A Dangerous Dinner Guest – Part 2 – Luke 14

And He began speaking a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then in disgrace you proceed to occupy the last place. “But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you. “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 14:7-11 NASB)

Jesus is the invited guest at the home of a leader of the Pharisees on the Sabbath.  The other invitees are lawyers and other Pharisees.  They have just been trapped with what they tried to trap Jesus.  The host is busy wiping egg from his face and the meal is about ready to begin.  The “enemy” they hoped would have been routed proving excellent entertainment is still among them, and is now watching them.  Seeing how they behave at the table, Jesus decides to tell a “parable.”

This parable is a rebuke, but softened because the setting is changed to a “wedding” instead of an embarrassing Sabbath rabbi trap.  Jesus has noticed that the guests are jostling for “pole position” at the table.  He corrects them by telling them to take the lowest spot instead.  This had to get stares.  Sure, it makes sense, but it’s risky.  What if the host thinks that the guest actually wants that spot and leaves him there?  What if, believing he would embarrass the guest, he leaves the guest to his choice?  There’s the danger that the choice of the lowest place will become the seat I eat at; not very “Pharisee.”

See, if I grab the highest seat, there’s a good chance that, rather than embarrass me, the host will let me keep it.  Now that’s how a Pharisee thinks.  But they are in a room full of these guys.  Sure among the general population, they have a good chance of keeping the seat (but still, you never know).  But here it is mostly posturing among peers to grab for the chief seat.  The host is probably enjoying the only entertainment he will get all afternoon watching his guests vie for the top seat that he alone can give.  He gets to humiliate someone once the fray dies down.  This is great for him.

This account is in such contrast to Abraham serving Yahweh in Genesis 18.  Where Abraham stands at the ready to serve his exalted Guest, this host stands ready to dishonor then dismiss his Creator.  Abraham recognized Yahweh immediately; this host hasn’t a clue, even after the event.  This host is rude to his guests where Abraham is extremely polite.  The Pharisee leader doesn’t settle the seating issue right at the beginning; why does he let the fray happen at all?  This Pharisee leader is really a lousy host.

The irony from the previous part continues as now the Master of the entire universe turns to correct his fellow guests.  They had tried to trap him with the callous use of a disabled person, “Old Swollen Joe”, and were hung on their own gallows.  Now it’s Jesus’ turn.  His shot at them drives right to a very interesting character quality.  There is an inherent risk in taking the last place.  This concept only works if I can see myself as really belonging in the last place.  That is not easy for these guys, but is it any easier for me? 

This is a fun account to read.  The reversal on the Pharisees has the listening crowds in stitches and cheering for Jesus, their hero.  But I think I hear my Master calling me to take the lower place, pick up the towel and broom, and roll up my sleeves.  Sure it’s fun to read, but I need to consider the parable in its own light.  It applies to me as well.  I am in a position in my current church where I will need to make this perspective a spiritual discipline.  This is something I need to apply wherever I am called to serve.

In my setting, it’s like taking the seat with its back toward the door, the farthest one away from the pastor, whatever row happens to be available on Sunday (not my favorite, let’s hurry and get that one!).  These may seem like small things, but they reflect an attitude more in line with my Master.  Whatever I can do to better align myself with Him should be a priority.  But there are other areas in which I need to apply this parable.  They maybe more important, but they may not.

I have skills dealing with Scripture that are not common.  Because of that, they can seem impressive.  But any impression they make is an impression of me, of my skill.  I want to make very soft impressions so that I don’t take away from my Master’s much more important and impressive impression.  My skills can either enhance or distract from the view of my Master.  It’s my choice how I use them.  This parable teaches me that, from my Master’s perspective, I must choose to enhance. 

Except for the idea of “humility” this may not seem to fit the parable very well.  But I get that from the requirement here that I be willing to take the lower place, and be left there.  I may not be, but that’s what I shoot for.  If I seek to enhance the view of my Master enjoyed by others, then perhaps I may get some attention, but it will be as a conduit of the view of my Master.  That is as it should be.  I suppose that my interpretation stems from my belief that I am to be “set dressing” not center-stage.  Jesus is to be center stage.  So, I will take the lower place, and I will choose to enhance the view of others. 

