A Dinner Party (part two): The Guests of Honor

People are crowding into the home of Joseph of Arimathea. Many are milling around, trying to find a seat and hoping to get one at or near the head table which is set up festively and garnished with a sumptuous repast. The lawyers are beginning to seat their wives around this table before anyone else occupies it. Jesus, however, has taken a seat in an obscure corner of the great room with His apostles around Him, as well as His Mother and Mary and Martha. They are among the invited guests, who also include many pharisees and lawyers.

Jesus surveys the party and addresses the situation saying, "My friends, when you go to a wedding feast, never look for the places of honor to sit. Someone else more important than you may come and displace you at the table. Sit in the lowly spots and be happy that you have been invited! Think how you would feel if your host should have to ask you to move. Would it not be better that you be invited to a place of greater honor that one of humiliation?"

Now as he is speaking, His own host, Joseph is busy directing the servants of his household to reset the tables. The table he had intended for Jesus and His family has been occupied by others. Bowls of fruit and platters of meat are being removed from the table and a cloth is being spread over the table Jesus has claimed. I am impressed with the grace and ease with which this transformation takes place. There is no sign of irritation are annoyance on Joseph's part, nor on the part of his servants.

It is a rather humorous sight to see the lawyers and pharisees in their fancy garb caught off guard by this affair as their grand buffet turns into a bare wooden board, while the corner table, which seats the most humble-looking guests in the room, becomes the focal point. Joseph and his daughter sit down with Jesus as the servants stand ready to assist the guests.

Jesus turns to Joseph, sitting beside Him, and warns him: "Don't invite your rich friends and relatives to your dinner parties, good Joseph. You see these guests here are most likely to invite you to their houses in return. The next time you must invite the poor, the lame, the unfortunate ones-- those who will never be able to repay you. In this way you will be blessed! You will certainly be repaid in the resurrection of the righteous."

Joseph listens intently to his young Master's instructions. What a curious spectacle! Here is this old and wise-looking prominent leader of the pharisees pensively looking into the face of Jesus with overwhelming respect almost like an adoring child looking into the eyes of his father. Yet Jesus' tone is in no way condescending but instead has the feel of a message being passed on from one beloved friend to another.