Dinner at a Pharisee’s House (Luke 14:1-24)⤒🔗

¹One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. ²There in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy. ³Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” ⁴But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away.

⁵Then he asked them, “If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?” ⁶And they had nothing to say.

⁷When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: ⁸“When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. ⁹If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. ¹⁰But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. ¹¹For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹²Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. ¹³But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

¹⁵ When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, "Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God." 

¹⁶Jesus replied: "A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. ¹⁷At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.' 

¹⁸“But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, 'I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.' 

^19“Another said, 'I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.' 

²⁰“Still another said, 'I just got married, so I can't come.' 

²¹“The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.' 

²²“'Sir,' the servant said, 'what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.' 

²³“Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. ²⁴I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.'”Luke 14:1-24

The next two sections in Luke 14 are closely connected. The one tells about Jesus at dinner as guest of a Pharisee, and this leads to a statement about the feast in the kingdom of God. (14:1,15)

We will look first at the dinner at a Pharisee’s house. The Pharisee was a prominent man, and we are told that Jesus was being carefully watched. Perhaps these Pharisees had not yet come as far as others who had already decided that Jesus must be stopped. But from what follows one cannot escape the idea that this is basically a set-up. The conversation goes differently, however, than we at first perhaps presume.

This dinner took place on a Sabbath. Jesus and the Pharisee probably had the best seats at the table, but notice that it says, “There in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy” (14:2). Putting this sick and handicapped man there, right in front of the Lord, was deliberate, and hence I wrote about a set-up. We know in advance that the Lord’s compassion will extend to this man. Also, the Lord will not let such an opportunity pass to show what life in the kingdom of God means.

The Lord Jesus first asks the Pharisee and experts in the law a question. By doing so he immediately sets the matter in the proper Scriptural light. Jesus asked if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not (14:3). It was a straightforward question which merited a clear answer. Note the very accurate question: Is it lawful? Not: is it wise, is it suitable, or is it desirable, but is it lawful? It’s the kind of question that experts in the law are used to answering. They should be able to answer this without any sweat.

As we might expect from a physician, Luke accurately gives the name of the disease.¹We know, then, that it is a severe handicap that results in multiple problems, often seen in falling, and hence the name “dropsy”. I mention this so that you are aware of the fact that the Lord is faced here with a real and known sickness that is chronic and incurable. This time no type of evil spirit appears to be involved.

It says, “But they remained silent” (14:4). I am convinced that they remain silent because they do not want to incriminate themselves. If they say “no”, they will be considered as heartless. If they say “yes”, they will be breakers of the (self-conceived) Sabbath law. So they all keep quiet.

But the Lord does not have time for their manipulation. It says, “So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away.”(14:4) After this has happened, the Lord appeals to their law, “If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?” (14:5) This statement is much like the one the Lord used earlier about leading a donkey to water even though it is Sabbath (13:15).

Of course, they will save the son or the animal! But they had nothing to say (14:6). They will not incriminate themselves. You will understand that the tension has now risen very high in the dinner area. It is rare that a Pharisee or a teacher of the law has nothing to say.

Only the Humble←↰⤒🔗

But Christ has more instruction to give, based on his own observations. It says, “When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told this parable.” These places were sometimes taken and held with certain jousting and elbow grease. Everyone thought that he deserved a spot close to the host.

The parable goes as follows, “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your seat.’” This is rather embarrassing to say the least. It says: “Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place.” (14:9) But there’s another side to this coin: “take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’  Then you will be honored in the presence of your fellow guests.”

This leads us to a basic rule in the kingdom of heaven, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (14:11) It holds true at all times and places in the kingdom of God.

Still the Lord goes another step farther. “Then Jesus said to his host, ‘When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’” (14:12-14)

The Parable of the Great Banquet←↰⤒🔗

At this point in the meal, someone who has also been listening to what the Lord was teaching, calls out “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” (14:15)

Associating the coming of the Kingdom of God with a great banquet feast was not uncommon (see: Isaiah 25:6-12; Revelation 19:6-9). It is also called the marriage feast of the Lamb and it means a celebration of the great and final victory of the Lord over all his and our enemies.

It is a biblical notion in itself. Therefore the Lord does not reprimand the man who said this. He does not really react to it, either, but continues with what he wanted to say in the parable of the great banquet. In a sense it is a reply to the man’s benediction because it concerns all who want to celebrate this great feast.

