When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet,
do not recline at table in the place of honor.
When we try to judge which seat at a banquet we deserve we often deceive ourselves. The Pharisees assumed that they deserved the positions of honor at the table, and were intent on those positions so others could see them there and recognize their imagined greatness. But they were so focused on themselves that they ignored a more distinguished guest that had been invited, Jesus himself. For his part, Jesus had no need to jockey for position at the table. He knew that God "brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate" (see Luke 1:52). He himself always sought the lowest place, from his baptism too his cross, because "though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped" (see Philippians 2:6). And because he humbled himself even unto death "God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name" (see Philippians 2:9).
A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him,
and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say,
'Give your place to this man,'
If we are too intent on our place at the table we are apt to be upset when we are required to move. How quick are we too claim what we believe ourselves to deserve and imagine ourselves to have earned? How much does it hurt our pride when someone with a more holistic view reveals to us that we are not as exalted as we thought? Rather than trying to judge our own merits with our own limited perspectives it is far safer to entrust ourselves to the mercy of the host.
Some of us may not feel strongly about the seats of honor described by Jesus. And yet none of us is likely so humble as to demonstrate complete indifference to the opinion of the other guests. After all, it affects how they treat us, and the rights and privileges accorded to us. Typically, the tables closest to the bride and groom are allowed to eat first, for instance. How patient are we as every other table is called before our own? Yet, being comfortable at this last and lowest place is the key. For when we are not deserving in our own eyes it is then that we begin to become worthy of higher places in the feast of the Kingdom.
Rather, when you are invited,
go and take the lowest place
so that when the host comes to you he may say,
'My friend, move up to a higher position.'
Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table.
Jesus is the host, and we need him to help us become more concerned with his perspective than that of those around us, and ultimately, even our own. Our minds struggle against humility, insisting that we deserve a noble position, producing endless arguments about why it is fitting or necessary for us to try to do all we can to take one for ourselves. But our minds are trying to trap us in an unwinnable struggle to somehow earn what can never be earned. Existence itself was already a gift, and life in the Kingdom even more so. As Paul asked, what do we have that we were not given (see First Corinthians 4:7)? If all was gift to begin with, how can we boast, or see ourselves as better than anyone else at the wedding feast?
My child, conduct your affairs with humility,
and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts.
It seems to our ego that when we don't assert ourselves we end up used, abused, and empty in the end. But it is just the opposite for those who humble themselves under the mighty hand of God (see First Peter 5:6). Those who do so have a kind of riches, an ability to be a blessing to others, that transcends anything the ego can hoard for itself. And the humble are actually free to use what they do have to be a blessing to others. They are the ones who are free to bless without the need of repayment, just as Jesus taught.
Rather, when you hold a banquet,
invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;
blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.
When the humble care for those who cannot repay them they imitate Jesus who himself invited the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, to join him in the wedding feast of the Kingdom of God. It was especially such as these who were free and open to receive the invitation as a gift, whereas the Pharisees, intent on seeking their own honor, missed the presence of the host entirely. Jesus did indeed make "a home for the poor" in his Kingdom. It is into this same home, and this same banquet, which we ourselves are invited. But it is a place where worldly honors hold no meaning, where position cannot be earned by effort, where everything is in fact a gift of grace. But let us pray that we learn to prefer it to anything we can provide for ourselves, for only within is any exaltation worth experiencing.
No, you have approached Mount Zion
and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
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