I’ve often imagined what it would be like to invite Jesus to my home for dinner. The idea makes me anxious. What would Jesus say? What am I proud of that he would condemn? What do I dismiss as unimportant that he would praise?
There are several accounts in Luke’s gospel of people inviting Jesus into their homes. Several weeks ago we read about Simon the Pharisee who invited Jesus for a meal. An unnamed woman came and anointed Jesus’ feet. The whole thing was certainly embarrassing, yet Jesus criticizes his host for a lack of basic hospitality and praises the woman.
Then a couple weeks ago we had the story of Mary and Martha. Martha is doing her duty as a hostess while Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus listening. We’re tempted to take Martha’s part and criticize Mary for being lax. But Jesus criticizes Martha and praises Mary.
Later this year we’ll get to the story of Zacchaeus, the “wee little man” who was a tax collector and climbed a tree to see Jesus walk by. In that case Jesus invites himself to dinner. We’d expect Jesus to really rip into this tax collector. Tax collectors were despised and often crooked. Yet before Jesus can even say a word Zacchaeus is apologizing and promising a change of life.
Yes, you just don’t know what will happen if Jesus comes to your house.
Let’s see what we learn from the encounter we read today where a Pharisee invites Jesus to a meal. We take a step back and remind ourselves of two things. First, we’re still reading in Luke’s gospel about Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. He is no longer traveling around his home territory of Galilee but is slowly making his way south. This Pharisee had probably heard of Jesus before. Now Jesus had come into his area and a large crowd had gathered to hear him speak. So he invites Jesus to his home.
Second, Jesus was probably considered by most Jews to belong to the sect of Pharisees. Only the Pharisees had synagogues. None of the other sects did. Jesus has been teaching in synagogues all along. So, the dinner scene is not as if a Sadducee or Herodian had been invited. If Jesus were considered to be from one of those groups we’d expect conflict and confrontation. But, this encounter is among people of the same general religious group. The Pharisee could reasonably assume Jesus knew the beliefs and practices of people like himself.
But things do not go well. Right off the bat Jesus goes in and takes his place at the table without properly washing. This is not a matter of hygiene. It is a matter of ritual and religious practice.
When someone comes into our home there are countless social expectations involved. We don’t realize it, but there are. How would you feel if a guest who’d never been in your house before just walked in, dropped his shoes and coat on the floor at the door, started rearranging the furniture, took pictures off the wall to look at them, and then just walked to the fridge, opened it, and starting looking inside? There’s nothing outright dangerous or wrong with doing that sort of thing, but none of it is what we consider to be appropriate conduct from a guest.
Jesus does not follow, or seems to deliberately ignore, the Pharisee’s household’s religious practices and traditions. He is not being a good guest! Luke tells us that the Pharisee noted this but said nothing. The Pharisee is being a good host, not wanting to embarrass a guest in his house. The same way you may overlook any number of social faux pas from a guest. We learn later in the story that there are a good number of prominent guests at the Pharisee’s house. The Pharisee was probably embarrassed in front of his other guests, but again, as a good host not wanting to challenge or shame a guest, he keeps silent.
Perhaps, Jesus being from the backwards northern hick country of Galilee, his possibly ignorance of proper conduct could be overlooked. The Pharisee and his guests could all snicker about it later after Jesus has left.
But Jesus, who is already exhibiting behavior deviant from expected norms, goes further. Hosts should not embarrass their guests and guests should not embarrass their hosts. Jesus reveals that he not only knows the expected social norms yet is choosing to violate them, and he also reveals that he knows what’s going on inside their heads. So, he embarrasses his host and the other guests by saying, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.”
Ouch! What a way for Jesus to address an apparently kind and religious host! What a way to embarrass all the guests! I’m sure you’ve all been to a party or a gathering when someone says or does something that causes stunned silence and embarrassment from everyone else there. It is awkward to say the least. I imagine the scene where a large group of people were gathered at the Pharisees house for a good and pleasant meal, then Jesus as a guest ignores the rules and makes it worse by spouting off condemnations to them all.
Taken aback, and probably trying to politely release the tension a lawyer speaks us, “Teacher…” And notice that by addressing Jesus as “teacher” this lawyer is still showing Jesus polite respect. “…when you say these things, you insult us too!” But Jesus turns the social tension up even higher by proclaiming woes to the lawyers as well.
I know there are plenty of sleazy liability lawyers advertising their services all over the place. It is easy to judge lawyers, but let’s remember that the vast majority of lawyers simply represent their clients in routine matters and charge accordingly.
What is going on with this scene, and what do we take from it? Again, let’s keep in mind that everyone there is being kind, polite, and respectful. These are what we would call “good” people. We’d almost certainly like them. The are cultured, controlled, and respectful. But Jesus rips into them repeatedly. Obviously they are not as good as they think they are. What are they missing? And if they are like us, then what might we be missing?
Pharisees came from all economic classes: rich, poor, middle class. If the Pharisee in today’s story had a house big enough to host a major dinner party, and if some of the guests were lawyers, then it’s pretty safe to assume this Pharisee was well-to-do, if not downright wealthy. The lawyers too, were probably well-to-do. It is probably safe to say that none of the guests had callouses on their hands by making it through life with hard manual labor. In other words, they were management types who lived a step away from reality.
In their world of management they did all sorts of things that they considered to be proper morality and ethics. They followed religious laws. They thought their prosperity was proof that they were blessed by God. They had created their own circular logic of virtue. If you brought their morality and religiosity into question they could point to all sorts of virtues in their lives. They not only tithed, they tithed from their spices. They donated generously. They contributed to the preservation of important religious places, like the tombs of the prophets. It was hard to truly challenge them. Jesus points all of it out as misguided.
The same dynamics easily happen in our society today. It is easy to pick a political party or ideology and then take on its morality. You buy products that signal to which group you belong. You read books or listen to podcasts that reinforce the views you already have. Computer algorithms show us content that we agree with. It is easy to live in an echo chamber that tells us how good we are; and how bad, or ignorant, or even stupid, those we disagree with are.
But are we really good? How connected to reality are we? Are we not just participating in vast global systems of production and consumption? My intent is not to criticize global dynamics that give us comforts and conveniences. But I will remind us that we can easily call ourselves “good” and be totally ignorant of the real consequences of our lives.
We could beat ourselves up or wring our hands in helplessness but that would not be helpful. I think what Jesus wants from us, and what Jesus wanted from the Pharisees and lawyers that day in our gospel reading, was a recognition of sinfulness. Or said differently, not having smugness where we think ourselves better than others and look down on them.
It is the core of our faith to realize that we fall short of God’s desires; no matter how good our social groups tell us we are. I’d go so far as to say we trust the messages that we are good from our social groups more than we trust God.
It all comes down to humility, and openness to our frailties. With that attitude I think if Jesus were to come to our home we’d have an enjoyable time. It is those who think highly of themselves and their morals that Jesus has problems with. Those who are aware that they have failings, and are aware that we live in a society that makes it impossible to truly live ideally, are also open to Jesus. He had good things to say to such people and seemed to enjoy their presence.
All in all, we seek to be moral but do not take pride in the morality. We remember our need for God’s grace, and that even when we are truly moral in our lives we are still responding to God’s promptings in our hearts.
