Luke 14:1, 7-14
It’s hard for us to identify with the men that Jesus is speaking to. In our society we honor people who seem to be humble, and we find those who strive for status kind of off-putting. When someone gets all upset because of being disrespected, we don’t think much of them. But this wasn’t the case in Jesus’ time. It was a society where your position in society was very important. There was a strongly reinforced pecking order. Not only was there a sharp distinction between those who were in and those who were out, but the ones who were in were very sensitive to where they stood on the ladder. Now a “leading” Pharisee was one whose teaching was respected, someone who had a lot of authority, someone who could give orders and expect them to be carried out. And probably the leading Pharisee was a person known for his scrupulous attention to carrying out the law. Now probably a carpenter like Saint Joseph wouldn’t have paid much attention to all this emphasis on being respected. Most people just did their work and hoped for the best. But here, the closer you sat to the head of the Pharisees, the more prestige you had.
Now picture the scene. The Leading Pharisee announces that dinner is served. The men in the room, and they are all men, women wouldn't be eating in the same room, are trying to find a place near the head table. And they are trying to do this while still looking dignified. Two dive for a spot, one gets rebuffed, his face turns red, he moves down the table. There is a lot of jostling. By the way, they are reclining, not sitting. No chairs. You might have two guys reclining and a third will attempt to insert himself between the two. So it’s a funny thing to watch. And I think Jesus was amused. Because his answer is not to be humble, his answer is to go to the bottom of the table and wait for the host to ask you to come up higher. Think of the prestige you would get -- the host calls you by name, invites you to come sit closer. The guests that have snagged the good spots have to make room for you.
Banquets like these were a form of entertainment. If you gave one, you expected to be invited to several banquets given by your guests down the line. So there was an ulterior motive, people didn’t do this out of the goodness of their hearts. And that’s sort of the same thing; if you got invited to supper it was a sign that you were high up on the social scale. After all, in the circles in which the lending Pharisee lived, it would be silly to invite someone who couldn't invite you; it would be a waste.
But Jesus’ suggestion, that when they give a lunch or supper they should invite the crippled, the lame and the blind is not a new thought; the prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah had predicted that when God finally brought about the kingdom to come, these would be the very people who would take first place in the heavenly banquet. That’s what Jesus is referring to when he says “you will be repaid in the resurrection of the righteous”.
So what is Jesus doing here? I don’t think he’s telling us to be humble. Humility is a good thing, but being humiliated is not. Humility after all is knowing ourselves as we really are. We are almost nothing before God, but at the same time we are loved by God as though we were the only person on earth. I can look at myself and see that in some ways I’m much more fortunate than many other people -- that’s just true, that’s not bragging; But at the same time, I know I won’t be around when California bans gasoline powered vehicles; I’ll be in my final resting place. And that’s not bragging, that’s just true. Humility is recognizing what is true and what isn’t and living accordingly.
But Jesus is talking about humiliation. And that’s totally different. Humiliation is a feeling I get when I believe something about myself and someone comes along and contradicts this with some action or word. I’ve been humiliated a lot, but one time I remember was when I was driving with my new bride on a Montana highway, and I saw a police car and an ambulance attending to the victim of a car wreck. I stopped the car and ran over, announcing that I was a doctor and I could help. The paramedic attending to the victim told me to keep away and the policeman told me to get back in my car and get out of there, I was not needed.
When you are humiliated, it’s a good thing. It means you need to ask whether your view of yourself is in keeping with reality. It’s a chance to grow. And I think in this gospel you can see that Jesus is telling us that the best course of action is not to play the game, not to worry about how we look to others, not to pay attention to our standing in society. Let others worry about that. Otherwise we get caught in the trap of being humbled when exalted, and exalted when humbled, and we never find peace.