A Dangerous House Guest – Part 1 – Luke 14

It happened that when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching Him closely. And there in front of Him was a man suffering from dropsy. And Jesus answered and spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?" But they kept silent. And He took hold of him and healed him, and sent him away. And He said to them, "Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?" And they could make no reply to this. (Luke 14:1-6 NASB)

I am jumping ahead in my search for Jesus.  I am skipping to another account of Jesus as a dinner guest.  The wedding guest idea prompted me to seek out one of my favorite accounts of Jesus.  I found the details somewhat different than I remembered, because I was mixing accounts, possibly between gospels (which is another reason I am pursuing this concept in a blog – I want to get Him as He is, not as I form Him to be in my mind).

In this account Jesus is invited on the Sabbath into the house of one of the Pharisee leaders (I’m not told which one).  The meal is punctuated by four elements: 1) The Pharisees test Jesus and they fail, 2) Jesus corrects the guests, 3) Jesus corrects the host, 4) Jesus insinuates they will not go to heaven (a cornerstone of the Pharisee life).  I want to look at each element separately rather than write an entry that would take an hour to read.

In this element where the Pharisees test Jesus I’m given the setting for all four.  It is the Sabbath, Jesus is a guest at the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees, and everyone is watching Him closely. Clearly Jesus is not a guest so the Pharisee leader can play the gracious host.  The Pharisees feel confident by isolating Jesus from His popular following, and have stacked the deck against Jesus.    The reason for this becomes evident when the man with edema is found before Him.  The whole invitation is a trap, and a sick suffering human is used as bait.  So the Pharisees start out the whole episode demonstrating such callous regard for another human that their lack of compassion and inhospitality is shocking.

The irony is so rich I can almost touch or taste it.  “What do you want to do this Saturday?” “I don’t know what do you want to do?” “I know! Let’s trap the Almighty of Heavens Armies at lunch!” “Yeah! Let’s grab Old Joe with the swollen limbs and use him!”  “Hmm. What should I serve for lunch?”  They stacked the odds in their favor, or at least would have had Jesus been just some wandering Rabbi rather than the Son of God.  These Pharisees have no idea what they’re doing.  Fortunately for “Old Joe” they are trapping Joe’s Creator.  The listener’s ire at the Pharisee callousness is offset by the enjoyment of absurdity of the very idea.

In this account, the discussion is short.  Jesus’ opponents don’t debate with Him, He simply asks, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?”  There may have been some dialogue left out of Luke’s account, but what Luke left in is sufficient to accomplish the effect.  No one answers Jesus.  He is surrounded by lawyers and Pharisee experts on just this subject.  These guys spent most of their hours of writing, contributing to the bulk of knowledge, on just this subject; what is legal on the Sabbath.  Yet no one answers.  They continue to stare, silently, waiting as the trap is sprung on their unsuspecting prey.

The trap springs, Jesus takes hold of “Old Swollen Joe”, heals him, and sends him away (to safety).  They have Him!  Except Jesus calmly turns to them and asks, “Which of you will have a son or ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?”  Blink.  Swallow.  What?  A son or ox in a well, do we help them on the Sabbath?  Well duh, oh wait…dang it.  The trap snaps shut on the lawyers and Pharisees.  The Pharisee leader now has his prey loose at his Sabbath meal.  That’s not what was supposed to happen.  Hmm, maybe we should eat now and get this over with.

I see in Jesus here a few things.  I see willingness to enter into the fray, the very den of His enemies.  I know He is God and has nothing to fear, but His disciples didn’t have the same confidence.  They may have been observers, like “Old Joe”, but they had to be in panic as they saw the trap snapping shut.  I’m not God, yet the Spirit of my Master lives within me.  Why can’t I have this same courage to enter the fray, even the den of my enemies?  Often I fear my brothers and sisters in faith, and have less fear of my enemies.  Why fear at all?

Jesus addresses an important perspective here.  It’s one that reveals to me the heart of my Master.  People are more important to Him than silly rules.  Not that the Sabbath is silly, but using it as a bludgeon for the very people it was designed to bless is really silly.  But do I do this with other rules?  Jesus says in another encounter that the Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath (). Is this true for other rules?  That question is one of the things I hope to address in my other blog, but I raise the question here because Jesus does.  When do I let rules overrule my mercy?

I would say that in my home this is most common, which is a sad irony rather than this humorous one.  In training up my daughter, I am more often shocked and appalled at her lack of obedience to my rules than I am compassionate to her struggles at school.  Do I expect her to “measure up” before I show her compassion?  I can see that my Master expects something different from me.  The character of my Master is to accept before correction.  There is correction, but there is the environment of acceptance that it happens within.  That’s what I need to create at home.  Okay, this is getting uncomfortable, it may be time to move on.

