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Luke 14.1-14
February 2nd 2020
Meat
So, let’s get into chapter 14 of Luke. Verse 1
Luke 14:1 And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him.
2 And, behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy.
3 And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day?
4 And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go;
5 And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day?
6 And they could not answer him again to these things.
7 ¶ And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them,
8 When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him;
9 And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room.
10 But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.
11 For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
12 Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee.
13 But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:
14 And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.
15 And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.
1 And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him.
“And it came to pass” – and as it so occurred.
“as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day,”
One of the chief Pharisees had probably invited him to eat at his home on the Sabbath. The term chief Pharisees refers to the fact that he was a member of the Great Council or the Sanhedrim – and because Luke calls him “one of the chief Pharisees” this does not mean he was the Chief Pharisee but was a member of the Council itself.
Usually the Pharisees were out to trap him and this might have been the case here too but this could have been one of the few of the Council who gave Jesus the benefit of the doubt.
And this was the Sabbath-day – of course, which was the day when all of the most religious got to play sabbath-cop. And it seems that this was the case here as Luke adds to his narrative:
And they watched him – showing that there were others there, probably other Pharisees cut from a similar cloth. We have seem Jesus face this situation before, and know that He would in part be accused of being a sabbath-breaker, and so we can tell what’s coming our way.
2 And, behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy.
This reads like a set up to me. I mean why on earth would a member of the ruling counsel, who prided themselves on being far removed from the sinners and broken of the world, have a person there at the meal, reaching into the bowls if that were possible for him, who had the dropsy? (which is another discomforting disease that had to do with water retention in different parts of the body).
He could have been a relative of the Pharisee but he probably was a plant: perhaps they had heard of Jesus miracles, especially those He did on the Sabbath and perhaps they set the situation up in a chief rulers home to give them first hand eyewitness on why he should be put to death.
Because Luke says in verse one that “they watched him” this seems to support this theory.
3 And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day?
As an FYI, in scripture – especially the King James, to “answer,” (as in, And Jesus Answered) does not always means that something was said before – like it does to us. It can mean to strike up a conversation or make a remark. So . . . “and Jesus remarked or started the conversation with,”
Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day?
From this verse we know that there were other Pharisees and scribes (or lawyers) there and that they were “watching him.”
Jesus was wise and knew that if he simply healed the man, like he has done in other places, they would accuse him of sabbath-breaking. So this time he proposed the question to them, asking if it was lawful? I love this (verse 4). And how did they respond (verse 4)
4 And they held their peace.
They said nothing. Why? Because the Law did not specifically forbid it. If it did they would have jumped all over that one. But by tradition they somehow came to conclude that healing in the Sabbath was wrong. And even though they were apparently trying to set Him up, he turned the tables on them. And verse four adds:
“And he took him, and healed him, and let him go,” meaning he somehow took hold of the man or maybe he took him outside, and healed him and then either released him from the healing session or perhaps sent him away.
5 And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day?
In other words, if it was lawful to save an ox on the Sabbath, it was also to save the life of a man. In this way Jesus asked and answered his question to them: Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath. Verse 6
6 And they could not answer him again to these things.
7 And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them,
They had invited Jesus to eat with them and they were a room full of the religious elite – lawyers and Pharisees.
Perhaps they tried to set him up but now that they couldn’t Jesus uses this time to teach them an important principle, and he does it through a parable.
And he put forth a parable to those who were invited when, the King James says, “he marked” (observed) “how they chose out of the chief rooms.”
This is a bad word choice for us today as rooms did not mean rooms like we see them. And though we’ve touched on this before it speaks more about seats around a large table of various elevations which distinguished certain people and demoted others – kind of like the seats around the table of the Queen of England – those near her are for the important people and those far were not. In this case, most of the important people probably gathered around the best seats together while the “lesser people” (maybe like the man with the dropsy) were laying in some obscure corner of the room.
So Jesus teaches them and says:
8 When thou art bidden (invited) of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honorable man than thou be (invited) of him;
Jesus appears to use a wedding because it was a time with feasts and formalities. And his advice to them when they are invited to such an event was not to sit that the best seat because a more honorable man than themselves might be invited (verse 9)
It seems to me that Jesus was teaching these men about humility – about humbling themselves. Why? Because Jesus infers that if they choose the best seats, and a more honorable guest than they appears (verse 9)
9 Then he that invited thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room.
In other words, don’t start the event off running the risk of being shamed. Humble yourselves and take lower seats first. There is no shame in this. Then he says (verse 10)
10 But when thou art invited, go and sit down in the lowest seats; that when he that invited you thee comes, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.
