The
gospel of today reflects the Hellenistic world of feasts. During these feasts,
the philosophers and teachers could offer their wisdom to the crowd present.
But for the evangelist, saint Luke, the image of Jesus at table was that of one
who accepted and received all kinds of people around him. (See The Sunday
Word, 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time).
In
this Sunday gospel of Lk 14: 1. 7-14, Jesus ‘dines at the home of one of the
leading Pharisees’. (v. 1). The narrow-mindedness of the Pharisees is the
leaven of which Luke’s readers must be aware. Surprisingly, the Pharisees
accused Jesus of eating with tax collectors and sinners (cf. Lk 5: 27-32; 15:
1-2), yet they invite him to dine with them.
During
these meals, Jesus is twice critical of their narrow views of who belongs to
God’s holy community (cf. Lk 7: 36-50; 14: 1-24). Because of their narrow view
of who belongs to God’s community, they repudiate Jesus’ teaching of alms
giving and thus show their greed cf. Lk 16: 14.
It
is this attitude of the Pharisees which triggers Jesus’ wisdom discourses in
the form of a parable in vv 7-14. Luke is referring to this episode because he
knows there is dissension in some of his communities. He is aware that despite the
Master’s recommendations, the elders and ministry animators vie for the first
places during feasts. Such a teaching would be no more than good advice on
social behavior had not Luke said that Jesus spoke of it as a parable.
“...everyone
who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be
exalted,” (v. 11) Luke gives secular wisdom a theological orientation, that
is, God will not be fooled by one’s self promotion.
The
needy persons mentioned by Luke in v. 13 will reappear in Lk 14: 21. There is
evidence that during Jesus’ time both Jewish and Greco-Roman societies spurned
these unfortunate people. They were forbidden the entry to banquets.
Verses
12-14 have made it clear that the righteous to be repaid at this resurrection are
those who have shared the food of life with the disadvantaged. In this 20th
Sunday in the Ordinary Time text, not etiquette but the kingdom behavior is the
point.
