Dinner with Jesus

Luke 14:1,7-14

When of dinner, we usually think of something like this:A family gathered around a table sharing a meal together.

Or perhaps we think of something a little fancier like this:  

A group of people seated around a nice table sharing a festive meal, perhaps at thanksgiving, birthday or to celebrate a personal achievement.

When we think of a really nice meal we often think of a wedding. My guess is most of us have been to a nice wedding with assigned seating. 

The seating arrangement is usually carefully laid out.

The bride and the groom are seated at “head table,” along with the wedding party. The tables closest to the head table are usually reserved for the Bride and grooms family and other people the couple holds in high esteem.

When we begin to think of dinners in Jesus day, we usually think of this:

 But that is all wrong. That is not what dinner parties looked like at this time.

A dinner party in Jesus day looked more like this.

 Or This.
They reclined on couches around tables that held food. And where you sat at the table was determined by your social status in the community. (pic)

I.                  Jesus and parties

A.  Seating arrangement in Jesus’ day

1.    Seating order was very important in the 1st century Middle East. Everyone’s seat was determined by their “place” in society. These things were strictly adhered to. This required everyone to know their social standing in respect to all the other guests.

2.    The higher social status you had the closer you sat to the host

3.    People cared a lot about where they sat in the room was all about social status

4.    It said a lot about who you were and your importance in the community in relation to those around you.

B.       Guest Lists in Jesus’ day

1.    Only invited people who had the same social status or better

2.    You only went to parties where the host was on the same social status or better

3.    Whenever you were invited to a party you were expected to throw a party in return and invite your host

4.    Whose house you went to and who invited you to their house determine your social status

C.      What Jesus has to say about all this

1.    Don’t ever try to bring honor to yourself by claiming your social status by sitting closer to the host than you should, it might end up shaming you

2.    It would be pretty presumptuous to go sit in the most honored position before all the guests had arrived.

3.    When you host a party don’t invite only those of your own social status (your friends, relatives and your rich neighbors), instead invite the poor

4.    Why? – “For all those that exalt themselves will be humble and all those that humbles themselves will be exalted” and “and you will be blessed because they can not repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

II.               Being Humble

A.      Jesus and the Pharisees

1.    Starts out with Jesus and the Pharisees at a party.

2.    Pharisees – the Good church people of their day – the people that observed the Sabbath, followed all the laws of God, they did everything that they were suppose to do, so that they could be the best followers of God that they could be and tried to make sure the everyone else did so as well.

3.    Pharisees were watching Jesus closely to see if he would do anything wrong – thought too highly of themselves

4.    Jesus was watching them (watching him) and saw that they were trying to exalt themselves in everything that they did

B.       What is Jesus really saying here?

1.    That we should do things that show that we are not high up on the social ladder, so that other people can give us honor and move us “closer to the host”. - No

2.    Does Jesus really never want us to invite our friends and relatives to our house for a dinner party? - No

3.    Jesus is concerned with us exalting ourselves thinking to highly of ourselves – thinking that we are better than other people for whatever reason.

C.      Humility

1.    Jesus tells us to seek the company of the lowliest in society, to choose the last place.

2.    We are not to jockey and fight for position or power, or to strive for high social standing

3.    We are not to see ourselves as better than others or more worthy for any reason

4.    It is easy to exalt ourselves because we are better than rest of the world in that we have Jesus as our savior, we live good lives and don’t do things that we aren’t supposed to do.

5.    To strive to be seen by those around you at the “Best” Christian is the “holy” version of this

6.    Watching Christians fight over being “last in line”

7.    Being last becomes the new being first

8.    The idea is to not be caught up in outward displays of standing – social, political, religious

9.     

III.           What does it look like to live Resurrection values in our world?

A.  What does it look like when we are not elevationg or seeking honor for ourselves?

A.      Treat everyone as if they are the honored guest – give everyone honor, give everyone respect

B.       And do not seek to draw attention to yourself to be seen by others

C.      Elevate those around you.

D.      Look to Jesus and his life as an example

1.    Give freely, love unabashedly, give honor to

2.    Instead of seeking to be the most honored person in the room or the person with the highest social standing, seek to be the nicest, the kindest, the most polite, the person who listens and works to understand others, the person who people like to be around – humble

Living the resurrection life is about giving, not to gain anything, but because God call us to give, to love those around us because God calls us to, not because we can gain anything in return. You cannot live the resurrection life selfishly.