Who Came to the Dinner?
“When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honour, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honoured in the presence of all the other guests. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Luke 14:8-11
This story comes immediately after another Sabbath day healing. This time the healing has happened in the home of a prominent Pharisee where Jesus has been invited to have a meal (Luke 14:1-4). The sick man seems to have come into the home without invitation knowing Jesus was there and would pray for him. Once healed, he immediately left.(Luke 14:4).
The Pharisees and other guests seem uncomfortable with this once sick but now well man before them. He doesn’t fit in their world. And that’s the problem.
The world of the Pharisees was a world of honour for the well to do. The Pharisees saw taking the prominent places as quite normal. They saw themselves as living a life that qualified them for prominence before God. Telling them to take the lowest places was against their culture and way of thinking.
Grace sees all people equally. Pride elevates our “worthiness,” blinds us to grace, and separates us from those we think under us.
No wonder Jesus immediately goes on “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbours … But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and … you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:12-14).
How easily do you associate with “the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame”?
How easily does your church associate with “the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame”?
Are we more like the Pharisees? Too often we are.
Don’t forget that in the following parable of the great banquet (Luke 14:16-21) none of those first invited actually came – ‘not one.’ The religious proud were entirely excluded. Who came? “… the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame” (Luke 14:21)
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