Our Particular Table | Foundations of Mercy

Our Particular Table

Money, Love, Desire - Foundations of Mercy

Written by Douglas Wilson

Saturday, 31 January 2009 04:09

Yesterday I gave a talk to the Logos secondary as part of their Knights Festival, as a lead-in to their banquet. The text I was using was Luke 14, and I noticed something there I had not seen before.

Jesus is breaking bread with one of the chief Pharisees (Luke 14:1). That is the context -- apparently He would share table fellowship with anyone, even the respectable. He says a number of things characteristic of His teaching, summed up in the promise that if we humble ourselves truly, God will exalt us (v. 11).

Then He tells His followers that they are not to invite people over as a tricksy way of getting invited over. (I don't think He is prohibiting table fellowship with friends by the way. But if that is the only thing that ever happens, there is clearly a problem.) He then says this:

"But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just" (Luke 14:13-14).

This is what Jesus expects to be happening among His followers. But, as always, He is asking nothing of us that He has not done first Himself. In the next story, Jesus speaks about His kingdom at large this way:

"Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind" (Luke 14: 21).

In other words, Christ's kingdom is populated with losers, and He invites us all into His great banquet hall. He then tells us to exhibit the same standard, display the same humility, when we, inside that banquet hall, are looking to invite people to sit down with us at our particular table.

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Last Updated on Saturday, 31 January 2009 04:09

Comments

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David

Saturday, January 31, 2009 6:28 am

Doug: Thanks. I had never seen the connection between the two stories before.

Tapani Simojoki

Saturday, January 31, 2009 8:11 am

This is an astute and timely observation. There's a real practical difficulty involved in applying this kind of teaching of Jesus in our kind of non-collectivist, macroscopic and fragmented society. But that's no argument for not following Jesus' teaching. I suppose there's a book waiting to be written.

I wonder what the eucharistic corollary of this might be, if any.

Douglas Wilson

Saturday, January 31, 2009 2:23 pm

Tapani, the problem is that Christ's teaching runs counter to the human heart. I don't think it has anything to do with "non-collectivist, macroscopic, or fragmented societies." The demands of discipleship are no easier in collectivist, microscopic or unified societies. All disciples have always had to take up their cross daily, and not just Americans.

Your comment about the eucharistic corollary is quite an interesting one because the Lord's Table is a disciplined place. I hope to write on that further sometime soon.

lewsta

Saturday, January 31, 2009 4:33 pm

And so it would seem the old principal of like begetting like applies even in our fellowship. When we, the outcast and separeted, are invited in to the feast, we are elevated in our station by BEING at that feast, rather then without, as we once were. Now we are to call in those like we once were. Comfort others with the same comfort we have received so freely. I do believe the connexion with the Table is not a stretch. We who were once His enemies are now seated at His Table (grace a HIS sacrifice, not of any of ours). As we abide there continually our lives will affect others, who will also be drawn to the Covenant, of which this Feast is a key expression.

Tapani Simojoki

Wednesday, February 04, 2009 8:03 am

Thanks for your response in detail to the eucharistic question. I agree entirely.

I suppose the point about a "non-collectivist, macroscopic and fragmented society" wasn't to suggest that it's somehow easier and harder to be a disciple in a certain kind of society. Rather, the question is, what does this parable look like on the ground in the US (or the UK, which is where I'm writing, or wherever)? If someone reads the parable and goes to his pastor with "How can I put this into practice?", given the practical difficulties in literal application, what's the pastoral answer? As you write in your follow-up post, literalist biblicism gives easy answers, but often not good answers.

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