Answers, Short and Cryptic, Given While You Wait

This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?"  And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ."   They asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" And he said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" And he answered, "No."   Then they said to him, "Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?"   He said, "I am A VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, 'MAKE STRAIGHT THE WAY OF THE LORD,' as Isaiah the prophet said." 24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.   They asked him, and said to him, "Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?"   John answered them saying, "I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know.   "It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie."   These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. (John 1:19-28 NASB)

In the story of Jesus there are people who…are just plain frustrating.  Actually Jesus is one of them.  In this first chapter of John, I meet another.  John the Baptist sort of reminds me of Baptist preachers I have known.  Having been one once, I have met more than my fair share.  In this passage he seems to be having fun frustrating his inquisitors.  He answers their questions, but he doesn’t seem willing to give them answers that will satisfy their purpose.  When asked who he is, he quotes Isaiah 40:3, a verse referring to the return of the exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem; a verse on redemption and the road home.  Still, it is a stretch right here.

The only real problems about this passage have to do with some details about the wording of the back and forth questions, and where it took place.  The frustrating nature, short answers, and cryptic quote are all attested very early on.  The passage remains one of those elements John has included for one of those audiences long gone with issues long forgotten.  Today, no one really views John the Baptist as the Messiah or as having been the forerunner of someone who is yet to be revealed.  In the Apostle’s day, that was still an issue, and enough of one that he includes these elements right up front.  But there is still something I find here.

My best view of my Master in this passage comes in the cryptic quote.  John’s view of himself comes from his calling, and so it comes from my Master.  It’s an odd view, and one that illuminates for me a character of my Master, the assignments He makes, and how I should respond within His assignment to me.  The passage John quotes is from Isaiah 40.  So I will start with that element.  Then I will pick apart John’s answers, especially the last one.

Isaiah 40 is the segue chapter between the prophecies referring to events during Hezekiah’s reign and those referring to the period of the Exile of Judah in Babylon.  It is in the second section of Isaiah that are found the Servant Songs that eventually refer very clearly to the coming Messiah and less and less to the nation itself.  It is in this section that the return of the Exiles becomes the focus, and encouragement for those in captivity.  It begins with the “Highway of Yahweh through the desert”.  It introduces this “Highway” by quoting a voice calling out in the wilderness.  The voice uses a simple Hebrew poetic line with two parallel feet. 

The Baptizer only quotes the intro and the first foot.  The second foot, “Make smooth in the desert a highway of our God” is left unquoted.  The piece unquoted is the part specific to the return of the exiles.  The first, by itself, can be interpreted more widely.  It just seems out of context to use it this way.  Yet in this verse in Isaiah, who the voice in the desert might be isn’t clear either.  Is it a third party observer of the return?  Is it the prophet writing?  Is it the returning exiles?  It just seems out of place somehow in the chapter.  So, why is it there?  Well, my Master seems to have applied it to His servant John.

The Inspiring One has applied this verse to the “forerunner” of His Son.  He rejected the title of “Elijah” yet he filled that role.  He rejected the title of “The Prophet” yet he is certainly like one of the prophets.  His reference for himself comes from a passage that is an odd one considering the people of Israel are not in captivity or exile.  And considering their current historical setting, those words could be inflammatory.  It could be interpreted to refer to the Roman occupation, and a coming overthrow, an event that doesn’t happen.  Does John see himself as the forerunner of a successful rebellion against Rome?  Again, it doesn’t seem so.

I get the impression from John’s responses that he really isn’t completely clear on his role either.  From passages after this one, I discover that he has been waiting for someone and some event.  Even he isn’t sure who is coming, nor what he will do.  He’s not the Messiah, he’s not the Prophet, he’s not Elijah, but instead he’s a voice preceding the redemption by God of His people.  I can imagine being John, having clarity right up to the point where I know something important is coming, but not being given the vision of what that important thing will be.  Perhaps John is simply passing on his frustration to his inquisitors.  With all John does know he is keenly aware that there is a lot he doesn’t know.

How willing am I to be obedient in a “fog”?  How willing am I to follow the will of my Master knowing it’s not the end but the beginning or middle, with only so much vision, with the sense that I am not getting the complete picture, and therefore with the knowledge that I won’t be there for the finale.  I would have to accept that this path He has put me on is not about me, but instead about Him, His purposes, and His plan.  I so want to be in there, mixing it up, and showing off really.  He so wants me in the background, supporting, and obedient.  I’m not even as peculiar a character as John, so I blend better than he did.  I can easily be lost in the set dressing.  And that is how it should be.  The center stage is now set for the Word becoming flesh.  The stage is set for Someone else.  Come Lord Jesus, live Your purpose through me.