TGBC: Come to Supper
The Good Book Club
Friday, March 9 -> Luke 14:1-24
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. Just then, in front of him, there was a man who had dropsy. And Jesus asked the lawyers and Pharisees, ‘Is it lawful to cure people on the sabbath, or not?’ But they were silent. So Jesus took him and healed him, and sent him away. Then he said to them, ‘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?’ And they could not reply to this.
When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. ‘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; 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. 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. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’
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. But when you give a banquet, 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.’
One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, ‘Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, “Come; for everything is ready now.” But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, “I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my apologies.” Another said, “I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my apologies.” Another said, “I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.” So the slave returned and reported this to his master. 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, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.” Then the master said to the slave, “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.” ’
For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.” ’
FRIDAY FOR THOUGHT. Okay, maybe work through today’s reading paragraph by paragraph? First, Jesus again among his critics, the scribes and Pharisees. The Pharisee stories in our gospels always remind me that during my seminary days I spent a year part-time as one of a group of six (we were all ordained, I was an Episcopal deacon at the time, anticipating my ordination as priest) working in the Clinical Pastoral Education program as hospital chaplains at Hershey Medical Center. One of us was a Jewish rabbi, there were two Methodist ministers (one a woman who was married to a Jew), two Lutheran pastors, and myself.
One morning we were gathered together with our supervisor, and one of the Methodists, a nice but innocent, oblivious, naive and gullible young man, offered the day’s devotional, opening with a NT reading that included a terrible confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees. When the young Methodist began, insensitively, obliviously and ignorantly, to lambast the Pharisees and Jews, our rabbi lit into him, clarifying that Pharisees were remembered as among the most pious Jews ever, earnestly and impossibly trying to keep the Law of Moses in a sinful world, that they were not the evil creatures that misunderstanding Christians so castigated. The young Methodist (we were a close-knit team of six) was astonished that what he had always known to be true could be challenged as so wrong. Anyway, for reasons of mutual animosity between Christians and Jews in the generations after Jesus, our evangelists (gospel writers) seem to show an anti-semitic bias, which sadly over the centuries has led to terrible hatred and violence against Jews, including not only the church’s Inquisition and the German Holocaust, but historic and ongoing anti-semitism throughout Europe, and “Christian” prejudice in towns where we ourselves live, and among neighbors. In my own lifetime I have lived in that scene. So, I try to be wary with these stories. Beyond that though, this first scene above is another fine story in which Jesus tries to show those around him that to God, humans are more important than rules, and that our values are upside down from God’s values.
One morning we were gathered together with our supervisor, and one of the Methodists, a nice but innocent, oblivious, naive and gullible young man, offered the day’s devotional, opening with a NT reading that included a terrible confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees. When the young Methodist began, insensitively, obliviously and ignorantly, to lambast the Pharisees and Jews, our rabbi lit into him, clarifying that Pharisees were remembered as among the most pious Jews ever, earnestly and impossibly trying to keep the Law of Moses in a sinful world, that they were not the evil creatures that misunderstanding Christians so castigated. The young Methodist (we were a close-knit team of six) was astonished that what he had always known to be true could be challenged as so wrong. Anyway, for reasons of mutual animosity between Christians and Jews in the generations after Jesus, our evangelists (gospel writers) seem to show an anti-semitic bias, which sadly over the centuries has led to terrible hatred and violence against Jews, including not only the church’s Inquisition and the German Holocaust, but historic and ongoing anti-semitism throughout Europe, and “Christian” prejudice in towns where we ourselves live, and among neighbors. In my own lifetime I have lived in that scene. So, I try to be wary with these stories. Beyond that though, this first scene above is another fine story in which Jesus tries to show those around him that to God, humans are more important than rules, and that our values are upside down from God’s values.
The next paragraphs, about where to sit and whom to invite, are the common sense of lovingkindness that we so often totally miss.
Jesus’ parable of the guests who wouldn’t come to the wedding banquet (depending on who’s telling it, the host is either “someone” or a “king”) appears also in Matthew (somewhat allegorized), which many scholars would source it to reconstructible but hypothetical Sayings Gospel Q (c.a. 40-80 AD?), but it also appears in the Gospel of Thomas (50-140 AD?). A wonderful ancient story that, typically Jesus, turns social convention upside down while also, generations later for the Early Church, warns those who refuse the Christian invitation to salvation.
And, particularly in view of Luke’s line, “none of those who were invited will taste my dinner," I see some tentative follow-on relationship between this story and yesterday’s story of the folks who were told, “Go away. I never knew you” and are locked out.
While I think Jesus may mean this story, like so much of his teaching, to illuminate the vast abyss between our human values and the values of God, I also think the church has allegorized it as a weapon threatening those who refuse to come to Christ. What do you think?
While I think Jesus may mean this story, like so much of his teaching, to illuminate the vast abyss between our human values and the values of God, I also think the church has allegorized it as a weapon threatening those who refuse to come to Christ. What do you think?