Let us consider Luke 14:1, 7-14 as a lesson in how disciples are to
create a place where people know to treat each other with respect and honor.
Jesus can be an upsetting, difficult guest when invited into our lives.
Rules within the kingdom of God are different from those by which the world
lives. I expect that Jesus’ dinner invitations got scarce after this evening. Christians
are those whom Jesus has invited to eat and drink with him. When we join Jesus at his table, we are
required to rethink our goals and our ambitions. It might even make us re-think
rules of etiquette.
Luke 14:7-14, for some scholars, reflect the setting of the Greek and
Roman symposium literary tradition. The meal accompanies the discussion of
topics suitable for a philosophical treatise. The teaching presents favorite
themes of Luke, such as humility and concern for the poor. It draws upon
elements of Israelite wisdom literature.
In
verses 7-11, it appears that Jesus has good manners on his mind. We see him
here giving seating instructions at a dinner party. His advice helps the guests
not only to avoid humiliation, but also to practice humility, and in the
process, snatch some honor for themselves. First, sit at the lowest place
(farthest from the host table), he recommends, so that you might be exalted and
honored - rather than seeking the highest place and risk the host moving you to
another spot for someone more important. One might read this as "Don't
honor yourself more than others do" or "Let the host shower you with
public admiration by leading you to a better seat."
Jesus
summarizes his etiquette advice in this way, "All who exalt themselves
will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted" (Luke
14:11). We also find this proverb in Luke 18:14. Its concern is the whole
notion of promotion and demotion.
The host of the wedding banquet invites (kaleo) guests. As the guests arrive at the dinner party, they
fail to observe the counsel against arrogance and boldness that can be found
throughout the Old Testament (Proverbs 15:25; Jeremiah 13:15; Isaiah 13:11),
but especially the advice of Proverbs 25:6-7, which has to do with being humble
rather than being humiliated.
"The place of honor," literally
"the first couches," on which the guest reclines, has an arrangement
that indicates the relationship between host and guest. Such an oriental custom
indicates the importance of the guest. Jesus cautions that an attempt at
securing the place of honor for oneself can actually lead to the opposite
ending, complete with the shame of the host asking one to move to a lower
place.
Jesus'
advice is actually pragmatic: You want to receive honor? This is how to do it.
There are certain behaviors, he notes, that can at the very least, give the
appearance of humility. Unfortunately, the person who seeks the obscure seat in
the hope of being elevated to a prominent one is just as proud as those who
seek the best seat to begin with. Humility, then, does not have anything to do
with one's actual position in the world. A humble CEO is just as holy as a
humble farmer is. Moreover, an egocentric, power-grabbing, selfish farmer is
just as rotten as is an egotistical CEO.
Remember
where he is, and whom he is with, when he comments. Jesus is in a crowd of
Pharisees, of good, upstanding, religious men, of saintly holy folks who jostle
and elbow their way, figuratively maybe, to the highest place possible, so that
they might look good in the eyes of people, and in their own eyes too. They do
more than aspire to a seat of honor; they seize it - because it is a place of
respect, a place of power, a spot from where one makes judgments of others, and
of one's self. However, if one cannot correctly judge one's own place in the
order of the world, how can one expect to judge properly others?
We can see that Jesus wades into a sticky
social and political morass, the etiquette of seating guests. Jesus offers a
suggestion as to modes of conduct with others.
He counteracts selfish ambition or self-assertion. The advice is good on
a worldly level, but takes on a theological character of how one is to act in
reference to God.
From
Jesus' point of view, what we think about others matters less than what God
thinks of us. In part, how we think of ourselves influences how God sees us,
but often in reverse. If we see ourselves as high and mighty, God sees us as
shadowy, lowly. If we see ourselves as humble persons, chances are God's
impression of us is still much the same. Humility is an elusive virtue; one cannot
manufacture it. Rather, it emerges from the crucible of character. Humility is
naively unaware; the moment the robe of humility becomes self-conscious, the
sash loosens, revealing nothing but buck-naked pride.
In verses 12-14, Jesus turns away from the
guests of the previous text and focuses instead on the mandates that should
guide the behavior of the host. Jesus
offers advice that is even more radical to the host. They now offer a reproof to standard human
hosting behavior and offer further proof of God's graciousness to those who
incarnate the kingdom by implementing the shocking advice Jesus gives. Social status was achieved and maintained by
knowing the right people, others seeing one with the right crowd and
associating only with the right kind.
First, he will surely alienate those whom he does not invite - not only
rich, status-laden associates, but his own family as well. Second, exchanging his "A-list" of
guests with a less than "Z-List" will affect the future of his own
social position. So v. 14 gives an
eschatological explanation for the behavior condoned in v. 12-13. The surprising policy of the kingdom of God
bestows unexpected kingdom of God bestows unexpected blessing upon this house. Because we have not realized the kingdom
fully, however, we will not achieve this gracious act of creative accounting until
the resurrection of the righteous has taken place.
Being a host is a time for friendliness,
kindness, hospitality and concern for others. It is a human tendency to want to
do good things for one's friends. However, it is also a human tendency to go
carefully over one's guest list, and this is what Jesus points out. Those
invited are family, influential friends, the elite; those who can return the
invitation or a lavish dinner, perhaps even improving your social station by extending
an invitation to you. The elite understand such invitations as having some type
of balanced reciprocity. A host expects some type of "return" for his
graciousness. It is a luncheon or dinner with strings attached - a host does
not invite someone incapable of repayment.
Instead of this expected human behavior,
Jesus suggests kingdom behavior. Jesus does not suggest merely providing
charity for the poor, which Jewish teaching recognized as an honorable thing to
do. Jesus pushes the acceptable norm further: Instead of enjoying the company
of the wealthy and your family, sit down and actually eat with the poor. Those
who invite family members and wealthy friends exalt themselves, while those who
invite the poor and lame humble themselves.
Jesus' instruction on who is to be invited is
more than a suggestion on proper etiquette. It is the vision of new conventions
in the kingdom. Those who yearn for God's feast should not practice religious
exclusion, but rather let the lavish grace and charity of the kingdom turn into
a welcome sign to those whom religious leaders had previously prevented from
attending.
While these values may not be human values,
they will be the values at God's table. God is the one who "exalts"
and "humbles." In this meal, Jesus attacks our ethics of self-seeking
and self-aggrandizement. He also
promises a gracious invitation to those who need it, namely those who are on
the bottom of our social order. In attacking those barriers, Jesus is turning
the tables upside down.
The teachings that these passages offer are
not merely criticisms of the elite Pharisees, but also of Luke’s communities
and the church today. Jesus is not telling us to provide for the needs of the
poor and the disabled - Jesus says to have them over for dinner. The host and
the guest are to sit down together. He wants us to love the stranger, which is
the meaning of the word "hospitality." The hospitality that Jesus
demands is not that which expects something in return. We are to host those who
have no means to repay.
If
we would be his followers, we must eat and drink as he ate and drank.
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