He told a parable to those who had been invited,
noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table.
“When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet,
do not recline at table in the place of honor.
The people in this home of the Pharisee believed that they were not at a wedding banquet. Yet the words of Jesus were obviously meant as a critique of them and the way they were choosing the places of honor at the table. Jesus was on the one hand saying something very practical that would apply in any situation. Jockeying for positions of honor was fraught with the inherent risk of overreach and suffering embarrassment as a consequence. Feigning greatness beyond what one possessed would merely set him up for a greater fall when his true status was unmasked. But what if, unbeknownst to the guests at this dinner, they were actually at a wedding banquet, albeit at one still in its early stages? What if there really was a more distinguished guest among them, perhaps even the bridegroom himself, that they failed to recognize and acknowledge? Jesus was himself the bridegroom, and his ministry on earth was the beginning of his wedding feast.
And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.”
(see Luke 5:34-35).
The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete (see John 3:29).
The Pharisee and his guests did not recognize that they were in the presence of the bridegroom, nor that their feast was a wedding feast in which they themselves did not have the starring roles. Because of they didn't know what story they were in they didn't correctly apprehend their part in that story. In their minds Jesus was just one of more individual for them to attempt to wow and impress by, demonstrating their greatness, they imagined, by where they sat at table. Even practically speaking the proverbs advised against such self-exaltation:
Do not exalt yourself in the king’s presence,
and do not claim a place among his great men;
it is better for him to say to you, “Come up here,”
than for him to humiliate you before his nobles (see Proverbs 25:6-7).
Jesus suggested not only this in the way that it was always and everywhere the case. He suggested it in such a way as to hint that he himself was the king and the bridegroom, in whose presence no man ought to boast. But that God was in Jesus Christ consummating a wedding with humankind was a lot to process. It had probably always sounded like nice poetry in the words of past prophets, with God himself as the bridegroom as Israel as the bride. But now here was one who called himself bridegroom, who implied that he himself was the king of the kingdom.
For as a young man marries a young woman,
so shall your sons marry you,
and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
so shall your God rejoice over you (see Isaiah 62:5).
It might be the case that it wasn't possible for the people at the dinner to accept immediately that Jesus was himself the same bridegroom spoken of by Isaiah. But what Jesus himself suggested was that they not presume to take a place which wasn't their own and to allow the true host, God himself, to reveal both the guest that was more distinguished and, in turn, their own true places at the table. Presumption would result in failing to recognize Jesus and as a consequence usurping prerogatives that were meant to be his own. Humility meant choosing the lowest place for oneself, but only in order to leave one's position truly in the discretion of the host, so that he could be given his perfect place in a feast of joy and love.
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.’
Paul demonstrated the logic of this parable by the way in which he did not insist on his own position but instead left it in the hands of God, knowing that God could glorify himself either way.
My eager expectation and hope
is that I shall not be put to shame in any way,
but that with all boldness, now as always,
Christ will be magnified in my body,
whether by life or by death.
For to me life is Christ, and death is gain.
Paul was content to celebrate and encourage others to celebrate the wedding feast without insisting on what his particular role in that feast would be. However God chose to use Paul was what Paul himself most desired. He might wish to run full steam into the fullness of the heavenly banquet. But if God desired him to remain on earth and in the flesh for the sake of the Philippians and the others to whom he ministered then he was willing to prefer that himself as well.
The main thing for Paul was that his boast and that of his audience be always only Christ Jesus himself. In this way they were the opposite of those at table with Jesus whose implicitly boasted of themselves by the position they took at the table. But Paul's boast was such that it would not result in embarrassment or being put to shame. It would always result in being invited ever closer to the one in whom he boasted, closer to the bridegroom, closer to Jesus himself.
As the hind longs for the running waters,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
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