A Place of Honor According to Jeshua

Before I get into this post, let me apologize for the lack of posting that has taken place. When I started this blog, I stated that my intent was to post something new about Jewish culture every month in advance of a given Sunday’s Scripture lesson. Not only have I not posted in several months, but this particular post is not in advance of a lesson, but two Sundays after the fact.

I am steadily working on a large research project having to do with the institution of the synagogue and its worship. I pray that when I finish this project, I will be able to compose a number of thoughtful posts within a month. In the meantime, please bear with me, as posts will be spotty.

Two Sundays ago (Pentecost 15) we heard that Jesus was invited to eat dinner at the house of a prominent Pharisee after the synagogue service. After he arrived, while waiting for dinner to be served, “he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor [or highest available places] at the table” (Luke 14:7). Let’s look at how reclining arrangements worked at a dinner in Jesus’ day, so we can better understand what was going on and what Jesus was addressing with his parable (Luke 14:7-11).

As was already touched on in a previous post, in Jesus’ day people didn’t sit themselves down in chairs around a large table for a meal. They reclined on their left side on dining couches, with their bodies and legs extending behind them – not straight behind them, but at an angle to the right. Thus a person’s head was situated in front of the chest of the person to his left.

A typical arrangement would include two or three dining couches. If there were two, one of them was considered the first or head couch. “The most distinguished person reclined at the head [i.e. at the far end] of the first couch. The second most distinguished after him reclined beneath him [i.e. to the right of him],” and so on down the line and continuing onto second couch (Tosefta, Berakoth 5, 5, [12]).

If there were three couches (probably the case at this prominent Pharisee’s house), they were typically arranged so that they looked like an upside-down U as you entered the room, with the middle couch (the top of the upside-down U) being farthest back in the room. “The most distinguished person reclined at the head [i.e. the middle] of the middle couch. The second most distinguished after him reclined above him [i.e. to the left of him], the third most distinguished beneath him [i.e. to the right of the most distinguished], and so on down the line,” continuing onto the other two couches – the fourth to the left of the second, the fifth to the right of the third, etc. (Tosefta, Berakoth 5, 5 [12]).

We don’t know exactly where Jesus was – if he was standing or sitting somewhere else in the room or already reclining – but wherever he was, he noticed that as the Pharisee’s other guests came in to recline, each one chose for himself the highest available place. So for instance, if someone was already occupying the middle position of the middle couch, but the place above (to the left of) him was open, he simply went and reclined there, assuming that he deserved the second highest place of honor as much as, or more than, the next person.

Jesus’ subsequent parable is certainly addressing more than proper meal etiquette. If that’s all he was concerned about, we wouldn’t have really needed Jesus to teach us this. There was a Jewish rabbi, Simeon, who lived about 80 years after Jesus, who taught, “Go two or three places lower and recline there, until they say to you, ‘Move up,’ rather than that you should go up and they should say to you, ‘Move down.’ Better that people say to you, ‘Move up, move up,’ and not say to you, ‘Move down, move down'” (Leviticus Rabbah 1:5). Sounds almost exactly the same, right?

But Jesus was teaching something much greater. First, he doesn’t say, like Rabbi Simeon did, “Go two or three places lower than you think you deserve.” No, Jesus says, “Take the lowest place.”

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Thirdly, Jesus didn’t just say, “When you are invited to a wedding feast…” No, he “told them this parable” (Luke 14:7). Jesus’ parables are always meant to teach a higher, spiritual truth.

Finally, Jesus concludes his parable by saying, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” As Jesus spoke these words, he was looking around at people who had each grabbed the highest available place and who were suffering no ill consequences for their selection. There were probably stuffing their faces with food. They weren’t being humbled and they weren’t going to be humbled at that meal.

But Jesus was telling them with this parable that there is a much bigger, much more important dinner about to be served, and if we dare to have any presumption whatsoever at that Host’s house, we will be humbled in short order.

I doubt any of us has thought about stepping out of line on Judgment Day and rushing past everyone, including the throne of Almighty God himself, because “of course God wants me in heaven, so I might as well make my way through the gates and get the best place while I can!” At least, I hope not.

But if we, like the Pharisees, go around on earth expecting the best available treatment, let’s not think we’re going to do a complete about-face before God’s judgment throne. If we now presume upon God’s grace as if it were something we simply had coming to us – for instance, by treating the Bible or weekly worship like free samples at Sam’s Club that we can take or leave but that will always be there if we want them – then let’s not think that we will suddenly value and cherish God’s grace on Judgment Day. We won’t. We will try to exalt ourselves, and we will be humbled. We will be condemned.

But if we acknowledge the truth, that we are sinful humans who deserve nothing from a holy God… If we acknowledge that we deserve to have the very gates of heaven itself shut in our face so that we have to stand outside knocking and begging, “Lord, please open the door for us!”… If we are so overwhelmed just by the fact that God has actually invited us to his house that we wouldn’t even think of taking anything higher than the lowest place if he actually lets us in… If we say as the centurion did, “Lord, I do not even deserve to be in the same room as you”… If we say as the Canaanite woman did, “Lord, I’m nothing but a dog, so I’ll be tickled pink if you just allow me under your table so that I can have the crumbs that fall from it”…

When we abandon our own righteousness, which does not exist, and flee to the righteousness of Christ, which is overabundant, then Jesus makes an amazing promise to us: “Everyone who humbles himself will be exalted.” Jesus will not only address you, “Friend,” and he will not just tell you, “Friend, come in,” but he will insist to you, “Friend, move up to a better place at my table. You are my distinguished guest.”

For further reading: Proverbs 25:6,7; Luke 14:15-24