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At a Sabbath meal in a Pharisee’s house, Christ explains why anyone with an ounce of self-respect must strive to be humble, or else look completely foolish.

Editor’s Notes

In this part, Fr. Coleridge tells us…

How Christ teaches humility, charity, and the danger of spurning the call of grace.
That spiritual pride, self-interest, and worldly attachments exclude men from the heavenly banquet.
Why He warns even the religious elite that many who are invited will nonetheless find themselves shut out.

He also shows us an almost playful side of Our Lord, and suggests what the detail in this Gospel extract reveals about St Luke’s source.

For more context on this section, and its place in the Gospel and the Liturgy, see the previous part.

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Our Lord in the Pharisee’s House

The Preaching of the Cross, Part II

Chapter VIII
St. Luke xiv. 1-35.
Story of the Gospels, § 111-3
Burns and Oates, London, 1887

Parable to the guests

‘Again, He spoke a parable also to them that were invited, marking how they chose the first seats at the table, saying to them, When thou art invited to a wedding, sit not down in the first place, lest perhaps one more honourable than thou be invited by him, and he that invited thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place, and then thou begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when thou art invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, that when he who doth invite thee cometh, he may say to thee, Friend, go up higher.
‘Then shalt thou have glory before them that sit at table with thee. Because every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.’

It would seem that the occasion was one on which there were a number of invited guests, chiefly, we may suppose, Pharisees like the host. It was left to them to choose their own places at the table, and our Lord observed them as they came in, taking what appeared the best places. The parable, as St. Luke cites it, was a gentle reproof of this way of acting, on account of its folly. It showed a certain amount of pride and selfishness, and was an index of interior qualities in the heart which might expose men to great dangers.

For it might be taken as showing that such people would put themselves forward for honour and distinction in other more important matters, ambitioning and seizing positions for which they were unfit, and in which they might do great harm to themselves and others, and incur great disgrace thereby. What our Lord points out is that it is the Providential rule of the ordinary government of human affairs that those who exalt themselves shall be humbled and those who abase themselves exalted.

This rule He illustrates by what might happen on occasion of any great banquet, such as a wedding-feast, in which the host would not leave the places at the table unallotted, so that if the best places were occupied at random by the first comers, those who had thus seated themselves first might have to undergo the public humiliation of being sent down even to the lowest place at the table. This was not a wedding-feast, but the evil desire of self-exaltation was shown in the conduct of those to whom our Lord spoke, indirectly reproving them for their display of selfishness, and putting His teaching on the ground of simple impolicy, which made the reproof less severe.

This was the spiritual alms which our Lord then gave to these guests—containing a doctrine far deeper and more important than they suspected. For it is indeed the way of God in His Providence to be constantly humbling those who exalt themselves, and exalting those who humble themselves, striking down the boastful and proud, even when to all human appearance they have reason to trust in the stability of their position.

Thus prudent and thoughtful men are at once alarmed for their friends, when they see in them anything of pride and arrogance, because they expect that Providence will bring about their humiliation in the eyes of the world. For it is a part of God’s rule to keep men alive to the danger of self-exaltation, and the manner in which this Divine object is accomplished varies indeed from time to time, and yet the object is inevitably attained.

Thus God did not strike the wicked King Herod, of whom we read in the Acts, though he had slain one Apostle and imprisoned another with the intention of putting him to death, until he had listened with complacency to the words of his flatterers, who said ‘it is the voice of a God not of a man.’ All history is full of examples of the same rule, which was recognized even by the heathen, as we see in poets like Æschylus.

But our Lord had in His mind a deeper meaning for His parable. For He was thinking of the spiritual Kingdom of God, in which this law of the exaltation of those who humble themselves and the humiliation of those who exalt themselves is invariable, in which the highest graces are won on the condition of self-abasement, and the greatest falls and ruins ensured by self-elation and pride.

