Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost 2025 Lucas 14:1, 7-14 Rev. Neli Miranda The “ honor and shame” culture ruled in some ancient societies, including first-century Palestine. These were two pivotal values that structured the public life of Jewish society. Honor was the fundamental “social currency” which was a reputation ascribed at birth in a recognized family and achieved through power, wealth, and social standing. Shame, on the other hand, was not merely private guilt but a public reality. It meant the loss of face and status in the community’s eyes. In Jesus’s time, most of the population—the poor, the sick, the despised tax collectors and prostitutes, and those considered criminals—lived in a state of shame, excluded from the circles of the honorable elite. Shame and honor governed public behavior and was a strong incentive that marked people’s daily actions. Maintaining one’s status was a primary motivation even if it meant stepping over others. So...
