Luke 14:1, 7-14
Today’s passage begins with Jesus invited to a dinner party in the home of a prominent religious leader. It was not uncommon for a new rabbi or teacher to be invited to dine with a group of established teachers and leaders. They wanted to hear for themselves what the new teacher had to say, what was the message that he was preaching. During the meal he would be invited to speak. It appears that this was a relatively large gathering since Luke says that the guests were maneuvering to get the best seats.
When Jesus speaks, he first addresses the guests, then the host. Jesus tells the guests, “When you’re invited to a wedding feast don’t take the best seats, lest you be asked to move lower. Take the lowest seat and you’ll be invited to move up.”
This could have sounded like good practical advice. Indeed, a verse of Proverbs says much the same thing. But Jesus is making a more profound point.
Notice that he says, “when you’re invited to a wedding banquet . . .” The meal here is a party of religious leaders, so why does Jesus refer to a wedding banquet? In Scripture the Kingdom of God is often pictured as a great banquet, especially as a wedding feast. “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” the angel tells John in the book of Revelations.
Jesus isn’t talking about social gatherings. He’s teaching about the way of life belonging to the kingdom of God. About how we live now as children of God’s kingdom. When Jesus says to take the lowest seat, he means a life of humble service. “All who exalt themselves will be humbled,” Jesus says, “but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Jesus is proclaiming the way of life that pleases God and brings true joy. The way of humbleness rather than self-promotion.
We all probably know someone like the ambitious guests seeking the best seats. Someone whose life is characterized by a self-centered drive for money or social status.
I want to note a recent very public example of this way of living. Generally, I’m not comfortable talking in my sermons about specific government leaders by name. But President Trump is such a perfect illustration of what Jesus is talking about that I’m going to make an exception.
President Trump has expressed a strong desire to win the Nobel Peace prize. It’s clear that he desires it because of the honor and status that it brings.
But the Peace Prize recipients who truly deserved this honor weren’t trying to win it. They didn’t care about that. They were committed to serving others at great risk and sacrifice of themselves.
We might think of Mother Theresa of Calcutta, Bishop Tutu of South Africa, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and more recently, Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani advocate for girls’ education. These folks weren’t seeking honor and prestige. They were seeking to serve God and their fellow human beings. They took the lowest place, the place of service, rather than pursuing their own social advancement.
As followers of Jesus we “take the lowest seat.” Like Jesus, we seek to serve, rather than to be served. We associate with the lowly, rather than social climbing to be with the great. We seek to honor and empower others more than ourselves.
We men may especially need to learn to put into practice Jesus’ teaching. Women are often conditioned to serve by the larger culture, sometimes in exploited ways. But Jesus’ teaching about humble service applies equally to men, perhaps especially to men.
An example of living this way of life is our pastor Kirk. He founded our church over 20 years ago. Because we’re a small church and can only support him part-time, Pastor Kirk during all these years has worked part time with the Fairfax school system.
He easily could have gotten a position with a larger church with more resources. But he put aside any such ambition because God was leading him serve us. And because of his love for us.
And then several years ago, Pastor Kirk led the development of a global network that has grown to almost 200 churches and mission groups throughout many countries. He serves as its principal leader. As Pastor Kirk has served us humbly and faithfully, God caused him to be honored and his life and ministry to bear much fruit.
The reason we are able to live this way, to take the road of lowly service, is because we know that God loves us. Our sense of self-worth isn’t based on money or social standing, or what the world regards as success. We feel a sense of self-worth and contentment because we know that we are precious to God as his beloved sons and daughters.
One point of clarification. It’s not wrong to hope for a promotion at work, for example. In order that we can better support our family financially and have more to give to those in need. Or so that we will have the opportunity to use more of the gifts and abilities God gives us. This desire isn’t wrong. It can be a good thing.
Indeed, as we seek to serve God and others, God may open new opportunities for advancement. God may bless us in that way. But our goal as Jesus-followers is not self-advancement but serving in love.
And whatever our circumstances in this life, we await the promise of God’s kingdom, where we will hear Jesus’ words, “Well done good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord.”
That was Jesus’ message to the guests at the dinner party. He also addresses the host. “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers and sisters or your relatives or rich neighbors, but invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.”
Meals in the ancient world weren’t simply social occasions. They were usually expressions of friendship, commitment, and solidarity. Who you ate with identified your social circle, your identity group. Jesus calls us to bring into our circle of fellowship and love those who are suffering, who have no social standing, who are without resources.
Why do we do this? Above all because we care. Because the Holy Spirit has placed love and compassion in our hearts.
And we do it because we understand that we are all part of one another, members of a common humanity. Rev. King once wrote, “All people are held together in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”
When I was in the 4th grade, our teacher showed a documentary film about hunger and poverty in other countries. There was a young boy, perhaps around my age at the time, emaciated, with a swollen belly and covered with flies, sitting in the dirt.
I thought to myself, what if I’m really that boy, and I’m only dreaming that I’m a boy here in America with a happy family and plenty to eat? What if I’m really him?
That was a scary thought. But it was perhaps my first inkling of the truth that we all make up a single humanity. We’re part of each other, bound intimately and inseparably together. When one suffers, all suffer; when one is joyful, all rejoice.
When we share our lives with those who are suffering, who are devalued in the world, who are without resources, we are living the kingdom of God way of life now. We are demonstrating to the world how God wants all people and all nations to live now in anticipation of the glorious Day when God’s kingdom comes in fullness.
Jesus isn’t asking something of us that he himself hasn’t done. When Jesus tells us to take the lowest place as servants, he’s telling us to do something that he himself did. That God does. When God came among us as Jesus he was a friend to people who were poor and suffering and rejected. He made himself the servant of all. And he took the lowest place possible, being crucified as a criminal on a Roman cross, bearing the sins of the world.
Our way of servanthood follows the example of Jesus and expresses his character and work. Indeed, as we let him, Jesus will live his life of love and compassion in and through us. Learning to serve isn’t easy and we all struggle with it, none of us is perfect. But if that’s our goal, God will help us grow.
We live the way of servanthood above all because God’s love fills our hearts. Because God loves us, and we love God. Let’s close by singing a hymn about loving God with all that we are and do. Its title is Take my life and let it be. We’ll sing it in English but post the translation in Spanish as well.
Take my life and let it be, consecrated, Lord, to thee. Take my moments and my days; let them flow in endless praise, let them flow in endless praise.
Take my hands and let them move, at the impulse of thy love.Take my feet and let them be, swift and beautiful for thee, swift and beautiful for thee.
Take my silver and my gold;not a mite would I withhold.Take my intellect and use, every power as thou shalt choose, every power as thou shalt choose.
Take my love; my Lord, I pour,at thy feet its treasure store. Take myself, and I will be, ever, only, all for thee,ever, only, all for thee.