MEETING AT THE BANQUET

BY ADAM FRONCZEK SEPTEMBER 1, 2019

Scripture: Luke 14:1-14. The complete text may be found at the end of the sermon.

I hope you’re enjoying the Labor Day weekend. For many it may be a fairly normal weekend, but I imagine some of you have special plans with family or friends, maybe for a barbeque or the downtown fireworks. In today’s scripture, Jesus goes to a party too, and at that gathering, we get a window into a side of him we don’t always see. The story takes place in the context of others in the Gospel of Luke, so first, I’m going to back up and mention where we were in last week’s story.

Last week I talked about a story where Jesus challenged the status quo by healing on the Sabbath. Sometimes Christians read these stories about the conflicts between Jesus and the synagogue leaders and we forget that Jesus was Jewish. So, I always try to be quick to point out that Jesus was Jewish, that he was an observant Jew who valued the Law. I said last week that Jesus’s actions in that story do not indicate a desire to get rid of the Sabbath and other Jewish laws. Rather, he is trying to get us to move incrementally toward lives of greater love and compassion. Within the context of the Law, he just wants us to be a bit more eager to risk and try something new and not be stuck with the things we’re used to.

This week we continue with a story from Luke 14. Jesus again heals on the Sabbath, this time in the context of a great feast at the home of a religious leader. Again, he is going to make a suggestion about choosing to live in a different way, but he’s also going to meet people right where they are; this story happens right in the middle of the less-than- perfect status quo.

I love the way the story starts, it says, “On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath, they were watching him closely.” I’m not sure about you, but when I read that last phrase, “they were watching him closely…” my kneejerk reaction is to imagine these onlookers as critical and suspicious and I chose not to like them. Of course, it might be different. It might be that they were watching him closely because they were intrigued, engaged, they wanted to learn something, and Jesus is absolutely going to deliver on that score…but only if we watch him closely.

Let’s set the stage for a moment: Jesus is invited to the home of a “leader of the Pharisees,” a meal in the home of a Jewish leader. In this story, the dinner table is called a trapeza, which means the guests would have been reclining around the table enjoying the feast—you can probably imagine that image from things you’ve seen in paintings or history books; additionally, they are participating in a gamoso, a wedding feast. At this kind of a meal, guests were arranged by social position. Male guests would have reclined on couches arranged around a center couch, a place of honor, with all the other guests being arranged in proximity to that center table according to their importance—their wealth, power, or office.

So, given all that context, first of all we know this: we talk a lot about Jesus spending time with the poor, weak, and powerless, but in this story, he is definitely at a fancy party with fancy people. Additionally, Jesus went to these kinds of gatherings at least frequently enough that according to Luke, chapter 7, some thought Jesus was a glutton and a drunk. Those accusations were leveled at him by his enemies and probably false, but we at least seem to know that he went to these feasts and spent time with this fancy crowd from time to time.

So, the basic layout of the room isn’t much different than what most of us have witnessed at plenty of modern weddings. The wedding couple, the honored ones, sit at the head table, parents and grandparents and the wedding party are closest to the head table, and much further away you might find distant relatives or college friends who might be overserved. And in between we pay attention to things like where am I going to seat my boss, or my mentor, or the pastor. We modern folks make these arrangements ahead of time and expect an RSVP from everyone, but in the ancient world things were different. Wedding feasts went on for a long time, maybe days on end, and people might show up anytime along the way, and there were no seat assignments, you chose your own. But the same power arrangement was still in place back then, the more important people sat closer to the center. If you were seated and someone more important than you arrived, the host might approach you and ask you to move.

So that’s the scene. I was very surprised at what happens next. This story gives such a different portrayal of Jesus than most of us are used to. I spend a lot of time readings stories about Jesus; many of you have done the same. And if I had to guess what’s going to happen here, I would say that Jesus walks into the feast I just described and he’s angry. He thinks this whole arrangement is nonsense. All of us are God’s children, all equal in God’s eyes, but everything about this situation assumes that some people are more important than others. So of course, Jesus is going to flip over the tables, just like he does with the moneychangers at the Temple, he’s going to name this embarrassment to justice for exactly what it is.

