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In Episode 511 of The Reformed Brotherhood, Jesse and Tony take their seats at a first-century dinner table in Galilee — and discover that Jesus has been watching the whole time. Working through Luke 14:7–15, the guys unpack the Parable of the Wedding Feast, tracing its roots in Proverbs 25, its immediate confrontation with Pharisaical pride, and its stunning eschatological vision of grace. Along the way, they wrestle with a danger unique to the Reformed tradition: the drift from the doctrine of election into a subtle spiritual elitism. The episode is both theologically rich and refreshingly practical, asking what it looks like when believers — dead in sin and made alive only by grace — genuinely take the lowest seat, not as a calculated strategy, but as the honest posture of those who know they are guests by grace alone.
One of the most important distinctions the guys draw out is the difference between calculated self-deprecation and genuine gospel humility. A careless reading of Luke 14 could reduce it to a social technique: sit low, get called high — a kind of spiritual judo move for climbing the honor ladder. But Jesse and Tony are clear that Christ is not commending clever positioning. The person in view who is ultimately elevated is the one who sat at the bottom because they genuinely assessed themselves to belong there. Proverbs 25:6–7, which Jesus is essentially applying in real time, is not a networking tip. It is a word about the posture of the heart before God and neighbor. False humility — the kind that performs lowliness while angling for recognition — is, as Tony notes, just another expression of the same pride it pretends to escape.
Tony raises a pointed and self-aware observation that Reformed Christians in particular need to sit with. The same theology that rightly exalts the sovereignty of God in salvation — the doctrine of election — can quietly generate a spiritual class consciousness, a subtle sense that "we are the chosen ones." The parable short-circuits this by anchoring everything in the word invited. Everyone at the feast — whether seated high, low, or somewhere in the middle — is there only because the master of the banquet extended an invitation. No guest arranged their own seat. No guest earned the right to attend. The Pharisees in the room prided themselves on their theological precision, yet here was the living Word showing them that their own scriptures (Proverbs 25) condemned the very pride they were enacting. Election is a doctrine of radical grace, not a credential for spiritual rank.
The choice of a wedding feast as the parable's setting is never incidental in Luke — or anywhere in Scripture. Jesse draws the thread from Isaiah's feast for all peoples, through the New Testament's marriage supper of the Lamb, to this moment in a Pharisee's dining room. Jesus is not offering dinner-party etiquette. He is describing the shape of the Kingdom. And the most striking detail, as Tony points out, is what it means in an ancient Near Eastern context to be called to the place of highest honor: you are seated at the table with the host. This is a parable about union with Christ — about the destitute being called not merely to a nicer chair but to the bridegroom's own table. The one who brings nothing but their need is told, "Friend, come up higher." That is the gospel.
The self-promoting guest makes the fatal assumption that he knows his own worth, and the worth of others, better than the host does. But the seating is not ours to arrange. The ranking belongs to the one who issued the invitations. - Jesse Schwamb
I bring nothing to the equation except the sin that made my salvation necessary. And anything that God produces through me in the kingdom of heaven — ultimately that is the Lord's work done through me, and even that does not elevate you at the feast. - Tony Arsenal
If asked what is first in religion, I would answer humility; second, humility; and third, humility. - Augustine, as quoted by Jesse Schwamb
[00:00:00] Jesse Schwamb: Welcome to episode 511 of the Reformed Brotherhood. I'm Jesse.
[00:00:07] Tony Arsenal: And I'm Tony, and this is the podcast with ears to hear Hey, brother.
[00:00:13] Jesse Schwamb: Hey, brother. So it turns out today on this episode, we're gonna take our seats at a dinner table in Galilee, or maybe better said, we're gonna watch others take their seats.
[00:00:24] And in Luke 14, Jesus is a guest in the house of this prominent Pharisee on the Sabbath. Around him are invited all these guests who are quietly maneuvering for the best places, and it turns out Jesus has something to say about that, and of course, he's gonna deliver that teaching in a parable. So we're gonna get to that.
[00:00:42] It's in Luke 14. We're making our way. If you're just joining us now, we're I don't know how many episodes in. Yeah. You, you wanna wager a guess on how long this parable series has been?
[00:00:52] Tony Arsenal: I, I don't know. Been long, though
[00:00:54] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I set that up like I had the answer. I don't have the answer. Yeah. That was really unsatisfying.
[00:00:59] It's, [00:01:00] it's been a while, and we're still going strong.
[00:01:02] Jesse Schwamb: We're in the Book of Luke, like so we'll be in chapter 14 on this episode to talk about all things wedding feast. Uh, this is a pretty big one, too, so we'll see- Yeah ... how far we get, but of course, we're gonna go, we're gonna endeavor to do all the verses in this parable, but probably just some of the verses- Yeah
[00:01:18] if we're being realistic.
[00:01:19] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, we, we just kind of, uh, meander and mosey our way through the scriptures, and that's great. I love it. That's what we do, so- It is ... it'll be good.
[00:01:29] Jesse Schwamb: We've been... When are we gonna author, like, that, you know, like, there's so many niche devotional books these days.
[00:01:36] Like, they're just, like, kind of versions of the scripture where they're kind of repackaged in a way that has, like, a particular bent or a theme. But again, all of these, like, complimentary resources or, like, these tiny little pamphlets, we- when are we gonna author the, the Crockpot devotional, which is, like, low and slow?
[00:01:51] It's like you've heard of reading through the Bible in the rear- in a year. How about reading through six verses a year or something like that?
[00:01:57] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. I feel like [00:02:00] our, our thing would have to be, like, uh, you'd look in the, like, the table of contents, and the verse is supposed to take one week, and actually, it takes three.
[00:02:08] That, that would be our version. You'd, you'd have to, like, plan extra time because you think you're gonna get through, uh, a passage, and, and really, it's gonna take three or four times as long as you thought. That's the Reformed Brotherhood way.
[00:02:21] Jesse Schwamb: Feels like we're missing out there. We'll have to put that together.
[00:02:23] That's, that's a, that's a 2027 goal right there. Let's make it happen.
[00:02:28] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
[00:02:30] Jesse Schwamb: All right.
[00:02:30] Jesse Schwamb: So before we get to the verses that we're gonna get to, no matter how many we actually cover, uh, we've got to go back into that part of the podcast where we take that bold, centuries-old practice of Reformed confessional writing and apply it to things that absolutely do not deserve it.
[00:02:47] So for generations, faithful theologians, they've gathered in drafting rooms, and they hammered out these great truths of the faith in carefully balanced parts. You know, we affirm this glorious doctrine, or we deny against that dreadful error. And [00:03:00] of course, in that noble tradition, we're gonna do it and apply it to things that have far less import on average.
[00:03:05] It's time for affirmations and denials. So my brother Tony, are you affirming with something, or are you denying against something on this episode?
[00:03:13] Tony Arsenal: I'm affirming with something, and due to family illness, I'm a little slow on the uptake. I was hoping to get this in last week at the beginning of the month.
