This reflection by CJ Green originally appeared in Daily Grace: The Mockingbird Devotional, Vol. 2:

Then Jesus said… “Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ But they all alike began to make excuses… Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’” (Lk 14:16-18, 21)

Films about high school are a genre unto themselves. They’re sweetly nostalgic, yet inherently tense. Think The Breakfast Club, Mean Girls, or Grease; my own favorite is the little-known masterpiece The Spectacular Now (2013). In any case, there is usually a scene depicting students at different lunch tables, or in cliques, each according to their “thing.” Athletes at one table, nerds at another.

Sadly, life can feel like a high school cafeteria. If you don’t have a “thing,” you might not have a place to sit. We usually assume that, in the words of writer Dan Brooks, “you are a type first, and you behave accordingly.” What’s your thing? Maybe you are the funny person, or the smart, sarcastic person. Maybe you are the sensitive person. More likely than not, your “thing” changes depending on who you are with.

Late in The Spectacular Now, we learn that the two protagonists, Sutter and Aimee, are not who they first appeared to be. Sutter’s easygoing facade shatters to reveal, beneath it, someone more damaged and vulnerable; Aimee becomes more daring than her mousy exterior implied. Only time and love can reveal the hidden pieces of them — and us.

In Luke’s Gospel, the Parable of the Great Dinner relies on types. First, there are the self-satisfied invitees who think they have a better place to be. Then there are the poor, the blind, and the lame, who are just happy to get a look. But these types are actually various components of all of us. We are all a little bit self-satisfied, and a lotta bit spiritually blind and lame. Probably self-satisfaction is the very “thing” that blinds us.

Most importantly, a hidden hunger resides in everyone. The moment we admit this is the moment we become willing to see that there is, indeed, a seat at the table for us. “[T]here is still room!” the servant tells his master (v. 22). And there always will be.

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