In other words, purposely humble yourselves, and then in having taken the lower seats, when the host himself invites you up to the better seats, you will have (the King James says) worship in the presence of them that sit there to eat with you.
For a King James only literalist this passage presents a problem because it has Jesus say:
“Then thou shalt have worship in the presence of those you eat with.”
Is Jesus promoting men to do things that will get them to have worship in the presence of others that we dine with?
To be the man, in other words?
I don’t think so. Of course the word translated worship here is doxa and it means praise. Which still makes the message and meaning of the parable obscure.
And again, is this teaching from the Lord to help these religious men in the way they are perceived among men?
To me the answer to these things is no but what we can say is the principle of the parable is for them to humble themselves before other men.
Show that you are NOT seeking to elevate yourself and you may be elevated. And that is why I think Jesus is NOT describing earthly things here, but heavenly, as he now adds
11 For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
This principle is manifest throughout scripture and it almost seems like it is one of God’s goals to take humble men and exalt them and take self-promoting, arrogant proud people and debase them.
Job 22:29 says
When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person.
Proverbs 29:23 reads, “A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit.”
Again Proverbs 11:2 When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.
Proverbs 15:33 The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honor is humility.
This is the principle Jesus is teaching these men. Interestingly, this principle (as you have seen), is all over the Tanakh, and yet these men must have been clamoring over the best seats despite them.
Another Proverb (18:12) Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility.
Proverb 16:18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
But the commands to humility are not only in the Proverbs. In Isaiah 66:2 God says:
For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.
One verse later we read
Isaiah 66:5 Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.
James 4:6 reads “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.”
And Peter wrote (in 1st Peter 5:5) Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
So back to the meaning of the principle of the parable that Jesus lays out for us in 11
“For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”
How does one humble themselves – really – not feign humility, but honestly truly humble oneself so as to be exalted of the Lord?
Isn’t it almost a proud thing to believe one must humble themselves in order to later be exalted?
I used to have this view and so I failed to see the import of the advice. It was only when I gained access to the mental tools we can employ to aid us in humbling ourselves that I came to see the elements of humbling oneself.
It begins with seeing who we are relative to knowing, realizing who God is.
In Isaiah 46:9 God says:
“Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me”
This morning in Milk we talked about 1st Corinthians 2:16 where Paul writes
“For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”
The answer to that first question, for who has known the mind of the Lord can only be replied with NOBODY. His mind is NOT knowable by us.
We have the mind of Christ in us as believers, but the beginning of humility is to see the living God for who He actually really is – a consuming fire, eternal, governing all things everywhere, from the microscopic to the macro and yet we cannot box his will, ways and mind in.
To realize that He is HOLY HOLY HOLY and we are not, not, not helps us enter into a place where we naturally break, fall and crash into the dust – if we really understand and see the disparity between Him and ourselves.
That leads us to the second tool that lends to unprefabricated humility – an honest examination of ourselves, our hearts, our will, our ways and our desires.
We read in Job 6:24
“Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: and cause me to understand wherein I have erred.”
And the Psalmist writes in 77:6 I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search.
And Psalm 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 7:25 I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness:
Psalm 4:4 Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.
2nd Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
1st Corinthians 11:28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
Combining these two elements – that God is God and we are human beings, and after examining our heart of hearts in the face of our real views and secret desires, we come to a third realization posed by scripture – that almighty holy God is ALSO aware of the contents of our hearts.
Jeremiah 17:10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
And in this process, if you will, we begin to break down the lofty towers we stand upon and sink closer to the dust from whence we came.
This then takes us to another level of humility which is the realization that anything good in us is the result of the power and spirit and love of God – that we truly do rely upon the LORD
Paul wrote in 2nd Corinthians 3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.
When this is truly, actually embraced, some genuine humility begins to percolate in our hearts. This reality is made more and more apparent to us as we study the Word, which is really hard to do and to remain proud.
But because pride is so ubiquitous in the human heart, and so easily reproduced in us with every apparent advance that we experience, staying in the Word is key to offsetting the natural urges to be proud at every turn.
That’s why it says in 2nd Timothy 3:15-16
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,”
We get releveled everytime we read passages like Jude 1:24-25 which says
“Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”
We are humbled. Everytime we remind ourselves of Philippians 2:13 which says
“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Everytime we read Galatians 5:22-23
Which clearly tells us that
“the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”
Our flesh is overcome with the desire to seek such things. And then all of this moves us into a place to realize that the Glorious God of fire and light, who loved us so much He gave us His Son, forgives us of our failures.