[00:03:23] The astute listener, uh, who also is watching on YouTube, which is probably a very small percentage of our listener base, uh, if you're not someone who typically goes to YouTube, you may want to just for this one episode at least, uh, because I'm rocking the Movember mustache right now. You are. And I'm affirming, uh, Movember, which is a portmanteau of the word mustache and the month November, and it was, uh, an event that was invented by some guys in Australia in 2003.
[00:03:54] And what it is, is it is an opportunity for the month of November to raise [00:04:00] awareness for men's health issues, particularly mental health, uh, which is a real challenge, particularly in men. Uh, women have their own mental health stru- um, issues, uh, and challenges, but men also do, and they tend not to get...
[00:04:14] They tend not to seek treatment for it. But then also for particularly male types of cancer, like prostate cancer, testicular cancer. Um, and then also to bring awareness for preventative health. Another very typical, uh, stereotypical but r- grounded in truth kind of a thing is that men tend to skip out on their preventative checks.
[00:04:35] Um, I think most men probably do an annual physical, but if, y- you know, beyond that, uh, they don't do things like their regular blood work, uh, cancer screenings, those kinds of things, uh, especially single guys. Um, I think guys who are married, uh, tend, their wives tend to keep them on track with that stuff a little bit better, but men tend to wait until something is wrong to go see the doctor.
[00:04:57] So Movember is really about, uh, encouraging [00:05:00] men to go see the doctor proactively. The best kind of medicine is preventative medicine, and so this is just one way to, uh, raise awareness. There's all sorts of events, and, uh, I'm doing a few things at the hospital where I work, hopefully to, to formalize it a little bit.
[00:05:16] But, uh, if you're able and you want to, uh, go ahead and rock the mustache for the month of November. Uh, I think what you're supposed to do is you're supposed to start November clean-shaving and- Right ... build your mustache up. Uh, for those of us who work in a professional environment, that doesn't always work too well 'cause you look like a teenage boy for the first, like, week and a half, and maybe a little bit of a creeper.
[00:05:39] Uh, so I think most of the guys that I work with who do this, they, they start growing... If they don't already have a beard, they start growing their beard sometime in mid-October, and then they shave down to a, a respectable mustache, uh, at the beginning of the month. So if you are not watching this on YouTube, I would encourage you to go check it out, 'cause you're gonna see a [00:06:00] glorious, glorious mustache on this face- Yes, sir
[00:06:02] that only presents itself basically once a year.
[00:06:05] Jesse Schwamb: Yes, sir. Can I just say, let's have some real talk. One- I, I'm just being reminded right now again, you're totally right. I've had this physical appointment that I've been pushing off for months. And my wife Jen has been on me about that. So you're right, it's easy to do.
[00:06:19] It often isn't a priority for me. Second real talk, Tony, is nobody will know, but I'm gonna tell them now that, that maybe a couple hours before we just sat down to do this, we actually FaceTimed you. Got to hang out with the kids for a little bit. And at one point, the camera turned on you. You were in the room, but we didn't see you.
[00:06:36] It turned on you, and then we got off the phone and, uh, my wife says to me, "I just have, like, totally forgotten what Tony looks like." And I was like, "Why do you say that?" And she's like, "He just had, like, this stash going on." And I was like, "Oh, no, I think that's for, like, this month." Like, I, I think it might've been more or less recent.
[00:06:53] But, uh, let me be among the first to say that is a lovely lip sweater- ... that you're rocking. It really, it does [00:07:00] suit you. It really does.
[00:07:01] Tony Arsenal: It's funny. Growing up, my dad always had a mustache. It wasn't until he was much, much older that he grew, like, a full facial hair. I don't actually ever remember a time that my dad did not have a mustache.
[00:07:12] He never did the thing where he fully shaved down. Um, I think maybe he was clean-shaven for our wedding. But other than that, he's always had some level of facial hair. So when I, uh, when I wear the mustache, I kind of, like, embody my dad. It's, it's funny watching myself in the video. I look and I see... I don't really think I look like my dad all that much, but when I have the mustache, I'm like, "Oh, there he is."
[00:07:35] Yeah. So just another reason to rock the mustache, too, if your dad had a mustache growing up. I think once in a while I'll do a mustache another time of year, but really it's mostly just November.
[00:07:44] Jesse Schwamb: Yes. Yeah. Well, it made an impression because- Yeah ... Jen was like, "Wow. Like Tony." 'Cause, uh, clean shaven and then that glorious dirt squirrel just right there-
[00:07:54] in your face. Yeah. It looks fantastic. So- There you go. There you go ... I'm on board. My father also was a patron of [00:08:00] the mustache. I have only done it on rare occasion. Maybe I, maybe I should do it. I don't know what would happen with that. I'm not convinced I can pull it off like you can.
[00:08:09] Tony Arsenal: I don't know, man. You, uh, you did the handlebar mustache-
[00:08:13] wi- like, on top of a full beard, so.
[00:08:16] Jesse Schwamb: Like, 10 minutes. That's all I was allowed to have it for, 10 minutes-
[00:08:19] Tony Arsenal: Yeah ... before hitting one. I'm pretty confident you could pull it off. Yeah. Uh, you, you could rock it. I mean, I don't, I don't know if Jen would let you, but-
[00:08:24] Jesse Schwamb: Yes ...
[00:08:25] Tony Arsenal: you could probably do it.
[00:08:26] Jesse Schwamb: Yes. It's go- gotta deliver peace with those that you love.
[00:08:29] That's all I have to say.
[00:08:29] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. We should do a Patreon fundraiser, like someone who donates enough money- Oh, that's good ... the, you'll just sh- shave it off on a live stream.
[00:08:37] Jesse Schwamb: That's...
[00:08:38] Tony Arsenal: Jen just has to take a cut. Please do not go to the Patreon to donate for that reason- ... because Jesse will not be shaving likely down to a mustache- Well, well, well, well,
[00:08:48] Jesse Schwamb: well
[00:08:48] and we don't want to defraud you ... so hold on a second here. Depends on how much we're talking about. We have- That's true ... goals for the Reformed Brotherhood, so-
[00:08:53] Tony Arsenal: That's true ...
[00:08:54] Jesse Schwamb: if you are thinking to yourself, "Listen, I've got, like, a cool million just sitting aside here waiting for a good philanthropic [00:09:00] purpose," then I do have a deal for you.
[00:09:02] So you can go to our chat group, which is found by going to your browser and typing t.me/reformedbrotherhood. Let us know that you, you got those dollars hanging out, and we can definitely come to an accord. We can make an arrangement. I'm willing to shave everything off for... Everything has a price, I suppose, for that kind of money.
[00:09:20] Yeah.
[00:09:20] Jesse Schwamb: For, for the purpose of the podcast. It's true. Just for the
[00:09:22] Tony Arsenal: podcast. It's true. Well, enough of that, 'cause that's not gonna happen. But Jesse- ... what are you affirming or denying today?
[00:09:30] Jesse Schwamb: I'm going back to the same well. I've got more music, but of, like, a different kind. So I've affirmed before this band or this group, I guess.
[00:09:37] It's called Poor Bishop Hooper. It's a husband-and-wife duo. Actually, maybe they're... the original affirmation came from you, now that I think about it. Might
[00:09:44] Tony Arsenal: have.
