Today we will be looking at Luke 14:1-14.
The setting of our passage today is a Sabbath meal to which Jesus has been invited by a high-ranking Pharisee in Israel. This is going to give rise to several teachings by Jesus that we will look at over the next several weeks. This supper will give rise to the wonderful truth that God is inviting us to participate in a marriage supper that He is preparing for His Son. However, in this case, God allows us to participate in our own invitation. He in a sense invites everyone who will believe upon His Son, what he taught, what he foretold, and what he accomplished. Thus only those who properly respond to the open invitation are allowed in to the meal. In fact, we could say that the presence of Jesus within Israel was technically a wedding feast that went horribly awry.
As we look at the passage we are at the meal where Jesus sits with a ruling Pharisee and all the others he has invited. Now the problem with the Pharisees was that they were very legalistic. They focused upon the letter of the law to the exclusion of the spirit of the Law. When we are focused upon the letter of the law we really want to know what we can get away with and what we can’t. It is not about wanting to please God, but rather about wanting to please self without getting in trouble. However, when we ask ourselves why God gave a certain law, we are drawn into His heart and purposes. Legalism tends to bind us to things that actually run counter to the purposes and the heart of God. In fact several are on display at this meal.
First, legalism bound them to looking at each other wrongly. It says in verse one that they watched him closely. Now it is not wrong to watch our brother if we are doing it in a humble way that serves him. We would normally call this “watching out” for our brother. But legalism binds us to watching our brother for the sole purpose of finding fault. God wants us to watch each other’s back rather than become nit-pickers. Most legalists have forgotten that they not only were sinners but are still sinners in need of God’s grace. Yet, there is one caution here. It is common today to believe that anyone who points out a problem in our life is being mean-spirited and a legalist. This is not true. A true brother will not only watch his brother’s back, but also warn him about pitfalls in front of him. The legalist does this because they take joy in putting you down a peg or too (i.e. raising themselves). But the true brother does this because they don’t want to see you killed. Even then, a true brother realizes that they are not their brother’s Lord. They will remain humble and stand beside you not over you.
Legalism also binds us to misunderstandings about God’s purposes. It just happens that a man who has dropsy (a condition where the body is swollen with fluid) is sat across from Jesus on the Sabbath. Now we know why they were watching him like a hawk. This meal was a set-up in order to find fault with Jesus. You see, the Pharisees had developed an interpretation of the Sabbath laws that saw healing as a form of work. I’ve talked about this in greater depth before. They saw the Sabbath primarily as a restriction upon us. Thus it was a bleak and difficult day in which we couldn’t enjoy a lot of good things. However, God did not give the Sabbath to restrict man. The word Sabbath means rest. God wanted his people to quit being driven seven days a week as if they had no hope in God. The Sabbath was supposed to be a day of rest and “smelling the roses.” It was a day to gather with friends and family, and give glory to God for His great benefits. It was about declaring God as our ultimate source rather than our own hand. Thus God’s purpose was not to prevent us or restrict us from helping each other when one was sick or in need. But, the Pharisees couldn’t see this.
Legalism also binds us to treating one another as less than human (in fact, less than animal). After Jesus boldly heals the man of his condition and sends him away, he then challenges them. If they had a donkey or ox fall into a pit on the Sabbath, every one of them would “work” to pull it out. But they wouldn’t do a similar thing for this man. Whenever you see people being treated as animals or especially less than animals, you know that the enemy of mankind has been at work twisting the minds of those involved. Today we have become a people who will obsess over the death of certain animals and yet not blink an eye at the murder of countless unborn babies. This dehumanizing of groups is the mode of operation of the devil and those who listen to him.
They had been watching him like a hawk. However, Jesus had been watching them and gives a parable to point out a fault with those who were seated with him at the table: pride and self-exaltation. He warns those who are invited to a meal not to try and sit in the highest place. No doubt there had been much jockeying going on before the meal. Self-promotion and ambition are powerful traits that enable us to succeed in many things. However, they lead us to promote ourselves beyond what God has given to us. It knows no bounds and will often come in conflict with God. Clearly our attempts to curry favor with the rulers and those with power in this life can reap benefits. But in the end this mentality leads us into gross sin. One more honorable than us may have been invited and we will be asked to move down to a lesser seat. Now that would be a humiliating moment that most of them would seek to avoid at all cost. Jesus is “the one more honorable.” Even though the host of that meal may have not recognized Jesus, God the Father does. Ultimately he is the one having a great supper. Jesus is the groom who has come to the wedding feast of his bride. Yet, the Pharisees and their followers wanted to sit in the seat that belonged to Him. Now that was fine and all before he came. Someone had to lead. Yet, now that he arrived, they should have been stumbling over themselves to give the seat to him. Even worse they seek to put him to death so that their seat will never be threatened again. When you walk in pride you ultimately offend those with greater honor than you. In the end you will receive the fruit of pride, destruction.
There is a day coming when the host, God, is going to manifest to the world that Jesus is the one more honorable- the One to Whom the seat of power belongs. God will render a decision. Sometimes He settles things in this life. But do not be deceived, He will settle it in the Age to come. Our proper place will be established and woe to the person who has kicked against his proper place. Instead, be humble in this life and let God promote you, so that at the judgment you will have nothing to fear.
Jesus then turns to rebuke the ruling Pharisee who was hosting the meal. The previous fault focused on what we shouldn’t do, but this fault is couched in terms that encourage us to what we should do. When you have a meal don’t invite those who can pay you back in some way (social prestige, invite you over to their place, business contacts, etc.). It is spiritually smarter to invite people who cannot help you back in any way. Bless people with a mean who cannot bless you back. Instead of worrying about our position and using our good to increase that position, we should use those good to bless others, period. Which raises a question, who do we tend to bless? Eating with others is a social act which strengthens our bonds together and so we tend to invite friends and family. Jesus warns us to beware this tendency. Now we shouldn’t be legalistic with this statement. Yes, we should obey Jesus. But it is not his purpose to rebuke a family from eating together. Rather, this is a special meal the Pharisee is throwing. Jesus is not making a law that we can never invite friends over. Rather, he is giving us wisdom about how we should live in light of the judgment that is coming. Whom are you seeking to be blessed by? If you seek to be blessed by people then all you do will be corrupted by it. However, if you seek to be blessed by God, then you will learn to be a blessing to others especially when you get nothing out of it in this world.
Jesus mentions that he should invite the poor, maimed, lame and blind. There are two levels to this instruction. Believers are called to help those who are less fortunate in one way or another. In Galatians 2:9-10 Paul recognizes that the “Pillars” of the church instructed him to remember the poor, “the very thing which [Paul] also was eager to do.” In doing so, God becomes our reward. Yet, this also has a spiritual parallel. Jesus has come to heal those who are spiritually poor, maimed, lame, and blind. Too often we are trying to reach the rich and famous of the world to join our church at the expense of those who do not appeal to us. This comes from the spirit of pride and self-ambition. But when we are humble before God and our fellow man, we serve regardless of the station of another.
Ask yourself the question, “Am I seeking to be blessed by men or God?” Men can reward you, but they can also make you pay. But God has a reward for those who live this life in service to Him. To serve Him is to serve one another in His name. The humble person knows that the only sure reward and the only sure position is that which God gives. All else is simply grasping after the wind, here today and gone tomorrow. Are you able to say with Job, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord!”?