Old Testament reading: Jeremiah 2:4-13
New Testament reading: Luke 14:1,7-14
This Sunday the lectionary seems pretty much to preach itself. But this
reading from Luke contains a parable and parables are a flag that there is more to the
story than it seems. If you read Luke you may notice frequently Luke finds
Jesus at a meal when there is a lesson to be learned, like this meal. Often his
adversaries, the Pharisees and Jewish religious leaders are present. Meals are
both occasions of fellowship and the way Luke emphasizes that Jesus is the
bread of life.
Jesus has showed up at a big feast attended by some very respected Pharisees, at least in their own eyes. I suspect their pretense having Jesus as guest of honor is to entrap him in heresy. Jesus
noticed how they were jockeying for the best spot at the table near the
putative guest of honor so they could hear clearly what Jesus said - all the
better to entrap him.
Can you imagine the Pharisees hurrying into the room, looking for the
best couch (they reclined to eat) perhaps a little shove or bump here and there, the
well placed shoulder that gently eases another to the side before the realize it as you slide onto the couch
next to the guest of honor? Imagine the look on the faces of the Pharisees entering last, a grimace or a shake of the head that they have to sit so far away
from the guest and the other dignitaries at the head of the table.
Jesus
takes the shuffling as a opportune time to tell a parable and a related story. To use the
technical term, we are going to hear a story of a reversal; Jesus is about to tell
them something that upsets their social and religious dogma in a way to explain
Jesus’ own purpose on earth. Here he points out a social rule that still
persists. Jesus says when you are invited to a formal feast, such as a wedding banquet;
the person throwing the dinner determines where people sit. You can only incur
shame and embarrassment if you seat yourself next to the guest of honor because
the host may tell you to move down a few seats for someone more preferred to
sit in your place. I'm sure they wondered why did he use the wedding feast as an example?
Jesus’s
advice might remind these scholarly Pharisees of Proverb 25:6-7, “Do not put yourself forward in
the king’s presence or stand in the place of the great; for it is better to be
told, ‘Come up here,’ than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.” The "king" being a little barb tossed their way.
As usual a parable has a
double meaning. The part of about seating is fairly obvious, but what is
all this about a "king" and a wedding? Is he criticizing the Pharisees for self-promotion
in the presence of the chief Pharisee in whose house they are eating? Is Jesus
suggesting the host is the symbolic king...? Or is Jesus obliquely referring to himself as a
king, the guest of honor at the wedding banquet?
That
Jesus intends the guest of honor and king to be about himself makes
sense give we are closing in on Jerusalem. In a few short weeks in Jericho the people will be talking about the
coming kingdom of God. Luke 19:11 (1-28) - As they were listening to this, he went on to tell a parable
(about the talents), because he was near Jerusalem, and because they supposed
that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. Then he will enter Jerusalem on a
donkey being hailed as a king. At his trial Pilate will ask, “Are you the king
of the Jews?”
Perhaps Jesus is leading them to this connection at this feast,
that Jesus is Lord and he decides who will be invited to the feast and where
they may sit? He adds the twist of reversal telling the Pharisees who love the
seat of honor that they will find themselves humbled at the foot of the table
or even out on the street.
The
fact Jesus uses the word “wedding banquet” in this parable further suggests to
the thoughtful Pharisee Jesus means moire than he is saying. Throughout the
history of the Hebrews the Lord describes his love of the Hebrews as that in a
marriage. For example, Is. 62:5 says, “For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder
marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice
over you.” (Read the whole chapter, Jesus is heading for Jerusalem.)
This is why it is so important
to read both Old and New Testaments when we decide to quote scripture. There is
no other way to appreciate some of the irony and meaning Jesus uses against the
Jewish leaders as our instruction. As Jesus said earlier, he is completing the
Law by interpreting older religious requirements in the current moment. He
often employs the negative use of the Law by the religious leaders to emphasize the
positive nature of the love in the Law.
Jesus
tells the Pharisees and the disciples who may be present, “Do not exalt
yourself and think too highly of your status, the heavenly King’s grace will
exalt the ones with the best seats who humble themselves now.” Here he is again
advocating humility, the virtue of the slave. Do you remember how Paul also
extolled the virtue of the slave towards all persons as Jesus does.
Now we might think here of the slavish humility and awareness of their our personal sin exhibited by the local church who gave the parents of the lesbian police officer an ultimatum to denounce or renounce her or leave their congregation.
I
could stop right here because this parable about the heavenly banquet and humility
makes a very complete lesson. But, let
us get back to our banquet because Jesus is not yet done with his final twist
in the story.
Jesus
never lets a subtle message alone without a barb tossed at pride. He turns to
one of the Pharisees; perhaps one of the better respected ones who invited
Jesus as the guest of honor to this plot to entrap him. He continues to talk about the feast and says they
all have it completely wrong. If you are the host of a banquet (in this case a
wedding banquet), do not invite your friends, your neighbors or even your
family, rather ignore them and invite the poor, the cripple, the lame and the
blind.
What on
earth is he saying? Is he saying forget our family reunion dinners, or our
Wednesday evening dinners here at church? I think not. We know Jesus is all
about celebration, love and family, he gets plenty of criticism for that. We
know he is a Jew and the Jews are the Lord’s family after all. We have to
understand the context of his parable.
Here
at this feast compassion is a lonely companion to Jesus among people with
self-inflated egos who think so highly of themselves that they ignore or abuse everyone
else. We might want to read this passage this way, “When you hold a banquet do
not invite those people who are already exalted in their own eyes, invite those
who do not or cannot exalt themselves because of their circumstances.”
