The Guest List
Proverbs 25: 6-7, Luke 14: 1, 7-14
If you’ve been lucky enough to throw a big fancy party, then you’ve probably also had the stressful experience of compiling the guest list. Perhaps in those negotiations, you’ve been limited by the host’s preferences, or the size of the the venue, or the budget. If you invite the Joneses then you have to invite the Smiths. And if you let this one bring a +1, then you have to let this one bring a +1. Then, there’s the table seating. Who can get along with Uncle Merle through an entire meal/reception? Who can keep the conversation going without bringing up politics or religion or football rivalries? We fret over the guest list, the menu, the open bar… Wait, we’re Baptist… Lizzy said an episcopal priest she admired was known for saying, “Every good party is a foretaste of heaven!”
To be honest I hadn’t thought of Jesus as a big partier, but there is scriptural evidence to the contrary. It’s possible that Jesus either had his own home in Capernaum, or he shared one with Simon Peter, Andrew and their families. It seems plausible that he would have had some kind of home since he was so often accused of entertaining sinners. Shared meals around tables happened with such regularity that Jesus was accused of being a drunkard and a glutton (Luke 7:34).[1] The religious leaders didn’t approve of, well… much of anything, but in Luke 7 Jesus said something like, The religious leaders didn’t like John’s zeal for fasting. They didn’t like Jesus’ frequency of feasting. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
We know Jesus was often the guest in other people’s homes. Such is the case in today’s passage in Luke 14. Jesus was invited to the home of a prominent Pharisee on the Sabbath. This could be a case of keep your friends close and your enemies closer. The Pharisees are keeping a watchful eye on him, scrutinizing his every move. This seems to be a “by invitation only” kind of gathering, and just before this Jesus healed a man suffering from dropsy. Dropsy is what we would call edema – painful swelling and excessive fluid in the body. He wonders if the Pharisees will say something again about him healing on the sabbath, but they don’t. Nor do they invite him in for dinner. Verse 4 says Jesus healed him and let him go. So, I don’t think he was on the guest list.
Jesus enters the Pharisee’s home. The oil lamps are lit. The air is tinged with savory herbs. The food was prepared ahead because no work or preparations were permitted once Sabbath began at sundown. Two loaves of challah or flat bread are on the table. Perhaps the Jewish leader could afford stewed meat rather than fish. The lentils wait in a clay pot. There is a tray of cucumbers, onions, and olives. There is a bowl of figs or dates, grapes or pomegranates.
Jesus turns the tables (as he so often does) and engaged in a bit of people watching himself.[2] As the guests arrive, he seems to make keen observations as only Jesus can. He sees deeper than what is evident from the faces they’ve put on to show up that evening. Jesus sees all the way to the heart of his dinner companions.
He notices the guests vying for seats of honor at the table – their pride of place mocking any shred of humility. As they recline and socialize, Jesus seizes the opportunity for a teachable moment. What if you were at a wedding banquet and could choose your own seats? Would you grab the place of honor, the best seat in the house and risk the host asking you to move? How embarrassing! Instead, what if you chose the most humble seat – the kids’ table. Then if the host came and said, “Oh friend, move to the head table instead!” Well, then you would be honored in front of all the other guests. Those who think themselves high and mighty are brought down. Those who approach their seat unpretentiously will be lifted up. Jesus is teaching the great reversal of what it means to be a disciple. The last shall be first and the first shall be last. Insiders are out. Outsiders are in.
Next, he turned the tables on his host. Jesus suggested that if you only ever included the people who are easy to include, or those who can repay you with a return invitation, well, is that hospitality? Jesus’ example is meant to reframe their concept of hospitality. He is talking about Kingdom of God hospitality.
This scene in Luke 14 comes before a string of passages in which Jesus is teaching what discipleship really is and what it costs. If his hearers cannot practice real K o G hospitality here - on the sabbath – they will never be his disciples.
