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. Social interactions like giving and attending banquets were signs of honor, and hosting a banquet filled with distinguished guests was a strategic way to affirm one’s honor. At the banquet, guests desperately sought to occupy the seat closest to the host as a declaration of their importance. Conversely, those considered “despised” were never invited to these banquets. Sharing a table with the shamed meant losing honor, diminishing one’s own.

Jesus very often disrupted this social code. For instance, in previous verses we find a Pharisee hosting Jesus when a “sinner woman” approaches and anoints his feet. Jesus responds to her gesture with acceptance, while the Pharisee, preserving his honor, immediately repudiates her. In this moment, Jesus embraces shame within the prevailing honor-shame culture, revealing the principles of the Kingdom of God: equity and equality.

Today, we read that Jesus has been invited to a meal at the house of a leader of the Pharisees. While there, Jesus observes how the guests are looking for the most honorable places to sit. Seizing the moment, Jesus teaches both the host and the guests how to break down that oppressive hierarchical social system. He advises the guests not to seek the highest seats but to take the lowest ones, thus allowing the host the opportunity to elevate and honor them in front of everyone at the table. If not, sitting in the highest places may lead to the humiliation of being asked to move down to give the place to someone more distinguished. As the saying goes, “The higher you climb, the harder you fall”. Embracing humility is the way to avoid the walk of shame!

This is more than a lesson about table manners; It reflects a core value of the Kingdom of God: humility.  As Jesus states, “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted" (14:11). Imagine that no one is interested in sitting in the “seats of honor” … VIP seats would lose their significance, and the community could share freely and peacefully without any social barriers. This is the Kingdom of God!

After addressing the guests, Jesus turns his attention to the host, a prominent Pharisee who likely invited only “distinguished people” to his table, expecting their future reciprocity. Jesus encourages him to overturn the system that privileges some while despising others: “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid”  Instead, Jesus urges him to invite the poor, crippled, lame, and blind—those who cannot repay the invitation. True honor comes from God for those who have the courage to break social conventions and include those whom no one else invites into their circle because they are considered socially unworthy. Those who extend such generosity will be blessed and rewarded in the life to come: “And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (14:14).

Sisters and brothers, this discriminatory and segregating social system of “honor and shame” still governs our social practices, privileging some while despising and shaming others. As Jesus’ disciples, we are called to change this unjust system and live according to the principles of the Kingdom of God, dismantling any hierarchical structures that promote a struggle for the most “honorable places” in our community. Jesus reminds us that in the Kingdom of God, blessings, honor, and exaltation come from humility, from sitting and sharing with those deemed despised, from inviting to our table those who cannot return the favor, and from breaking down social injustice.

May we heed Jesus’ teachings and reject the practices that create shame among us. Let us honor our sisters and brothers! Amen.