Luke 14:1, 7-14    “Back to Front and Upside Down”

     Some of you may remember reading Lewis Carroll’s book “Alice in Wonderland” when you were kids.  As the story goes, Alice falls asleep and has this amazing dream where everything seems to be upside down and back to front.  She encounters White Rabbit with a pocket watch that’s always running late, a caterpillar who gives advice and bits of wisdom, a grinning and talking Cheshire Cat that keeps vanishing, the King and Queen of Hearts who are always saying “Off with their heads!”  Then there’s the rude Mad Hatter who’s always rebuking Alice for her rudeness.  Alice discovers surprise after surprise as she meets back to front people and creatures in this strange world.

     Reading the Gospels isn’t as puzzling as the adventures of Alice in Wonderland, but sometimes you’ve got to wonder if Jesus doesn’t get things back to front and upside down.  Today’s reading is a wonderful example of this.  He says that those who are great will be the least in the Kingdom of God and those who are humble will be the greatest.  That’s so back to front!

     We’re more used to the idea that those who get ahead – the winners in this world – are those who are assertive, promoting their worth over and above everyone else.  Those who are called successful and held in high regard are those who make a lot of money; those who are famous; the ones who outmaneuver others; those who make the most of the opportunities that come their way to get ahead.

     In Jesus’ day, people had much the same idea about what makes a person successful as we do today.  Luke, in today’s Gospel, ushers us into a large room where a dinner party, hosted by a prominent Pharisee in the local community, is in progress.  Jesus, who’s been invited as a guest, notices how the other guests were scrambling for the seats of honor next to the host. 

     After watching all this for a little while Jesus says, “Here’s how parties work, God’s way – ‘Those who make themselves great will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be made great’.”  Now Jesus isn’t telling his listeners anything new.  But it’s still a shock.  Imagine the puzzled looks on their faces.  “What do you mean, Jesus?  Everyone knows you get what you deserve.  You earn a good reputation and so you deserve a good place.  That’s the way the world works.”

     Then Jesus goes on to redefine what “hospitality” is by saying that when inviting people to a dinner party don’t invite your friends, or relatives, or neighbors as you would normally do.  Rather, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, those who are regarded as nothing by society.

     That’s so back to front.  Who in their right mind would do something like that?  When you think about it, it’s not so different to Alice who found herself in ‘Wonderland’ where everything was so back to front.

     And this isn’t the only time when Jesus had such a back to front idea.  On one occasion he said, “Those who want to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and the gospel will save it.” (Matt 8:35)  And on several other occasions, Jesus commends the most unlikely people for their faith or good deeds, like Samaritans, lepers, the Syro-Phoenician woman, tax collectors and prostitutes.  Why doesn’t he say nice things about the people whom we’d expect to be praised - the respected and wealthy people?

     Jesus is back to front and upside down.  He does this to highlight that the ways of the Kingdom of God aren’t the same as that of the rest of the world.  What’s considered right and good in the world may not be the case in God’s Kingdom.  These back to front and upside down ideas of Jesus challenge us to re-examine what we’ve accepted as right, whereas in actual fact they’re not God’s ways at all.

     It’s so easy for us to have a certain attitude or adopt a way of life that’s completely opposite of what God wants.  The argument always goes, “Everyone else is doing it.”  But just because everyone else is doing it, doesn’t mean it’s right and God-pleasing.  Just because something becomes a trend doesn’t make it right.  Just because every one else at school is cheating doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.  Just because your friends put down or make fun of people who are different doesn’t mean that this is what God wants.

     Chuck Swindoll tells about a study of teenagers and peer pressure.  What they did was bring groups of ten adolescents into a room for a test.  Each group was instructed to raise their hands when the teacher pointed to the longest line on three separate charts.  What one person in the groups of ten didn’t know was that the other nine had been instructed ahead of time to vote not for the longest line, but for the second-longest line.

     You can probably guess what happened.  Time after time, the tenth student would glance around, frown in confusion at the way the other nine were voting, and put his hand up with the rest of the group, because he lacked the courage to challenge them.      It’s hard to say no to the crowd.  And becoming an adult doesn’t make it any easier.  You may have heard the story of the woman who was interviewed by reporters on her 102^nd birthday.  When asked what was the best thing about passing the century mark, she answered, “No peer pressure!”

     Adults are often as susceptible to peer pressure as are young people.  What professional doesn’t want to impress his or her colleagues?  Why do we throw big money on weddings in the first place?  To impress our friends.  Why do we buy expensive cars?  Build large homes?  It’s because we care what other people think.

     You see, it’s real easy for us say things are right when really they’re wrong, because we want to make a favorable impression on our friends.  That’s what Jesus is saying in our text today.  God’s ways can be so against what is the accepted standard in the rest of the world.  But spiritual maturity comes when we’re more interested in pleasing God than we are in pleasing others, doing the right thing rather than the expedient thing.

     To follow God’s ways may seem like the more difficult path, in fact the path that seems so back to front compared to the ways of the world.  Jesus never promised that following God’s ways would be the easiest path.  But it is the way we can stand out from the rest of the world.  We can witness to others that there’s a better way.  We can give evidence that being a member of God’s kingdom makes a difference in the way we live our lives.

     Life in the kingdom of God is no walk in the park.  It’s hard, tough work.  But may God grant us the wisdom and the ability to discern his ways so that we may faithfully follow Jesus, letting his light shine through us into our homes, our neighborhood and the world around us.

                                                AMEN