The world sees people as categories and value one another accordingly. In the gospel of Luke, we see exactly the same thing. People are being labeled… and based on a label… included or excluded, invited or disinvited, loved or hated. I did a little survey of Luke. People are valued according to . . .
ETHNICITY: Jew, Gentile, Galilean, Samaritan…
AGE: Young, Old, Adult, Child, Infant.
POWER STATUS: King, Priest, Prophet, Master, Ruler, Soldier, Servant, Captive, Oppressed
SOCIAL POSITION: Honorable, Righteous, Firstborn, Circumcised. Rich, Poor, Lowly…
OCCUPATION: Shepherd, Fishermen…
FAMILY SITUATION: Man, Woman, Husband, Wife, Father, Mother, Widow, Virgin, Childless, Barren.
PHYSICAL CONDITION: Healthy, Sick, Blind, Leper, Unclean, Possessed, Diseased, Lame, Maimed, Paralyzed, Disabled, Deformed, Deaf.
CHARACTER: Good, Evil, Tax Collector, Prostitute, Adulterer, Sinner, Friend, Enemy.
Boy, if the stars aligned in your life a certain way, you’d feel quite proud and blessed. But if the stars didn’t align so well, you’d be left feeling “dis-graced.” When I read Luke’s gospel, it’s a procession line of the dis-graced. People who felt disgraced among their own people; People who felt disgraced before God. People who were disgraced through no evident fault, or choice of their own; and some who were disgraced because of their own presumption or sin.
Luke’s Jesus is a Jesus for the disgraced. Recall that in Luke 4:18-19 we have Jesus’ declaration—that he’s been anointed to preach and be sent to the poor, captive, blind, oppressed… he’s been sent to “proclaim the year of God’s favor” (grace!) Luke’s Jesus is especially good news to the left-out, left-behind, and disenfranchised.
One way we can think about this issue of grace and disgrace is to do an exercise in empathy. This is the approach God takes in the Jewish Torah, in the OT Books of the law. For example, in Exodus 22:21 God commands Israel, “You must not exploit a resident alien or oppress him. . .” And why not? “. . . since you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt.” Deuteronomy 10:18-19, “He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the resident alien, giving him food and clothing. You are also to love the resident alien, since you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt.” Deuteronomy 23:7, “Do not despise an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not despise an Egyptian, because you were a resident alien in his land.” Deuteronomy 24:14, “Do not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the resident aliens who are in a town in your land.”
Of particular interest is Leviticus 19:32-34: “You are to rise in the presence of the elderly and honor the old. Fear your God; I am the Lord. When an alien resides with you in your land, you must not oppress him. You will regard the alien who resides with you as the native-born among you. You are to love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.”
Our own common humanity, our own experiences of disgrace, ought to compel us to be super-gracious right? In Luke 6:31 Jesus is powerfully echoing the spirit of the law when he says, “Just as you want others to do for you, do the same for them!” Empathy is an orienting point for how we ought treat one another—including even our enemies as we saw last week. Especially our enemies!
God is also not averse to issuing stern warnings, rebukes, or even meting out punishment, Exodus 22:22-24 quite forcefully says, “You must not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. 23 If you do mistreat them, they will no doubt cry to me, and I will certainly hear their cry. 24 My anger will burn, and I will kill you with the sword; then your wives will be widows and your children fatherless.”
In Luke 6:31-36 Jesus appeals not to judgement, and not just empathy, but to heavenly rewards. Jesus also suggests our highest aspiration is that we’d be imitators of God’s very own character! “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do what is good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do what is good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High. For he is gracious to the ungrateful and evil. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.”
You can love the disgraced, because you’ve been disgraced. You can love the disgraced, because it’s commanded of you. Because of a fear of God…because God is a fierce defender of the disgraced, and he may very well disgrace you! You can love the disgraced because of heavenly rewards. You can love the disgraced because it’s the essence of God’s divine nature and God’s own nature is the highest moral ground to which we can possible aspire!
