Jesus once went to a dinner (Luke 14), a friendly gathering among people who were trying to serve God, trying to seek heaven. While getting situated, he observed how even there, they were getting caught up in who had the best seat in the house. Who did the host like the best? Who did the host think should be seated next to Jesus? Who was seated closest to the door? And so Jesus threw a bit of cold water on this heated discourse, and he told them something like this: “At a banquet such as this, don’t sit in the seat above your station in life. After all, you will be asked to move to another seat, being scolded by the host or his stewards. Instead, sit in a place that is beneath you, like sitting at the children’s table, for example. If you do that, they will say, ‘Goodness! You shouldn’t be sitting there, come sit with us!’” Jesus encouraged them to be aware of the social system of status, rewards and rebukes, and for his friends to transform its power. If you knew what you were doing, the seat of shame would become an occasion for your exaltation.
But Jesus doesn’t stop at pointing out this shrewd dynamic to navigate society. He then speaks about a kind of way of life that goes above and beyond. Not just thinking about where your place at the table is located, and ways to curry favor with those who can get you ahead. He would rather have us start acting in ways that are really quite a liability, at least in terms of traditional honor and glory. He calls us to invite the people to our parties and dinners who are likely, by most people’s standard, drag us down. “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, 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.” We are meant, not to pursue the favor of those who can get us something. We are meant, actually, to pursue the favor of those who actually will cost us something. We are to be not the sycophants but the patrons, in any way we can.
What if the world was not a great table, but, instead was a great queue, with everyone lined up in a sort of pecking order? What are the friends of Christ meant to do in a world like that? Well, informed by Jesus’ words at that dinner, we are the ones who are holding place in the line, making a space ahead of us for those who would likely languish at the back of the line in obscurity. What would happen to our lives if we made a space for this true giving? This is what true imitation of God, the true giver, looks like. I don’t know how much it would help us in navigating society. But, in holding a place for the needy in our lives, a higher society is ours instead, the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
But if I had to guess where Jesus would be in that great line, I imagine he’d be the caboose, right at the end, cordially allowing people to go ahead of him. And I imagine some people would join Jesus in this, too. Being first in line is nice, but there is something so powerful about letting people go ahead. Then you experience the reactions of people to true generosity, one of the great joys in life. And the thing about being first in any line (whatever its destination) is that it only lasts for a little bit. But when you let people go ahead of you (whatever the destination), the joy of that never ends! If you think about it, the world is full of people to let go ahead of you, to support in this way. It’s an inexhaustible way of life. A life eternal at the back of the line.
Grace and peace,
Matthew+
