“Who Is Invited to God’s Feast?”

Luke 14:1; 7-14

Pastor Deb Troester, STHPC, August 31, 2025

I enjoy watching The Gilded Age, an HBO historical drama written by Julian Fellowes of Downton Abbey fame. It’s definitely a soap-opera with beautiful dresses, set in 1880’s New York. Bertha Russell, the nouveau riche wife of a railway magnate tries to be accepted in the tight-knit old-money society whose lineage stretches back to before the American Revolution. Bertha succeeds in marrying off her daughter Gladys to an English duke which makes her the mother of a duchess. Unfortunately the duke’s sister constantly puts Gladys down for being a commoner and an American. Finally, in one triumphant scene at an elegant dinner party, Gladys refuses to sit in the lower seat where her sister-in-law has placed her and moves up to the position of honor as the hostess, thus asserting her right as the matron of the household. England in the 19th century was a place where seating arrangements at dinner parties definitely signified social standing.

In the U.S. we have mostly let traditions of this sort slide. The only place where we may still observe such etiquette is at formal banquets, such as a wedding reception. Because of that, we can still relate to Jesus’ teachings in our gospel lesson. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited,” he begins. By referring to a wedding banquet, Jesus immediately gives this teaching two levels of meaning. The literal level is just good manners – and not thinking more highly of yourself than you ought. Jesus may be quoting Proverbs 25.6-7: “Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presence or stand in the place of the great, for it is better to be told, “Come up here,” than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.” One commentary asks us to imagine the humor in this situation, as seen by the servants in the kitchen, who probably snickered at the idea of someone who thought they were high and mighty being sent down to a lower place.

The wedding feast also symbolizes the joyful, eternal union between Christ and the Church.

In Revelation 19.9, the angel says to John, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” There are no kings or paupers, princes or poor people in God’s eternal realm. We will all be seated together at one great table.

The Apostle James reminds us, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (James 4:10).  Humility is a vastly underrated quality in our world today. Many people seem to worship those who exalt themselves above others, who brag about how great they are and what wonderful things they are doing. This is not God’s way. People who follow this kind of leader, whether religious or secular, are greatly deceived. Self-aggrandizing leaders are focused on themselves, not on God or on the good of society. After all, Jesus was born in humble circumstances, to a humble family, on the fringes of a great empire, not at the center of power. If God valued earthly strength and might, Jesus would have been born in Rome at the royal palace. From the Old Testament on, people are warned against excessive pride. Wisdom is associated with humility

– perhaps because only the humble know that they have much to learn: Proverbs 11:2 reads, “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but wisdom is with the humble.”

When Jesus says, “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted,” perhaps he is quoting Ezekiel 21.26:  “thus says the Lord God: Remove the turban, take off the crown; things shall not remain as they are. Exalt that which is low; humble that which is high.”

Jesus emphasizes that all of us are equal in the sight of God. Those who are considered “low” will be exalted and those who consider themselves “high” will be humbled. This is pretty radical stuff for 2000 years ago, in a society that was highly stratified between rich and poor, powerful and powerless. People who have power do not give it up willingly, and those who do not have power must struggle to get even a bit of respect and dignity. Jesus says that this is not the way it is supposed to be; God will humble the exalted and exalt the humble.

After all, Christ says something similar when welcoming a little child in Matthew 18: “Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus himself gave us the ultimate example of humility, as Paul writes in Philippians 2:

“[He] emptied himself,
    taking the form of a slave,
    assuming human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a human,
8     he humbled himself
    and became obedient to the point of death—
    even death on a cross.

Paul adds:

9 Therefore God exalted him even more highly
    and gave him the name
    that is above every other name.

Humbling the high and mighty and exalting the humble seems to be a principle of God’s Kingdom. Whenever we are tempted to think we are better than someone else, we need to remember what Jesus taught about pride and humility.  

Returning to our gospel reading, it seems that the Pharisees who were dining with Jesus thought that they were better than others. Pharisees in the New Testament get a bad rap – they are consistently portrayed as self-righteous, legalistic, judgmental prigs who looked down on others. Probably not all Pharisees shared these traits, but apparently enough of them did that they became a kind of stock character in the gospels. They considered themselves to be “good people,” and to a certain extent they were: they didn’t murder, commit adultery, or steal, they observed the Sabbath scrupulously, and followed all the laws of Moses in the minutest detail, but, as Jesus remarked in Luke 11: “Woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds and neglect justice and the love of God.” Tithing their goods faithfully down to even the smallest plants in their gardens did not make up for their lack of compassion and mercy.

