Luke 14:7–11

14th Sunday after Pentecost

⁷Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, ⁸"When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, ⁹and he who invited you both will come and say to you, 'Give your place to this person,' and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. ¹⁰But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, 'Friend, move up higher.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. ¹¹For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

According to custom, people are placed at table according to social rules. The guest of honor will sit to the right of the lady of the house. The wife of the guest of honor sits to the right of the host. The guest of honor is served first and then his side of the table. Then the wife of the guest of honor is served and her side of the table. Finally the man of the house is served and then the lady of the house is served last.

Almost all of us have been invited to a dinner, and many of us have hosted a dinner. The seating of the guests is always an important decision. This parable of Jesus is something we can all identify with for at one time or another we have had to deal with the question of where to sit at the table.

So when a Pharisee invited Jesus to dinner as the guest of honor, all the other invited guests took their seats according to the honor due them; according to their social rank.

However, as Jesus pointed out, if someone else had been invited of a higher social rank, then the host would have to come to you and ask you to step down to a seat of less honor. This would obviously be an embarrassing situation. It would be far better to take the seat of least honor so that the host would have to tell you to move up to a higher position. That would make a favorable impression on all the other guests and your honor would be even greater.

This was good advice. But I’m sure Jesus was not interested in teaching the people good manners. He was not the first Emily Post or Amy Vanderbilt. His meaning here is much deeper than social customs. It is about our approach to God and how we see our relationship with God.

He was observing the rules of etiquette in the culture of his day. There were many rankings of people. There was the high priest and the elders who ruled both the nation and the church. Then there were the Levites and scribes. Some were Pharisees and others were Sadducees. Some had great honor and respect and were famous rabbis. It was important when inviting quests to dinner that they were given the honor due to them. And, just as today, those with the higher seats felt a little pride when they compared themselves to those of lesser seats.

Who were these people who took the seats of honor? They were not the tax collectors, the gentile sinners, the prostitutes, the murderers or the thieves. These were all highly religious people, people who knew Jewish law and strictly lived by it. They kept the fasts and celebrated the festivals. Their prayers were said without fault and they tithed strictly in obedience to the law. They are not sinful people, but Jesus criticized them. Jesus was criticizing the righteous, the religious people. These were the church leaders. They were the leaders of society. They were the ones everyone looked up to as role models. When Jesus criticizes them he is going against the culture, against the church establishment. He is saying something new and revolutionary. In fact what Jesus is saying here goes against almost all of our notions of God and how we approach him as well.

Usually when we hear this parable we see two groups of people. We think of the people taking the higher seats to be the proud and self-righteous. Perhaps we call them hypocrites. We also see another group of people. The humble guests who are not proud and self-righteous and take the lower seats. We, of course, are the humble guests who take the lower seats, and so we look down our own noses at those we consider as being proud and self-righteous; those who take the higher seats.

However, in reality there is only one group of people; those who take the seats of honor. Who are those that take the seats of honor? They are all those who do good works and who are proud of their goodness. They are, as we have guessed, the proud and self-righteous, the hypocrites. That means the moment we consider ourselves to be the humble guests taking the lower seats, we too become the proud and self-righteous. We then join them in the seats of honor. By even thinking we are the humble guests, we think we are doing something good and become one of the self-righteous. The moment we think that we are somehow pleasing to God or have done something good we ourselves take the seats of honor. So in the end there is only one group of people sitting at the table. The ones who take the seats of honor. We are those people!

That is the way it is with our sinful human nature. Even our good deeds become sins. That really puts us in a dangerous spot because the good things we do, our works, such as our spiritual growth, our growth in love, our growth in righteousness all become sins; sins that separate us from God because they turn our work into works of righteousness. That is why Luther said: “Although the works of men seem attractive and good, nevertheless they are likely mortal sins.” That is because we humans tend to take credit for our good deeds; even those which God works in us. We are proud and take credit for having done something good. Therefore, good works seduce us into trusting in our works and thus become mortal sins because God says in Scripture: “All who rely on the works of the law are under the curse.”

Most of us think this parable teaches us that we should be humble. It does not! For the moment we try to be humble, we become proud of our humility and take the highest seat at the table. What this text teaches us is that we are all sitting in the highest seats. This very parable is the host telling us to move down because we are not in the right seats. This parable shames each and every one of us and makes us all look like the self-righteous fools we are.

Therefore Luther concludes that we should all fear God, for even our good works, the works of righteousness, bring down God’s wrath on our heads. There is no way out. There is no way to escape the wrath of God. Our only defense against God is the cross of Jesus Christ.

For there is only one person who took the low seat at the banquet. That was Jesus himself. Notice the irony. The only person who deserved the seat of honor was the one who chose the seat of least honor. And all those who deserved the lowest seat sat in the seat of honor.

Jesus took the lowest seat in order to be our defense against God. We have no other escape because when we try to do good, our very good works merit God’s wrath. Luther says; “The law of God…cannot advance humans on the road to righteousness, rather it hinders them.” It hinders us because the very act of trying to do good works and trying to obey the law is the sin of self-righteousness. The very act of trying to be humble makes us proud. Our very goodness causes us to rely on works and thus separates us from the grace of God.

So if our good works earn God’s wrath, how can we possibly escape it? The cross is our only defense. Jesus took the lowest seat, the seat of suffering and sorrow; the seat of rejection; the uncomely seat of death on a cross in order to turn God’s anger away from us. In our baptism we were baptized into Christ’s death. Through the law we died to the law so that we might live to God. We have been crucified with Christ so it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us.

And this Jesus, who took the lowest seat at the table, was raised from the dead and exalted above all others. The host came and took him to the head of the table and made him the guest of honor, placing him in the highest seat.

But as our lives have been absorbed into the life of Christ in our baptism, so we have been raised to the seat of honor. As we are baptized into Christ’s death, so too shall we be raised with Christ in his resurrection. His glory and exaltation shall be our glory as well. The Father who raised Christ from the dead raises us from the dead in Christ and seats us on the throne with Christ.

Therefore, the true meaning of this parable is not that we should go out and be humble. The purpose of this parable is to humble us with the law of God and slay us on the cross with Jesus. It shows us our sin and shows us that there is no escape from God’s wrath except the cross of Jesus. This parable drives us to the cross in the fear of God and in repentance for our sin. It drives us to throw ourselves at the mercy of God and beg forgiveness. And the crosses we bear in our life, the sufferings we suffer, are all just God operating on us sinners to send us down to the lowest seat at the banquet so that in his Son he can raise us up and give us the seat of honor in his kingdom.

Amen