back to sermons
September 7, 2008
“I Saw Them Eating, and
I Knew Who They Were”
a sermon on Luke 14.1, 7-14
by David C. Mauldin
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Mobile, Alabama
“I saw them eating, and I knew who they were.” That is a proverb from the
Ancient Near East. If you had traveled the dusty roads of Palestine with Jesus
and his band of followers, you would have understood the truth of it. Table
customs were defining marks of social class, religion, race, and much more. You
defined yourself by what you ate and with whom you ate it.
Maybe that is why meals figure so prominently in the gospels. Imagine you were a
curious seeker who wanted to know what Jesus was about. You could listen to his
teaching and get an idea, but if you wanted to know what the man himself was
like, you would watch him at supper time. People did this, in fact; and both
John the Baptist and Jesus took heat because of their chow-time practices. John
offended people because he ate alone. It was as if he had separated himself from
the covenant community. Loners were suspect. Jesus had trouble for the opposite
reason. He ate with anybody. More than once someone from the better classes
pointed out that Jesus should be more discriminating when choosing dining
companions.
I can think of no parallel in our culture to match this near-obsession with
table fellowship. The people in Jesus’ world were more cautious about whom they
ate with than many people in our world are about whom they sleep with. This
issue of table fellowship is not something we can easily connect with on an
emotional level. For now we must be content with understanding that it meant
more to them than we realize. Sharing a table with someone created a bond. You
could recognize someone as an equal, or honor a person, by sharing a meal. Back
then, if you saw people eating, you knew who they were.
We see Jesus eating, and we know who he is. Think about all the important meals
in the gospels, and let’s focus on the gospel of Luke and its sequel Acts. The
Last Supper Jesus ate with his disciples comes to mind first. Remember too the
meal in Emmaus after the Resurrection. When Jesus broke the bread, his followers
recognized him. The early church testified to its unity in Christ by sharing a
common table. In fact, table fellowship helped meld Jews and Gentiles into one
church. Once they ate together, there was acceptance. Jesus did not eat simply
for nourishment. Meals were a strategic part of his mission. In the
2
gospels we hear him preach about the kingdom of God, then we see him eating with
all sorts of people. He tells people they need to start living the way God wants
them to; then he sits at table with sinners of every sort as a sign that God has
accepted them. Religious people understood what Jesus was doing, and they
criticized him for it. His defense was, “Those who are well have no need of a
physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but
sinners.” I suppose many of the righteous were less righteous than they thought,
for we find Jesus eating frequently with Pharisees, who were extremely religious
people. Jesus’ message and his actions were consistent. The Lord’s Supper, which
we will share shortly, grows out of Jesus’ last supper with his disciples. He
used the symbolism of the Passover meal to explain the significance of his
death. The Passover was a special meal to commemorate the Exodus from Egypt.
Jesus redefined elements of the meal around himself, in order to explain that
his death would bring salvation. But the Lord’s Supper we will share does not
merely imitate this last supper. It also has roots in Jesus’ teaching and his
table habits. Jesus compared the kingdom of God to a great banquet. When we
share the Lord’s Supper, we anticipate the day when God will set things right.
We also come to this table and realize that God has accepted us. The gospel
reading this morning is particularly appropriate for a Sunday when we celebrate
the Lord’s Supper. This whole business about taking the lowest seat and whom to
invite to your table is not a lesson in etiquette or practical advice. If it
were it would be sorely outdated. Jesus is telling a parable about the kingdom
of God. He observes basic, natural, normal human behavior and says, “God wants
things done differently.” This passage has something to say about how God’s
people live, and that lesson will be reinforced when we celebrate the Lord’s
Supper. The scene is set. One Sabbath day Jesus went to the home of a leader of
the Pharisees to eat a meal. The gospel informs us that they were watching him
closely. They must mean the Pharisees, and “watching him closely” sounds an
ominous tone. Jesus noticed how the guests sought out places of honor. You can
imagine this scene. An important leader hosts a dinner and invites Jesus. This
guy and his cronies want to check Jesus out. The group has a pecking order, and
everyone wants to be on top. So when time comes to gather at the table, all of
them seek positions of honor. Here is a basic human instinct playing itself out
in an ordinary situation.
Jesus advises the company to behave differently. He begins with, “When you are
invited by someone to a wedding banquet …” Have you ever thrown a wedding party?
I can tell you, human nature has changed not at all in the intervening 2,000
years. Whom you invite and where you seat people require careful planning lest
you offend. Jesus goes on, “Do not sit at a place of honor.” The
3
wisdom in this strategy is that if someone more important than you arrives, you
will be humiliated when you get bumped from your seat. Instead, “go and sit at
the lowest place,” so that the host will ask you to move up and you will be
honored. Of course, if the host leaves you where you are … Well, best not to
consider that possibility. At first this seems like clever advice. You can
imagine a mad dash for the lowest place because everyone wants to be asked to
move up and thus be honored. But if Jesus had meant it that way, why did he tell
people to go to the lowest seat? Why not, “sit several places below your
station”? Wouldn’t that be enough? As I said, he is not giving people a better
way to work the system; he is offering a new system. We know that because Luke
calls this a parable and also because Jesus concludes with, “For all who exalt
themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” In
the kingdom of God, people do not care about rank or station. People do not seek
honor for themselves. In the kingdom of God, everyone has dignity and value.
