Luke 14:1-14
"Finding Our Place"
Several times in the Gospels Jesus used the image of a great banquet or a great feast to talk about what life with God may be now and what life is going to be like when we all get to heaven. This Sabbath I believe Jesus talks about finding our place at the great feast of life, which begins when we believe, and lasts forever.
What Jesus says is that finding our place at the great feast is like a person who is invited to a dinner. When it is time to come to the table that person does not rush to a presumptuous place near the host or hostess, but, perhaps, stands by a chair of little honor until the host or hostess invites the person to take a higher place.
It is not all that easy to find our place. Perhaps you have stories like this: A friend has a rival. Every year at the annual golf outing that person asks his rival what score he shot, because that person knows that his own score will be better. It is a great way to put down his rival. I think that person is having a hard time finding his place with his rival.
Or perhaps you know persons who have too small an opinion of themselves. It is sad when persons underestimate their abilities and say: “Oh, I could never do that!” and in so doing fail to share their God-given talents in some productive enterprise. Such a person is having a hard time finding his or her place.
So Jesus is talking to us about finding our place at the great feast of life. I believe that the first thing this image of being invited to a higher place at the table tells us is that we can afford to be totally honest about ourselves. A good many persons have not grasped that.
Once I heard a college story about a couple of girls who won the award on their dormitory floor for having the tidiest room. Whenever anyone went into their room, the room was always immaculate, spotless. When the end of the school year came, everyone was aghast to see all the dirt that was under the girls’ room rug. Whenever there had not been time to clean, as they should, the dirt was just swept under the rug. A lot of people try to live their lives that way, but we do not have to live that way
All those things about us that hardly anyone knows, if anyone – the thoughts we have which are too shameful to ever share with anyone, the deeds we do which would be too embarrassing for others to know, the weaknesses we have which we try to hide – we don’t have to hide those things and pretend that they are not real. We can acknowledge them before God, because he knows them anyway and accepts us fully despite them.
I believe that this is was Jesus’ death on the cross was about. When someone goes so far as to die for us in order to get a message across, how can we ignore it? We can live in utter honesty about ourselves and with God. We do not deserve to have a place of honor at Jesus/God’s table, but by his grace he gives us one.
Second, I believe that it is that security with God that frees us to be humble towards others. Most of the time when we develop a quarrel or argument it is because we do not feel secure. We are a bit like wounded puppies looking for attention, or like gored oxen that are angry. To make up for our wounded or gored feelings we have to put ourselves up and the other person down. Of course, they are not particularly attracted to that arrangement themselves.
However, if we can think of God’s acceptance of us as a reservoir to be tapped, then when we run up against a potentially threatening situation, we can say to ourselves, “I do not have to be threatened by this. I do not have to show this person I am better than he or she is, because the Lord of the universe accepts me. There is no higher place in life. If this person needs to work off some anger or hostility, I can let him, because I don’t have to prove anything about me.”
In the film of a few years ago “O God!” there was an evangelist depicted. His phoniness was overdone. He was all decked out in white to over-symbolize his moral purity. But the filmmaker caught a truth that Martin Luther enunciated 400 years ago. Luther’s point was that the last and most impregnable bastion of sin is human pride and morality. That is, the people who make the most of their own holiness and righteousness will be those whose fall is heard over the greatest territory. The middle letter of “SIN” is “I.” Jesus said: “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (verse 11).
There is another banquet or feast story in Luke 14:15-24 which follows this one. Yvonne will now sing while she plays her guitar God’s invitation and some invited guests’ responses with the song: “The Wedding Banquet.” [MCMLXV by Medical Mission Sisters, Philadelphia, PA, Vanguard Music Corporation] Luke 14:15-24 (Matthew 22:1-14) – You are invited to sing the Refrain.
REFRAIN: I cannot come. I cannot come to the banquet, don’t trouble me now. I have married a wife. I have bought me a cow. I have fields and commitments that cost a pretty sum. Pray, hold me excused, I cannot come.
1. A certain man held a feast on his fine estate in town. He laid a festive table and wore a wedding gown. He sent invitations to his neighbors far and wide, but when the meal was ready, each of them replied: {REFRAIN}
2. The master rose up in anger, called his servants by name, said: “Go into the town, fetch the blind and the lame, fetch the peasant and the pauper for this I have willed, my banquet must be crowded, and my table must be filled.” {REFRAIN}
3. When all the poor had assembled, there was still room to spare, so the master demanded: “Go search ev’rywhere, to the highways and the byways and force them to come in. My table must be filled before the banquet can begin. {REFRAIN}
4. Now God has written a lesson for the rest of mankind: If we’re slow in responding, He may leave us behind. He’s preparing a banquet for the great and glorious day. When the Lord and Master calls us, be certain not to say: {REFRAIN}
Amen.
