So not too long ago I’ve been reading the first part of Luke 14, here it is below.
One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. There in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy. Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away.
Then he asked them, “If one of you has a son[a] or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?” And they had nothing to say.
When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
It occurs to me that there are two things going on here. The first was that Jesus was eating with the Pharisees. From what I know of Jewish culture at the time, having a meal at someone’s house was something one didn’t do lightly. Traditionally Jews didn’t eat with Gentiles at all because that was joining too closely with a people who were against what they believed with. At another point in the gospel of Luke, people are aghast at Jesus when he eats with the tax collector (read:traitor to the Jews) Zaccheus and his friends, how could Jesus join himself with such people. And yet, while sitting at dinner with the Pharisees, and showing his kinship with them, he also takes a moment (or several) to speak out against the immoralities that was happening all around him.
It’s something that I missed all the times when I’ve read this previously, Jesus did not allow his disagreement with the behaviour of the Pharisees to prevent him from sitting at the table with them, at the same time he did not allow the bonds he was actively developing with the Pharisees to come in the way of him speaking out against their behaviour. He both sat and the table, and he did not play their games.
It’s similar to what happened with Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the book of Daniel. Several times in the book we see areas where these four Hebrews refuse to give way to the Babylonian authorities, and the Babylonian way of life. On the other hand, we also see these men submitting to learn Babylonian history and literature, and to become part of the Babylonian government. In some ways, they too sat at the table and did not play the Babylonian games. The thing that I’ve never completely figured out, is where they drew the line between sitting at the table and playing the games.
Today, with this year being an election year, my thoughts turn to politics. Where do we draw the line between sitting at the table and playing the game? Similarly, in business/commerce where can we draw the line?
I’d like to hear some of your thoughts about where you personally draw the line in different parts of your life between sitting at the table and playing the corrupt games.
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