IS THIS SEAT TAKEN?
Luke 14.1, 7-14
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C
Analysis by Timothy Hoyer
1On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath, they were watching him closely.
7When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. 8“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 by your host,9and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. 10But when you are invited, go and sit down at 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 the table with you. 11For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” 12He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers and sisters or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. 13But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14And you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
From Wikimedia Commons
“My joy in life, what gives me life, what fulfills my heart, is sitting next to Jesus who was crucified.”
DIAGNOSIS: We Try to Reach High, But End Up Low
Step 1: Initial Diagnosis (External Problem) – I want to be honored.
Grounding: Among the leaders and their guests, the way to choose a seat at the table was by order of importance. Importance could be based on age, seniority, or job position. It was a way invented to give respect, no doubt by those who felt they deserved more respect than others. Everyone has a deep-seated need to be honored. The need is created by the demands and judgment of the law.
Tracking: My goal is to sit at the place of honor. I will dedicate my life to that goal. Everything I do will be chosen for how much it adds to my status and the goal of sitting in that place of honor. How hard I work and what I do at work will be done as ways to get me to that place of honor above everyone else. What is good or bad is determined by how it helps or hinders me getting to that place of honor.
Step 2: Advanced Diagnosis (Internal Problem) – I trust in the ways to get earthly honor.
Grounding: Seating at the table could be done by assigning seats, or by having people just sit at any place so one place was no more important than another. But by ranking the importance of the seats, guests coveted how close they sat to the place of honor. They risked their honor and they risked being disgraced if they sat too close “and someone more distinguished came.” Those more distinguished could even arrive a little late just so they could force someone to go sit in the lowest place and take a little pleasure in “putting someone in their place.” Coveting made this a matter of the heart, a matter of what the guests believed in.
Tracking: I want to be distinguished. I put my faith in where I sit as what makes me distinguished. My whole life is about how close I sit to that place of honor. When I get to sit in that place of honor, I will have achieved my life’s goal. Then I can boast and brag.
Step 3: Final Diagnosis (Ultimate Problem) – God’s honor is not enough for us.
Grounding: What God used to determine where guests sat at the table at God’s house was not a concern of those guests. They felt God had to honor them with as much honor as their place at the table of their earthly host entitled them to. God’s opinion (judgment) did not matter. Only the judgment they could see mattered. God gives each guest a chosen spot in the cemetery. There is no place of honor among the headstones. There is no giving up one’s place for someone more distinguished. No guest in that place cares. All that was coveted is gone and no longer exists.
Tracking: When I die, I will clutch on to my having sat in that place of honor. It’s all that matters. Engrave it on my headstone. But no, no, no! I will be forgotten. My time in that place of honor will be swept away like dust, and the weather will make my headstone unreadable. It will have all been for nothing. I have been asked to sit in the lowest place.
PROGNOSIS: Jesus Reaches A Cross, But We End Up At God’ Side
Step 4: Initial Prognosis (Ultimate Solution) – God honors Jesus who sits on a cross.
Grounding: Jesus took his place of honor on a cross of shame. From there God raised Jesus to sit at God’s right hand so Jesus could invite us to sit next to him. He sat at the lowest place so God could say to him, “Son, move up higher.”
Crossing: I see the honor given to Jesus. It is a God-given honor. There on the cross, Jesus is the most distinguished person. Jesus is on a cross so that I can sit next to God.
Step 5. Advanced Prognosis (Internal Solution) – I trust Jesus to honor me.
Grounding: Jesus trusted in God his Father to put him in the place of honor. From there, Jesus invites those who trust him to come sit up higher with him.
Crossing: I now sit next to Jesus who was crucified. I am just as distinguished as he is. I do not have to follow some new rule about humbling myself in order to be exalted. My joy in life, what gives me life, what fulfills my heart, is sitting next to Jesus who was crucified. I take a place at the table, any place, and to my surprise, Jesus pulls out the chair next to me and asks, “Is this seat taken?”
Step 6: Final Prognosis (External Solution) – I offer to honor you, even as a gift.
Grounding: When Jesus gives his Promise-based advice to invite the poor, the crippled the lame, and the blind (those who cannot pay us back), he is not telling us what we have to do in order to look good to others. In fact, to invite the poor, though it may be seen by some as a nice charity, will mostly be seen as something they would not do in their house.
Crossing: When we sit at Jesus’ table, every seat is the place of honor, for we are all given Jesus, his body and blood. Trusting Jesus as the new way we are honored by God, we are free from playing musical chairs with others. We are free from having to sit close to the place of honor, and so can offer it to others. We dedicate our life to Jesus, not a seat at some table. Wherever we sit, whoever we sit with, that is a place of honor, for it is a place where Jesus is with us.