There is no need to strive for social standing…. That’s super. What good is it
here? As you know, living the Christian life is all about bringing the values of
God’s kingdom into our world. Until God’s will is done on earth as it is in
heaven—and that requires an act of God—we keep plugging away. We Christians do
not try to work the system better; we play by a wholly different set of rules.
As his message was sinking in, he turned to his host and acted rudely. He told
the man not to invite his friends and relatives and rich neighbors to dinner,
lest they return the favor and repay him. Instead, he was to invite the poor,
the handicapped, and others who could not repay his kindness. Why? Because God
would reward his hospitality. Can you imagine what the guests thought of Jesus
at that point? I can almost hear one of them turn to a friend and say, “Well,
he’s different. I’ll give him that.” This advice for the host is like the advice
to the guests in an important way. Both presuppose God as the focus of one’s
life. The guests were to be humble because God honors the humble. The host was
to be hospitable—hospitality here meaning “love of the stranger, the one who
cannot repay”—because God would repay. A life oriented toward God looks
different. Why? Because once God is factored into our decisions, the action that
makes the most sense changes. If we did not consider God, inviting those who can
and will repay us makes the most sense. But if God rewards those who help the
helpless, the picture changes.
Jesus practiced humility; he also practiced hospitality. When Jesus invited
people into God’s kingdom, he invited those who could not repay, be they sinners
or Pharisees. In fact we are among them. We live by the grace of God.
4
When we come to this Table we are reminded of that. God gives to us more than we
can repay. That is God’s way. Jesus says God looks for that kind of behavior
from us. The Lord’s Supper is more than an object lesson to remind us of grace
we receive; it is an opportunity for us to practice hospitality. We extend to
one another the grace we have received. If we can do that here, then perhaps we
can do it out there during the rest of the week. “I saw them eating, and I knew
who they were.” If someone saw our celebration of the Lord’s Supper, what would
they know about us? The Lord’s Supper unites people. It overcomes
denominational, racial, economic, national, and other distinctions. The only
requirement is that a person has been baptized and has faith in Jesus Christ—or
in the case of children who have been baptized, that they be learning about the
faith. By what we eat and with whom we eat it, we testify to our unity in Jesus
Christ. I experienced the power of the Lord’s Supper dramatically on a couple of
occasions. During my last year of seminary I served as student pastor of a
church in Indiana. I did everything a pastor does, except moderate the session
and administer the sacraments. I had to wait for ordination before I could do
those things. A retired minister in the next town usually came to serve us the
Lord’s Supper, but sometimes he was unavailable and it could be difficult to
find a replacement. On World Communion Sunday, I invited a friend from the
seminary to serve us. He was already ordained by the Presbyterian Church in
Pakistan but was doing further study at the seminary. My friend came to our
church and told us about life for Christians in Pakistan. Pakistan is a Muslim
country, and being a Christian is hard. Christians there face discrimination and
are often denied jobs or loans because of their faith in Jesus. The infamous
“blasphemy law” haunts them. Saying anything against Islam is punishable by
death. You have to be careful there, because charges are easily trumped up.
After his testimony, he and I went to the Table. He said the Words of
Institution in Urdu, and I repeated them in English. Then the whole church
celebrated the sacrament. Worship taught me something about humility that day.
Standing beside a Christian leader who had suffered for his faith and led those
who suffered made me feel humble. And I know all of us felt more closely
connected to Christians around the world.
On the other occasion, I was on the other side of things. My presbytery in
Nashville had a Sudanese mission church. About 200 Sudanese refugees gather on
Sunday afternoon for worship. It was, at the time, one of the fastest growing
Sudanese churches in America. We didn’t plan for it at all. A group of refugees
approached us because they had been Presbyterians back in Sudan, and they wanted
to start a Sudanese Presbyterian Church in Nashville. They had two fine
5
ministers, but these guys were still finishing their educations. So once a month
when they celebrated the Lord’s Supper, and whenever they had a baptism, a
minister from the presbytery is invited to preside. One Sunday I had the
opportunity to serve the Lord’s Supper to them, and it was a wonderful
experience. I was there for the whole worship service, and I understood almost
nothing that was said. Naturally I did not preach; but when I got up, all these
eager faces were looking at me. I began by saying something about our unity in
Christ. I spoke in English and one of the pastors translated. Then we celebrated
the sacrament together. I was touched by their enthusiasm. They had suffered so
much because of their faith. Most had been driven from their homes. All of them
were poor by U.S. standards. But they were so gracious. They made me feel
welcome, and they taught me something about hospitality. The power of the
sacrament did not come from the unusual nature of the occasions or from sharing
it with persecuted Christians. The power came from God. That same power is here
today. Through the Holy Spirit, our Lord Jesus is present with us when we break
this bread and drink from this cup. We will soon celebrate the sacrament of the
Lord’s Supper. You will experience God’s love and acceptance as you do so. You
will remember that Christ died for you. You will think about the kingdom of God
and all God’s promises. You will, in short, experience God’s grace. As you do
so, you will share that grace with others. We will be united with Christ and
with all his followers in every time and place. Then, when we are finished,
something will be different. Having tasted grace, you will find life a little
different this week. Perhaps you will be a bit less concerned about social
standing and honor. Or a bit more hospitable. Maybe God’s presence will be felt
in some other way. For instance, you take God more into account when you are
writing in your checkbook or in your calendar. The Christian life is exciting.
We play by a different set of rules. Jesus went to dinner one day and showed
people something about the kingdom of God. Are you ready for such an experience
today? rev_mauldin@yahoo.com
back to sermons