Luke 14:1-7-14
On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely.
7 When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; 9 and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. 11 For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
12 He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” -----------
As many of you know, under Kern’s leadership and the collaboration of several teachers and volunteers, we had a very successful VBS this past week. We had more kids than we expected and on the second day, Cassy complained to me about three of the kids that she thinks was not fun to be with. She thought they were rude and they had no manners. I asked her who they were, and then I found out they were unchurched kids. So I told her that you need to be patient because they didn’t grow up in a church and they have never learned the love of God and the teaching of Jesus Christ. So they didn’t know how to behave. They don’t have the right manners because they didn’t get the opportunity to learn the love of God that enables us to love others.
In this morning’s scripture lesson, Jesus was eating with a dinner party with group of people who didn’t have the table manners. They were obviously not his followers and have never learned the ethos of Christianity that is completely counterculture totally against the common wisdom. There was a distinct difference between the followers of Jesus Christ who have learned from him and those of the dominant culture of Jesus time. Even in today’s society, there is always a difference between kids that grow up in the church and those that are not. Clarence mentioned that he likes to be at the Christian camps and conferences because there he is with a special group of people that is better behaved full of love, peace, and joy than the rest of the world.
The scripture says, “On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely.” Jesus was pretty much like a homeless; at least he made friends with the homeless and outcasts, and hung out with them. But he was invited to eat with the leaders of the Pharisees because the Bible says, “they were watching him closely.” Jesus’ counterculture ethos has drawn the attention of the religions leaders, even though he often hung out with the low class people.
How is Jesus teaching counterculture? Even at the very beginning of his famous Sermon on the Mount, he taught that “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” That’s already counterculture because the culture says, “Blessed are the rich and famous.” Isn’t it the same in our dominant culture today? They had a hard time understanding the beatitudes those days, and many of us still have a hard time understanding them today.
So the religious leaders invited him to the social gatherings because they were watching him closely. But who is watching who closely? If you read the gospels, you would notice that whenever Jesus is at a dinner party, he always turn himself into the center of attention, as if he is the host. This time the Bible says, he noticed how the guest chose the places of honor. In other words, he noticed the manner of those of the dominant culture, in which people are trying to get to the place of honor to make people think that they are important. So Jesus uses the opportunity to teach time some manners, by telling them a parable. Let us learn from this teaching the two key elements of Christian ethos.
1 - Seek Heavenly Honors, but not Earthly
Jesus said, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet ... go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you.”
The Jewish culture has strict social rules about table fellowship. Like those in the ancient Chinese movies, the tables are usually arranged in a U shape. The table at the middle of the U shape is the head table. The seat next to the middle is the second most important seat. The seat that is the farthest from the middle of the U shape is the least important seat. It is disgraceful in that culture for someone sitting at a more important table to be asked to moved down. So Jesus taught them to choose the lowest seat, so you won’t be asked moved down but you might be likely to be asked to move up.
Jesus was teaching people to be humble. Humility is a virtue of many civilized cultures, but it is never easy to practice. It is harder in our culture because we are taught to exalt ourselves, to present ourselves well so that we will get a better job and positions. In a situation like upcoming election, the politician who can present himself or herself to be the most qualified wins. If one of the candidates says, “I am sorry I am not qualified to be a president or senator. He is better qualified.” Then he would never win the race. So in this kind of culture it seems hard to learn humility.
When I first came to America, I read a book written in Chinese for the Chinese on how to survive and thrive in America. One of the beginning chapters says that you must not act humbly, especially in front of government officers, or they would think you are not honest. In a culture where humility is associated with dishonesty, it seems hard to learn how to be humble.
However, there is a dark side of Eastern humility. Because humility is a very important virtue in the Chinese culture, some people tent to say no to the invitation to be exalted, but deep inside they want to be exalted. If you ask someone to be a chairperson or a president, they would say, “No, no, no, no, I don’t deserve it,” but in fact they want that position, but they just say it so to appear humble. That’s the other extreme of the Western culture and pretentious humility.
But, Jesus was actually teaching a spiritual lesson. It is not the outward humility that matters, but it is the inner or spiritual humility that is important.
In verse 11, Jesus hinted the message of heaven, “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” What he is saying is that you Pharisees and religious leaders who exalted yourselves here on earth will be humbled in heaven, and those tax collectors and the outcasts who humbled themselves on earth will be exalted in heaven.
Ultimately there will be a banquet in heaven where Jesus is the host. It will be interesting to see how people are seated. We will be surprised that some people that we think will be at the head of the table will end up at the lower part of the table and those we think would be at the lower end of the table might end up at the top.
There is a story about a minister who went to heaven and at the heaven’s gate he saw a parishioner of his church. As she enters, the angle awards her a huge mansion. The pastor looks at the mansion and was greatly impressed. He thought he would get a much bigger one because he is a pastor, and that lady is just someone who used to sit at the corner of the last pew and always seem to be asleep when he preached. But when he gets his award, it was just a small bungalow. He asked the angle why that lady who sleeps through the worship services get the huge mansion and he the pastor gets such a small house. The angel says, it is because she was praying for you when you preach and that’s why your sermons are powerful. Without her prayer, your sermon would make everybody fall asleep.
“For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
2 – Seek Heavenly Rewards, but not Earthly
After teaching people how to be guests, Jesus taught people how to be hosts. Most of the time, people throws parties for a purpose. Last month, I was invited by someone in town who threw a party for the Congressman Scott Garret. After the party I realized that he threw the party for Scott Garret for political gains. He invited me and Mel because he wants us to put the news in the ParamusPost.com.
We always do that. People would tell you to throw a party for get something in return for your own benefit. But, Jesus taught another counterculture ethos. He asks people to throw parties for those who cannot give you back. He said when you throw a party to the poor and the outcast who cannot give you back, God will give you back multiple times in heaven. On the judgment day, it seems that God will judge you based on who is at your party. He said, on the judgment day, Jesus would sit on the judge’s seat and say:
‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’
The culture teaches us to invite honorable people to our parties, but Jesus teaches us to invite the poor, the outcast, the strangers, those who are not our brother or sisters, meaning non-Christians so that they we have the opportunity to introduce Christ to them. Jesus said, if you throw a party to your own inner circle, you won’t get the heavenly reward because you already have an earthly gain.
So let us remember and practice these two important elements of Christian ethos:
1 – Seek Heavenly Honor, but not Worldly, so that we can be spiritually humble
2 – Seek Heavenly Reward, but not Wordly, so that we can care for the poor and needy rather than our own inner circle.
Why? Because that is what God does. Jesus came on earth to seek us the spiritually humble, poor and needy ones and invites us to the heavenly home paying the cost with his life on the cross, and restoring our hope with his resurrection. You are called to be Christ-like and do what Jesus would do.
