Musical Chairs
Luke 14:1, 7–14
Core Affirmation
Because God has reversed the social order in the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus, therefore we are able to resist the competitive structures of our world by practicing humility, service, and radical hospitality toward those who cannot repay us.
Plotline
Every meal has a memory attached to it, and the memory reveals what we value. * We are all playing musical chairs—in schools, churches, and society—and we play to win. * The ancient world thought carefully about virtue and flourishing, and they never once listed humility. * Then Jesus comes along, and the rules of musical chairs are radically different.
Script
Introduction
Every meal has a memory attached to it, and the memory reveals what we value. Grandparents’ tables. The kids’ table. Meals of celebration. Meals shadowed by grief. A dinner in New Jersey with a dress code and seating assignments you did not choose.
You heard the text read. It is one of many mealtime texts in Luke. The Gospel of Luke uses mealtimes to emphasize social inequalities. People noticed where one ate (5:29), with whom one ate (5:30), whether one washed before eating (7 & 11), where one sat to eat (14), and who was invited (14). All these matters determined one’s social position in first-century Palestine.
Every meal has a memory attached to it, and the memory reveals what we value.
Episode 1
We are all playing musical chairs—in schools, churches, and society—and we play to win.
You know the game. Keep your eye on the chair—the prize—and your eye on the other players—the competition. And when it gets down to the last few chairs, there will be someone with an elbow here, a knocked-down chair there, and someone crying foul. It is the game where high society knows your status by the social graces you practice. Proper decorum and social conventions are indicators of your pecking order.
And it happens in every segment of society. Schools: GPA, scores on tests, class rank, degree choice, school reputation, publications, tenure and promotion. Churches: numbers, dress, jobs, ministries, social and doctrinal standing, church reputation. All cultures, societies, clans, tribes, neighborhoods, and kinfolks know the rules and the standings.
And to be honest, I get disgusted when I see schools and churches play musical chairs—unless I am the one playing, and then I have a vicious elbow.
America teaches us to be assertive and self-confident: get ahead, win the prize, be noticed. In any context, we can learn the rules of the game to win. Taking the low seat because one is humble is one thing. To take the low seat in order to move up is quite another.
And the rules of the game are even harder for the host. Read verses 12–14. Act in such a way that you receive zero benefits, zero gains. This parable is not good advice on how to be exalted. This parable is not how you teach marketing, management, or economics. In America, we read a story like this and know how to game the system. But God’s economy is different.
We are all playing musical chairs—in schools, churches, and society—and we play to win.
Episode 2
The ancient world thought carefully about virtue and human flourishing, and they never once listed humility.
Let me change my focal lens for just a moment. How would musical chairs have been played in the ancient world?
Socrates devoted himself to the question of how one should live, maintaining that the individual’s eudaimonia—human flourishing—was the foundation of the good life. He argued one should care for the soul rather than seek fame, wealth, or honor (Plato, Apol. 29c–d, 36c). The path to eudaimonia is virtue (aretē). Plato developed the four cardinal virtues: wisdom, courage, self-control, and justice. Aristotle continued the same thought, adding friendship, liberality, proper speech, and gentleness. The Stoics agreed. All of them saw the Greek polis—the city-state—as the context for individual flourishing. That is why justice led the lists: the good of the other.
Humility is an odd virtue—especially when you compare it to the others. Pursuing humility. Achieving humility. Obtaining humility. What are the Seven Steps to Being a Highly Effective Humble Person? Here is the problem: humility was considered a vice in the ancient world, not a virtue. The great Greek philosophers never put it on the list.
The ancient world thought carefully about virtue and human flourishing, and they never once listed humility.
Episode 3
Then Jesus comes along, and the rules of musical chairs are radically different.
As we wake up tomorrow and engage in daily life, there will be many systemic structures designed around competing, advancing, achieving, and winning. Our faith lets us imagine a different way of being in this world—to live into a different set of virtues and practices: humility, service, and sacrifice. The rules of the game change.
Jesus radically reverses the social order. For the guests at the party—the players of musical chairs—Jesus says: To climb the ladder of success, you step down. To win, you lose. To lead, you serve. To live, you die. To be resurrected, you are crucified. There are no reserved seats. There are no designated parking spaces. There are no corner offices in the Kingdom of God.
For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted—and that, only by God at the resurrection.
The Word of the Lord.