Trinity 17
Lk
14:1-11
10/9/22
Meals were
viewed very differently in the ancient world than they are today. First, the very act of choosing to eat
with someone – to share in a meal with them - was an act of social
significance. IT indicated you accepted
that person. You considered them worthy
to be in your presence and that you were willing to interact with them.
Yet the fact
people shared in a meal together did not in any way mean that everyone there
was considered equal. The ancient world
had a highly developed sense of social honor and ranking. And this fact was demonstrated in the way
that people were seated. Those sitting
closest to the host were accorded the most honor – they mattered the most. The farther away from the host you were
seated, the less important you were.
Certainly, no one wanted to be seated in the last place at the table!
And while it
sounds almost comical to us, this led to a competition to see who could get a
higher place in the seating. This fact was widely recognized by all. You hear it in our Old Testament reading from
Proverbs where the advice is given: “Do not
put yourself forward in the king's presence or stand in the place of the great,
for it is better to be told, ‘Come up here,’ than to be put lower in the
presence of a noble.”
Everybody
understood that this is how things worked. The early second century Platonic
philosopher Plutarch criticized the practice as he wrote: “When we have taken
our places … we ought not to try to discover who has been placed above us, but
rather how we may be thoroughly agreeable to those placed with us … For, in
every case, a man that objects to his place at the table is objecting to his
neighbor rather than to his host, and he makes himself hateful to both.” I bet
you weren’t expecting to hear from Plutarch in the sermon this morning – but
there you go. That’s exactly how things worked.
Now
in the Gospels – and it is especially emphasized in Luke’s Gospel – we find a
very odd dynamic at work. On the one
hand the Pharisees were the enemies of Jesus. They were completely opposed to
him. And on the other hand, again and
again they were hosting Jesus at their meals. So, our text this morning begins
with the words: “One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the
house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully.”
Here a
leader of the Pharisees is hosting Jesus at a meal. Why would he and the Pharisees do this? There were surely two reasons. First, Jesus was a religious celebrity. Here was an individual who worked miracles
and whose teaching captivated thousands.
Having Jesus eat at your table made you look good.
And second,
this was clearly an example of “keep your friends close, and your enemies
closer.” As we hear, they were watching Jesus carefully. These meals were an opportunity to hear Jesus
say something that could be used against him.
However, we
learn in our text that Jesus was also watching the Pharisees. He noticed how they were seeking the places
of honor – how they were acting in the way that people normally did at meal
settings such as this. And so we learn that Jesus told a parable to those who
had been invited and were engaged in this behavior. Now when we hear the word
“parable,” we expect to hear a story.
However, the term had a much broader meaning than that in first century
Judaism, and so what Jesus gives is a piece of advice that is illustrated by a
description of what happens.
Jesus said, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do
not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be
invited by him, and he
who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’
and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.” The opposite of honor was shame. The ancient
world operated on the basis of these categories. A person sought honor in the sight of
others, and avoided shame in every way possible.
Our
Lord warned against seeking the place of honor, because doing so could result in
shame. Instead, he gave the instruction,
“But when you are invited, go and sit in 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 table with you.” Note that Jesus doesn’t say, “Take a lower
place.” His advice is not that a person
try to gauge his honor, and choose a lower spot in the hopes that then he will
be invited to move up. Instead, he says
“sit in the lowest place,” or more literally, “sit in the last place.”
Then Jesus added, “For everyone
who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” It is in this statement that we begin to
recognize that Jesus is not really talking about meal etiquette. Instead, he is speaking about how life is
lived in the kingdom of God. He is talking about how life that has received
God’s saving reign acts.
Jesus says this
because he brought God’s saving reign by humbling himself. St. Paul put it this way when he told the Philippians,
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ
Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with
God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form
of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in
human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of
death, even death on a cross.”
The Son of God entered
into this world in the incarnation as the Word became flesh. But this was not
the humbling, for God himself had declared humanity to be very good in the
beginning. Instead, the humbling was
that Jesus Christ did not use his powers to serve himself. The humbling was the fact that he took on the
role of a servant, the suffering Servant whom Isaiah had prophesied. He humbled himself to the point of death –
even the shameful death of death on the cross.
Paul says that our
Lord Jesus was obedient to the point of death.
The Son of God was obedient to the Father’s will. Isaiah said about the Servant, “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed
for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us
peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone
astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way; and the LORD has laid
on him the iniquity of us all.” By humbling himself to the point of the
shameful death on the cross, Christ has freed us from sin and made us holy
before God.
The Son of God
humbled himself. But in our text today he also says, “and he who humbles
himself will be exalted.” The apostle
Paul went on to tell the Philippians, “Therefore God has highly exalted him and
bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the
earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father.”
The Father exalted
Jesus when he raised him from the dead on the third day. The humiliation of the cross was not the
final word. The sealed tomb was not the final word. Instead, God’s saving word sounded forth as
the risen Lord appeared in the locked room on the evening of Easter and
said, “Peace
to you!”
Nor was the resurrection the end of God’s
exalting work. Forty days after he rose
from the dead, Jesus ascended into heaven.
Fifty days later, after the Holy Spirit had come upon the disciples at
Pentecost, Peter told the crowd, “This
Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted
at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the
promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are
seeing and hearing.”
Jesus humbled
himself, and then was exalted as he defeated death. Because he has done this, we can now face our
sin and confess it in humble repentance.
We can do so knowing that we will be exalted in forgiveness. As Jesus said about the repentant tax
collector in comparison to the self-righteous Pharisee: “I
tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles
himself will be exalted.”
The first century Greco-Roman world
considered humility to be vice, rather than a virtue. Perhaps it would be going too far to say that
our world feels the same way. But you wouldn’t be off by much. Our world glorifies those who exalt
themselves in sports, entertainment, and so many other areas of life. Humility
is not something that our world holds up as a characteristic that should be
fostered and emulated.
However, as we see in Christ, God’s way is
different. Mary said about God, “He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered
the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from
their thrones and exalted those of humble estate.” In our text Jesus says, “For everyone
who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
This is what Jesus Christ did for us in
order to give us forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life. The risen and exalted Lord has given us the
Holy Spirit who has called us to faith. Through baptism we have become a new
creation in Christ. Born again of water and the Spirit, the new man now seeks
to follow in the way of our Lord.
We humble ourselves in service toward
others, just as Christ humbled himself to serve and save us. We put the needs
of our spouse, children, parents, and friends ahead of our own. We serve and help others in the different
vocations where God has placed us. In
doing so, we become the means by which God acts to care for those whom he has
placed in our life.
Led and enabled by the Spirit, we do this
because we believe in Jesus Christ. We
humble ourselves, confident that in Christ the way of humility leads to
exaltation. He humbled himself to the
point of death – even death on a cross – in order to save us. But on the third
day God raised him from the dead, and then the Father exalted Christ in his
ascension. Because of this, we know that
the way of faith – the way of humble service in Christ - leads to resurrection
life with our Lord. As Christ says today, “For everyone who exalts himself
will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
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