Parable: The Seat of Honor

Read Luke 14:1-14

This pericope may seem more like a direct teaching than a parable but it is generally numbered among the parables.  For us, we can take what Jesus said to the Pharisees and make application to our lives.

Again, this message is very straight forward.  We do not need much metaphor and surely no allegory.

If your goal is to promote yourself, you may do it for a while but in the long run; you will be humbled.  You might just have to give up your coveted seat for someone else.  That’s a little embarrassing.

If you follow Jesus and humbly accept whatever calling he has for you, he will exalt you.  He will say, come on up here and sit with me.  That’s a good feeling.

You want greatness in God’s Kingdom, then you need to seek servanthood in this age.  If you want the best seats and the most attention now, don’t expect that in the age to come.

This last will be first and the first will be last concept is not really about seating arrangements.  It is about the condition of our heart.

Do we trust that serving God now, today, in this age is exactly what we are supposed to do?  Do we trust that being humble now is what we are called to do?

Do we really want to die to our selfish desires and seek God’s Kingdom and his righteousness first?

Or do we tend to be like the Pharisees?  We like the best seats and don’t really consider others.  It is all too natural.

This parable is not talking about getting seats for the Thunder Game or the Kari Jobe concert.  It’s about wanting to be the most favored and seeking this to the exclusion of others.

It is the way of the world.  Everyone is working to be number 1.  We have to beat out our competition. 

Look at the cell phone industry.  It’s not a matter of years between new versions.  It is a matter of months—18 months used to be the norm—now that seems like a long time.

We crave more, bigger, better, shinier, faster, prettier, and of course, newer, devices at every turn.  We never seem to be satisfied when our human nature rules.  We want to have the best of everything as if the world was designed to satisfy our every craving.

But Jesus is talking about a life lived with humility.  Putting others first is a way of life when we follow Jesus.

Consider that Jesus put aside his heavenly domain for a time to live in this world as a human.  He didn’t ride in on a horse.  He was born just like the rest of us.  Actually, most of us were born in a hospital with doctors and nurses attending and the smell of alcohol assuring us everything was sanitary.

Jesus entered this world in what we might call a very humble estate.  Jesus is not preaching to the Pharisees from some pedestal.  He, more than anyone, knew what it was to set aside his status to live the human condition.

At the end of the parable that we call the seat of honor, comes some very direct instruction.  Don’t give banquets for your contemporaries.  Give them for those who can never repay you.

Elsewhere Jesus counseled that even the pagans know how to love those who love them back.  We are counseled to love those who can’t love us back.  They can’t pay us back.

We love those people who can never pay us back.  We have no expectation of being paid back.

But God will bless us for living with the attitude of mercy and generosity and kindness towards those that we might call the least of these our brothers and sisters.

Does this mean that we never host meals with our friends who might return the favor?  No, but we are guarded against becoming exclusive.  We are people of fellowship—koinonia—inclusion; thus, we must guard against becoming an exclusive, country club sort of group or elitist in our associations.

Does this mean that if we are named the Teacher of the Year or the Employee of the Month that we run and hide?  No, we accept the honor, say thank you, and go back to keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.

We take the momentary recognition and do so thankfully and gracefully knowing that such recognition is transient, but that humility is our governing state while in this world in an age that is also temporary.

But the heart of the message that our Lord gives us is mercy coupled with generosity.  We need to help and love and be generous with the people who can never repay us. 

We need to understand that we are talking about people who may never improve their life situations.  They may always be short on money.  Their health may not improve.  Socially, they may be rough around edges for the rest of their lives.

This parable was delivered while Jesus was dining with the Pharisees and their elite friends.  We must remember that Jesus also dined with those who were very rough around the edges.

We like to meet people where they are, but we never like to leave them there.  We want to lead them to the abundance that we know in Christ Jesus, but some people are just not going to follow.

How do we not become frustrated when people remain in their poverty and apathy and ambivalence?

We love them anyway.  We take stock of just how blessed we are and continue to live a life of mercy and generosity.

Some who we reach out to may follow our Master, but will do so without attending finishing school first.  They may be following Jesus but still rough around the edges.

What do we do?  We love them anyway. 

We recognize how blessed we are to have eyes to see and ears to hear what our Lord has taught us, and we are generous and merciful and kind and longsuffering with those who may never better themselves.  We celebrate that they have come to know life and don’t worry about the fact that they may not be the picture perfect Christian as we would paint that picture.

They may never change.  We pray that they do.  There is a wonderful life for them following Jesus and being God’s love in this world, but not everyone responds.

We love them anyway.

We don’t take care of their every need so as to subsidize their contentment in their current state, but we still are merciful and generous because of who we are.

We hold a banquet for the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.  It doesn’t look like a banquet from 2000 years ago.  The poor are still among us but these categories are not given to the exclusion of others.

Sometimes that banquet is a sack lunch for kids on Tuesdays.  Sometimes it a box of food from the pantry.  Sometimes it’s help with the water bill.  

Sometimes it’s a voucher to get some milk and eggs from Rudy’s.  

Sometimes that banquet looks a whole lot like Pop Tarts and Peanut Butter.

There have been a lot of Peanut Butter Banquets these last few weeks.

It’s not the appetizer or the salad or the main course or the place settings that makes it a banquet.  It is the fact that we do these things for people who in most cases won’t be able to pay us back.

We do these things without the expectation of being repaid. 

Jesus said, let your light shine before people so they can see your good deeds and that this merciful and generous way of living will bring glory to our Father in heaven.  We do the things that we do because we know they please our heavenly Father.

We are not looking for fame and our own glory.  We thrive on the glory of our heavenly Father.  We hunger for the command of our Master, Christ Jesus, that we love one another.

We love because God is love and we belong to him.

How do we know that we love God?  By loving those who can’t pay us back and not considering that anyone owes us a debt.  We give graciously and do not let our hearts or minds register a debt.

We don’t record the debt!

We don’t expect anything in return, but we get a fantastic return from our Father in heaven.

Everything that you have given without expectation of receiving something in return has been stored up for you as treasure in heaven.  We don’t think about this treasure while we practice mercy and generosity, but we have a treasure awaiting us.

One day, in the twinkling of an eye, we will find that our humility has placed us before our Master and he is saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

He will say, “Come, sit with me up here.”

He will say, “Come and share my happiness.”

For now, we continue to live in humility—still bold in our proclamations of Christ’s victory—but humble in how we live.

For now, we continue to live loving one another.

For now, we continue in our merciful and generous ways helping those who can never repay us and not recording the debt.

For now, we seek the seat at the table with the least status trusting that one day, our Master will invite us to come dine next to him.

Let’s set a banquet for those who can never return the favor.

Amen.