Take the Lowest Place

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke:

On a sabbath Jesus went to dine
at the home of one of the leading Pharisees,
and the people there were observing him carefully.

He told a parable to those who had been invited,
noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table.
“When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet,
do not recline at table in the place of honor.
A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him,
and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say,
‘Give your place to this man,’
and then you would proceed with embarrassment
to take the lowest place.
Rather, when you are invited,
go and take the lowest place
so that when the host comes to you he may say,
‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’
Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table.
For every one who exalts himself will be humbled,
but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Then he said to the host who invited him,
“When you hold a lunch or a dinner,
do not invite your friends or your brothers
or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors,
in case they may invite you back and you have repayment.
Rather, when you hold a banquet,
invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;
blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.
For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Jesus went to a banquet, at the house of a leader of His people.

He watched the people who were vying for the highest place at the table, and then He gave some advice: when you are invited to a wedding banquet, take the lowest place.

What wedding banquet is that? It is the banquet Christ invites you to attend, the Wedding Feast of the lamb. That is the only banquet that matters very much, to a Christian. When we attend that banquet, we are not to exalt ourselves. We are to go down to the lowest place. If we do that, we know, the Lord will exalt us, and prepare a table before us in the sight of our enemies. In fact, He will make us His bride, with him the heir to everything He has. So we have to get this right. We, as Christians, must all seek out the lowest place?

Where is the lowest place?

Is it at the foot of the banquet table? In the doorway of the party hall? In the back of the church? In the foyer? In the doorway?

No, the lowest place is further out than that.

The lowest place is far, far out, with the people who never get invited to a party.

The lowest place is with the people our society has pushed the furthest out.

The lowest place is at the margins, with those our society has marginalized.

Who is the person you would least like to find at a party? Who is the person you’ve been carefully brought up to revile? What type of person was held up to you as an example of what not to be? Everyone has one of those. “Stay in school or you’ll clean toilets for a living. Save your money or you’ll end up homeless. Listen to your teacher or you’ll wind up an addict with needlemarks and AIDS. Don’t cry like a girl. Put on a dress and grow out your hair or they’ll think you’re one of those queer people. Brush your hair and iron your shirt or people will think you’re from the BAD neighborhood. Lose weight or they’ll think you’re as lazy as that race we don’t like.” Anything like that.  Those people have been assigned the lowest place.

That’s where you have to go.

Go and find the people you were taught to despise. Serve them. Join them and work against every force that pushes them to the margins. Love them as your family, because they are.

You will find Christ with you there.

Christ is the God Who willingly went out to the margins, taking the form of a slave, accepting even death on a cross, descending into hell. You can’t find Him unless you look in the lowest place. And once you’ve found Him, there, in the people you were taught to despise, He will exalt you to the top of the table, far above the firmament, to the Throne which will have no end.

It begins when you walk away from the place you were told was the banquet, and go looking for the lowest place.

image via Pixabay