Thomas J Parlette
“Assigned Seats”
Luke 14: 1, 7-14
8/31/25
As many of you know, our oldest son Grafton is getting married at the end of September. It’s a fairly small and simple wedding – but still, it’s a wedding, so there are things to plan and details to take care of.
One of the details is figuring out the guest list. Oh, sure, you can say “it’s going to be a small service, just family and a few friends.” But then you sit down to make a list, and suddenly the numbers add up fast. If you invite uncle Joe, then you have to invite all your cousins, and their spouses. And what about their children? Are you going to include them in the service, provide childcare, or perhaps a special kid’s menu.
If you invite one or two of your work friends, then you’ve got to invite them all. And then you’ve got to think about your boss and your most important clients. Maybe you should invite them too. And then there are your high school friends – how many of them make the cut.
All of a sudden the list grows from 30 or 40 people to 200 or more. Things get complicated very quickly when you’re making wedding plans.
Once you get the guest list sorted out, then you get to make the seating chart. For this task it would be very helpful if you had a degree in international diplomacy. You’ve got to consider who gets along with who, who are the introverts, unlikely to interact with their tablemates, and who are those people with the social skills to keep the guests their seated with entertained. Who needs to sit near the head table and who could sit a bit farther away. This process is best done with a large white board and maybe a couple dozen sets of magnetic game pieces so you can make all the necessary adjustments in your seating arrangements. And don’t forget to take a picture of your final chart.
Looking after your guests and putting together a good seating arrangement is a challenging task in the planning of any wedding.
Things were just as complicated in Jesus’ day. This morning Jesus gets invited to a Sabbath dinner at the home of a leader of the Pharisees. Out text tells us that the Pharisees were watching him closely. And they had good reason, Jesus had a rather checkered past when it came to the Sabbath – especially in regards to all the rules and laws you had to follow.
This is the fourth time Luke tells us about Jesus breaking the rules on the Sabbath. The first time Luke tells us about Jesus’ troubled relationship with the Sabbath regulations, he and his disciples are traveling together through a field of grain, and his disciples pluck some grain to have as a snack. Some Pharisees hear about this and mention that harvesting grain is a violation of the rule against working on the Sabbath. And Jesus responds, “The Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath.”
This response is interesting to the Pharisees. Whenever Pharisees enter the story, we tend to immediately cast them as the villians, dressed in black and twirling the ends of the moustaches as they await a chance to tie Jesus to the train tracks.
But the truth is, the Pharisees were both concerned and curious about Jesus’ teachings. After all, interpreting the laws of the Torah is what they had devoted their lives to. So they wanted to hear more from this itinerant preacher. Not that they always agreed with Jesus – but he made some good arguments, and they were curious. So they paid close attention.
Then, right after the plucking grain story, Luke tells us the story of how Jesus healed a man with a withered hand – again, on the Sabbath. This time, when the Pharisees pointed out the he was breaking the Sabbath law, Jesus countered by saying, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath – to save a life or destroy it.” I mean, what do you say to that. Nothing – and the Pharisees knew it. They had no answer to Jesus’ question.
Another Sabbath arrives and Jesus is in the synagogue, and a woman appears who is bent-over, unable to stand up straight. Again, Jesus heals her and the Pharisees object. And Jesus answers, “You take care of your oxen and your donkeys on the Sabbath – why shouldn’t you take care of this woman – a daughter of Abraham, on the Sabbath.” Again – no good answer from the Pharisees – tensions escalate.
Which brings us to today’s episode. It is the Sabbath once again, and a leader of the Pharisees invites Jesus to his home for the Sabbath meal.
For some reason, the lectionary omits the healing story that happens next, as Jesus heals a man had dropsy. Most biblical scholars think this referred to swelling in the feet or legs – like gout or edema of some sort. Jesus asked those lawyers and Pharisees present of it was lawful to sure people on the Sabbath or not. But, at this point, the Pharisees seem to have learned their lesson – they are silent. They say nothing.
So Jesus heals the man, and answers his own question, perhaps muttering under his breath a bit, “If one of you has a child or an ox that has fallen into well, you would pull it out immediately, wouldn’t you, even if it was the Sabbath.” Again, the Pharisees say nothing.
Then Jesus’ attention shifts back to the table. In Jesus’ day, meals like this were extremely important. They were social events that determined your place in the community. One of these dinners would be set up around a U-shaped table, with the host at the top of the U. The guests would then be seated by importance, reclining on cushions around the U. The closer you were to the host, the more important you were, or the richer you were.
