In Israel, a Saturday or Sabbath lunch was a banquet where relatives and friends met and talked about work, family and social problems. They discussed theological and moral themes if they had a rabbi among the guests. Gospels speak of Jesus giving many of his teachings at the table during such banquets.
Today’s passage presents Jesus in the house of a Pharisee for the banquet. Banquet etiquette called for reserving the centre seats for people of honour, followed by the host, then the rest arranged by position, wealth, and age.
On the surface, it might appear that Jesus was addressing the issue of human hunger for recognition and honour. “Whenever you are invited, go to the lowest seat so that your host may come and say to you: friend, you must come up higher.” If taken literally, this could mean Jesus was teaching his disciples how to be crafty to succeed, gain recognition, and achieve honour.
Yet Jesus always reprimanded the disciples for their ambitions for power and recognition. He even forbade the use of honorary titles. When we reread the passage carefully, we notice that Jesus does not speak as a guest but as if he is the host, even though he is in the house of the Pharisee. Luke uses this setting to present Jesus’ teaching to the already “invited” guests- the Christian Communities of the time.
Dissensions and disagreements in matters of hierarchy often explode in these communities as it happens even today. The presbyters and the heads of the various ministries nurtured the desire to occupy the “first places.” It is an eternal problem of the Church: the Lord teaches us to be servants of all, but, in practice, we aspire for power and positions, honorary titles.
Jesus foresaw the tensions that would arise among his disciples because of the frenzy for the top places, and therefore, the one last teaching of the Lord at the Last Supper is to wash one another’s feet. “For who is the greatest, he who sits at the table or he who serves? He who is seated, isn’t it? Yet I am among you as the one who serves” (Luke 22:26-27).
Israel’s tradition dictates inviting only four categories of people for a banquet: friends, brothers, relatives, and neighbours! However, the new instruction for those invited is, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends, brothers, relatives or wealthy neighbours…” (v.12). Here, the Risen Lord gives instructions to his disciples who at times behave as Pharisees, who discriminate. Jesus wants a reversal of the four categories of “good people” to give way to the four categories of abandoned people: “the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.” (v.13).
In the temple, lame, blind, and disabled people were not allowed in (Leviticus 21:18; 2 S 5:8) because their illnesses were viewed as signs of sin. Jesus announces that he has come to begin a new feast, a banquet where the excluded, the people rejected by everyone, become the first guests, those to whom the seats of honour are reserved.
For your reflection:
Jesus asks us to love freely, to do good in pure loss. He recommends welcoming home those who cannot give anything in return.
Father Fernando
Armellini SCJ
