August 28, 2022
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois
Proverbs 25:6-7; Luke 14:1, 7-14[1]
We all like to
be valued, to be important to someone. We want to have a good reputation, and
we go to great lengths to maintain our image. And how do we measure that image?
We compare ourselves to others, of course. We receive our sense of worth from
other human beings. We do and say things that we hope will cause others to
think well of us. We follow the rules of the group we find ourselves in, the
unspoken rules of how we show that we are part of the gang. We imitate the
people we aspire to be, those who are more successful, more beautiful, more
rich or strong or powerful that we are.
In our core we
all have a deep need to be recognized, to be liked by others, and how we act is
motivated by that need to obtain recognition. We need someone to tell us: I
noticed you, and I like what you are doing. Nice job. Good sermon, pastor.
That’s my girl! What up, homie? If the group likes something, or someone, we do
too. If they make jokes, we laugh.
The issue which
Jesus raises with his listeners is, who do we want to recognize us, to notice
and appreciate us, to tell us “I like you”? I can depend on my peers, in which
case my reputation, my efforts to fit in will be a reflection of them. I will
do everything I can to remain well-thought-of by them, welcoming those whom
they welcome and excluding those whom they exclude, so as not to run the risk
of becoming excluded myself. This is the game we play to keep our social life
going, but what we don’t realize is how much of our identity depends on this
difficult game of keeping our reputation. Who I am is deeply dependent on those
I associate with: my social circles, my friends, the others who maintain my
reputation. Who I am is controlled by how others see me, and that can be
dangerous.
Jesus visits
the home of a leader of the Pharisees. The Pharisees were important, they had a
good reputation. A sabbath meal must be conducted with proper decorum, respect,
and appropriate seating arrangements. Jesus observes how the places of honor,
the seats closest to the host, are taken by those with the best reputation.
There is a bit of arrogance at play here as the guests choose their places.
The reputation
of Jesus was not so good. He was known for breaking the rules. He dismissed the
rules of purity and cleanliness that were part of keeping a good reputation. He
did work on the sabbath, as we heard in the reading last week, and had been
seen touching sick and unclean people. He and his disciples had a reputation
for eating with dirty hands. And perhaps the quickest way to offend the proper
order of things was to eat with unclean people, with known sinners, and tax
collectors! The Pharisees, guarding their reputations, were watching him.
Jesus watches
them back, as the guests chose the places of honor. He sees a teachable moment,
an opportunity to give some advice on honor and humility:
When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet,
do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than
you has been invited by your host; 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. 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 honored in the presence of all who sit at the
table with you.[2]
Wise advice,
they might have thought. This Jesus isn’t so bad. He knows how embarrassing it
can be to be put in your place. Better to have someone else show respect to you
and invite you to sit in the place of honor. Then people will see how humble
and exalted you are! This Jesus can play by the rules.
Of course,
Jesus doesn’t stop there. “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and
those who humble themselves will be exalted.”[3]
Wise advice that shows he sees right through the game they are playing. It is
the game we all play, the game of reputation management, the game of trying to
look good before others, often at someone else’s expense. Jesus didn’t come to
play the game, however. Jesus came to change the game, and here comes the
lesson.
When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite
your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they
may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet,
invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be
blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the
resurrection of the righteous.[4]
Not only are
you playing the game wrong, looking for places of honor at the banquet, but
you’re playing the wrong game. It’s not about who is the most important, the
most respected, who has the best reputation. It’s about who gets to eat in the
first place.
This is the
Jesus we know, the one who doesn’t care about the reputation others give him.
The Pharisees must have been horrified. Those unclean, impure, sick and weak
and ugly people – who could eat with them? That would destroy my reputation! I
can’t be seen with those people.
Jesus exposes
the game for what it is. The game of looking good, of building a reputation,
this is a human power game. In games of power and prestige, some people rise
and some don’t. Some people are part of the in-group and some are left out.
Jesus shows us that when we celebrate only the well-though-of some people are
left out, and those people matter too.
There is
another way to define who I am. I can receive my reputation, my identity, from
God. I don’t come from the best family. I don’t have the most money, the finest
clothes, or the most impressive group of friends. But I am part of God’s
family, I am created in God’s image, and I am more than who other people think
I am.
If I build my
reputation on my relationship with God, then I am much less concerned with the
reputation which people give me, and I become free to associate with those who
have no reputation. I am free to share a table with people who are hungry, who
are homeless, who are trying to not give in to that urge to have just one more
drink, one more fix. My reputation with God won’t suffer from loving the tax
collectors and sinners, the prisoners, the sick, or the outcast.
Jesus had a bad
reputation when he came to that meal with the Pharisee. Born in a stable,
perceived as a troublemaker, as an outlaw, a friend of tax-collectors and
sinners, Jesus was known to do and say things that were troubling, upsetting,
even treasonous. He would be executed as a criminal hung on the cross. But his
resurrection is the testimony that only our reputation with God really matters.
God loves even those with a bad reputation, forgives all who repent, and claims
each of us as God’s own. God graciously forgives us and adopts us as children
in the one Holy family, a family which seeks to embrace all of God’s creatures.
We are offered
a reputation based on our relationship with Christ, who was raised from his
place with the lowest of the low on the cross, raised from the dead, and
exalted as the Son of God. We have a seat at the table with the least of our
brothers and sisters, the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind; as well
as the wealthy, the strong, the powerful, and the famous. When we seek our
place with humility, we will be invited to move up higher.
[1] The
scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard
Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of
the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] Luke
14:8-10.
[3] Luke
14:11.
[4] Luke
14:12-14.
