(Luke 14:1, 7-14)
Imagine if you were to throw a lavish banquet -- be it a wedding or other important happy occasions -- who would be included on your guest list? Most would start with immediate family members and relatives, those you cannot afford NOT to invite… even a few trouble makers and Uncle John the token drunk (for they’re family!). Then close friends and neighbors you like, other friends you may not like as much, but they have to be included, because they had invited you to their daughter’s wedding 3 years ago. As the circle widens, you will have to include your boss at work, co-workers, business associates, and a lot of people to whom you would like to stay in good favor. If it is a wedding, then there will be a whole group of strangers from the other side of the new in-laws. Perhaps a few other uninvited wedding crashers may even show up. But you definitely want no enemies; no one you don’t like should ever be invited!
You get the point, how do we go about deciding this guest list? It is defined by family ties, love and friendship, plus whoever we find “desirable” to be included in our company. It would not make any sense to include undesirable elements in such a close and private circle for an exclusive celebration. However, Jesus teaches something different today: he says that the ones we normally exclude should be invited instead!
Tannehill’s commentary on this section (Luke): A formal dinner was a way in which an elite family (the kind of family who could afford such a dinner) proclaimed and maintained its elite status. The guest list was important, for the invitation indicated that one was accepted as a member of the elite. Family members and important people of the community needed to be honored in this way, and they would be expected to reciprocate. Jesus' instructions in verses 12-14 conflict with this social function of dinners. It might be a source of honor for someone to give charity to the poor, but it is quite another thing to invite them to a social function in place of family and people of wealth, and eat with them. By doing this, the host is dishonoring family and rich neighbors, and in their place is honoring the poor; or, in the eyes of the elite, the host is dishonoring himself by identifying with the poor. Therefore, v. 11 may apply to what follows as well as to what precedes. Those who invite family and people of status are exalting themselves by proclaiming their place in this group. Those who invite the poor and crippled are humbling themselves. [p. 230]
Growing up in Hong Kong, we were taught to follow a simple life commandment: to repay kindness with kindness and respect others and their “face”. We know our place in the social spectrum of things. Our class consciousness was clearly defined by the time we reached the age of reason. Contrast: The Old World Elitism vs. the New World thinking of Equality affect the protocol on how to act! We were taught to look up to the powerful and the wealthy, higher class people, but look down on the poor and others below our social status. Of course, our social ambition is to obtain higher places of honour, to become a Lord Black the social elite, to become the highest ranking officer of the company, to be a “somebody”… Could there be an insatiable desire or an addiction of upward mobility to exalt ourselves?
On Downward Mobility – Henri Nouwen said:
The society in which we live suggests in countless ways that the way to go is up. Making it to the top, entering the limelight, breaking the record - that's what draws attention, gets us on the front page of the newspaper, and offers us the rewards of money and fame. The way of Jesus is radically different. It is the way not of upward mobility but of downward mobility. It is going to the bottom, staying behind the sets, and choosing the last place! Why is the way of Jesus worth choosing? Because it is the way to the Kingdom, the way Jesus took, and the way that brings everlasting life.
Jesus’ teaching is not so much about humility per se. He really talks more about self-seeking behavior, in the first place as guest, in the second case as host. For “humbling ourselves” can be a back-door way of "exalting ourselves" in anticipation of God's exalting us. That could become a different Christian game: Who can be the most humble? Can we out-humble one another in order to win this contest? It is still a game of one-up-man-ship, even though it is in reverse!
Ironically, modesty can be exaggerated and humility can be a form of pride and hypocrisy. Imagine if people who follow this teaching in a new strategy of self-exaltation, it would create a mad dash for the lowest seats at the back of the banquet hall with all the other competitors, all the while glancing toward the head table, waiting to be called up. I don’t believe this teaching has anything to do with the fact that most good Anglicans prefer to sit at the back of the church.
From time to time, we find ourselves involved in an endless cycle of returning favors, almost being taken hostage in some ways. We learn from the principle of self interest that it is unwise to offer ourselves or any favors to people who cannot repay or return the favor. We first ask, "What’s in it for me?" “Is it for our mutual benefit? Is it for our gain or loss?” When we go out as a group of friends fighting to buy dinners, we ask, “Is it my turn or your turn?” We exchange favors --“you owe me one!” or “I owe you one!” as in our political and business model. But Jesus offers us a different model -- one of Grace, Generosity and Hospitality!
Jesus asks, why invite those who can repay you? Just invite all the nobodies! But he also said it as a parable! To be invited to the banquet is to be called to the kingdom of God. There, God is always the host, and we extend God’s invitation to those who cannot repay. After all, who can repay God? Jesus calls us to live out this conviction about the Kingdom, by inviting to the table those who have neither property nor status in society. Notice that in inviting them to table fellowship, it is very different from sending food to these people who are helpless and needy. In the passage that follows, the parable of the banquet, the same group of disadvantaged people is guests at the great banquet, replacing those who fail to attend due to various excuses. Here, Jesus is reminding us that these people from the fringes of society are kingdom people, too.
To quote Henri Nouwen again:
The poor have a treasure to offer precisely because they cannot return our favors. By not paying us for what we have done for them, they call us to inner freedom, selflessness, generosity, and true care. Jesus says: “When you have a party, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; then you will be blessed, for they have no means to repay you and so you will be repaid when the upright rise again” The repayment Jesus speaks about is spiritual. It is the joy, peace, and love of God that we so much desire. This is what the poor give us, not only in the afterlife but already in the here and now.
We are also called to bring the needy to the divine banquet and table fellowship where divine encounter is possible. Who else should we invite to share in this banquet?
Who is on the guest list of The Kingdom Feast? Are there surprises? Basically Jesus’ parables again and again say: “Yes, you bet!” Who will respond yes to God’s gracious invitation and be gathered into the kingdom? If admittance is based on work or righteous behavior, then who could qualify? But the good news is that one’s worthiness or one’s unworthiness is not determined by human standard, thankfully, it is by God’s grace. For none can repay God adequately enough to earn our way into the kingdom feast. It is a communal feast of grace, where individuals are there because of God’s doing, not their own. The Holy Communion as we celebrate today is a sign and a foretaste of that gracious reality. We are invited to lift up our hearts and give thanks for that. May this Communion worship service be indeed a moment of grace to all of us!
Fr. Victor (Click back to www.stjd.ca )
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