Luke’s Jesus is unapologetically drawn to the poor, hungry, weeping, excluded, insulted, slandered. Luke’s Jesus comes smashing categories, labels, and the hierarchies of value by which all the world operates. Luke 5:31, “It is not those who are healthy who need a doctor, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
But the really powerful way Luke portrays Jesus is as a kind of Party God. Jesus doesn’t exclude the Pharisees or Teachers of the Law. He’s perfectly willing to sit at the dinner table with them. We see this in Luke 7:36, “Then one of the Pharisees invited him to eat with him. He entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table.” But what really tweaked the Pharisees is Jesus would also welcome the uninvited and disgraced. Luke 7:37-40, “And a woman in the town who was a sinner found out that Jesus was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house. She brought an alabaster jar of perfume 38 and stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to wash his feet with her tears. She wiped his feet with her hair, kissing them and anointing them with the perfume. 39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “This man, if he were a prophet, would know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—she’s a sinner!” 40 Jesus replied to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”
To Jesus, the least are the greatest, even the little children...the least of these… ought be promoted to stand next to Jesus. To Jesus, the more disgraced, the more apt you ought to be included. The man in the ditch—who fell into the hands of robbers, who was stripped and beat up, left for dead—deserved the dignity of mercy. In Luke 14:12-14 Jesus offers the follow dinner instructions, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, don’t invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors, because they might invite you back, and you would be repaid. 13 On the contrary, when you host a banquet, invite those who are poor, maimed, lame, or blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Later in Luke 14:15-24 Jesus tells the parable of the Large Banquet. A banquet is a party folks! “15 When one of those who reclined at the table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is the one who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” 16 Then he told him, “A man was giving a large banquet and invited many. 17 At the time of the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who were invited, ‘Come, because everything is now ready.’ 18 “But without exception they all began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. I ask you to excuse me.’ 19 “Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m going to try them out. I ask you to excuse me.’ 20 “And another said, ‘I just got married, and therefore I’m unable to come.’
21 “So the servant came back and reported these things to his master. Then in anger, the master of the house told his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city, and bring in here the poor, maimed, blind, and lame.’ 22 “‘Master,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, and there’s still room.’ 23 “Then the master told the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges and make them come in, so that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, not one of those people who were invited will enjoy my banquet.’”
I invite you to read and absorb Luke’s portrait of Jesus. Jesus wasn’t a Marxist, who exacerbated divisions around socio-economic-political-ethnic-gender-sexual-power-age-familial-occupational-character categories and labels. No, Jesus smashes the whole system and introduces a whole new schema. The New Schema is that we recognize the dignity and value of fellow man sparing no measure to seek, search, find, welcome, invite, and include. . .
In Luke 15:1-3 we read how “All the tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and scribes were complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3 So he told them this parable:”
“4 “What man among you, who has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it? 5 When he has found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders, 6 and coming home, he calls his friends and neighbors together, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep!’ 7 I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who don’t need repentance.”
“Or what woman who has ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9 When she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found the silver coin I lost!’ 10 I tell you, in the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.”
11 He also said, “A man had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate I have coming to me.’ So he distributed the assets to them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered together all he had and traveled to a distant country, where he squandered his estate in foolish living. 14 After he had spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he had nothing. 15 Then he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to eat his fill from the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one would give him anything. 17 When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I’ll get up, go to my father, and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. 19 I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired workers.”’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. 21 The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father told his servants, ‘Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let’s celebrate with a feast, 24 because this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate.
25 “Now his older son was in the field; as he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he summoned one of the servants, questioning what these things meant. 27 ‘Your brother is here,’ he told him, ‘and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 “Then he became angry and didn’t want to go in. So his father came out and pleaded with him. 29 But he replied to his father, ‘Look, I have been slaving many years for you, and I have never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me a goat so that I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.’
31 “‘Son,’ he said to him, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
The Elder brother became quite the party-pooper. Why? Nobody wants to be a party-pooper. He refused to come to the table and eat and drink. He refused to recognize the gravity of the moment, the dignity and value of his brother’s life.