So as Jesus watched the dinner guests jockeying for the best seats around the table, he offers some advice. “When you are invited to a wedding banquet, don’t sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited. You might be asked to get up and move down to a lower place. Instead, when you arrive, sit in the lower place, so that your host might say, “Friend, move up closer to me.” For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” A sense of humility – that’s what drives this whole passage.
Sometimes we think everything Jesus says is original to him. But most of the time, Jesus is drawing on scripture that is well-known to his audience – then he twists it just a bit to make his point. Such is the case here. What Jesus says here about seating arrangements at a dinner party, can actually be found in the Book of Proverbs.
Proverbs has many sayings prohibiting arrogance and recommending a sense of humility. The book also has lots of advice about table etiquette. But the proverb that most closely resembles what Jesus says here is found in Proverbs 25: 6-7: “Do not put yourself forward in the King’s presence or stand in the place of the great; for it is better to be told “Come up here”, than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.” Very close to what Jesus advises – and the Pharisees would have known exactly where he was quoting from.
A sense of humility, an attitude of selflessness – that’s what drives this story. Jesus continues this idea when he offers his second piece of advice – this time to his host. “When you invite people for a meal, don’t just invite those people who can repay you with an invitation to their house. Instead, invite those people who could never pay you back. For that you will be blessed, and you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Humility and selflessness – that’s what Jesus emphasizes at this Sabbath meal.
Humility can be a tough concept to come to grips with, especially in our modern world where we grow up being taught that we can do anything, that we are special and we can be whatever we want to be. That attitude, while wonderful in many ways, is tough to reconcile with some of traditional definitions of humility. Here are just a few samplings I found on a quick Google search:
Humility is “a modest or low view of one’s own importance.”
Or this – “Humility is characterized by a low self-regard and sense of unworthiness.”
Interesting, but those definitions are hard to live with in our modern context.
Here’s one I like a little better:
Humility is “the feeling or attitude that you have no special importance that makes you better than others.” The key to that definition of humility is that phrase at the end, “that makes you better than others.”
Or consider this definition, the one most likely to be found on an inspirational poster. “Being humble is thinking of yourself less, not less of yourself.” Short and sweet, and I think it captures what Jesus meant very well.
But the definition of humility I like the most was one I found on Easyllama.com. It’s a bit long, but I think it’s a nice explanation of humility:
“Humility is… the quality of having a modest and respectful view of one’s self. It involves recognizing and acknowledging one’s limitations, weaknesses and accomplishments, without arrogance or self-importance.”
“Humility encourages openness to learning from others, empathy towards others perspectives, and a willingness to admit mistakes and seek improvement. It is characterized by a balanced sense of self-worth and an ability to value and uplift others.”
That’s what I think Jesus is getting at here, that’s why he offers this reminder about what Proverbs says about humility in the presence of the King. The Pharisees were full of themselves when it came to the interpretation of the law, especially the laws around proper conduct on the Sabbath. They considered themselves the authorities, and Jesus wanted to remind them to have a sense of humility when it came to questions about God’s will. They still had more to learn.
Once upon a time there was a student who had studied all the great philosophies of the world. He thought he knew everything there was to know. But he had heard rumors of an especially wise man that lived alone in a temple on top of the tallest mountain in the land. So, this young man decided to visit this wise man and see what else he could learn.
The journey was long and difficult. When he finally reached the Temple, he pounded on the front door. A little old man opened the door.
“I have come to meet the wise man who lives here. I would like to see if he has anything to teach me.”
“Come in, come in,” said the old man. “You must be tired from your journey. Let me offer you some tea.”
So the old man brought out some tea cups and saucers and a teapot filled with freshly brewed tea. He handed a tea cup and saucer to the young man and began to pour.
When the cup was full, the old man kept pouring. The tea spilled over the cup and onto the saucer and onto the floor.
“Stop you fool” shouted the young man. “What’s wrong with you, you’re spilling tea everywhere. I came to see what the wise man who lives here could teach me, not to have a cup of tea with his servant.”
“I see,” said the old man. “I am the one you seek, but I can teach you nothing. Your problem is that your cup is already full. Come back with an empty cup, and I will teach you what I know.”
The Pharisees were full of themselves – their cups were full. They thought they already knew God’s will. Jesus talked to them about humility so that they could make a little room in their cups to hear about God’s will from the Son of Man himself.
As it says in my favorite definition of humility from EasyLlama.com – “Humility encourages openness to learning from others, empathy towards others perspectives, and a willingness to admit mistakes and seek improvement.”
That’s all Jesus is asking from the Pharisees – a little humility like that. That’s all Jesus asks of us as well. Just make a little more room in your cup to hear what Jesus has to say.
May God be praised. Amen.