Like us, the Pharisee who invited Jesus to dinner invited others of similar social standing: other Pharisees, family, friends, and colleagues.

Having a distinguished guest, such as Jesus, at dinner brought honor and prestige to the host. Similar to our customs today, when one holds a dinner, the guests are normally expected to return the invitation.

Jesus surprises his fellow dinner-goers by advising them not to invite those who could invite them back, thus “repaying” them in a sense, “But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Here I will quote from Rev. Greg Carey, writing in the August Christian Century magazine: “Knowing that Jesus said this, many of us simply nod and act as if it never happened. What are meals for, after all, if not to enjoy the company of people we love and like? Yes, we also share meals to build other relationships and perhaps position ourselves for business and other opportunities. But rarely would we even contemplate inviting someone who might, for example, smell bad. Judging from our behavior, few of us take Jesus seriously at all.

My own behavior does not stand out from the crowd.” And, I would have to add, mine doesn’t either. Food for thought.

Back to our Gospel, the Pharisees were particularly careful not to have contact with anyone considered “unclean” or “sinful” such as a leper or a tax collector. While they did not technically consider the poor, crippled, lame, and blind to be ritually "unclean," they often treated these individuals as social outcasts, believing that their condition proved that they were sinful people.

 Remember when Jesus’ disciples asked him about the man who was blind from birth, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" They didn’t bother to ask if the blindness was a result of sin – they assumed that it was, and simply wanted to know whose sin was to blame. That attitude was prevalent in those days.

Yet, even today we hear similar things: “Those people are poor because they are lazy.” “He is sick because he didn’t watch his diet.” “She deserves for her husband to treat her that way - she doesn’t even try to please him.” “That person is homeless because they’re a drug addict.” Mostly we don’t know these people. We don’t know the whole story. We just say these things to make ourselves feel better – well, we are not lazy, we are not drug addicts – and we want to justify not having compassion on them and helping them. In this, we are not very different from the Pharisees of old. As Jesus taught,  “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you...” “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Do we sometimes judge as harshly as those Pharisees did? Who would we be unwilling to invite to our home? A homeless person? An illegal immigrant? A gay or trans person? Someone of a different political persuasion? Contrary to Jesus’ teachings, the church has often been guilty of choosing who is "good enough" to share fellowship with us, who is a “real Christian,” who may be admitted into God’s Kingdom. But that is not for us to decide.  We need to re-learn the phrase “There but for the grace of God go I.” It is attributed to the 16th-century English reformer John Bradford, who, when he saw criminals being led to their execution, reportedly said,

“There, but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford.” If we had been born in that person’s place, family, and surroundings, who knows if we might not be like them?

A few chapters earlier, we read that “the Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to [Jesus’] disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick; I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” What the Pharisees missed is that we are all sinners. “None is righteous, no not one” says Paul to the Romans. No one is able to stand before God and claim to be without sin. As someone has said, “God doesn’t grade on the curve.” And none of us deserves a grade of 100%.

The Good News, of course, is God’s love and mercy for us! All are invited. No one is left out. Who is invited to God’s Feast? Everyone!” As long as we are willing to admit that we, too, are sinners, we, too, need forgiveness, we are welcome to sit at the table. And even that is by God’s grace – we do nothing of ourselves, without God’s help.

When those of us who tend toward pride stop pretending that we are better than others; when those of us viewed as “lowly” by the world understand that God loves and accepts us as beloved children, when all of us know that despite our shortcomings, sins, and failures God forgives and welcomes us to the banqueting table, then truly that day we will rejoice! Amen.  

References:

Carey, Greg. August 31, Ordinary 22C (Luke 14:1, 7-14), “Jesus is clear: Hosts should invite only those who cannot reciprocate.” Christian Century, August 24, 2025.

Gonzalez, Justo L. Luke: Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible (p. 180). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.

Sermon ©Deborah Troester 2025