I often have cause to complain, at my bible studies, when verses or whole passages are omitted from the readings, often for reasons I cannot comprehend.
Todays’ gospel is no exception.
We leap from the first verse of chapter 14 of Luke to the seventh verse, thereby leaving out a story which sheds light on the parables Jesus speaks to the Pharisees in our gospel passage. Without this story, you might well think, on a superficial reading, that Jesus is simply handing out tips on table etiquette to those who are with him at the meal.
The story which our editors have left out concerns a man with the unfortunate complaint of dropsy, who we are told, just happens to be present when Jesus turns up to the house of a leader of the Pharisees who has invited him for a meal. It is Jesus who has been invited, not the man with dropsy. Pharisees would never even consider inviting someone so inflicted to sit down at table with them. People with physical or mental impediments were considered by the Pharisees to be punished by God for some sin on their part, and so were not worthy of sitting down to eat with such paragons of faith and virtue as the Pharisees considered themselves to be.
So why is this poor man there? He has been brought along as an unwilling pawn by the Pharisees to try to set up Jesus for a fall. Everyone at the table is watching closely, we are told, to see what Jesus, the supposed Messiah, Savior, will do when confronted with someone who is afflicted. Jesus has been healing such people throughout his ministry. But this day is the Sabbath, and no-one is allowed by the Jewish Law to do any form of work on the Sabbath. And the Pharisees considered healing ministry to be a form of “work”. So, if Jesus does heal this man, he is breaking the Law and can be no friend of God, who gave the Jewish Law to Israel through Moses. However, if Jesus does not heal the man, what becomes of his reputation for loving the poor and needy? Jesus is damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t.
In fact, Jesus does go on to heal the man with dropsy, but first he challenges the Pharisees on their interpretation of the Law. Healing someone is a “good work” – doesn’t the Law command us to always be doing good works? Then he challenges them about their own hypocrisy with regards to this particular law of the Sabbath :”If one of you ,” he says to the Pharisees has a child or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out, even if it is a Sabbath day?” Of course, they would, but that “pulling out of a well” is a kind of “work” also, so they have broken the law themselves many times. But Jesus is also making an even more serious point to the Pharisees, who were the spiritual “shepherds” of the people and should have the same kind of love for the people, as God, the Great Shepherd, has for them. And yet these Pharisees would consider the man with dropsy, to be less worthy to be helped in his predicament than one of their animals. The Pharisees are shamed into silence; Jesus has once more sprung their trap, once again. When are they going to learn?
When Jesus goes on to speak to the Pharisees at table with him two parables, he is using the episode of the man with dropsy to shake them out of their self-righteousness. When he challenges them to invite the crippled and lame to their banquets, he is saying that they only invite people to meals with them, because they hope these invited guests will do them a political or social favor in the future. But the poor and illiterate and lame cannot give any such benefit to their host in this present life. But his act of generosity in inviting them to sit at table with him, will give him honor at the last day, and secure him a place at the wedding banquet of heaven.
The other parable Jesus gives in our gospel today is a lesson in humility. When he says that someone invited to a wedding banquet should seek, not the place of honour, but the lowest place, he is speaking about the wedding feast of heaven. Don’t imagine, Jesus says to the Pharisees, that you can simply march into heaven and demand the highest place, simply because you are a spiritual ruler amongst the people. Rather, recognize that you have no right to demand a place in heaven, nor can you earn it or merit it, or purchase it. You have to receive such a place as a pure gift from God, not as something you are entitled to, because of your position of power and wealth.
Humility, says our word from God today, is simply to recognize and accept two fundamental truths. One, that there is only one God, and two, that I am not He. No matter how powerful or wealthy or privileged I may be in this society on earth, nothing entitles me to assume that I can simply waltz into heaven and be given a place of honor. You may think that , simply because I am a priest, or Louis a deacon, that we have rights to first row seats in heaven.. At wedding receptions, we are accustomed to there being a head table, where the important people at the wedding can sit down, and no-one else can take their place. Although heaven is described in the gospels as a kind of wedding feast, places are not assigned by Jesus to those who command power and privilege and wealth on earth. Rather they are given to those who know that they have no right , no entitlement to heavenly glory, but are simply grateful that they have received an invitation to the wedding banquet of heaven, knowing that they have not deserved it.
Humility comes from the Latin word “humus” meaning “ground” or “earth” It is good to be “down to earth” and be “well-grounded”. A humble person is aware of his or her talents and abilities while recognizing those of others and being mindful that it is God who has distributed these talents and abilities, and therefore , I have no right to an inordinate pride and vanity in my own particular gifts. In our gospel today, after commenting on the guests vying for places of honor at the table, Jesus turned to his host with a word on making out a guest list based on generosity to those who could really use a good meal, rather than a list of “who’s who” in the local social circle. After all, that’s how God made up his guest list for the wedding banquet of heaven, with our names on it.