Seek The Lowest Place
- Deacon Dan DeLuca
- Oct 31, 2022
- 5 min read
Self promotion. That has been one of the side effects of social media. Those who become famous on social media do a great job of promoting themselves. They let the world know how important they are and how much their opinion matters. They let the world know how much they should be honored: seeking out their place of prominence. They ignore the words of this Gospel, a Gospel that encourages us to do the exact opposite. A gospel that encourages us to be humble and to seek the lowest place. Do we seek places of honor or are we content to seek the lowest place? Let us pray with that question as we read this Gospel.
Humility and Hospitality
One sabbath when he went to dine at the house of a ruler who belonged to the Pharisees, they were watching him. Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he marked how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, “When you are invited by any one to a marriage feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest a more eminent man than you be invited by him; and he who invited you both will come, and say to you, ‘Give place to this man,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For every one who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 14 : 1, 7-11
Scriptural Analysis
For this Gospel reading the Church has chosen to break things up a bit. The lectionary presents us with the first verse of chapter fourteen, then it skips ahead and finishes with verses seven through eleven. Chapter fourteen open with Jesus, for the third time now, dining in the house of a Pharisee. In verses two through six, not presented in this reading, Jesus heals a man suffering from dropsy. This is the third such Sabbath healing that Jesus performs. Jesus uses this healing to once again challenge the Pharisees’ Sabbath practices. They had no response to his challenge.
Jesus notices how they are more concerned with choosing their place of honor, where they would sit and be noticed as someone of importance, at banquets. The word marked is translated from the Greek epechōn and can be more literally translated “grasped with his mind how” indicting he was paying close attention to the guests at this dinner. He uses this opportunity to teach again in parables, the first or which we read in this Gospel.
Jesus instructs the guests that when they are invited to a banquet, instead of sitting in places of honor, take the lowest place. That way, if a more distinguished guest is present, they are not embraced by being asked to give up their seat of prominence and move to a lower seat, “Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presence or stand in the place of the great; for it is better to be told, ‘Come up here, than to be put lower in the presence of the prince.’” (Proverbs 25:6-7) Rather, allow the master of the banquet to notice you sitting in a lower seat and invite you to move into a seat of honor. The passage closes with what will become a familiar exhortation: those who exalt themselves will be humbled where as those who humble themselves will be exalted.
Note how the feast mentioned here is a marriage banquet. This is the same as in the parable of the servants awaiting the master’s return, “and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the marriage feast.” (Luke 12:36) At Levi’s banquet Jesus referred to himself as the bridegroom, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?” (Luke 5:34) Therefore, this focus of this parable which on the surface is about banquet etiquette, is clearly about how to enter the messianic banquet in the Kingdom.
Daily Application
The story of Saint Francis of Assisi provides a beautiful example of the fruits that a life lived seeking the lowest place can produce. Saint Francis was born into great wealth but became disillusioned with it all and gave it up. He took the lowest place on the societal ladder he could: that of a destitute beggar. At one point, in his attempt to start a new religious order based on this lifestyle, he had an audience with Pope Innocent. The Pope allegedly told Saint Francis to go roll around with the pigs. Saint Francis’s response was to go and actually roll around with the pigs. Rolling around with the pigs is most certainly not a seat of honor. However, in that activity, Francis found great joy and peace.
This is the message of this Gospel passage: trying to run the rat race of society is not going to lead to eternal happiness (or even earthly happiness). Quite the opposite in fact. It is going to lead to your eternal death. Now, I am not saying that achievement means you are going to hell. There is nothing wrong with working hard and achieving. However, what is the motivation for working hard and achieving. Is it about you and your ego? Is it about gaining recognition for yourself, gaining notoriety? That is what matters, the motivation, the interior disposition.
Jesus is telling us, if we want to enter the Kingdom of God, then we need to seek out the lowest seat. He gave us the ultimate example of such seeking out of the lowest place. He willingly went to the cross. That is the lowest place we are called to imitate. What does our imitation of that look like? It starts with the humility that he exhibited. We have to imitate that: humble ourself to the will of God. It also means we humble ourselves to those around us. Do not seek praise but rather be continent with going unnoticed. Do not point to your work seeking approval. Let the quality of your work stand on its own. Lastly, be ready to serve: to poor yourself out completely for others.
Will others around you get the glory? More than likely, yes, that will be the case. Will they perhaps have more material comfort than you? Again, that is also highly likely. However, you will gain two things. In this life, there is great freedom that comes from seeking the low place, from going unnoticed. More importantly, when the Master sends out the invite for the heavenly banquet and you arrive, he will invite you to sit in a seat of honor and that seat is greater than any seat of honor this earth can offer.
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