Who Sits Where? Proverbs 25: 6-7; Luke 14: 1, 7-14
Now, I love Jesus with all my heart, and I follow him in every way I can. But honestly…Jesus has to be the most obnoxious dinner guest ever. He’s the one you can’t really avoid inviting, but you know, you just know, he’s going to say something. Here, Jesus manages to insult both the guests as well as the hosts of the dinner. Sometimes for us, if we follow Jesus, it’s not all that hard for us to blurt out the wrong thing either.
A friend of mine tells of when he was little—4 or 5 years old—and in Sunday School. He had overheard a pretty ugly fight between his parents that morning. He goes into his little kids’ Sunday School class with an urgent prayer request and says, “Please pray for my mommy and daddy. Daddy says they need to fix the rat’s nest in mommy’s hair!” Later that day, my poor friend could not understand why he got in trouble for telling things he shouldn’t. After all, he was honest!
This is another narrative lesson where Jesus’s honesty far outweighs his diplomacy, and frankly his tact. Jesus was invited to dinner in the home of a Pharisee. He watches as all the people there jostle and scuffle for the seats of honor at the table. This was a common practice for dinners in those days. The ones who sat in the seats of honor were often served the best food and wine of the dinner. Those seated at the other end of the table were served the bare minimum and the cheapest wine. A pointed distinction was made in what you were served based on your level of honor at the table. We know this not only from Jesus’s story, but also from the Roman lawyer and magistrate, Pliny the Younger, who also disliked this common discriminatory practice.
Jesus advises the guests to assume humility. Sit at the lowest and allow the host to elevate your honor or glory. This was meant to be true humility. As the New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary noted, “Humility is not to be feigned as a strategy for recognition. On the contrary, humility is a quality of life open to persons who know that their worth is not measured by recognition from their peers but by the certainty that God has accepted them.”
But, even though they were embarrassed by Jesus’s words, they couldn’t argue because Jesus was basically quoting Proverbs. The Old Testament says, “Don’t demand an audience with the king or push for a place among the great. It is better to wait for an invitation to the head of the table than to be sent away in public disgrace.” We live in a society marked by this idea of “keeping up with the Jones’s.” Social media, cool gadgets, the need for public recognition, and the very pointed, public nature of life today leads us to a society that jockeys and jostles for position, power, and prominence. As Christ lived and taught humbly, we should do the same, and these actions defying humility should make us uncomfortable.
Jesus, though, doesn’t stop at embarrassing the guests. He goes after the hosts as well. First century Jewish society was very class divided. It was not socially acceptable for the wealthy or the powerful to mingle with the poor or the servants. This is one reason why Jesus’s ministry was so shocking. He didn’t take a place of prominence in the synagogue or temple but taught among the lower classes of society and challenged the Pharisees and tax collectors.
The man with whom Jesus was eating would most likely have been wealthy and somewhat powerful. He was a Pharisee and could afford a pretty significant banquet for folks. Seats of prominence were reserved for those who could repay the favor. It was expected that wealthy friends and family would invite the host in return and provide a nice meal.
Jesus not only challenged this back and forth of favors, he challenged their exclusionary practices. Jesus suggested a list of invitees who would never be invited to dinner in this Pharisee’s house. This group was also banned from priesthood and participation in Temple life per Leviticus 21. As the commentary says, “[There is] a list of four groups who should be invited: the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Such persons were explicitly forbidden to serve as priests and were barred from entry into the Qumran community,” which is where Jesus was.
If you want to put it our southern understanding, we should invite to a dinner of fried chicken, potatoes, vegetables and desert the very people who can only offer us a bologna sandwich in return. Jesus had now effectively insulted both the dinner guests as well as the host. Verse 1 of the Gospel says the people were watching him closely, and I guess he really gave them a show!
We come, then, to the title question: who sits where, and specifically, who sits in the seats of honor? What the world we live in tells us and what Jesus tells us may be two different things. Jesus disrupted their way of doing things and challenged them with the idea that there is no reward in doing nice things only for those who can repay you. Jesus healed and taught amongst those whom society no longer welcomed.
It's a similar challenge to us today. Invite to the table those who cannot repay the favor, those whom society wouldn’t like: the elderly, those who struggle with mental health, those who are very blessed but need to feel love and welcome, really and truly anyone who wants a seat at the table with people who follow Jesus.
Years ago, I played at a wedding for a friend whose family was quite poor. They didn’t really have the money for much, so I agreed to play the organ for free. What I saw was their church living out this scripture. Members brought flowers from their yards and gardens in vases. Folks brought what food they had—a cheeseball here, a cake someone had made, a few sandwiches from someone else. The groom borrowed a tie, and the bride borrowed a veil. In the end it was quite a hodgepodge of things people had brought and shared, but to this day, it was the most beautiful wedding banquet I have ever attended. So, set the table, invite the guests, and get ready because Jesus is coming to our dinner table, just as we come to God’s table each Sunday where grace is found in abundance.