This is key to the next part – which is so important to the definition of humility and humbling ourselves – which is how we view and relate to others.
Paul writes in Galatians 6:1
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
2 Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
3 For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
He adds in 1st Corinthians 8:2 And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.
Romans 12:3 reads For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
And finally the admonition of 1st Thessalonians 5:11-14 which says:
Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.
(beat)
There is perhaps no other thing that scripture says the Lord loves than a broken heart and a contrite spirit in His creations and especially His children.
I say this this way because this state of mind and heart opens us up to better faith and better love – hence the teaching by the Lord Jesus Christ to these religious men. Continuing on with the theme of self-debasement Jesus says (at verse 12)
12 Then said he also to him that invited him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee.
We have to remember context here folks. Jesus was teaching a principle. He went to parties where only the friends and guests were present so the point of the parable is not to forbid having festivities with family and friends.
It’s a warning of living a life of immediate rewards – which is akin to the immediate rewards we get by loving the best seats in the house and the honors of men rather than humility and waiting for God to exalt us.
There does seem, however, to be a reproof of some kind for living a life where this is what we do – you know, we throw parties for the wealthy and the elite so as to be invited to their parties in return.
Of course, there are people who live this way – high society and on the party circuit – and there are plenty of documentaries on line that expose this form of socialization.
The thrust of the advice is use your life and time not to serve yourself and your needs and wants but to spend it reaching out to others as a means to lift them up.
Here the Lord commends charitable outreach to the poor – so include them too in your events. And so he says:
13 But when thou makest a feast, call ;ithe poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:
Now, just a caveat – this advice was to them then – and while I believe it has application to us today as Sons and Daughters, there are some factors that must be admitted.
First, we do not necessarily live in the same culture that they were in – and to bring some people into our homes would be unwise, and therefore not advisable.
Additionally, when we are married and then when we have children, the situation is not always open to this type of arrangement – as they can infringe upon the whole setting.
Over the years I have attempted the advice Jesus gives here on different occasions – sometimes in family dynamics they work, sometimes they don’t.
And so the welfare and heart of all involved have to be considered when we undertake to approach this literally in our day and age.
But the principle is there and by the spirit we can all benefit thereby.
So Jesus says, after telling them to invite the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind he tells them why:
14 And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: (Pay you back – they are destitute – and then the big line) for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.
The principle is to not set yourself up in life but to serve others and trust that God will bless you. When? He tells us, saying
At the resurrection of the just.
We know from scripture that God bestows the resurrected bodies on all people. Speaking of the way God clothes plants with different bodies, Paul says in 1st Corinthians 15:38
But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
But the context of this is tied to the resurrection. Here Jesus says that the blessing to those who follow the advice he has given them will be blessed at the resurrection of the just.
Speaking of the various bodies that God has created in the material realm Paul writes
1st Corinthians 15:40 There are also celestial bodies (of the heavens above us), and bodies terrestrial (of the earth beneath us): but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
And then speaking of the celestial bodies above Paul adds
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
And are you ready? Then he says:
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead.
I submit to you all that the crowns and rewards, the blessings and the glories for all who are His will be manifestly given out by and through the types of resurrected body God chooses to give us.
This is why Paul said about his own personal hope in Philippians 3:11
(knowing that all would be resurrected)
“That if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”
It is why I believe Hebrews speaks of “better resurrections.”
And it is why I think Jesus reveals that the blessing of inviting the poor and lame (etc.) will be given at the resurrection . . . of the just.
15 And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, “Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.”
Now remember that the Jews believed that the Messiah would be a temporal prince and that his reign would be one of great magnificence and splendor on earth.
They believed that that the COI would be delivered from all their oppressions, and that, from being a degraded people, they would become the most distinguished and happy nation on the earth.
In Jesus day they were looking forward to this period with great anticipation and hope.
Along comes Jesus – a Galilean, born under suspect circumstances, but doing miracles as prophesied.
There was some belief that there would be those righteous prophets who would rise up in that day and join in the reign over the earth and it is possible that the one who spoke up, hearing the resurrection mentioned, believed that all of these things were so. Add in that the Jews believed that only THEY would participate in that Kingdom scene and Jesus uses this time to teach them otherwise, again through a parable, which will cover next week.
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