Meditation for Trinity 11 2025
Luke 14: 1, 7 – 14
On 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.
When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honour, he told them a parable. ‘When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honour, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and 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. But 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 honoured in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’
He 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 or your relatives or rich neighbours, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. 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.’
You’re invited to a banquet. There will be people you know, people you don’t. Some will be ViPs – some personal friends of the host; there will be those invited for protocol reasons; some out of gratitude for past deeds. You don’t feel comfortable – you feel you don’t deserve to be there at all. So you want to make a good impression and not embarrass yourself by making a faux pas (or several of them), so you Google ‘Banquet etiquette’, and there are pages and pages of advice (Google returned 17,800 hits), ranging from ‘don’t start eating before the host’ through ‘don’t drink the soup as if it were in a glass’ to ‘don’t wear white to a wedding’ and ‘Don’t move the place cards around so you can sit with people you like’. (More on this last one later)
I know someone who would like to add at least one addition for a serve-yourself buffet – ‘If you’re a carnivore, don’t pig out on the veggie option because it looks tasty and interesting before the actual vegetarians have a chance to grab something – if there’s actually going to be any left’’. (This was spoken from experience).
When Jesus was invited to the Pharisee leader’s house (in itself a significant event, demonstrating that Jesus was taken seriously, not ignored as an uneducated itinerant preacher from the sticks), he sees a game of musical chairs taking place. Local dignitaries are jostling for position to be recognised as significant figures in the hierarchy, and want to be seen at the top table next to the host. They consider themselves more important than the rest of the hoi polloi. We all know people like that. We see them on the 6 o’clock news every evening.
In their self-importance, they think they deserve the best seat at the table and are prepared to elbow their way to their objective. This is true to their belief that they will always enjoy the Executive seats wherever they travel. Not just at the banquet set before them at the Pharisees house, but at the supper at God’s right hand. As the song said, it’s hard to be humble when you’re perfect in every way, and they consider that they are entitled to be served first.
When they get there they will expect a seating plan with their name in Copperplate lettering, next to their equally ‘important’ peers. But instead they are just as likely to be placed next to me. Or You. Or any one of the millions of others of disciples. The heavenly banquet has only one rule of etiquette – That you accept Jesus , the Christ, as Saviour and Redeemer. And then your place and theirs is at the head of His table, alongside Him.
You know and He knows you don’t ‘deserve’ to be. But He loves you anyway. So your table’s waiting. Enjoy the feast.
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