Sunday, July 5
Read: Luke 14
Jesus was not a revolutionary to change what the law said, but to change the hearts of those who thought they had the right perception of the law. In Luke 14, we are given the third instance of Jesus healing on the Sabbath and each time there is a different reaction. In Luke 6:6-11, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law become furious when Jesus heals the man with the crippled hand. In Luke 13:10-17 the people in the synagogue become humiliated for their previous misperception of Jesus healing and then become “delighted” with Jesus’ wondrous doings. The situation in Luke 14 is a little different. This time Jesus was a guest at the house of the prominent Pharisee, the ruler of the Pharisees. Now it can be implied that the Pharisees were testing Jesus since he “was being carefully watched” (v. 1). The Pharisees may have even planted the man with dropsy so that Jesus would heal him and the Pharisees could rebuke His healing.
Jesus’ question to the Pharisees is not if it is lawful to do work on the Sabbath but if “it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not.” The Pharisees understood that God alone heals, so who were they to question or object if God is willing to heal? Their reaction to Jesus question is speechlessness. Jesus’ next question of the son and ox is even more challenging. The Pharisees knew that they would be willing to help their son or ox from a well on the Sabbath, something that was considered much more work than a healing miracle. Again, they are silent. Their plan to trap Jesus failed, and now the tables are turned. Instead of trying to convict Jesus of wrongdoing, they are now listening to his teachings!
Jesus gives two parables to the Pharisees, the wedding feast and the kingdom banquet, both of which are a revolutionary way of thinking for the Pharisees. In the wedding feast, Jesus is urging them to humble themselves. Only when they are humbled will they be honored with better seats at the feast. In the kingdom banquet, the original invited servants represent the Pharisees whom Jesus is speaking to. It is interesting to note that the servants were not uninterested in the banquet, they were just too busy with worldly concerns. So now it is the needy who are initiated into the banquet. Back in the time of Jesus, the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind were considered to be the way they were because God was withholding them from His blessings. It was even thought that their social situation was a result of sin. They would be considered among the last to be entered into the kingdom. Yet, Jesus is saying the opposite! The wealthy are not privileged because they are righteous and the poor are not needy because they are sinners. This was a change of perception for the Pharisees and they would have to understand that it was not their social status that granted them a seat into the banquet. Only when we humble ourselves that we have seat in the kingdom of God.
When the needy enter into the banquet and the seats are not full, the servants are sent to the “roads and country lanes” to gather more people to make the banquet complete. This time Jesus is referring to the invitation of the Gentiles, who were considered sinners. Jesus is really pushing the point that there are no limits to which the mercy of God extends to.
At verse 24, Jesus’ time with Pharisees is over and his teaching to the disciples begins again. Jesus is telling his disciples that they must sacrifice everything to serve Jesus, that they must die to themselves. Love is sacrifice. I cannot think of any example of someone loving another person without sacrificing something. Whether it is the love of a friend, parent to children, spouse to spouse… something is always sacrificed. This is why Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice for us, because of his overwhelming love for us. Now to serve Jesus, we must sacrifice our lives, not because he asks us to, but because we love our God!
The main point that Luke is trying to get across here is that in order to enter into the banquet of the kingdom of God, we must sacrifice our lives to Christ in humility, for it is the humble who are exalted in the kingdom of God.
“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Take off the turban, remove the crown. It will not be as it was: The lowly will be exalted and the exalted will brought low” (Ezekiel 21:26).
Process:
– Are you truly sacrificing your lives to Jesus? Is there an area in your life that you shield Jesus away from? What aspects of our lives still need sacrificing to God?
– In the kingdom banquet, the original invited guests were too occupied with worldly concerns to go to the banquet. What are some worldly concerns that cause us to turn away from the kingdom of God?
– How can we better humble ourselves to Christ? Take some time in prayer asking God’s mercy to reign in your lives and that through his mercy, you would be able to better humble yourselves before Christ.