But
we cannot overlook the specific people Jesus instructs us to invite: the poor,
the cripple, the lame and the blind. What is it about this group of people that
so impassioned Jesus?
Generally
the things you mention first are the important things. The very first thing
Jesus did after He walked out of the desert and was baptized was go into the
synagogue and read to the people Isaiah 61:1-3, (Luke 4:18-21) “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has
anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release
to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go
free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
This prophecy concerns
salvation from our literal and spiritual human poverty. However, if you were a
good Pharisee, priest or scribe, you also would recall a passage in the Law from
Leviticus. (The Pharisees were lay, religious policemen like the modern day Islamic
religious police we read about in Iran and other conservative Moslem countries,
or like Paul, the Pharisee who pursued Christians, arrested them and brought
them to court for trial as Jewish heretics. He stood by and held the coats of
the crowd as they stoned Christians, Stephen being the best example.) Times
haven’t changed, we are always ready to condemn the sins of others.
Leviticus gives to the Hebrews
the entire code of the Law that governed every element of a Hebrew’s life. It
offers particular guidance for the priests and defines what disqualifies them
to serve within the inner sanctum. Leviticus 21:17-23 reads, “No
one of your offspring throughout their generations who has
a blemish may approach to offer the food of his God. For no one
who has a blemish shall draw near, (that is) one who is blind or lame, or one
who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, or one who has a
broken foot or a broken hand, or a hunchback, or a dwarf, or a man
with a blemish in his eyes or an itching disease or scabs (or crushed
testicles.) No
descendant of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to
offer the LORD’S offerings by fire; since he has a blemish, he shall not come
near to offer the food of his God. He
may eat the food of his God, (both) the most holy (and) the holy. But he shall not come near the
curtain or approach the altar, because he has a blemish (that) he may not
profane my sanctuaries; for I am the LORD; I sanctify them.”
Even their descendants are bared from service!
Is Jesus
expecting these religious authorities to violate the Law by inviting the people
the Law excludes? Perhaps what he is saying is, “You Pharisees have read the
Law in Leviticus concerning priests and distorted it. While the Lord said a
priest who has these disabilities, blindness, being crippled or mutilated, a limb too long, broken or
disfigured, or with a skin disease should not enter the holiest place, you have
read it to mean you are to bar every person with such suffering from my
presence. Look around you at how you abuse the poor widows and enjoy the largesse of the temple gifts. You have failed the Law, for the Lord said even these may eat the food
of your God. Furthermore, this Law applies only to the Levites, the
priests. I, Jesus, have come to amplify and make the Law complete, for now you
are all to become ministers. (See Matthew 28:19-20, for example, although there Jesus is talking only to his disciples.) The temple of the Lord, my house, is open to the
ones I invite; and I invite those who suffer their poverty humbly be it in physical,
economic or intellectual. They are all my people."
Jesus has completely upset the order of this banquet. The face of every priest and
Pharisee in the room should be burning red at this implied criticism of Proverbs, Isaiah, and the parables of Jesus. He has revealed and condemned the
self-centered exaltation of these religious people.
So what does this story really
mean to us? This parable is 2,000 years or so, give or take a few decades. As I
read these passages, and as we discussed in our bible study, I wonder how much the self-centered
exaltation and lack of humility described in these two stories are familiar to you
and me today? We like to think humanity has matured relative to the quaint, old
stories we read in the Bible. But have we really changed that much?
When we see someone who is
down and out or has a birthmark or deformity that is visible, do we give a
furtive glance at them to see how it looks, and feel a little uncomfortable
around them? Do we invite people to our celebrations because we know them, or
want to curry favor, or want to impress others to be seen with them for the
implied status it imparts?
I recall a very good friend of
mine in my days as a scientist and engineer. My friend was senior to me, and highly regarded and widely read. We got along quite well but he had a very disturbing habit. We would
go to national scientific conventions to present papers on our research. There
always were government staff around who worked in agencies that funded the
research, or working in government labs, and industrial scientists who also
funded university research. Part of the game is to curry favor with them
because you increase the chance of getting a grant. I would find myself often
standing in a hallway, or seated at a table eating lunch with him and talking.
I always found it difficult to talk with him because he never looked at me; he
always was eyeing the crowd passing by watching for a sponsor or colleague.
Meals for him were potential opportunities to build his program.
At our local Christian Businessmen
luncheons I sometimes frequented, I would watch a (now former) member of the congressional delegation at the head
table. Constantly he looked around for the newspaper photographer to be sure he
struck the right pose at the right moment of the flash. I doubt he heard a word of the speaker. And, even today, we hear well-meaning folks
take passages out of Leviticus and twist them around against others for their
own exaltation as Christians.
Now don't take my criticism of these two to exclude me from this. I'll go to a presbytery meeting and look for folks on various committees whose support I need. Walt Kelly was right, "we have met the enemy and he is us."
I guess the lesson in this
parable is we have not changed much in 2,000 years. As Jeremiah said, we still
seek self-aggrandizement and status as the Pharisees did at this dinner.
Jeremiah (2:12-13) said:
Be appalled, O heavens, at
this,
be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the
LORD,
for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living water,
and dug out cisterns for themselves,
cracked cisterns
that
can hold no water.
Cracked cisterns that cannot hold the living
waters of God. My brother calls that "pointless futility." Since it takes just as much hard effort to rely on our faith,
why not strive to be a water-worthy cistern for that living water of God?
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