"Friend, Move Up Higher" (Sermon on Luke 14:1-14)

I’ve attended many weddings in my life. My role at those weddings differed. At one, of course, I was the groom. At a couple of others, I was the best man. At some weddings, I have been the preacher and officiant. At other weddings, I was just one among many invited guests. Last year our daughter Mary got married. Later this month, our son Matthew is getting married. So it’s no surprise that at the dinners following these weddings, my seating position will vary accordingly. When I’m the best man or the officiant, I get to sit at the head table. When I’m just one of the crowd, I do not. In fact, if I were to try to sit at the head table, I would be very much out of place and might even be asked to leave.

Well, that’s kind of the situation Jesus describes in today’s Gospel. But what he has on his mind is far more important than mere dinner etiquette or table manners. What Jesus has to say to us today has to do with our place before God, our place in God’s kingdom, our place for eternity.

The story opens at a house where Jesus had been invited for supper. The dinner guests who were there included a number of Pharisees, and they were keeping a close watch on Jesus. They had heard about this traveling rabbi, and now they wanted to see him up close and in person. No doubt some of them were looking for something they could catch Jesus on, to trip him up and trap him. “They were watching him carefully.”

Little did they realize, though, that Jesus was carefully watching them. “He noticed,” it says, “he noticed how they chose the places of honor.” And not only did he notice their behavior, he also knew their motives. You see, Jesus could read people like a book. In John’s Gospel it says that Jesus “knew what was in a man,” that is, in a person’s very heart and mind. That’s because Jesus is true God, and thus he knows the innermost thoughts of his creatures.

God sees all and knows all. There is no fooling him. There is no hiding from him. If we think that our sins are hidden from God, well, we need to think again. Even sins like pride and envy and coveting--secret things no one can see--God sees. He knows what’s going on inside of us. God knows our deceitful hearts even better than we do.

And so Jesus, the Son of God, knew the sinful pride that was motivating these guests at the dinner table. Their biggest concern was to look good in the eyes of others. The Pharisees as a group particularly had this desire for recognition. On a number of occasions Jesus called them on it. “Woe to you Pharisees,” he said, “because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.” On another occasion he said of the Pharisees, “Everything they do is done for men to see.”

So it was when it came to banquet seating. Their desire was to be seen as important, and it caused them to compete for the prime places. Jesus knew this; he read it in their hearts. And so he tells them: “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.”

Jesus here is talking on their level, in terms the Pharisees could understand. They had a strong interest not only in seeking honor, but also in avoiding shame. And so, on a practical level, Jesus’ advice would make sense to them. They didn’t want to do anything that might cause them to lose face.

But at the same time Jesus here is exposing their shallow concern for attention. He cuts through their pious facade and shows them what is really in their heart. It’s like he’s saying, “I can see what’s really going on inside of you. You’re not fooling me. You’re not fooling God, either.”

Jesus continues: “But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you.”

Obviously, Jesus is not interested here in giving the Pharisees just a better strategy for gaining attention, like, “Taking the high spot is risky; you might get called back down. So better to take a low spot and get called up. That’s a safer way to get the attention you crave and to look good in front of others. Try the false humility angle.” No, of course, Jesus is not advocating that.

But by speaking to the Pharisees on a level they can understand--something that would appeal to their self-interest and their desire to look good--Jesus is exposing that desire for prestige as their real main concern. That was their god. That was their idol. And Jesus is saying, “I see that. God sees it, too. He knows what is in your heart.”

Jesus here exposes the dark and hidden recesses of the human heart. He shows us the pride and self-centeredness that lurk in every one of us. For we all do the same thing as the Pharisees, which is to place self on the throne at the expense of loving and trusting in God and loving and serving our neighbor. In a thousand different ways, we do that same thing every day. Ask yourself: How have I been advancing myself and my own interests at the expense of others? Have I been relying on God or relying on myself? Have I been seeking God’s approval or popularity with my peers? The answers to these questions will reveal the heart of a sinner.

Jesus would have us realize that and admit it, so that we will come to the place of repentance, so we will be in the position where we are ready to receive God’s help. For until we realize how low we are, we resist the idea that we need God’s grace to lift us up. But once I know that my sinful heart is known to God, all that’s left to me then is true humility, which is to admit that I am but a poor miserable sinner in need of God’s mercy.

And so Jesus comes to the main point: “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

He who exalts himself--before God--will be humbled--by God. He who humbles himself--before God--will be exalted--by God. Jesus here is giving us an open door to true exaltation--the kind that comes when God lifts up a helpless and undeserving sinner. Repentance and faith are the aim of Jesus’ teaching: Repentance that admits our sin and our need. Faith in God’s gracious promise to lift us up and give us better than we deserve.

God lifts us up because his Son Jesus Christ was lifted up--on the cross. Christ Jesus came and took the lowest place, our place, the place of a sinner condemned to die. Jesus took your place, he took your sins and died the death that you deserve, so that you would not die eternally but live--so that you would have eternal life! “He humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross.” “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place,” that of our risen and ascended Lord.

Now Jesus is saying to you, “Friend, move up higher.” Move up to a better place. I will lift you up from the miry pit and set your feet upon solid ground. I will lift you up from the place of sin and confusion to the place of forgiveness and faith. I will lift you up from that selfish striving after position and give you a place in my kingdom, freely, purely out of my grace. Yes, Jesus addresses you as friend and invites you to move up higher, to the place that he gives you.

Joined to Jesus by faith, you and I now have the undeserved honor of sharing in Christ’s righteousness. Now we have the freedom, as God’s forgiven people, to “move on up”--to enter into the presence of the holy God and sing his praises. We have moved up higher. To this place, where God forgives our sins, this place where God gives us life, real life.

“Friend, move up higher.” Move up and take your place at this altar, where you will receive the bread of life and the cup of salvation. My friends, you are invited to the wedding feast! It begins right here, the wedding feast of the Lamb in his kingdom, which will have no end.

Today our Lord calls one each of us, “friend,” the recipient of his love and affection. He calls us to move on up--up out of the self-centeredness that consumes us, up out of the sin that condemns us, up out of the death that confronts us. He calls each of us to move up to a better place, a place of honor as his invited guest. “Friend, move up higher.”

Luke 14:1-14 (ESV)

One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” And they could not reply to these things.

Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ 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, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

I’ve attended many weddings in my life.

As a wedding crasher?

and might even be asked to leave.

I was actually disinvited to a cousin's wedding about a year ago because I wouldn't promise not to be drunk and disorderly.

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