It’s a dangerous decision to make when planning a wedding reception, to decide who sits where. Some folks will value where you place them to sit, near the bride and groom, near the place of honor. Others will feel insulted, having to sit too far way from where they think they belong.
But if you don’t assign at least some of the seats, someone who doesn’t understand his connection to the family will sit where the bride’s mother or father should sit. Even more, if you don’t assign seats, those who arrive earliest, those not delayed by the photographer, will get the best seats. That could leave your new mother-in-law sitting by the kitchen or at one of the tables in the back. Need I even go on with this scenario?
In today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks words that even pagans might find practical, if not sensible.
When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by your host. Then the host who invited both of you will come to you and say, “Give this person your seat.” Then in humiliation, you will have to take the lowest place. Instead, when you are invited, take the lowest place. Then, when your host comes, he will tell you, “Friend, move up here to a better seat,” and you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
Jesus tells His parable at the home of a prominent Pharisee who also invited other Pharisees for a Sabbath meal. They were experts in the Torah, the Law of Moses. And it was their job was to study the Torah, to discover what they were supposed to do to be doing the works of God.
Well, what do you know? A guy with dropsy shows up at the feast. Dropsy is when someone’s body parts swell with excess water. How inconvenient for them, if not unappetizing. You’re just getting the first course of the feast going, and then some bloated, swollen guy shows up at the party. Why did he have to come? Doesn’t he know his place?
So, there’s Jesus with a beautiful, teaching moment. He asks if it’s right to heal someone on the Sabbath. But the Pharisees don’t know how to respond. They think that if they tell Jesus, “No,” He will accuse them of violating the spirit and intent of the Law. They think if they tell Jesus “Yes,” He will accuse them of breaking the letter of the Law. The Pharisees don’t know what to do. So they say nothing.
That’s where the Law left the Pharisees. And that’s where the Law leaves us. The Law paints us in a corner. It damns us if we do and damns us if we don’t. The cure for the damning verdict of the Law is not from the Law. It must come from somewhere else. No wonder the Pharisees were silent!
And then Jesus astounds them. For He gives them God’s own answer by healing the man with dropsy, even though it’s the Sabbath, the day of rest. For that’s what God does. And then Jesus scolds the religious types for their legalism. “Suppose your son or ox fell into a ditch on the Sabbath day, wouldn’t you immediately pull him out?” They could not respond; they were silent.
Jesus now has them right where He wants them. For they’re examining this Sabbath-breaker, who somehow has the power to heal disease with a mere word and touch. And so this rabbi then points out how the guests jockey and maneuver for the seats of honor, next to the host.
So what are we to make of Jesus’ parable? If we only understand His parable based on the surface meaning of His words, all we get is a useful suggestion for everyday life. If we did that, we would miss the true point of what Jesus is saying. Jesus then would only be a life coach and a dispenser of living tips for here in this world. Is Jesus that shallow?
Parables use familiar, everyday settings to explain God’s truths. Jesus doesn’t mean for us to understand His parables only in the setting in which His parables take place. We need to hear and understand His parables at a deeper level. If we don’t, then what Jesus said about His parables will become true. “You will be ever hearing, but never understanding; you will be ever seeing, but never perceiving” (Matthew 13:14).
So, the point of the parable is not the seating arrangements of a dinner party. Jesus is teaching a deeper, spiritual truth. First, He is pointing us to Himself and His work. He is revealing that He is the Messiah.
For when the Son of God came to this party we call life, he took the lowest seat, even though by right He had the place of highest honor. Think about how God chose to carry out our redemption. He chose to be born of the Blessed Virgin in the filth of a stable, in a small town, in the hills of a conquered and occupied land. Jesus took the low seat.
Jesus was raised as an ordinary Jewish boy and trained as a carpenter. Although He is the creator of all, He listened to His parents (who owed their existence to His mercy and kindness). Yes, Jesus took the low seat.
After years of being a carpenter, Jesus underwent a baptism for sinners at the hands of John the Baptizer and began a ministry of mercy and compassion. Jesus healed, taught, and restored broken lives. He lived for others. Indeed, He took the low seat.
And when the appointed time arrived, Jesus went to Jerusalem, where a friend betrayed Him, where followers fled from Him, where He was nailed to a cross, and abandoned by His Father. There, He became sin for us on the cross. Indeed, Jesus took the lowest seat.
By living such a life, Christ followed the path God the Father had laid out for Him, so at the end, the low One was lifted high. He was lifted from death to life. He was lifted from this world back into eternity. He was lifted from the lowest hell to the highest heaven. And that was the way He opened for us. That is the truth Jesus is teaching in the parable.
Is there anything else with this parable? First, Jesus is talking about Himself and His work, that He is the Messiah. Second, He is talking about His feast and the guests He invites. It’s the marriage feast of the Lamb in His kingdom, which has no end.
But here’s where it gets even better. Jesus wants people there like the man who had dropsy, people who bring nothing to the table but what Jesus can give them. He’s inviting empty-handed, broken beggars. He’s inviting people like me and you, we who are swollen in our dropsy of sin.
We come as the poor, the lame, and the blind. For that’s what we are under God’s Law. We lack everything that resembles the true righteousness of God. We are crippled to the holiness God demands of us. We are blind to Him.
Only in our humility and poverty will Jesus move us higher. Only in our humility and poverty, are we welcomed to His feast of salvation, which has no end. So, moved by the Spirit, we seek the lowest place–and we seek it with joy and contentment.
To bear the likeness of Christ is to place yourself lower than others. This isn’t because you lack self-esteem, or have a low self-worth. It’s because you know the Lord, in His mercy and love, raises the lowly and seats them with Himself in His kingdom. It is only right for us, God’s creation, to wait on the Creator. It is devilish to exalt yourself apart from God. That’s what first led us into the Fall of sin.
Instead, our honor is Jesus, who is not only in Glory at the right hand of the Father, but is coming again soon, even here in this place, in His body and blood. Our pride is His mercy, which He lavishes on us, we whom sin and death have battered, beaten, and broken.
Jesus is no Miss Manners. The parable He gives us today are words that point to what His life, death, and resurrection mean for us and how He heals in His feast as His guests. And if you are an empty-handed, broken beggar, swollen with the dropsy of sin, come now to Jesus’ banquet and receive His body and blood. For Jesus doesn’t invite the proud and self-righteous to His feast. They are the ones who are sent lower, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Jesus only invites the lowly. Then, He raises them to His place of honor. If you are spiritually poor, humble enough to believe Jesus feeds you with His body and blood, then come now to Jesus’ feast. For in His feast, you not only receive Jesus Himself, but also His life and salvation. For that is the height of honor to which He raises you. Amen.
