GOOD NEWS!
Luke 14:1-14, from the Bible
One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. There in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy [his limbs are swollen with excess body fluids]. Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?" But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away.
Then he asked them, "If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?" And they had nothing to say.
When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: "When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, 'Give this man your seat.' Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, 'Friend, move up to a better place.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Then Jesus said to his host, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."
Luke 14:1-14
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Let's face it, how many of us have made it our life's work to encourage equality and fight discrimination in such a way that people quite unlike ourselves become included as our equals within society? When there is nothing in it for us: no recognition, no accolades, and no place of honour at the table?
On a personal level, how often have we invited someone outside our social circle that is marginalized by society to feast with us, making that person our guest of honour? We are not talking about sharing a pew at church together, or rubbing shoulders at a public dinner, or depositing money into the "poor box" for someone else do the charitable works. We are talking about inviting the person home for a meal with us, making that person welcome as one of our circle of family and friends, treating him/her as an equal.
Jesus did. He challenged inequality within his society on a personal level and lived his program in publicly for all to see. And he was quite vocal about it.
On the surface, Jesus can be interpreted as telling the host not to expect repayment for a meal invitation. But it is more than that. Jesus is actually advocating a radical program of egalitarian commensality when Jesus tells the host to invite "the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind" - those his society has shunned and marginalized - the nobodies, the lowest of the low, and the powerless. Jesus advocates a program where all are equal in the meal shared. He advocates a society with no class distinctions. In ancient Mediterranean culture, the people you partake food with determine your honour and social standing within society [table fellowship]. So to eat with someone of a lower class or an outcast is absurd, if not a very dangerous idea. Some who value their social status and are comfortable in their place in society [social order], and who seek places of honour people found Jesus' program quite threatening. It challenged the class system then as it does today. Even today, Jesus' program challenges the notion of that tight circle of insiders who are "your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbours" who can repay you with favours, invitations, jobs and promotions.
It is unlikely Jesus could afford to throw lavish banquets himself, but Jesus used his ability to heal and healed people who could not repay him. Jesus' invitation was for "the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind" to share in the Kingdom of God, a feast of equals, of open commensality, where there is no distinctions at the table. Jesus broke down barriers by lifting up those shunned by his society and openly embracing them as a true equal. This is the ultimate loving of our neighbour as ourselves.