[00:09:44] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I think originally- Yeah. It might have ... this is, like, crossing over, like, all of our worlds coming together. So Poor Bishop Hooper is this husband-and-wife duo.
[00:09:52] I describe it, and you tell me if I'm wrong, it's kind of like indie folk rock tangled with, like, ambient atmosphere. Yeah. And I'm bringing them back [00:10:00] up because they just released a new album. It's called Hymns 5 or Hymns V, and it's just absolutely glorious. It's like hushed harmonies drifting over fog on a still lake or, like, I don't know, looking at morning light through stained glass.
[00:10:14] Like, I, I'm drawing a blank on, like, good metaphors here. But they just have a couple of hymns. They're very, like, simplistic in their orchestration, mostly single voice harmony stuff, but it's, like, contemplative and meditative. It's like the sound of ancient prayers wearing a hand-knit sweater. It... There's something that's really-
[00:10:34] unique about their sound that I just absolutely love, and it is... And I know this is overused, but it's true. It is a vibe. It's a total vibe. Yeah. So if you're looking for a little bit of, like, a throwback to, like, some really beautiful old-school hymns, I'm talking like What a Friend We Have in Jesus, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms, Just a Closer Walk With Thee, Rock of Ages.
[00:10:55] It's just a six-song album that's really, really beautiful. So [00:11:00] I don't know. I think this time of year, as the weather changes, we're drawn more inside and sometimes more inside of ourselves. It's helpful to have some music that causes us to, in those quiet moments, in the still moments, in the dark times, to really rest on Jesus and to draw back to this historical music which, for a very long time, the church has relied on to do just that, to think about him, to worship him, to praise him.
[00:11:24] So go check it out. It's Hymns 5, and the group is Poor Bishop Hooper.
[00:11:31] Tony Arsenal: Yeah, they, um, they're very melodic and very melancholic. Those are like- Yes ... the words- That's a good way to say it ... I would use to describe them. Uh, so very much not Jesse's normal affirmation, which is- ... usually melodic but not melancholic.
[00:11:45] Uh, we will not hear any screaming from- No ... uh, from poor Bishop Hooper. Uh, yeah, I, I'll have to check that out. I think they, they just do beautiful music, and it's not the sort of like happy, snappy stuff you're, you maybe are used to hearing if you listen to [00:12:00] contemporary Christian music at all. Um, it's very...
[00:12:03] The stuff that they write, the lyrics that they write is very, they're very theologically astute, I think. Um, I don't know what tradition they come from. Most of their stuff is fairly general theologically. Um, they tend to write albums around, like, holidays. The first one I listened to was a, sort of a, a, a, like, a Lenten album, and it, it had a lot to do with the Passion of Christ.
[00:12:25] And so it was very, like, dark themes, but nothing that you're gonna be like, "Oh, that's really theologically uniquely from this tradition." Right. Um, it's all very general Christian. But it's all very good and, and sound doctrine that they're promoting. Um, and the music is just, it's beautiful and haunting and sort of...
[00:12:43] It's not what you're used to, I think. It's, it's good, but it's different than, than what you might be listening to on a regular basis. So it's worth checking out.
[00:12:51] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, this is an album that I've just been listening to over and over again and found surprisingly, even though I liked them before, surprisingly drawing me closer and into, like, [00:13:00] their style.
[00:13:00] I'm a sucker for a leaning on the Everlasting Arms. I don't know if that's, like, an underplayed or underappreciated hymn. I have no idea anymore. But you... I, I just rarely hear it, and their version is... It is the hymn. It is in the same melodic fashion. But it is slightly different in its meter, and it, again, it's just enough to bring that warm familiarity while challenging you with something that's a little bit different to your ear, and it's almost like hearing it all over again and falling in love with it- Yeah
[00:13:28] if, uh, for, like, a second time. So I'm just really impressed with what they're able to do. And it's so simple that it's difficult to do. Does that make sense? Like, you hear it and you think This is really well crafted. Every note- Yeah ... every piece of instrumentation here has been brought forward to really let the theology and the melodies come forward so that this would be like an act of worship and meditation.
[00:13:51] I so appreciate that in music. So I don't know. Yeah. Do you... How, how often do you hear Leaning on the Everlasting Arms? Do you guys... Is that like-
[00:13:58] Tony Arsenal: I, I don't know that I've ever heard that hymn.
[00:13:59] Jesse Schwamb: [00:14:00] Oh, really? I think
[00:14:00] Tony Arsenal: it's- I mean, I didn't grow up in a hymn tradition, and, uh- Sure ... we sing out of the Trinity Hymnal at, at our church, so the Trinity Psalter Hymnal, so we don't...
[00:14:09] I don't think I've ever heard that hymn.
[00:14:11] Jesse Schwamb: Oh, man. You gotta hear
[00:14:12] Tony Arsenal: it. I'm going to. So I mean, I'm gonna go listen to this album. So yeah- It's super good ... I think you're right, like the simple styles are often the hardest because there's nothing, there's nothing to hide behind musically.
[00:14:23] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, that's right.
[00:14:23] Tony Arsenal: Like, I mean, you know, you can have music styles that are very good technically and very busy, and so you can, you can afford to like not be great at certain elements of it 'cause other elements cover that over.
[00:14:34] But their style is... It's not, it's not simplistic. It's simple as a- Yes ... like almost like complicatedly simple. Yes. It's so- Takes practice ... technically good at being simple that it's hard to reproduce that kinda style.
[00:14:49] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, it takes amazing amount of work, but they've put it together so beautifully. So-
[00:14:54] Tony Arsenal: Yeah
[00:14:54] Jesse Schwamb: go check it out.
[00:14:55] Jesse Schwamb: But speaking of putting th- together things beautifully, we're coming to Luke 14 again, and we've got what I think is colloquially called the Parable of the Wedding Feast. And so let me pick it up in verse seven. I'm gonna read all the way to 15, and there's even, again, if you're a keener, if you want some extra homework here, really you should start at the beginning of the chapter in verse one.
[00:15:20] But for the sake of time, to get us into the meat of what we're talking about in this episode, I'm gonna begin in verse seven, which begins like this: "And Jesus was telling a parable to the invited guests when he noticed how they were picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them, 'When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not recline at the place of honor, lest someone more highly regarded than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, "Give your place to this man," and then in shame you proceed to occupy the last place.
[00:15:53] But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, [00:16:00] "Friend, move up higher." Then you will have honor in sight of all who are crying at the table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.'
[00:16:12] And he also went on to say to the one who had invited him, 'When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and that will be your repayment. But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed since they do not have the means to repay you.
[00:16:35] For it will be repaid to you at the resurrection of the righteous.' But when one of those who were reclining at the table with him heard this, he said to him, 'Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the Kingdom of God.'"
[00:16:49] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah, this is another one of those parables where, like, you think you know what it's talking about until you dig in a little bit.
[00:16:57] Uh, I'm finding that most of the time [00:17:00] the purpose of the parable is, I mean, we should not... This should be unexpected c- Ch- Christ says this. Like, the purpose of the parable is not always obvious on the surface of the parable.
[00:17:11] Jesse Schwamb: Right.
