Lk 14:1, 7-14
1On a sabbath [Jesus] went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, and the people there were observing him carefully. 7He told a parable to those who had been invited, noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table. 8“When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor. A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him, 9and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then you would proceed with embarrassment to take the lowest place.
10Rather, when you are invited, go and take the lowest place so that when the host comes to you he may say, ‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’ Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table. 11For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” 12Then he said to the host who invited him, “When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. 13Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; 14blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Assuring a Place of Honor in the Heavenly Banquet: In the mediterranean world—the world of Jesus—the wedding is not just the concern of the bride and the groom: it is even more a matter of family and clan who often arrange the marriage for the mutual benefit of both parties. In the banquet—be it that of the wedding or of another special event—people adhere to a strict sense of social gradation. Those invited belong to a closed circle of people, ranging from the house-group (“brothers”), to the lineage sector (“relatives”), and the village sector (“friends and wealthy neighbors”).
In his “table symposium” Jesus speaks of the first-century dinner party of the elite world where convivial fellowship and hospitality are highly utilitarian investments designed to return a net gain in status, honor, and influence. The host invites those whom he thinks will invite him in return. Accepting a dinner invitation normally obligates the guest to return the favor. Through these mutual invitations the special standing of the elite is maintained.
This practice of looking for and maintaining honor under the rule of reciprocity is reflected—and censured—in today’s Gospel. Jesus speaks of how guests choose places of honor at table; of a list of guests drawn up according to bonds of friendship, family ties, or economic status; of the practice of reciprocating in kind. Jesus then urges his elite audience (a leading Pharisee and his guests) to reject the conventional Mediterranean custom and to enact a new ethos of the Kingdom. People should seek the benefit of God’s favor rather than that achieved by following social norms. And God does not act in the way a gracious Mediterranean host does.
In truth, Jesus’ criticism of the social convention is not to be understood as a general prohibition of inviting friends and relatives. Jesus himself is a guest at the wedding at Cana (Jn 2:1-12); he and his mother are probably relatives of the bride or the groom. In the parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin (Lk 15:3-7, 8-10), the villagers who have found their lost property invite “friends and neighbors” to celebrate with them. There are legitimate reasons for inviting kinsfolk and neighbors for celebration. What is to be avoided is selfishness, which excludes the less fortunate people and the expectation of the reward that comes with reciprocity.
Jesus urges his audience to extend their hospitality to new groups: the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. These are the people who are on the fringes of or outside the village community. By Jewish law, they are also considered unclean. Jesus’ host, who is a Pharisee, and the latter’s guests, who may also be Pharisees, consider themselves “separated” from these people. The challenge of Jesus is therefore more acute: they must go beyond not only the lines of kinship and close alliance, but also the lines of purity which are important to them.
Ultimately, the reason behind this change of ethos is the host of the eternal banquet: God. The kingdom of heaven is the only banquet that counts. To sit at that banquet is the greatest honor one can ever achieve. To miss out on that banquet is the greatest tragedy. The people at the margins of society who are treated as unclean have a powerful patron: God. To include them in a table fellowship here on earth is to assure oneself of a place of honor in heaven, at the “resurrection of the righteous.”