Hey, that's my seat!

Luke 14:1, 7-14 * September 1, 2019

It’s a familiar scene indeed…and at this point, it’s one in which I’m ready to grab a chair and a bowl of popcorn and watch the (almost certain) drama unfold. 

We have Jesus, who is going to the home of a religious leader (yay!), a leader actually of the Pharisees (double yay!), to eat a meal (triple yay!), on the Sabbath (quadruple YAY!!!).  Could it get any better?  For those involved, probably not.  Let’s see what happens. 

So Jesus arrives at this dinner party; the commentaries actually translate this forward as a wedding banquet (not necessarily a reception, mind you, but a large, social mean surround a wedding in some fashion).  This actually takes it up a notch.  Think about going to dinner with some friends vs a social outing like this; you’ll be more dressed up, you’ll be on better behavior, and you’ll likely be in front of people you want to impress.  And while dinner parties like this are still a big deal in our day and time, they were more so in this morning’s context.  Little was left to chance at these social gatherings, including the seating chart…especially the seating chart.  While you and I might toil over making sure we group people together that get along and keep those who don’t really care for each other apart, this wasn’t the focus then.  Tables were “U” shaped (most commonly, especially for this morning’s context), with the host or guest of honor in the apex of the U.  Then the guests were ordered from the most prominent, to the least, moving outward from this apex.  And you knew where in the pecking order you would fall…but you can always count on one who’s ambition outdoes themselves. 

Someone inevitably fails to stay in their social “lane”, as it were, and takes a seat which signifies they are actually more important than they actually are.  Which means then that the host would have to come to them, explain why this isn’t their seat, and move them down to the cheap seats…actually, the last seat is what was written here.  And this is messy; maybe the person felt that the host held a higher opinion of them and is actually shocked by this.  Any number of scenarios can be derived from this act.  But the fact remains, feelings get hurt and embarrassment occurs.  Public embarrassment.  In front of the most important people you know. 

So how do we prevent this?  Well, Jesus tells us to go and sit at the lower portion of the table, so that the host will come to us and say “friend, your seat is up here”, motioning to a more prestigious place, closer to the guest of honor.  We’re then told that the exalted will be humbled and the humble will be exalted.  Kind of like the first will be last and the last will be first. 

I think everyone kind of dodged a bullet on this one.  We had the setting for the perfect storm (Pharisees, an audience, the Sabbath, a meal).  I bet everyone is starting to think they got off easy, and I’m sure those Pharisees, who we are told were watching with great intent, were quite disappointed.

But Jesus wasn’t finished. 

He turned his attention to the one who had invited him, and started questioning the guest list.  It seems this host had invited people of status:  relatives, friends…all with the intent of their repayment of this invitation with another of equal footing.  A sort of return on investment, if you will.  And this is how it was done...so had the host done anything out of the ordinary?  By their cultural standards, no.  But, Jesus had come to challenge everything they held as standard, usual, and customary, so naturally he would challenge this as well. 

You ought to be inviting the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.  You should seek out those who can’t repay you.  Bring in those who the rest of the world has pushed aside and refuse to see.  These, are your guests of honor.

If you think about this, it’s not hard to see that this actually isn’t about a seating chart for a meal; it’s about our presumptions.  We presume to be able to order who belongs where.  We presume to hold the power to order persons by the worth we give them.  We give great lip service, we say things like “all persons are of sacred worth” and then in the same breath we turn around assign value to them as we see fit…or remove value as we see fit.  And we do this with such confidence, and we even slap a pretty label on it and call it “the Lord’s work”. 

I love that this text came to us on a day in which we are going to receive communion.  Today we are guests to a feast at a table set by Christ himself.  A table at which you have a place set for you.  Around this table you’ll find people like you, and people much different than you.  At this table there is a place set for the crippled, the blind, the poor, and the lame.  There’s a seat for the misfits, the outcasts, those labeled unworthy or lesser by society.  Those who are ostracized because of the color of their skin, or their gender, a disability, or any number of human reasons we can come up with to harm each other. 

No matter who you are, where you are in life, there is a place at this table for you.  Thanks be to God.