[00:17:11] Tony Arsenal: And if you just read the surface level understanding, you often get something that's true and there, but you miss a lot of the depth and a lot of the nuance of what's going on.
[00:17:23] So I'm excited to dig in this one a little bit.
[00:17:25] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah.
[00:17:26] Jesse Schwamb: I'm totally with you, and I think that to start with, and this is why the setting of this matters, I think we can't really even begin to think about this bad boy apart from the actual context, maybe like the room itself in which it's spoken because Luke does tell us in verse one that Jesus went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees on the Sabbath.
[00:17:46] And he adds this detail, which kind of gets repeated here, that everybody was watching him carefully. And I think actually, like, the verb, if I'm correct here, that Luke uses in the original language carries this sense of, like, close, suspicious observation. There's almost, I think [00:18:00] some commentators have suspected, and I might along with them, that the setting here at the beginning of the chapter where Jesus is going to heal, that the person suffering from dropsy who's brought into his presence, it may have been a setup altogether.
[00:18:15] And so there's really this, like, dynamic kind of confrontation that's all, like, subtle. It's like a British drama, you know, unfolding. Everything's, like, below the surface here. And so he asks, you know, "Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?"
[00:18:31] And the scripture says, "It can make, he, nobody can make a reply to this." And in that silence then, Jesus says, "Let me tell you a parable." And so that's how this, this whole thing kind of begins.
[00:18:44] Tony Arsenal: Yeah, and, and like the, uh, parable of the fig tree that we talked about a couple weeks ago, the parable He tells is a direct, it's almost like a parabolic version of what just happened, right?
[00:18:59] Right. [00:19:00] He's at, he's at a banquet, he's at this, this dinner, whatever it is, and there's this man who's brought in or who's here who is in a low estate. He comes to the banquet, he's got dropsy, and, and I mean, the commentators are split on what exactly it is, but it's probably some sort of disorder that affects his ability to get around on his own.
[00:19:19] He probably had, you know, almost like a, a, almost like a par- like a paralyzed face or something like that.
[00:19:24] Jesse Schwamb: Right.
[00:19:25] Tony Arsenal: Um, but he had some sort of outward manifestation of an illness that, that would've made him sort of an outsider. Not the kind of thing that would make him unclean. Obviously the Pharisees are bringing him into their house, into their dinner.
[00:19:38] So it's not a matter of clean or unclean. This is probably more of the kind of illness, the kind of outward, uh, deformity or some sort of disability that would make you socially sort of an outcast or socially low. And they, they look at him, Jesus looks at him, and Jesus heals him. Right. So in a, in a sense he's s- he's doing what the man at the end of our [00:20:00] parable does- Yeah
[00:20:01] where he says, "Come on up here and sit in the place of honor." He honors this man. And the, the, you know, the Pharisees don't, um, directly get on Him about healing on the Sabbath here, 'cause He's kinda preemptively getting at them on this one. They don't chastise Him the way that we see them, you know, like condemning Him in other places, 'cause He's proactively addressing that before they have a chance to.
[00:20:24] But He's, He's showing that this idea that, uh, at least in part He's showing that this idea that the Sabbath prevents us from honoring those who need to be honored. Like honoring those or helping those or serving those who need our assistance and our help on the Sabbath. He's getting, He's getting at that to sort of say like, "No, no, no, no.
[00:20:44] You all know that this is, you know that this is dumb. Like not only would you help an ox out of a ditch, you would help your sheep out of a ditch. Of course I'm gonna help this guy." When they can't even respond to that, He furthers the judgment and furthers the condemnation [00:21:00] and the shame that He's heaping upon these people by now telling this parable to say, "You are the folks who put yourselves in a place of honor- Right
[00:21:08] and are now moved down in the honor rank. And this man who just showed up for dinner and didn't ask for anything, he didn't come asking to be healed, he is now elevated to the place of honor." So we have to kinda situate it in that- Uh, religious shame and honor sort of culture.
[00:21:26] Tony Arsenal: Uh, and I think even we probably even need to talk about, like, this idea of, like, different places of honor at the banquet.
[00:21:31] We, we don't operate in a culture where that's really the case. I think the closest thing most of us probably have experienced is, like, at a wedding, there's maybe, like, the bridal table or the wedding party table, and then there's probably a table set aside near the front for the family. This would be like if, um- If you are setting up the wedding and you have a guest who comes, and it's like you forget to place them at a table, and there happens to be an open seat at the head table, and you're like, "Come on up, friend.
[00:21:59] Like, [00:22:00] this is- Right ... where we're gonna seat you," versus that guy who comes in and in- tries to insist on sitting, like, at the, the head table next to the mother of the bride when he'd barely got an invitation to the wedding. That's probably the closest thing we have to it in our culture. This is even probably more regimented and, uh, what do I wanna say?
[00:22:20] Uh, it's- there's more pageantry and more, like- Yes ... uh, pomp and circumstances about this kind of a feast and banquet that even a wedding in our day and age doesn't even come close to, like, the way it's all orchestrated and plays out.
[00:22:34] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I like that. I think there is still something in our day about who- like, understanding that there's a hierarchy when you sit down with people, or you might think, "I shouldn't be seated with them."
[00:22:44] So in my organization that I work for, one of the things I think is really kind of interesting that they do is on every regular orientation day for new employees, whatever that schedule is, at the w- as they're being trained on that first day, they're all together across... Even though they'll be taking various [00:23:00] roles across the organization, they're all together receiving instruction, and they break for lunch, and they have lunch together, and all of the senior leaders come and eat with them and just kind of get to know them.
[00:23:10] And I've, I've met so many people who have found that just to be, like, intimidating and strange and feeling like, "Well, we shouldn't get to, like, eat lunch with them. Like- Yeah ... why, why are they coming here?" So even that sense of, like, being able to sit at the table, you think, "Well, they should go eat with themselves," or, "It's, it's strange when they come and eat with us."
[00:23:24] Well, why? Uh, it's because we have this sense that they're more important, they're more honored, they're more highly regarded.
[00:23:30] Jesse Schwamb: And so I love, then, exactly what you just said, this idea of, like, shame and honor being on display, and it comes in this display, and I think pageantry, which you said, is the right word.
[00:23:41] By the way, I didn't forget that you used the word portmanteau in your affirmation. I meant to say that was also excellent usage. Um, what's I find, like, really escalating of this whole thing is the scripture tells us that the guests come to watch Jesus.
[00:23:56] Tony Arsenal: Yeah.
[00:23:56] Jesse Schwamb: But i- in typical, like, amazing Jesus fashion, in verse [00:24:00] seven it shows that Luke turns, like, the camera around, and Jesus has really been watching them.
[00:24:04] I mean, then we could talk just about what that means. And while they scrutinized his conduct toward the law, he was observing their conduct toward one another, and what he saw, of course, was pride. So even there, there was this judgment that they meant to basically bring against him by way of the law, and through grace, Jesus turns the judgment back on them.
[00:24:21] Jesse Schwamb: And there is this interesting reoccurring pattern, speaking of, like, this and, like, the meals, like you were saying. Because it seems to me, like, as we've been going through this- In the sense of the parables and in the sense of Jesus' ministry both, that meals are these incredible place of revelation for whatever reason.