The man who was preparing the banquet invited many guests. When the banquet was ready he sent word by personal invitation through his servant, “Come, for everything is now ready.” (14:16,17) But they all made excuses and would not come. Then the owner of the house became very angry and ordered his servant, “Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town, and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.” (14:21) This was done. But there was still room. The master said to his servant: “Go out to the roads and the country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.”  And he adds, “I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.” (14:23,24)

Of course we know that this parable ultimately speaks of the people of Israel who refused to acknowledge in Jesus the Messiah of God. They rejected the invitation to the marriage feast of the Lamb. The apostles first spoke in every town to the Jews but when they would not listen, turned to the Gentiles. In this vein the apostle Paul wrote to the Romans. “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.” (Romans 1:16, see also Ephesians 2).

The Cost of Being a Disciple (Luke 14:25-35)←⤒🔗

²⁵Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: ²⁶“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters — yes, even his own life — he cannot be my disciple. ²⁷And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

²⁸“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? ²⁹For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, ³⁰saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’

³¹“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? ³²If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. ³³In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

³⁴“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? ³⁵It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.
“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”Luke 14:25-35

At this point in Luke’s account, large crowds are still following Jesus as he moves down into the south towards Jerusalem. In this passage we read how he turns to them and begins to speak to them. This is rather special because our Lord did not commonly address crowds directly. But here he makes a point of it; stopping and turning to the crowds who are encouraged to come and sit around him. Also the content of what he is saying indicates that everyone in the crowd was supposed to hear clearly.

The Lord Jesus wants everyone to consider the cost of being a disciple. He does not mean in the first place the financial cost, although that does play a role, but he means the personal cost and the necessary commitment. People should know what they are getting into when they follow the Lord. It should not be a blind following from which they can easily turn back but a strong commitment that will be kept to the end.

He gives a concrete example. “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple.” (14:25,26) In a previous chapter, the Lord said similar things when he spoke about the “baptism” he had to undergo.

Is he trying to dissuade people from following him? He is not, but he wishes to be very clear about the possible consequences. It may happen that close family members and relatives turn against you; are you able to bear that reality? No one should be able to say later, “I never knew what I was getting into.” Of course knowing in advance what might happen is not the same as actually experiencing it. But it helps to have been informed ahead of time.

Perhaps the greatest influence in our lives is that of family. Family is important, not only as a connection to the past but also as a life-line into the future.

The Lord warns that one may have to come to hate his family. That word means here that for the sake of loving Christ, we may have to break with family, an act which will be seen as hostile. It goes one step farther even – we may even come to hate our own life, otherwise you cannot continue to be Christ’s disciple (14:27).

It comes down to this, “Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (14:27). Cross-bearing is what Christ had to do, and it may well be that as his disciples we need to carry our own cross, that means, bear the trials, persecutions and possibility of execution.

The Lord uses two other examples here. “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to finish it?” (14:29) If not, he will be a laughing stock.

I’ve heard this passage used when a consistory and a congregation were investigating whether they had enough financing to build a church. Don’t build a tower unless you can pay for it, right? But I always considered this a misquote. First of all, this passage does not speak about the combined possibilities of a congregation to build a church; it speaks about a personal business venture to build a profitable tower from where someone can perhaps sell water. The point is not whether we have enough money to build, but whether we have the right conviction and zeal to do so.

Anyway, the second example is of a king going to war against another king. The king will have to sit down and consider whether he should engage an army twice the size of his army. It is wise then to send a delegation to ask for terms of peace. But the last line of this example reads, “In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple” (25:33). If the battle is inevitable, you have to give it 100%.

And the Bible is filled with accounts of how a small army vanquished a larger, better equipped army. Think of Moses, Abraham, Joshua, David, Solomon and many others. Faith must be combined with prudence and good planning, as long as we know that by faith we shall overcome.

I wonder how the crowds take this information. The Lord Jesus adds another example: “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out” (14:34).

Following Jesus requires being a cross bearer yourself. If they did not spare the Master, do you think they will spare his disciples? Of course there are other passages that give further insight to waging the battle of the Lord. But the crowds following Jesus know about the cost. Perhaps it did not yet sink in at that time. The church soon discovered after Pentecost that the persecution would never stop. But the church’s future is never in doubt.

The Lord ends with a stirring call, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (14:35b). The Lord more often uses this phrase. It means that what he has said is very crucial. Now is the time to listen very carefully. You find the same manner of speaking in Revelation 2 and 3, in the seven letters to the churches: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Questions←⤒🔗

1. Why was Jesus invited to a dinner at a Pharisee’s house?
2. Why did the people remain silent after Jesus asked them if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath?
3. What is humility? Are you humble?
4. Why is the teaching of the great banquet important for us today?
5. Have you accepted the invitation to the marriage feast of the Lamb? (see for example Revelation 19:9) What is the consequence of accepting this invitation?
6. What does it mean to be a “cross-bearer”? Why does Christ warn us to seriously accept the consequences of being a cross-bearer?