DP #17: Thesis 1st Draft

Though it is called "The Places at the Table," Luke 14:7-11 addresses more than simply table ranking in relation to social status in 1st century Palestine. Jesus teaches a fellow working class stranger to not sit at the head of the table at a wedding, rather to sit at the bottom and wait to be asked to move up. When the man does so, Jesus also solicits him to invite not the wealthy elite to such gatherings but the outcasts, sick and poor. He preaches a plain lesson of humility and courtesy through which he asks his community to create the Kingdom of God with a just rebellion against hierarchical standards as opposed to an inappropriate contradiction to social customs.