[00:24:37] Like, Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners. He's anointed by a sinful woman at the Pharisee's table. He pronounces woes over the Pharisee's table in, like, chapter 11, and will be made known in the breaking of bread at Emmaus and later in Luke. And so at the table here, as in other places, Jesus is doing some, like, heart exposure, and here, like, this grace is displayed.
[00:24:59] What it really [00:25:00] means to understand the law, Jesus manifests here in this parable. And you're right, it's like there's no... There can't be any way that people in, in the room are listening to this and not thinking it's related to them while he's not, of course, saying, you know... He d- he uses a, a wedding feast here.
[00:25:17] But obviously it's so similar that you have to be like, "Well, well, clearly he's making a commentary in real time about what's just taken place in this room."
[00:25:26] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah, and this is, this is one of those ones, although this one doesn't have the same kind of like, "And they perceived he was telling the parable about that."
[00:25:34] Like- Right ... there's no like, there's no indication in the text that they understood he was directly commenting on what was going on with them. But I find it really hard to believe that a parable that is barely a parable here, like he's, he's looking at them doing exactly the opposite- Right ... of what the people in the parable are supposed to do, and he's basically like, "You chumps," like, "Why are you doing this?"
[00:25:57] But he, he's broadening this, like we've seen in some of the other [00:26:00] parables in Luke.
[00:26:00] Tony Arsenal: There is this real direct application to the situation at hand, and in this case, it's the combination of this man with dropsy. Again, this is probably, I've just looked up the Greek while you were talking, it's probably some sort of like swelling disease.
[00:26:15] It's, it translates almost as like suffering from edema. Right. So he probably was like physically disfigured to the point that like he is visibly swollen, visibly appears sick. Um, you know, he's looking at this man who's here who certainly would not have been placed in a, in a place of honor. Um, the fact that he's even here, again, I- I've read some commentaries that suggest that he was brought in almost as like a trap for Jesus.
[00:26:43] Right. Um, although I, I hesitate to go there 'cause the text doesn't have any, doesn't seem to have any indication that that was the case. Um, and edema wouldn't have been a clean/unclean thing. So there's no, there's no like real good reason to think he couldn't be there, but he, he would've had, he had this sort of like outward [00:27:00] physical disfigurement going on probably.
[00:27:02] Um, they probably would've put him somewhere off to the side, like o- out of the, out of the spotlight a little bit. Um, and Jesus like won't have any of that. He's not, he's not willing to allow the Pharisees to judge him or judge this man on these external categories. And so when he heals him, he not only heals him of the disfiguring and, you know, and the probably life-threatening, edema usually is some sort of heart condition driving it.
[00:27:30] Like, he heals them of this disfiguring and life-threatening illness, and elevates him in honor because of that. And that's, that's the, like the immediate application, and then this broader application that he brings at the end here, verse 11, "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
[00:27:53] Tony Arsenal: It's this parable promoting, um, humility and service. The, the, the idea [00:28:00] of humbling yourself here is not about self-abasement. It- Christ is demonstrating what it means to be humble in this instance. It's serving others and not thinking more highly of yourself than you ought. Just like this man who is suffering from dropsy or suffering from edema, he's not insisting on sitting in the place of honor.
[00:28:19] There's... He's just, he's just there. Right. It doesn't even, um... The most proximate antecedent for the word they, when it says, "They were watching him carefully," is, uh, it's the Pharisees, right? Right. This house, this is the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, and they, meaning the Pharisees, were watching him. And then it says, "And there was a man before him who had dropsy."
[00:28:39] So whether this man was a guest at the dinner or he was brought here as sort of like a trial or a test for Jesus, he's not insisting on, like, taking his rightful seat at the place of honor. Like, he's just there, and Christ elevates him. Humbleness is about serving others and a proper sober self-assessment [00:29:00] of yourself, not thinking more highly of yourself than you ought, and in some ways not thinking less highly of yourself, right?
[00:29:06] Right. We can think, we can, uh, fail to be humble by thinking lower of ourself than is real because we often only do that as an attempt to elevate ourselves, right? We act like we're dirt in order to make ourselves look better because, "Oh, woe is me. I'm such a sinner. I'm such a dirty man." And like, that's all actually like this false humility.
[00:29:25] So he's, he's saying here the way you are exalted is not by finding ways to exalt yourself, but by simply being present, serving those around you, and having a sober self-assessment of yourself. If you do those things, then either in this life, and it is often the case that people who don't go around tooting their own horns, they, they are elevated by those around them.
[00:29:50] Right. Humility and humbleness tends to bring a, a measure of esteem at some point- And even if it doesn't, on the last day Christ will [00:30:00] exalt those who are humbled. Um, and I think that's more what this is getting at than sometimes what you hear where it's more just about, like, sort of like a straight up reputational thing.
[00:30:10] Like, don't make a big deal of yourself. Like, you should just- Right ... you know. I think this is more about service and about humil- true humility than it is about sort of outward statuses.
[00:30:21] Jesse Schwamb: I agree with that. I think in some ways it recalls us back to the parable of the man in the barns, how there was this lack of self-awareness, certainly a lack of acknowledgement that God is in control of all things, that all blessings come from God, that all our histories, all our helps, all our experiences, all our talents and skills, all these things are from God himself.
[00:30:42] And so Jesus is definitely after this shame of self-promotion, which again, he's unpacking in real time.
[00:30:48] Jesse Schwamb: And of course, i- it's interesting, but it seems reasonable he shifts the scene from this Sabbath dinner to a wedding feast, and I, I don't think that's incidental, of course. Throughout the scripture, as we talked about before, the wedding feast is a symbol of God's consummation, his covenant with his people from Isaiah, where the Lord makes for all peoples a feast of rich food, and there's, there's a blessing in those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb.
[00:31:11] And so we have this choice of imagery hinting that Jesus is speaking, of course, more than just, like, social occasions. Not just like, "Here's, here's good etiquette- Yeah ... for when you have a party." Like, let me give you the Martha Stewart version of how you should handle a Galilean dinner affair. I, I think it starts with this idea in a word that you really touched on, which is, like, all what you said I think is embedded in the fact that the first word is invited here.
[00:31:34] So, like, a guest is not earning his place at the feast. He receives it, and everything that follows, I think, rests on that. A guest has no rights at another man's table except those which the host confers.
[00:31:46] Jesse Schwamb: And so Jesus is drawing directly w- I think what's fascinating here on the wisdom of Solomon. And so here you have these Pharisees who prided themselves on their knowledge of the scripture, and here was the scripture for them that they had read but not obeyed.
[00:32:01] And I had to go back to look this up myself because I didn't realize that more or less this is like a direct application of Proverbs 25:6 and 7 which reads, "Do not put yourself forward in the king's presence or stand in the place for the great, for it is better to be told, 'Come up here,' than to be put lower in the presence of a noble."
[00:32:18] And so you have our Lord taking up this proverb for his hearers, and they would have known this well presumably, and he presses it home, like, in this particular circumstance in this really particular lovely and beautiful and appropriate application. And so there's... all of this is, like, swirling around. I, I think you're right.
