The Banquet Etiquette
Lk 14:1, 7-14

Fr. Jijo Kandamkulathy CMF
Claretian Missionaries

The question of the rank and order of the banquet might have been a problem in the community of Luke just as it was in Corinth (1Cor.11). There might have been people rushing for places of importance in such occasions. So, this story of Jesus might have come handy to explain to the people not to rush for places of importance. This banquet, if taken in the context of the Eucharistic celebration in the early Christian communities, it is easier to understand the context.

Banquette etiquettes differ from culture to culture. The order of seating is highly hierarchized in many cultures while some cultures admit no hierarchy in front of the food. A banquet is not about food but more about galvanizing social status. Otherwise, what does it matter where you sit, if you can simply eat the same food sitting on a golden chair or a wooden one. So, banquet has a different purpose. Many anthropologists have identified the significance of sharing food in creating and maintaining social order and structure. The type of food you serve, how you serve, where you serve and to whom you serve and with whom you eat are significant social codes that need more than ordinary perception to identify.

It is good to look at the banquets that Jesus organized and participated. There are two banquets that we remember specially. The last supper and the one in the house of Zacheus. Both were occasions of immense learning of the values of the Kingdom. In the last supper, Jesus was giving himself as food. Then he taught them an extraordinary symbol of humility by washing the feet of the disciples. In the other meal where Jesus invited himself to the house of Zacheus, the man gave away everything he had because of the worth of knowing Christ. When Christ is the food, everything else is tasteless. When Christ is the wealth, everything else is valueless.

Jesus was accused of eating with the tax collectors and sinners and the Pharisees found it unacceptable to eat with these unclean people. Jesus moved between the estates of the Pharisees and the so-called sinners very easily. The Pharisees found it difficult to share table with Jesus because he was sharing a friendship with the sinners. The sharing of meals represented sharing of habits and status. When Jesus shared the food of the sinners the Pharisees were scrupulous that Jesus shares their status and habits.

In cultures where avoiding shame is a major motive of human behavior seating someone on the wrong table and company is equal to loosing face and denigrating the guests. Great care is taken in the seating arrangements in these places. In the erstwhile India, in some places even today, sharing even the cooking utensils between the castes was a taboo. The lower castes were often given food on a leaf spread in a small pit which can curve the leaf enough to hold the rice porridge. The practice was to prevent getting contaminated by the culture and practices of a lower caste person.

Jesus dares to break all taboos on commensality and finds everyone equal in the Kingdom of God and accepted no ranks and files there. Or if any, all the worldly standards of measuring ranks have been undermined. By now we are all familiar with the metaphor of the banquet for the Kingdom of God.

Jesus narrates also parables where God is the host. He calls all people from the streets and alleys to participate in the wedding feast. God does not care for the ranks of people or he reverses the ranks. In the Divine banquet, the master finds out that those who were invited in advance had different reasons to skip the banquet. Well, they did not find the invitation giving them sufficient honour? But, the banquet hall of the Lord got filled with the homeless people, the poor people ultimately.

There are instructions for those who are coming for the banquet and for those who invite for the banquet. Jesus reminds who should be invited for a banquet. Let us go deeper into the psyche of someone who looks for places of prominence among the invited. This person is definitely looking for an acceptance in the public not exactly for food. It is a person with sense of emotional insecurity who will look for a place that does not suit his status. Jesus reminds the true value of our selves are the value given to us by the one who hosts the heavenly banquet, God.

In the instruction for hosts, Jesus gives to reconsider the invitation list. The poor and the isolated in the society are the ones that Jesus adds first in the invitation list. They are those who value the food, the one who gives himself as food.

The lesson that Jesus gives us is not about humility but about discernment of the value of the food in the heavenly banquet where Christ gives himself as food and drink.

© Claretian Publications, Macau
Cum Approbatione Ecclesiastica 2025