Season of Kaitha
First
Sunday: Luke 14:7-14
INTRODUCTION
The keywords in this gospel passage are
humility and charity. Jesus practiced what he preached. While
participating in a Pharisee’s banquet, Jesus taught how a disciple
should be humble to inherit an exalted position at the eternal banquet
in heaven. The advice of Jesus to the host was to invite the poor who
cannot return any favor to him. Then God will reward for such service to
the less fortunate. Like the advice Jesus gave to Zebedee’s sons, let us
focus on participating in Jesus’ mission. Then the recognition would
follow on time.
BIBLE TEXT
Conduct of Invited Guests and Hosts
(Luke 14:7) Jesus
then told a parable to the guests, for he had noticed how they tried to
take the places of honor. He said, (8) “When you are invited to a
wedding party, do not choose the best seat. It may happen that someone
more important than you has been invited, (9) and your host, who invited
both of you, will come and say to you: ‘Please give him your place.’
Then in shame you will go to the lowest seat! (10) Whenever you are
invited, go rather to the lowest seat, so that your host may come and
say to you: ‘Friend, you must come up higher.’ And this will be a great
honor for you in the presence of all the other guests. (11) For everyone
who makes himself great will be humbled, and everyone who humbles
himself will be made great.”
(12) Jesus also addressed the man who had
invited him and said, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not invite
your friends, or your brothers, relatives and wealthy neighbors. For
surely they will also invite you in return and you will be repaid.
(13) When you give a feast, invite instead the poor, the crippled, the
lame and the blind. (14) Blessed are you then, because they cannot repay
you; you will be repaid at the resurrection of the upright.”
INTERPRETATION
Background
(Luke 14:7) Jesus then told a parable
to the guests, for he had noticed how they tried to take the places of
honor. He said…
Just as people were observing Jesus on his
unusual conduct, Jesus was watching the guests’ improper behavior. They
were competing for places of honor like his disciples, who had been
arguing for a prominent position in the Kingdom of God. Jesus was not
against an eligible person taking his seat of honor. However, ineligible
people were trying to occupy honorable seats. The host had to ask them
to change the seat to respect the distinguished guests. That caused
humiliation for the inferior person in public. Jesus’ intention was not
to teach them on how to behave in a banquet, but to instruct a moral
lesson on humility for his disciples. The behavior in a secular
situation reflects the spirituality of the person.
(8) “When you are invited to a wedding
party, do not choose the best seat. It may happen that someone more
important than you has been invited.”
For the Jewish
wedding banquets, people were reclining on cushions around a low-level
table. The prominent persons were in the middle and others were on the
two sides of a U-shaped table setting. Though the host would not
preassign seats, the guests should know where to recline. Once the
guests seat themselves, the host would come to confirm if all got their
appropriate seating. The host might ask an inferior person who took a
prominent seat to move to a low-rank seat for an honorable guest. So,
Jesus said, since the guests are not aware of all the invited guests,
better take a lower seat to avoid later humiliation.
(9) And your host, who invited both of
you, will come and say to you: ‘Please give him your place.’ Then in
shame you will go to the lowest seat!
The prominent guest might come last. The host
must honor him according to his rank. So, if someone already took his
seat, the host has to intervene for a seat change. That will create
humiliation for the one who occupied the undeserved seat. He might end
up getting the least prominent seat.
(10) Whenever you are invited, go
rather to the lowest seat, so that your host may come and say to you:
‘Friend, you must come up higher.’ And this will be a great honor for
you in the presence of all the other guests.
The host will honor the humble guest in
public when the host would promote him to a more prominent seat. If one
would occupy the least prominent seat, there was no chance of shame and
only opportunity for a higher position. Jesus said in Matthew 23:12:
“whoever makes himself great shall be humbled, and whoever humbles
himself shall be made great.” This is not a new teaching but Jesus’
adaptation of proverbs 25:6-7. “Do not boast before the king or put
yourself among the great. It would be better to be invited, ‘Come up
here,’ than to be humiliated in the presence of the prince.”