Brennan Manning’s Ragamuffin Gospel says, When Jesus threw a dinner party, “the guest list would include a ragtag parade of donkey peddlers, prostitutes, herdsmen, slumlords, and gamblers.” Jesus had no interest in seeking status by inviting only the A-listers. He cherished life… individual’s lives… and shared life together. Jesus’ table was filled with contagious joy. The fellowship shared there was “an expression of his mission and message: peace and reconciliation for all, even the moral failures.”[3]
The vision of who is seated around the tables Jesus is setting, should reorient what we think it means to be part of a church community: when you give a luncheon or dinner, when you invite people to join your congregation, when you imagine who you should welcome, don’t simply invite your friends or your relatives or rich neighbors just so you’re assured of staying in their good graces, or so your church continues to look homogeneously like you. But invite the poor, the differently abled, the blind, the disenfranchised…not because you expect repayment and you will be blessed . It’s not about who WE want to invite. It’s about who God wants to invite. [4]
Tony Campolo was an American sociologist at Eastern University and a renowned Baptist preacher and pastor, author. One of his most well-known anecdotes was an experience he had when he was invited to speak in Honolulu.[5] He was from Philadelphia, so there was a 6 hour time difference. Jet lagged, he woke up at 3:00 am and was hungry. That’s how he ended up in an all-night diner at 3:30 in the morning drinking a cup of coffee and eating a donut, talking to Harry, the cigar-chewing cook behind the counter. In a few minutes, 8-9 women came through the door and surrounded him on either side. They were boisterous, talking loudly. It was a small place. Tony kept his head down and studied his coffee cup. They were prostitutes. The woman seated on his immediate right spoke to her friend when they sat down, “Tomorrow’s my birthday. I’ll be 39… I never had a party in my whole life. I don’t expect to have one now.”
Tony waited until they left and called Harry over, “Do they come in here every night?
He said, “Yes.”
“The one right next to me…”
“Agnes,” Harry confirmed.
“Tomorrow is her birthday. What do you think about decorating the place? When she comes in tomorrow night, we’ll throw a birthday party for her. What do you think?”
“Mister, that is a brilliant idea!” To the kitchen he shouted, “Jan, come out here! Meet this guy who wants to throw Agnes a party.” Jan agreed it was a wonderful idea. Agnes was kind-hearted and no one ever did anything nice for her, Jan said. Tony asked if he could return tomorrow night and decorate the place. Jan said, “To your heart’s content!”
Harry volunteered to make a birthday cake.
Tony shows up the next night at 2:30 with streamers and a poster to put behind the counter that said, “Happy Birthday AGNES!”
Jan had spread the word and the place was wall to wall folks a la Jesus’ guest list. You know what I mean? (donkey peddlars, prostitutes, herdsmen, and gamblers)
At 3:30 Agnes and all her friends walk in. Everyone yells, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! And starts singing. Harry brings out the birthday cake with candles lit. Agnes is stunned. Her knees buckle and her friends have to help her to a seat at the counter. She can’t believe it. She is overcome with emotion… As the story goes, Tony volunteers to lead everyone in prayer and looking back, he says, it was a little weird, but it was the right thing to do.
“God, I know you love Agnes and all these people here tonight. Deliver Agnes from all the hurt and wrong that’s been done to her in her life. By your love and grace, make her into a new creation because you’re the God who can make us new no matter where we’ve been or what we’ve been through.”
Harry leaned over the counter and said, “Campolo, You’re no sociologist, you’re a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to?”
In one of those moments when you come up with just the right words, Tony said, “I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at three‐thirty in the morning.”
He looked back at Tony and said, “I would join a church like that!”
Would you pray with me??
Almighty God,
in your goodness, you provide for the needy; you welcome them and set places for them at your table.
Remove from us, your people the pride of place
and the pursuit of power that mocks humility.
Open our hearts in generosity and justice
to the neglected and lonely,
that in showing esteem for others,
we may honor and please you
through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[1] Manning, Brennan, The Ragamuffin Gospel p. 61
[2] Clark, E. Trey, Working Preacher commentary Luke 14:1, 7-14 August 2025
[3] Manning, p. 62
[4] Sermon Brainwave podcast for August 31, 2025
[5] https://stertin.wordpress.com/2012/05/06/the-kingdom-of-god-is-a-party-in-honolulu-by-tony-campolo/