Step Aside
The dinner party is off to a really rocky start! All the “best” people are there jockeying for the more important seats at the table. Jesus begins to urge a bit of humility rather than brashly trying to get the best seat in the house. I can see those high society folks tussling like children, pushing and shoving to get the best seat. Did the people blush? I wonder. But Jesus is not done. He has more to say and ultimately tells a parable that was a direct rebuke to his own host for not caring more about the last, least, lost, and lonely of the world the way God wants us to. Not exactly the best way to win friends and gain status. We aren’t told how the party ended. But you have the feeling that when Jesus left, his host did not smile and say, “Come again!” Next time Jesus goes to dinner it will be with “sinners.” The Pharisees will be on the outside looking in, sneering at Jesus in judgment. They didn’t get it…not ever. We know who Jesus’s kind of people were. So are Jesus’s kind of people our kind of people?