(11) “For everyone who makes himself
great will be humbled, and everyone who humbles himself will be made
great.”
There is no chance for exaltation by others,
for a person who boasts himself. Whereas humble persons will receive
honor in secular and spiritual life. Jesus practiced in life what he
taught. Though Jesus could escape himself from the enemies any time, by
the end of his public ministry he humbled himself to let his enemies
crucify him with maximum disgrace, after which God the Father exalted
him from the grave on the third day. When God selected Mary as the
mother of the Savior, she volunteered to serve Elizabeth.
Pride and boasting of oneself are indignity
in the secular life and sin in the spiritual realm. For God, pride and
disregard for the less fortunate are sins. Jesus presented examples of
proud characters such as a rich man in the story of the Rich man and
Lazarus, the unreconciled elder son in the Prodigal Son’s story, and the
Pharisee in the story of the Pharisee and Publican who went to pray. The
Pharisees were proud people who considered themselves as separate and
dignified than most people low in material and spiritual resources. But
their pride and disregard for those lower than themselves would lead to
their humiliation in front of God.
(12) Jesus also addressed the man who
had invited him and said, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not
invite your friends, or your brothers, relatives and wealthy neighbors.
For surely they will also invite you in return and you will be repaid.”
Jesus turned his focus of discourse from the
guests to the host. The Pharisees and Publicans had offered lunch and
dinner for Jesus. All of them used to invite their friends, relatives,
or people of their economic and social status. We also do the same. When
we make a list of whom to invite for a banquet we host, we select people
who had invited us for the dinner they hosted. Jesus finds no spiritual
merit in such an invitation because it is self-rewarding.
Jesus taught the host that he should invite
for the banquet those who do not have food to eat or cannot return any
favor. Then the repayment would come from God. “One who is gracious to a
poor man lends to the LORD, And He will repay him for his good deed.”
(Proverbs 19:7).
(13) When you give a feast, invite
instead the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.
Jesus taught and acted differently from the
rabbis. In contrast to the widespread belief, Jesus considered “the
poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind” as dear to God. Though
Jesus did not offer any dinner for such people, because he could not
afford to do so, he did more than a banquet by healing them. So, besides
offering food, Jesus wants us to offer help for all those who are
physically, mentally, or economically weak. The best approach would be
to help them resolve their problems with a developmental or self-help
approach. Christian churches have been doing such missionary work
throughout the centuries.
(14) Blessed are you then, because they
cannot repay you; you will be repaid at the resurrection of the upright.
Jesus offered reward for all philanthropic
acts in the life after death. Jesus confirmed this when he taught on the
last judgement. “The King will say to those on his right: ‘Come, blessed
of my Father! Take possession of the kingdom prepared for you from the
beginning of the world. For I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty
and you gave me to drink…” (Matthew 25: 34-36).
MESSAGE
1. Honor and respect are not something that
we should demand or claim for ourselves. They will come now or later
when others realize that we deserve them. A Christian’s expectation of
reward for service is in heaven.
2. The society would often detest those who
seek honor and those who complain on the lack of recognition. If we work
for a reward in this world, the Lord will not give credit for that in
heaven.
3. Let us be humble and considerate to others
so God would compensate for our humility and charity in the world to
come. In the parable of non-considerate Rich man and humble Lazarus,
their fate was reversed in their life after death.
4. Our hospitality and service just for the
wage or recompense from people are not meritorious before God. So, let
us find means to transform our resources as an investment for afterlife
by supporting the less fortunate so we can be at the right hand of Jesus
at the last judgement.
5. Jesus said to his disciples who returned
after their ministry: “Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the evil
spirits submit to you; rejoice rather that your names are written in
heaven.” (Luke 10:20). More than the rejoicing at the success of our
labor and honor from others, let us assure that our names get in the
Book of Life by our acts of mercy.