts to live for the Lord, let us remember that the highest rank any of us can achieve in the kingdom of our Lord is that of servant. And that is quite an honor because it makes us like the Creator of all things (Matthew 20:28; John 1:1, 14; 13:1-17; Philippians 2:1-11). Don’t be a jackdaw!