But not so. Remember, people are watching him closely, people whose motivations we’re not sure about. So, Jesus, as he enters the feast, looks around and says:

“When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at 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.” Wow. Really? That’s it? Jesus does not call the situation nonsense. He seems to accept it as a given. And not only that, but he offers a piece of advice to prevent people from being embarrassed in such a situation.

Apparently, Jesus does not always object to the status quo, nor does he always try to change it. He seems to have some understanding that our firmly engrained social conventions can be hard to break. Perhaps he also knows that it’s not usually productive to be harshly critical of people you hardly know. But for whatever reason, in this situation he’s meeting people where they are, and speaking their language, and participating in their customs, and offering them a tip along the way about the value of humility.

But he’s not done yet. In verse 12 we read that Jesus then goes and makes another comment to “the one who had invited him.” This is the “leader of the Pharisees.” He’s a religious authority, a person who has significant power and at least enough wealth to throw a party and invite other powerful people. We don’t know much about this person, but one other thing we do know is that he invited Jesus, so perhaps we can assume that Jesus is now speaking not to strangers who were “watching him closely,” but to a friend—someone he knows and with whom he’s developed some relationship. You can speak truth to a good friend.

So, imagine Jesus walks over to his friend, the host, and to that friend, he says these words we read starting in verse 12:

“When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

This suggestion from Jesus may sound a bit judgy or ungracious, considering that Jesus is a guest. But just like I’m not sure the people watching Jesus closely were suspicious, I also wonder if maybe Jesus was speaking these challenging words to a friend--and speaking those words in love. I wonder this because he says: “if you invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind…you will be blessed…” Jesus wants something good for his friend.

I have been asked this same question in a slightly different way. I’d like to ask it of you, not at all in a preachy or holier-than-thou kind of way, but as a friend, because when friends have asked this question of me, I have found it to be a helpful challenge—you might even say, a blessing.

Who do you invite for dinner at your table? More specifically, friends have asked me, how often do you have to dinner in your home with people who are in some way significantly different than you?

The obvious differences might be: do I invite people who are of a different economic status or race, but this challenge might apply to any number of differences. How about you? Have you invited someone to your dinner table who has a significant physical challenge or openly struggles with mental illness? What about dementia or Alzheimer’s? If you usually have cocktails at your dinner parties, what about someone who you know is in recovery? What about someone who is grieving or just plain lonely and you know could use some company? What about inviting someone you know favors a different political party…without the intention of convincing them you are right…or that one was a little preachy?

And what about this one: what if you invited someone to dinner who lives…on the west side of town?

I ended with this much less serious example because I think this is what Jesus is suggesting here--without being preachy, but as a friend. It’s meant as a blessing. I don’t do as well as I’d like dining with people who are much different than me, but when I do it, at my home, or in theirs, or even out somewhere…it’s a blessing. It’s always a bit of a challenge to go outside of my comfort zone and I am always glad that I did. There is something special, an intimacy, about who we invite to our home and our table. Jesus wants us to think about it.

It’s not a shaming, it’s a blessing. It’s an invitation to not be limited by the people we already know or the perspectives we usually hear, but to meet someone different—and not just for the sake of debating with them, but to invite them to be a part of your life, and to grow because you get to know someone else who is a child of God.

May God bless your feasting this weekend and always, and the feast we share today.

Amen.

LUKE 14:1-14 NEW REVISED STANDARD VERSION (NRSV)

JESUS HEALS THE MAN WITH DROPSY

14 On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely. 2 Just then, in front of him, there was a man who had dropsy. 3 And Jesus asked the lawyers and Pharisees, “Is it lawful to cure people on the sabbath, or not?” 4 But they were silent. So Jesus took him and healed him, and sent him away. 5 Then he said to them, “If one of you has a child or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a sabbath day?” 6 And they could not reply to this.

HUMILITY AND HOSPITALITY

7 When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; 9 and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit down at 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 the table with you. 11 For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

12 He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”