TLDR: We have been reading from Luke 14 in Church, which starts at a great banquet. On September 10th we will enter into Luke 15, which also takes place at a banquet. We will listen to the parables of the Lost (Sheep, Coin, Sons). Chapter 14 sets the stage for these incredible parables. Please read on for more.
Chapter 14 of Luke starts as Jesus is leaving a synagogue on his way to have a Sabbath supper with a leader of the Pharisees. This is not at all unusual. Luke gives us a number of stories of Jesus eating with Pharisees: 7:36; 11:37; 14:1, but controversies always follow these meals. At the end of verse 1, Luke tells us that, “they were watching him closely.” Although the passage doesn’t tell us who “they” were, we can safely assume that these people were Pharisees, which means the dinner to which Jesus was invited may be a trap. The Pharisees are watching to see if Jesus does something wrong, which in a way, he does. Once he arrives at the home, there is a man with severe edema whom Jesus heals on the Sabbath. There is a question commentators ask about this man. Was he a plant to see if Jesus would heal him on the Sabbath?
At some point, the man approached Jesus looking to be healed. Who is he? Why is he at the home of a Pharisee? Was he invited? Does Luke use this man in a polemical way to heighten the conflict between the Pharisees and Jesus? At the time of the healing, Jesus asks, “Is it lawful to cure people on the Sabbath or not?... If one of you has a child or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a Sabbath day?” These questions create the proper context for the speeches at the meal. Jesus notices how the guests chose the places of honor and decides to teach on what it means to be a guest.
He says, “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.” Dinner customs are important in an honor and shame-based culture. How you are addressed and treated by the host can honor or dishonor you and your family. To be asked to give your seat to someone considered more important than you causes the gossip and ridicule of the local community. This teaching was directed at the Pharisees who love to sit at the places of honor in the synagogues and at banquets (Luke 11:43). Jesus adds, “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” The Pharisees feel superior and more righteous than others, especially the sick and disenfranchised. They ought to be careful because they may not necessarily be the honored guests they think they are at God’s banquet.
To the host, Jesus says, “Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” In other words, no “quid pro quo.” This is one more example of the Ethics of the Kingdom. It is an upside-down morality, where treasure is built up in heaven, not on earth. Pay special attention to the categories of those invited to the banquet: Poor, crippled, lame, and blind. This is extremely counter-revolutionary that these would be the guests of honor because these people are considered punished by God. In the Pharisee’s mind, God blesses the righteous with good fortune and punishes the sinful with all sorts of illnesses, poverty, and lack of status. Yet, Jesus reverses that popular understanding. The outcast will be first in God’s kingdom. Be careful when you appeal to your higher status to gain advantage over others. God has the ability to lift up the lowly and cast down the mighty from their thrones (Luke 1:44-55).
Let me give you an example of who Jesus’ society thought was the perfect guest. In the “Letter of Aristeas” (3rd BC) there were over 100 verses that take place at a banquet. The king asks, “How ought one to conduct himself at banquets?” The reply was, "By inviting men of learning, with the ability to remind him of matters advantageous to the kingdom and to the lives of the subjects. Better harmony or music than these you would never find, because these men are beloved of God, having trained their minds for the noblest ends. This is your practice also, all your plans being directed aright by God." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_Aristeas). Great banquets were all about status. To be invited meant to be made part of the elite. A reciprocal understanding is implied. Jesus turns these expectations upside down. He redefines what it means to be a guest and who the truly righteous host is.
A guest said to him, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” Jesus tells him a parable, “Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner… they all alike began to make excuses… Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ And the slave said, ‘Sir… there is still room.’ Then the master said… ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’” The Pharisees and others have been invited to God’s banquet in his Son, but they have refused the invitation. They refuse to accept Jesus as the Messiah. He is not wearing the right clothes, he was not born in the right town, he is not a prophet or priest’s son, he has no standing or class. They are too righteous to accept the Son of God, and their arrogance causes them to lose their place at God’s table.
The host sends his workers “Into the roads”. This may be a play on words since the earliest name for the Jesus movement was “the way”. Those who are in the way (movement, church) versus those who are “out of the way” (into the roads. Perhaps, outside of the movement, outside of the church). The implication is that even those who are in the movement and fail to attend the great banquet as guests may lose the kingdom, which will be given to more receptive people, even if they are not in the movement. Of course, this also applies to Israel (perhaps primarily). God has instituted the banquet of Isaiah 25 and Messiah is here to act as Master and Host, but Israel is not willing to attend a banquet given by someone they believe to be an impostor. The meal is set, but they refuse to come, which will cause them to lose the kingdom (the Messianic promises from the prophets, which were to become a reality with the coming of Messiah).
Let us get back to the list “the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.” These people were forbidden from serving as priests and were not allowed to belong to the Qumran community,
And let no person smitten with any human impurity whatever enter the Assembly of God. And every person smitten with these impurities, unfit to occupy a place in the midst of the Congregation, and every (person) smitten in his flesh, paralyzed in his feet or hands, lame or blind or deaf, or dumb or smitten in his flesh with a blemish visible to the eye, or any aged person that totters and is unable to stand firm in the midst of the Congregation: let these persons not enter." [1QSa 2:3-8, quoted by Culpepper (Luke, New Interpreters Bible, p. 287)]
On September 10th, we will enter into Luke’s Chapter 15. The banquet interactions and parables of Luke 14 are important because they set the stage for this brilliant chapter, which also takes place within a banquet. The case which Jesus presents as hypothetical (parabolic) in this passage becomes enacted in human form in the next chapter. Jesus himself will give a banquet and all the outcast of Chapter 14, and other sinners like tax collectors and shepherds, will be invited to his banquet. The Pharisees will criticize Jesus for eating with sinners and Jesus will preach his three parables of the lost: The lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost sons. God has sent his Son into the world to rescue the lost. The Pharisees are clueless about their own lostness and don’t see themselves as needing to be rescued. This arrogance and pride will prove extremely dangerous at banquet time.
May our Lord continue to bless you,
Fr. Roman+
