I’m pretty sure that Jesus had quite a good sense of humor. Not a loud, brash humor, but a subtle, gentle humor that you had to listen carefully to catch. And as we will see today, Jesus used humor to gently teach some important truths.
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day—the Pharisees and the Sadducees—put enormous weight on correct behavior. They spent much of their lives focusing on very minute rules and regulations. They had rules about who they could or could not eat with, how they washed, what they would or would not eat, and on and on. And they were very, very self-righteous.
So there is this wonderful story about the day Jesus went to the home of a prominent Pharisee for dinner. We’ve all seen very funny movies where someone goes to the home of a wealthy, important person for dinner, and the problems of knowing how to behave, which fork to use, and what to say, create a tension that guarantees mistakes.
When I read this passage, I was reminded of those situations, and I realized that Jesus was really quite funny. I don’t know whether or not his host, the prominent Pharisee, thought he was funny. Maybe not.
To understand how preposterous this situation is, you need to know that Jesus was not at all accepted by the religious leaders of the day. Most of them hated him. They found his behavior and his teachings absolutely impossible. It seemed to them that Jesus thumbed his nose at all of their most valued traditions. He made claims about himself being the Son of God that seemed heretical to them. And somehow I imagine he didn’t dress quite right, either. Yet he had power to heal, and his words had the ring of a higher truth, and the people loved him.
So I’m not sure just how he managed to be invited to this guy’s house for dinner, but he was. And you better believe they were keeping a close eye on him. As in our lesson last Sunday, it was again a Sabbath, and once again these religious leaders are watching to see what Jesus will do. And of course, Jesus knows exactly what they are thinking.
So come with me, back two thousand years, to the table where Jesus is the guest who is not quite welcome. The guests come in and seat themselves at a large, “U” shaped table, with the host at the center. Imagine these self-important people coming to the meal, probably looking askance at Jesus and wondering what he is even doing there. Listen for the stony, judgmental silences when Jesus heals a man. Not only is he at the dinner table, but it is the Sabbath, when doing any sort of work is strictly prohibited. Then, with everyone sitting there with their haughty, self-righteous, attitudes of condemnation, Jesus proceeds to give them—the teachers of the law; the ones who do everything right; the ones who, after all, are hosting the meal—Jesus gives them a lecture on etiquette!
I’m reading from Luke 14.
1One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. 2There in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy. 3Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?" 4But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away.
5Then 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?" 6And they had nothing to say.
Well, what could they say? Of course they know Jesus is right. Jesus is reminding them that compassion for the hurting takes precedence over rules—even over the rule of observing the Sabbath. Of course they would not leave their son or their ox to die in a well, even if they were to fall in on the Sabbath. So they are silent. They can’t disagree with Jesus’ argument.
Let me just say, that on this occasion these religious leaders are actually behaving much better than they usually do when they are around Jesus. Most of the time, they criticize him openly. At this dinner, there is dead silence. So Jesus decides to take this opportunity to speak to them about their manners. Jesus, this renegade preacher, is about to tell these self-important people what he thinks of their behavior.
It would be a little bit as if you or I were invited to dine with Emily Post—although I think she is no longer living—or Miss Manners, the expert on etiquette, and then we chose to give a lecture to everyone present, including Miss Manners, on the subject of manners. It’s just not something we would do, is it? Well, that did not stop Jesus.
7When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: 8"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. 9If 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. 10But 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. 11For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Jesus has observed the guests, and he sees that they are all jostling for the best seat at the table, and he has the audacity to tell them exactly what he thinks of their behavior. Instead of graciously assuming others are more important and should therefore be seated in a more highly honored spot, they seem to each try to seat themselves in the most honored spots. Jesus warns them that this presumptuous behavior of theirs is likely to turn around and embarrass them some day.
But Jesus is not done. As if it is not bad enough to lecture these guests on their manners, he now turns to the host. Can you even imagine what these guests are thinking? I think they must be absolutely astonished and maybe embarrassed, because they know that what Jesus has said is true. But I hope at least a few of them see the humor in what is happening. Here’s what Jesus says.
12Then 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. 13But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."
In essence, Jesus is telling the host, in front of all his invited guests, that he has invited the wrong people! These people he has invited, with the possible exception of Jesus, are just like him. And they will probably repay him with a dinner invitation. Well, of course, Jesus, that’s the way it’s done! Jesus says the host should not invite these cool people he likes, because they will honor him by reciprocating the invitation.
About this time, these people are asking themselves what planet Jesus is from. How is it that Jesus has supposedly grown up in this region, and yet he does not seem to grasp their social customs? Everyone knows that it’s a good thing to give a banquet and then be invited to other banquets in return. But Jesus says no, that’s something they should avoid.
And to avoid it, they should give a banquet and invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind—the ones who can never repay the favor. Jesus says if they do this, they will be blessed, and God will repay them at the resurrection of the righteous.
Well, those are Jesus’ teachings on etiquette. What do you think? Does any of this make sense to you?
Jesus’ first piece of advice is that when you are in a social situation, be careful not to assume you are the most important person around, and put yourself in the place of honor, because you might be embarrassed when someone more important than you comes along and bumps you out of your seat. Well, this seems like good advice.
Jesus says it’s much better to assume your own humility, because then you are less likely to be humiliated. Makes sense, doesn’t it?
Then, Jesus tells the host that he has invited all the wrong people to his dinner party. It’s the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, who can’t possibly do anything to repay the favor, who should be invited. Jesus has a different idea of hospitality, doesn’t he?
Why is that? It’s so subtle that one could easily read this passage and skip right over it, but that last line says it: “you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."
The resurrection of the righteous is what we would call the second coming of Jesus or the final judgment. It is the time, at the end of our lives, when we come before God. God will not care whether or not we were socially prominent, or whether we had lots of important dinner invitations.
But Jesus says that God will care how we have treated the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind—the people no one cares about. The problem is, most of the time we are more concerned about our reward here on earth than we are about our reward in heaven, and all too often, that includes the church.
I believe there is a very important message here for our church today. I believe that God wants us to welcome with open arms the people no one else wants. You know what I mean, don’t you?
Stop for a minute and think about something. We all know that we want our church to grow and to thrive. But take just a minute to visualize in your mind the perfect person you would like to see walk into this church and decide to stay. What do they look like? How much money do they have? How about their education? How do they act? How do they smell? What can they contribute?
Is it not true that we often measure people by what we think they can contribute? What they can do for us?
What I hear Jesus saying here is that this is all wrong. If we really want to be about God’s business; if we really want our church to be part of the
Jesus tells us this with his gentle, ironic humor. He says to us, as a church, don’t invite the well-heeled, important people, because they might come and help you make your church “successful!” They might write big checks and put them in the offering plate and you won’t have any more budget problems!
You see, Jesus has a different idea of the purpose of the church. Jesus wants the church to be a place that reaches out to the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. That’s because God cares about the people no one else seems to care about.
I’m not so sure God really cares whether we have ten or twenty people here on Sunday morning or three hundred. I think God cares about our hearts, and how we welcome the stranger, and the down-and-outer. Jesus wants us to invite and welcome the person who, in our estimation, can’t possibly do a thing to help us!
That, in Jesus’ eyes, is true hospitality. When we practice Jesus’ kind of true hospitality, God is glorified in our church. And make no mistake; this isn’t something we can fake. If we pretend to welcome people without actually caring about them, God is not fooled. God sees right into our hearts, and he knows how we really feel.
Jesus says to us as a church, just as he said to the Pharisees at that dinner table that if we do this, we “will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."
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