Radical Hospitality

This morning’s reading hides some information that is important to understand in order to understand the reading as a whole.

There are several meals mentioned. A Sabbath meal, a wedding banquet, a luncheon and a dinner banquet. There’s something in common across these 4 meals. They are special, not your run-of-the-mill meals. The Sabbath meal was extra festive compared to meals during the week. A wedding banquet of course is festive by nature. A luncheon in this context is considered the best meal of the day. A regular banquet too is festive by nature. 

We are not talking about making a sandwich for friends or throwing a tuna casserole together for the family coming over later. We are talking a big, festive meal where you invite a lot of folks. Festive parties with big meals included is the context of our text. 

So Jesus is at a Sabbath meal, the most elaborate meal of the week. This is at a Pharisee leader’s house. Must have been an extra elaborate party. 

Who’d be at the Sabbath brunch at the leader of the Pharisees’ home? Folks of means. People among the upper echelon of society. Higher ups. The exalted in society.

Jesus must have been invited, though he really doesn’t fit in. He’s a vagabond rabbi and itinerant preacher. 

What is Jesus eating? He’s eating bread. That is the literal reading in the Greek. Jesus goes there to eat bread!

Jesus begins to notice the guests jockeying for prestige and recognition. I imagine a kind of Hollywood party with everyone trying to be nearer to the star. Jesus feels perturbed.

In the middle of this fancy-schmancy feast, Jesus begins preaching! He does so with a parable. It’s a parable that is not at all unrelated to the scene around him. As usual, Jesus draws on the context around him. Those who hear it will immediately get the connection. There's no riddles involved here.

When you’re at a fancy wedding banquet, don’t do what a lot of folks are doing right here. Don’t go for the seat of honor, Jesus begins. Curious start to a curious parable. 

Have you ever watched a baseball game on TV and notice folks trying to grab empty seats right behind home plate? These are prime seats and you get to be on TV and wave to your friends at home.

But if you don’t have tickets for that seat, you’ll eventually be found out and have to give up those seats. 

Jesus is basically saying don’t be that guy! You might enjoy it for a couple outs, but you’ll soon enough be kicked from the seat. 

Instead go to the cheap seats. Eventually, when the kingdom’s baseball game begins, those in the cheap seats will be brought to the prime seats up front. And vice versa, those in the prime seats will be brought to the cheap seats. 

“All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."

Imagine being one of the fancy folks at the Sabbath feast jockeying for the best seat and for prestige and recognition, and you hear these frank words from this poor, humble preacher! Talk about being put in one’s place. 

It doesn’t get any more comfortable, either. He goes on to say, if you’re going to have a fancy luncheon or a banquet, don’t invite folks you know – your rich friends, family members, or neighbors. Don’t do what you’ve done here, knowing you’ll be invited to their big to-dos in return.

No, if you’re going to invite and feed people well, feed those who need it most. Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. Invite the hungry outcasts! They won’t be able to pay you in return in the ways you’d like. But God’s reward for your righteousness in heaven will be sufficient.  

Jesus is basically saying, this feast shouldn’t be happening! This Hollywood type party is a sham. Next time, do it differently. Don’t invite the folks you see here. Invite the hungry outcasts. That is the right thing to do.

How would folks have heard this at this elaborate Sabbath meal?

Jesus is calling not for mere hospitality from the reputable and higher-ups. He’s calling for a radical hospitality toward the least of these, for the most vulnerable. Jesus is calling for a radical hospitality toward those who are otherwise made to feel humiliated in society. He is calling for the lifting up of the humble and the bringing down of the exalted. 

I realize this is the Jesus that is hard to hear and even harder to follow. Lord knows, I fail to follow in so many ways. But this is the Jesus of the gospels. This is the Jesus in our reading this morning. 

Now, following Jesus perfectly, that is not in the cards this side of heaven. Personally hosting a banquet for vulnerable people may be too much to ask.

But doing our best to follow him, even when it's hard, that we can do. Cultivating a tender heart and compassion toward the most vulnerable among us, that we can do. Inviting the vulnerable into our minds, hearts, and holding them in the light, that we can do. Helping them when and where we can, that we can do. 

Truly seeing the hurting around us. Looking past the externals and the stereotypes and looking at the heart as God does. Seeking to love the least among us like God does. Welcoming the outcasts among us.  These we can do. And should.

With such a tender heart and compassion as our compass, the rest naturally follows. 

For radical hospitality begins in the heart and works its way out to our minds, our hands, our feet, our time, our resources, our support.

Let our hearts seek after Christ’s heart, to live and love like he did, to welcome into our hearts the poor, the sick, the immigrant, the marginalized and care for them the best we can, Christ as our guiding light.