Remake Your List – Luke 14:7-14
In Jesus day, honor was like currency. That’s why people did everything they could to seek out places of honor at wedding feasts. Not only that, they also sought honor through the people they invited to their own parties.
It’s not so different with us. We all try to wrangle invitations to the best parties, just like we used to jockey to have a seat at the ‘cool kids’ table’ in school. We try to find honor and fame by getting our name in the newspaper or receiving some award from an organization that recognizes our hard work or our superior performance. So, when we hear Jesus saying, “Go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’,” our honest reaction deep inside, is: “WHAT? You can’t be serious.”
What we’re afraid of is this. What if we humble ourselves and take the lowest place, and instead of hearing “Friend, come up to the place of honor” we hear the host whisper in our ear, “Oh, I’m so glad you recognized your rightful place”? It’s a terrifying and ego destroying prospect, but Jesus’ instructions show us what it looks like to really live the kingdom of God here on earth. If we could just find the courage to throw off the system and toss out our ego driven guest lists, then we could start making out our invitations according to God’s Party Guide and sit down with the least, the lost, and the outcast to have God’s Kingdom Party right here on earth.
And maybe sitting beside us we’d find that very same person that we failed to invite over and again to our own parties, or our study groups, or our lunch table. Here they are waiting for us, and what do you know, they even remembered to save us a seat.
Jesus is inviting all of us to be children of the light to start living differently in our homes, schools, churches, and workplaces. He’s inviting us to fashion and nurture a different kind of community—a community founded not on status, but grace. A community built on gratitude for what God has already done for us. At God’s table there’s no need to jockey for position because everyone is equally welcome.
So, how should we fill out our guest list? Any table where Jesus is present is a table where everyone’s welcome. Not just the beautiful, the wealthy or the good, but the poor, the bad and the ugly as well. It’s a foretaste of the heavenly banquet where God cares for us all equally and we can join together giving thanks for the unbelievable gift of his love for us.
So, let’s quit jockeying for honor and position. Instead, let’s remake our guest list so we can have the best party ever—God’s Kingdom Party right here on earth.