[00:32:35] There's this lack of concern and self-awareness about what's happening here, and Christ is cutting straight to the quick on this, and he's... there is a mockery, I, I would say, of, like, the Pharisaical knowledge in not really applying what they should have studied and certainly would have understood.
[00:32:53] Tony Arsenal: Yeah.
[00:32:54] Yeah, and I think, um, you know, there's, there's a lot of parallels here in the way the language is. [00:33:00]The word invited, uh, appears so many times. Like, there's- Right ... there's so many key words here. But I think you're right.
[00:33:06] Tony Arsenal: Like, this is also, um, I'll just say this, I think this is also a parable that, uh, the Reformed probably need to pay particular attention to.
[00:33:18] Um, I think we can have a tendency, although I, I see the Reformed getting accused of this on the internet, and I don't think it's always true. But I think because we have this strong doctrine of election, we do have, um, we do have a danger of sort of looking at us like, "Well, we're the elect." There's this- Right
[00:33:38] there's this funny, um, scene in, in Harry Potter, I think it is in movie six maybe, um, where one of the themes... I'm getting into a whole nerdy Harry Potter episode here. But one of the themes in, in book six, movie six of Harry Potter is they're basically, like, 16-year-old, uh, [00:34:00] 16-year-olds in book six, and so a lot of it is sort of, uh, grounded in, like, teenage romances and, like, those kinds of things.
[00:34:08] And there's a growing sense that Harry as the main protagonist has, and the people around him start calling him the Chosen One. Right. Uh, 'cause he, they, you know, they're sort of thinking like he's destined to defeat Voldemort. And I don't think this scene is in the book. I don't recall. It's been a long time since I've read the books.
[00:34:24] But in the movie, there's one scene where, uh, Hermione looks at Harry and, and she goes, "They're calling you the Chosen One." And he kinda laughs and he goes, "But I am the Chosen One." And then she hits him with a book. And I think the Reformed have this, this, uh, danger because we are, we are the elect. We consider ourselves to be the elect.
[00:34:43] Like, everyone who is saved is the elect. There is a danger of drifting into a kind of elitism with that theology, that this parable, by keying in on the word invited, right? Everyone who is at this feast, whether they're the person who's [00:35:00] sitting at the place of honor and is told to go to the lowest place, or the person who comes in and sits at the lowest place who is now elevated to the highest place, or all the people that just sit down somewhere in the middle-
[00:35:11] Jesse Schwamb: Right
[00:35:11] Tony Arsenal: um, they're all invited to the, the feast. They're all there at the good election of the master of the banquet who has invited them there and is, is seating them there at his will and his pleasure. We should remember that as we think about this as Reformed folks.
[00:35:27] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah.
[00:35:28] Jesse Schwamb: I, I really like that because, and I'm frantically trying to pull up Ephesians 1, because all I kept hearing when you were saying that-
[00:35:34] is that you were dead in trespasses and sin, but God has made you- Right ... alive together with Christ. And so what does that mean for us, if not that, like, when we're in these circumstances, both, like, literally or figuratively, or whether it's just in our own heads as we're processing and we're prone to compare ourselves to others, or whether we're in actual situations where we may be with brothers and sisters and we're prone to somehow stack rank in some way [00:36:00] ourselves against them, that being dead and being made a- alive together with Christ automatically should, I think, humble us to a place where, where our normative position is not self-promoting.
[00:36:11] 'Cause the self-promoting guest here makes the fatal assumption that he knows his or her own worth and the worth of others better than the host does. And I think actually that's human nature to make that kind of call. But the seating is not ours to arrange. The ranking belongs to the one who issued the invitations.
[00:36:27] And being that we're all dead, and the invitation, so to speak, that we receive is being made alive together with Christ, means that we really have no grounds. There is no standing. We all start at ground zero. We all have the common denominator. We've all been reduced fractionally to the fact that apart from Christ we're empty and nothing.
[00:36:44] And so because He is the one who gives the invitation, uh, in some ways we all ought to sit at the foot of the table. And this is what we find interesting, is that I think as we talked about last time, where Christ comes and He takes on not only the fullness of what it [00:37:00] means to be human, but the servanthood nature of that humanity, submitting himself to all that it means to be human, including death, and then death on a cross.
[00:37:07] That in that way, then He also is the one who puts the towel around his waist and wa- washes his disciples' feet. He invites us up into that place of honor next to him, but it is his to make the invitation, and it, it is ours- Yeah ... to submit and to follow, follow before him in worship.
[00:37:24] Tony Arsenal: Yeah.
[00:37:25] Tony Arsenal: Yeah, and I, I think, um, you know, as I try to reason through this, again, this is, this parable's tough because at least in modern Western culture, we don't really have anything like this in most instances.
[00:37:37] And so I think the closest parable I- parable, parallel I could think of, that was a little Freudian slip there. The closest parallel I could think of would be like if at my wedding, right? I think everybody who has a wedding, um, they invite people, they, they extend invitations to people that they maybe are expecting are going to decline the invitation for one reason or another, right?
[00:37:57] Be- for whatever reason. But the invitation [00:38:00] is extended as a courtesy, as a sign of respect, sometimes as a way to indicate, like, "I really wish you could be here." And so there's a certain number of people you usually invite that you expect are going to decline. And the, what I can imagine, the scenario I can imagine here that seems somewhat parallel is, like, let's pretend you have a, a, your absolute best friend in the world is, is unable to come, right?
[00:38:23] You've extended the invitation because you know that it's the right thing to do. You wish they could be there, and you know that they're not gonna be able to come, but you send them an invitation anyways. And since they have declined or since maybe they didn't even respond because you, you know, maybe they're, like, in the military and you just don't ever think they're even gonna get the invitation.
[00:38:40] Right. So you don't place them. You don't put a seat out. Maybe you have an extra seat that's set aside because you know you extended a certain number of invitations, and so you just have an extra seat at, like, the very back of the hallway, or there's a stack of chairs in the back just in case. And now all of a sudden you're sitting down for the reception and your best friend shows up, the, the person [00:39:00] who means more in the world to you than, than the woman you're marrying, right?
[00:39:04] I can see a scenario where I would say, "I'm gonna go grab one of those extra chairs in the back and I'm gonna drag that up. I'm gonna put that at the head table with me because this person is so important to me. I never even expected them to show up." And you say, "Friend, don't sit in that place of dishonor.
[00:39:19] Please come sit with me in this place of honor."
[00:39:21] Jesse Schwamb: Right on.
[00:39:22] Tony Arsenal: There's also now, now that I'm talking through what that would look like in my own wedding, there's this sense now that the, the person who is seated lowest in this banquet is not just being sat in the place of highest honor. In these kinds of banquets in the ancient Near East in the, the first century, the place of honor would've been at the main table with the host of the banquet.
[00:39:45] Jesse Schwamb: Right.
[00:39:45] Tony Arsenal: So it's not only just like, "Come sit in this really nice place where everybody sees how great you are." It's, "Come and sit and feast with me at my table." So the, this is also a parable- Again, about the invitation of Christ into [00:40:00] His kingdom and what that looks like, what that means, and this is a wedding feast, right?
