by Rev. Canon David B. Tabo-oy
1One Sabbath Jesus went to eat a meal at the home of one of the leading Pharisees; and people were watching Jesus closely… v7Jesus noticed how some of the guests were choosing the best places, so he told this parable to all of them: v8″When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place. It could happen that someone more important than you has been invited, v9and your host, who invited both of you, would have to come and say to you, ‘Let him have this place.’ Then you would be embarrassed and have to sit in the lowest place. v10Instead, when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that your host will come to you and say, ‘Come on up, my friend, to a better place.’ This will bring you honor in the presence of all the other guests. v11For those who make themselves great will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be made great.”
v12Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors—for they will invite you back, and in this way you will be paid for what you did. v13When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind; v14and you will be blessed, because they are not able to pay you back. God will repay you on the day the good people rise from death.” – Luke 14:1, 7-14
A relative in the states has this fondness of flexing the food they eat in classy restaurants or an expensive dish they are about to consume with the caption, ‘my lunch/dinner/breakfast is better than yours’. I am not impressed nor humored – it leaves a foul taste in the mouth. In the quest to exhibit our most exciting and best selves, quite often the missing component in those conversations is any sense of humility. Humility is the state of being humble. It is wonderful to share the most positive experiences of yourself, but one must be careful not to appear boastful and give the appearance of lording what you have over others.
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Luke begins the passage by telling us that the one who invited Jesus as well as some other guests to his home for a meal was a leading Pharisee. Most Pharisees in Jesus time are wealthy. If this man was a leader, then he must have been very wealthy. The passage tells us how some of the guests were trying to get places of honor at the table. They wanted to get nearer this wealthy Pharisee so that they themselves could be seen as important. Jesus’ response, according to Luke, is two-fold. First, he tells a parable. The point of the story is to discourage his listeners from seeking the most prestigious seat at the table (prM µ L µ toklisia) to avoid the humiliating situation of being displaced by someone of greater prominence (14:8). Instead, they are to take the lowest place so that they might be elevated to a more honorable seat by their host (14:10). Jesus’ summary comment to the parable is the well-known aphorism: “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (14:11).
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How are we to understand this first response of Jesus to the very explicit social ranking at meals? We might note initially that such social ranking was commonplace in Greco-Roman society. In fact, meals were situations that particularly highlighted social disparities in the first-century world. There is a store of advice given about how to act at such meals. A Jewish wisdom book, Sirach, warns of being greedy and advises being deferential at such meals (Sirach 31:12-18). While this advice fits the tone of Jesus’ remarks in Luke, Jesus goes further in warning against seeking out the most honorable seats. His exhortation is to pursue humility, a concept with significant status connotations. Humility was very rarely considered a virtue in Greco-Roman moral discourse. Yet, humility is to mark the followers of Jesus, according to so much of the New Testament witness (e.g., Luke 1:48, 52; 18:14; Philippians 2:3; Colossians 3:12; James 3:13; 1 Peter 5:5). (WorkingPreacher.com)
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The Savior warns that those who exalt themselves in this life will be put to shame in the future kingdom of heaven. Much more important than earthly honor is our place of honor before God. Such honor cannot be secured by self-assertiveness, for it comes only through humility and servanthood, and by seeking “the praise that comes from the only God” (John 5:44).
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The second part of the gospel passage is troubling. We are not to invite “our own kind” to the lunches or dinners we give, but rather we are to “invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind” because they cannot repay us. Here the normal manners is turned upside down. This is a revolutionary new normal! If Jesus was simply teaching prudent ethics in the first section of the passage, in this part there is no prudence at all, except for the eschatological calculation that by inviting the undesirable you will be paid at the resurrection. Today where poverty and wanting are abound we are challenged to translate Jesus’ prudent ethics. We can share our table by sharing what we can through charitable institutions and helping those we encounter in the streets in any practicable way. Even our seeming insignificant donations can make a difference to the victims during and after disasters.
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In the second section of the gospel lesson, we hear a more counter-cultural message–one that addresses the fabric of the honor and status structures of the ancient world. Jesus, without using a parable, speaks directly to his host–the one who holds a greater measure of control over the ‘rules of the game’ for this particular meal. His advice to this figure of power in the story works to undermine the very system that upholds status difference at meals. Jesus exhorts the host not to invite friends, family, or the rich to meals, since they are able to repay with a corresponding invitation. Such social reciprocity is the backbone of the patronage system endemic to the first-century world. Instead, Jesus calls for inclusion of those who cannot return the invitation: “the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind” (14:13). This group of persons resonates with the Isaiah-shaped mission of Jesus from Luke 4:18, with the poor and the blind mentioned explicitly there as recipients of Jesus’ ministry. For Luke, Jesus subverts expectations that social payment and repayment should govern life in God’s kingdom community. His promise is that God will repay such hospitality at the “resurrection of the righteous” (14:14; also 14:11, since God is implied in the passive, “will be exalted”).
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What might this gospel lesson have to say to us Christians and church leaders today? There is a theological truth that undergirds this passage and its very tangible social networks and exhortations: as God’s people humble themselves and seek to live by a different social system marked by radical inclusion, they can trust God to be faithful and to reward their right ways of living in that final day. Yet, the eschatological angle should not overshadow how the text speaks powerfully to the way in which the kingdom Jesus inaugurates already subverts human social systems that so often reward the “haves” and further disadvantage the “have-nots.” As Christians presently seek to live out the counter-cultural value of inclusion for the most marginalized, their actions mirror Jesus’ own inclusive kingdom agenda to fill God’s house and offer that eschatological banquet to all (14:21-23).
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Jesus gives two words of advise about humility and hospitality. When attending a wedding banquet, take a place of lesser eminence, he says, rather than a place of honor, for you might have to move down the line rather than forward for a better spot when invited by the host. Jesus secondly advises giving banquets and inviting the poor, the lame, and the blind, rather than your friends, for your friends will then be obliged to invite you to a feast they must give. If you do that, you will not be rewarded in this life but blessed in the life to come.
Let us pray.
Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 17 Collect, ECP-BCP)**
