Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? Luke 14:1, 7-14

"1 On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely...7 When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honour, he told them a parable. 8 ‘When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honour, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; 9 and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, “Give this person your place”, and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, “Friend, move up higher”; then you will be honoured in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. 11 For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’ 12 He said also to the one who had invited him, ‘When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’"

Introduction

This remarkable passage emphasizes two complementary but different points: the importance of humble self-assessment and the proper drawing up of a guest list when you are throwing a party. The literary link between the two points is the celebration of a special event. Though the first party or feast in vv. 7-11 is a marriage feast and the second one is just called a "party" or "banquet," the theme of food, celebration and the company invited pervades both. Jesus' significant point is in v. 13--that when you invite people to your party, make sure you focus on those who can't repay you. In giving this teaching, Jesus is simply repeating the radical point he made back in Luke 6--that we are to give "expecting nothing in return" (6:35). He repeats that amazingly "unrealistic" teaching by way of a story here so that we can see not only that Jesus is deadly serious about his ethic but indeed how radical it is. If we began to live as Jesus repeatedly said we should, our lives and society would change dramatically. Let's unpack the flow of the passage, then, as we hear Jesus in his most pointed teaching.

As usual, let's work through the language of the text carefully, trying to coax out the meaning and make the scene visible to us.

I. Here's Looking At You (vv. 1, 7)

The scene opens with two instances of people watching each other. In v. 1 it is "they" who were watching "him"--i.e., probably the Pharisees that were focusing on Jesus' conduct. In v. 7 it is Jesus who is watching them--as they are assembling and jockeying for position at a marriage banquet. In both instances we become aware how formal dinner parties are intensely competitive events. People vie for recognition and for a prominent place at dinner.

I once made a "faux pas" in such a situation. I was a young professor in my first job. A very significant "name" was coming to campus, and I finagled my way into introducing him to the community. Because I did this, the President of the college thought that I had close connections with this "name" person. Thus, I was invited to a highly-select reception of the biggest names in the city after the lecture. There were about 30 people at the President's house. I was the youngest person there; everyone else was kissing each other on the cheeks, and talking about Italian villas and round-the-world vacations. Indeed, it was at this high-rolling reception that I was offered a job, which I accepted for part of my sabbatical, writing editorials for the Oregonian.

My mistake? I was told by the coordinator of the reception that I was allowed to bring one person to the event with me. I asked my wife, but she said that she preferred to stay home with our young daughter, and so I was planning to go alone. At the last minute I decided to call a person I was trying to "get in good with" (a writer for the paper who was and up-and-coming man about town) and invite him along. When I mentioned this to the coordinator, she was immediately highly bothered. She said to me, "Bill, these are highly orchestrated affairs. If I invite 'X' (my guest), I have to invite 'Y' (who was "X's" boss) and I don't have room for 'Y," because I have to invited "A, B, and C" who are trustees of "D" corporation." In other words, I had entered into a most tangled mass of mutual obligation-- a mass of commitments that I really didn't understand or know about.

Thus, there is often a lot at stake at marriage parties and banquets in general. The unspoken rules of the event are really the "laws" of the evening. If you violate them, or try to ignore them, you will generally not be invited back or you will wreck the evening. But the preliminary action at such a banquet is fascinating. Everyone looks at everyone else. You try to "size up" the people who are around you; you begin the jockeying process--for position, for access to the food, for recognition. And, guess what? Everyone is watching. Everyone is in the same fish bowl swimming around, and everyone can see everyone else's moves. Thus, generally, people act rather conservatively, waiting for someone else to make the first move, but occasionally people are right "out there," as they make their presence known.

The Feast in Luke 14

In the feast mentioned in Luke, we have everyone watching each other. The Pharisees watch Jesus. Of course, they are gathering data on him, wanting to play "gotcha" with Jesus so that they have something to report back to "headquarters" as they attempt to get rid of Jesus. The Greek word used in 14:1 (parateroumenoi) is a rare one in the NT, but is used to stress how closely people are watching someone. Luke uses the word four of the six times it appears in the NT. One particular instance of its intense signification is in Acts 9:24. Saul had just converted to the Way of Jeus. People were plotting to kill him. "They were watching (paratereo) the gates day and night so that they might kill him." That is the kind of attention Jesus was receiving.

Well, turnabout is fair play. When people had gathered at the festival and now were about to take their places at the table, Jesus decided to watch how they jockeyed for power and position. In v. 7 a different verb is used, one that has multiple significations in Greek (epechein also means to "hold fast" or "to spend time with"), but the meaning in this passage is to "observe closely and intensely for insight." It is used this way in Acts 3:5 (another Lucan passage), where the paralyzed man was told by Peter and John to "look at us" (v. 4) and "He fixed his attention on them" (from the verb epechein). That is, he was looking at them with earnestness, trying to figure out what was going on with the Apostles.

Thus, we have two kinds of "looking" taking place at the marriage festival. The Pharisees are studying every move of Jesus to see if they can catch him in a social or legal faux-pas. Jesus is watching them very closely in order to make observations about human conduct. In both instances they are focused on the other. But what Jesus actually says is the fascinating thing--and that is what I turn to in the next essay.

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