[00:40:05] So the, in the parable, this would be akin to the person saying, "Come and feast at the bridegroom's table with the bridegroom. Come and feast with the family in the highest place of honor." Who would've been seated in the highest place of honor at a wedding feast? Probably the, probably the, like, father of the bride or maybe the father and mother of the groom.
[00:40:28] That is who is being displaced in this parable, right? Right. This is a parable where whoever is seated at that place of highest honor, right? In the parable, uh, it's not ... I, I think we need to be careful because He is addressing the immediate circumstance where the Pharisees at this banquet or the, the guests at this banquet are sort of jockeying for the place of honor, right?
[00:40:50] So I- it sort of conceptualizes this place where, like, it's a free-for-all. It's like Southwest boarding- Right ... principles, like you just get on the plane and you try to get the best seat. I don't think that's how [00:41:00] this would've worked necessarily, but it's this idea that whoever is at that place of highest honor, it's not necessarily that they don't belong there, right?
[00:41:09] There's no condemnation in this parable for the person who is in the place of highest honor. But the person who humbles themselves is now elevated above that person, and that person is displaced, right? I think the fact that that person is displaced to the par- place of lowest honor, I think we read that sometimes as, like, he's being punished, but that's not really the force of the parable here.
[00:41:34] It's, maybe it's the practical outcome that he kinda ends up sitting in the, like, the cheap seats here. But he's not displaced and put in the cheap seats as a form of punishment. That's just what happens when you have to displace someone. But the honoring of this person who comes in and is humble and unassuming and does not insist on his own self-aggrandizement, the elevation of that person takes precedent over even the honoring of the one who deserved [00:42:00] honor and was- Right
[00:42:01] rightfully put in that first place. That is, is really what I think he's getting at here, is that Christ elevates us above even the rightful honor that people get. He elevates us to His very side at His own right hand so that we are now united with Him, and we participate with Him in this, in this eschatological feast.
[00:42:24] He brings us t- to His own table. That's pretty amazing stuff.
[00:42:30] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, it's got a little bit of that D- almost like David and Methu- Mephibosheth flavor to it a little bit there. Yeah. Like, there's so many things we could draw on here.
[00:42:39] Jesse Schwamb: I was just thinking as you said that, what came, like, ringing with clarion focus into my ears was this idea of what it means to have, have a righteousness that's greater than the Pharisees.
[00:42:51] Yeah. That, uh, what we're kind of saying here, I think where you're kind of leading us, is this idea that that is what happens with the posture of faith, like true [00:43:00] faith. And, and we can say that, like, maybe, like, a careless reading of this verse could turn it into, like, some kind of clever strategy. Like, you sit low, and then you'll be called up high, and that's like a false humility.
[00:43:12] It's, uh, if you're using that as like a technique for gaining honor. And so I think there is, like... I, we need to be alert to that danger, that this stresses that Jesus is not recommending, like, some kind of, like, calculated maneuver. It's not humility adapted as a topic so that- Right ... literally there'll be some pride in disguise.
[00:43:28] I think the difference lies in the heart. True humility does not take the low place in order to be raised. It takes the low place because it believes that's where it belongs, and it leaves the question of honor entirely in the host's hands. That is, like, a true posture, I think, of faith before God.
[00:43:47] Tony Arsenal: Yeah, and as I, as I look at this maybe as we close, this, this parable, again, I, I'm sort of at a, a disadvantage 'cause I haven't studied the, the, like, ancient Near Eastern background of this.
[00:43:59] But what [00:44:00] the scenario here in the parable seems to be is that it is sort of open seating, and everyone is expected to seat themselves- Right ... in the appropriate place. Right. And so when you come to this feast, you should not, you should not, at the very least, you should not assess yourself to be higher than you are, lest, you know, verse, uh, verse eight, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited and he has to move you down, right?
[00:44:26] So a- a- again, it's not this calculated, "I'm gonna sit in the lowest place because ultimately that's what's gonna get me to the highest place." It's more like, "I'm gonna sit in the appropriate place so that I'm not moved down." And then he, he kinda one-ups it, and the appropriate place for you is actually the lowest place.
[00:44:46] Jesse Schwamb: Right.
[00:44:46] Tony Arsenal: And if you are, if you are soberly assessing yourself, then you will be elevated, right? So I think the person who comes in, th- there's, this is, this is maybe speculating or abs- like, uh, extracting a little [00:45:00]bit more, but, like, the person who comes in and sits in the lowest place and acts like he belongs in the highest place is not who's in view here.
[00:45:07] Right. Right? This, again, you're saying, like, this is not a calculated maneuver. Right. This is not, um, the, the paro- this is not the Pharisees blowing trumpets on the street and fasting and making themselves look, look miserable. This is a person who's coming in and saying like, "Yeah, the, the lowest seat is fine for me."
[00:45:23] Like, it's appropriate- Right. Yes ... for me to sit in the lowest seat, and that's fine, and I'm satisfied with that. That is the person who is moved higher. And again, it's not, um, we should not think of the person who's being moved down to be... And now that I think about it, like, the person who is more distinguished who comes and you s- the, the host says, "Give this person your place," the person who's more distinguished is the person who sat in the lowest seat, right?
[00:45:50] So it's not a punishment that the person is moved down. It's just the natural consequence of seating yourself in the wrong spot. Yes. Right? It's just the natural outcome of thinking of [00:46:00] yourself more highly than you ought, is that you end up getting knocked down a peg, right?
[00:46:04] Tony Arsenal: And then I think this is one of those, like, universally true principles.
[00:46:08] Um, I- I, because of my role at the hospital, the work I do, it puts me in sort of an unusual place in that I am a very low level sort of junior supervisor with a staff of five, but it is not uncommon for me to be in meetings or in email chains with, like, chief e- level executive officers of the hospital.
[00:46:29] And, um, there is a very real sense, and I've, uh, I've run myself up against this wall before, right? There's a very real sense that I need to know my role and I need to understand where I am in that hierarchy, or I'm going to get knocked down a couple pegs. Mm-hmm. If I respond to an email and act like I have the right to tell the chief medical officer what he should do with a particular situation, until I'm asked, which I often am, um, I- I'm gonna get knocked down a peg And in real life, I think this parable actually plays [00:47:00] out.
[00:47:00] The guy who sits on an email chain or sits quietly in a meeting as the subject matter expert for something that may or may not even be brought up and doesn't contribute his opinion where it's not needed often is elevated when the time comes for his particular skill set or his particular role in the, the meeting comes.
[00:47:21] Uh, there is a level of elevation and honor that is given to that person when the chief medical officer, the chief quality officer, whatever, looks across the table and says, "What, what should we do?" And all of a sudden this junior supervisor with a tiny staff who manages this tiny corner of the hospital is giving us a recommendation or sometimes even giving direction to chief officers, right?
[00:47:44] That's not to elevate me. Like, this is a total quirk of my position, but that's a... I think that's a real dynamic that most of us face in the real world at some point, where we, we find ourselves in these situations where we have either the option to act big and bad when we're not, [00:48:00] right? Or we have the option to recognize like we're the little dog in this room of big dogs and we need to keep ourselves quiet.