Advice to the host

Having thus fed the souls of the guests, our Lord added a special counsel to the host who entertained them. He did not reprove him for his entertainment, but, in the same gentle and almost playful way, He suggested a Divine rule of conduct which would certainly be of immense benefit to him. It would raise his thoughts to heavenly interests, which perhaps he had never dreamt of advancing in the way now suggested by our Lord. It would make him look to the employment of any ample means which he might possess in a manner which would be a greater exercise of charity, and so secure for himself a reward in the next world instead of in this.

‘And He said to him also who had invited Him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends nor thy kinsmen nor thy neighbours who are rich, lest perhaps they also invite thee again, and a recompence be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and thou shalt be blessed, because they have not wherewith to render thee recompence, for recompence shall be made thee at the resurrection of the just.’

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Entertaining the poor

What is meant is not that there are to be no entertainments among friends of equal means, kinsmen, neighbours, and others. For these have their part in the arrangements of society as such, and are good for the cultivation and increase of mutual charities and friendly offices. But it is meant that it is far better that money should be spent in charity on those who are in need or in misery, and who have no earthly means or opportunities of returning the kindness.

Even in society it would not be well to entertain others for the sake of being entertained and feasted in return. For all such entertainments must have a higher motive than selfishness. But even good people in the world seldom consider what an opportunity of grace and even of prudence is open to them if they will use their riches in the way of charity.

We shall soon speak of the steward who was commended by his lord for making a clever, though unjust, use of his opportunities to secure himself friends, and our Lord, when He gave that parable, told His disciples to make themselves friends of the mammon of iniquity. What He now recommends to His host is practically the same, to consider the most ordinary employments of time or of the kindly use of wealth as occasions which may be turned to the benefit of his soul, to understand the immense field laid open to him in the Providence of God by the existence on all sides of him of so many different forms of human misery, a field by the working of which he might so easily secure to himself treasures and helps of incalculable richness and efficacy.

Blessed indeed are those who have the good things of this world at their disposal, and who understand, as holy David says, concerning the poor and needy. Still more blessed those, whether rich or poor, who learn to labour in every action of their lives to gain something for the Kingdom of Heaven, and to do something that may be recompensed in the resurrection of the just.

It would almost seem as if St. Luke had been able to gather a complete narrative of what passed on this Sabbath, either from the Pharisee who entertained our Lord or from some one of the company present. He has already told us of the miracle on the dropsical man, of our Lord’s question to the Pharisees, of the healing of the poor sufferer before Him, and of His words explaining the doctrine of the Sabbath. He has added what our Lord said to the invited guests, and the instruction which He gave to the host. This man may afterwards have become a disciple, and may have delighted to relate to the Evangelist all the incidents of this remarkable day.

There are little touches in the story which make us think that it may have been originally related by an eye-witness, and the insertion of the instruction given to the host makes it probable that it came from him. In any case St. Luke has more to tell. Very likely the entertainment proceeded happily and joyously, as was natural after the working of so beautiful a miracle. Our Lord must have been the centre of all eyes wherever He was, and His gracious and sweet discourse must have spread out a soft atmosphere of peaceful and holy thoughts all around.

And so it seems that the guests themselves were led on to speak of the things of God. This gave our Lord an opportunity of adding a further head of instruction, into which He was able to throw a note of warning, being already master of His audience and sure of their goodwill.

Exclamation of the guest

‘When one of them that sat at table with Him had heard these things, he said to Him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God.’

The remark was evidently suggested by our Lord’s words about the recompence at the resurrection of the just. It is as if he had said, Yes, indeed, to be admitted to the feast then to be made would be a blessing well worth toiling and spending for.

And then our Lord was able to go further in the doctrine which He was teaching, and to add to what had been said in the merciful though severe warning contained in the parable of the Great Supper. He seemed to tell them that it was indeed a blessed thing to eat bread in the Kingdom of God, and that there would be no lack of invitation to that blessing on the part of God.

But still there would be many excluded from that blessing by their own act, who would be invited and who would refuse. Here again the fault is laid to men’s own slothfulness, dulness, heedlessness. They will be so engrossed in worldly and temporal matters, as to have no attention to give to the call of God.

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