[00:48:05] Jesse Schwamb: Right.
[00:48:05] Tony Arsenal: This parable is sort of that principle applied to spirituality, right? You treat yourself and you think of yourself in an appropriately low fashion. You recognize a sober self-assessment of yourself. And again, as I said, either in this life or in the, the, the age to come, Christ will elevate you. He will raise you up to the proper place of honor, which is at his side in union with himself by his Holy Spirit.
[00:48:33] Jesse Schwamb: That's right. It's a strong word, isn't it, for just like good quality living? Yeah.
[00:48:38] Jesse Schwamb: It's just really lovely practical advice generally speaking to understand that whether it's in our boardrooms, like you said, our churches, or in our, I suppose, like media feeds, social media online, do we in- kind of engage in that kind of predisposition?
[00:48:52] Is that our normative posture, one of actual humility? Because here in this context, faith brings nothing to [00:49:00] the table but its need. It doesn't presume upon a seat. It waits for the host's word. And the astonishing message I think of the gospel is that the host does speak that word. He, to sinners who have the lowest place, he says, "Friend, come up higher."
[00:49:12] Yeah. And our Lord said this to his disciples in John, like, "I have called you friends." There is this amazing condescension that's also relational- In God coming to us, coming to us in Christ specifically. And so I think what is good here spiritually is also good here practically. I like what you've said, that is what does it mean to exercise humility in all of our lives?
[00:49:34] To be... Like, what would it look like if Christians exercised that kind of humility so that they were more frequently and lovingly and volitionally invited into circumstances, rather than trying to run over roughshod into circumstances? And we've all been that way. It's all a temptation of ours. And many, I think, times that comes, at least in my life, because I want to self-aggrandize, I want to self-assert, I want to somehow think myself better or more qualified or more capable than all those around you.
[00:49:59] And I [00:50:00] think we've all had instances where we have been humbled, uh, not of our own doing- Yes ... where we thought we were the smartest in the room. We thought we were the most capable to answer this. We thought we had the best experience or the most expertise, and it suddenly turned out, and maybe in a very, like, demonstrative or public way often, that that was not the case.
[00:50:19] And- Yeah ... I don't know about you, but I've certainly been in a circumstance where I thought I'd have the most to add, and then somebody says something, I'm like, "You know what? That's really smart. That's-" Yeah "... that's a really good idea," or, "That is the really best perspective on this entire situation." And, and so to start in this place, I think, is like I'm learning that there's, of course, but something here that's like spiritual and practical, and then there's a Venn diagram, of course, where they, they cross over.
[00:50:43] And so we're getting what if the gospel is a kind of humility that just says when you sit down, like you're saying, Tony, at work, that the way the gospel is manifested in that moment is the hu- humble posture that you take, even if the topic is not, like, explicitly spiritual. But your example of the gospel is [00:51:00] to exercise that kind of humility.
[00:51:02] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah, I don't, I don't... I know that it's not a parable in, or a, a proverb in, uh, the canonical proverbs, but what's the, the proverbial saying? Like, it's better to keep your mouth shut and then let them think you have nothing to say than to open it- Yes ... and prove it. Like- Yeah ... I, I think that's, that's sort of realistically this.
[00:51:20] Like, the idea here is, in a spiritual sense, we recognize, uh, our appropriate place. We recognize that the only reason we have any honor whatsoever is that the master of the banquet has said, "Come on up, friend." Right? He, he is, he has taken the lowly, and he has united them to himself, and so now we sit at the head table.
[00:51:43] I mean, the, the, the wedding metaphors get sort of mixed and, and stuff because there's so many different applications of banquet and, and wedding metaphors and, and s- symbolism in the scriptures related to, uh, salvation. But i- in this particular version of [00:52:00] it, we are now seated at the head table with the bridegroom- Right
[00:52:03] who has called us up and said, "You are sit- You're, you're not sitting at the bottom of the table." Right? "You're not sitting at the end of the table where I can't see you. Come on up, friend. Come sit at the, the place of honor, which is at my right hand." Right?
[00:52:18] Tony Arsenal: That's a powerful picture of what God does in salvation in that He takes those who are destitute, and we'll see this more when we talk about the next parable.
[00:52:31] This is one of those, like, parable, like, triple stacks here. Like, we'll see in the next parable that the one who is destitute is the one that is now honored, and the one who is destitute brings nothing to repay the one who is honoring him. And that's actually, like, the point, is the person who is elevated is not elevated because they are intrinsically honorable, because they have somehow contributed something to the banquet.
[00:52:59] [00:53:00] Not, they, they're not moving to the head of the table by their own sort of, like, political or social machinations. It's simply because they came to the banquet, which they were invited to, and they sat in a reasonable place- Right ... that is commensurate with the actual sober self-assessment of their own place in the world.
[00:53:19] Um- Right ... and, you know, this parable isn't saying, like, "Some of you actually should sit in the middle. Some of you should sit at the bottom, and some maybe should sit at the top." The point of the parable is everyone should consider themselves to be at the bottom of the barrel. Not in this sort of like self-deprecating false humility- Right
[00:53:36] but in a genuine self-assessment, true humility, true humbleness. We should recognize that I bring nothing to the equation except the sin that made my salvation necessary. There we go. Right? And anything that, anything that God produces through me in the kingdom of heaven, whether it is a preaching ministry or something like this podcast, or thousands upon thousands of [00:54:00] converts, whatever it might be that is produced through you, ultimately that is the Lord's work done through you, and even that does not elevate you at the feast.
[00:54:10] What elevates you at the feast is that you came and recognized your low estate, and the, the master of the feast says, "Come on up." That's, that's the point of this parable.
[00:54:19] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. Amen. That's well said.
[00:54:21] Jesse Schwamb: So what, what have we learned? Well, I think in the first half of this, so obviously two episode. Who c- who could have called it?
[00:54:28] Two episode podcast- ... on this parable. But what have we really talked about? I, I think you're right of course, like pride rarely announces itself, especially if you're a quote, unquote good Christian. It sh- tends to show up in the quiet calculations of ord- ordinary life, like we said, the desire to be noticed in a meeting, the need to have the last word, the private comparison of our gifts with another's, even sometimes that subtle competition for recognition, I think, within the church.
[00:54:52] And so as you said, Christ calls us to take the lowest place, not as a strategy, but as the honest posture of those who know they are guests by [00:55:00] grace. I know the Reformers love to quote Augustine in this, who said that, "If asked what is first in religion," he would answer, "Humility, second humility, and third humility."
[00:55:13] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah, that's a good, good word to end it on. So please do come back next week. We're gonna be tackling the rest of this little section. Again, this is like a parable double, triple stack, which we- I've learned Luke- I love that ... loves to do, um, and Jesus loves to do. He just parable upon parable. You, you get a parable, you get a parable.
[00:55:33] Uh, so coming back next week we're gonna round out the rest of this little parable sequence here. Uh, who knows if we'll finish it? We never know. We never know until we get there. Never know. Who knows? Uh, until we, uh, get to the end and say this, "Honor everyone."
[00:55:47] Jesse Schwamb: Love the brotherhood.