Jesus dines in a Pharisee’s house
14
📚And it happened when he went into the house of one of the leading Pharisees 📖 to eat bread on the Sabbath 📖, that they watched him closely. 2 And there in front of him was a certain man who had dropsy. 14:2 Dropsy is a disease that causes swelling of the limbs.⚜
3 📚And Jesus responded and spoke to the lawyers 📖 and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
14:3 Jesus knew the answer – Luke 13:15-16; Matt 12:11-12. He was trying to make them think sensibly.⚜
4 📚And they kept quiet. And he took him, healed him, and let him go, 5 📚and responded to them, saying, “Which of you who has a donkey or an ox fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” 6 📚And they could not give him an answer to these things.
7 📚And he told a parable to those who had been invited, when he observed how they chose the places of honour, saying to them,
8 📚“When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit in the place of honour, for perhaps a man more distinguished than you has been invited by him, 9 📚and the one who invited you and him will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your place’, and you, humiliated, have to take the lowest place. 10 📚But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will have honour in the presence of those who sit to eat with you. 11 📚For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted”.
12 📚Then he said to the one who invited him, “When you give a dinner or supper, don’t invite your friends, or your brothers, or your relatives or rich neighbours, for they may invite you in return, and so you will be repaid. 13 📚But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 📚and you will be blessed, for, because they cannot repay you, you will be repaid 📖 at the resurrection of the righteous”. 📖
14:12-14 Jesus here gives a good principle to follow, but how many have ever followed it? It is one that the vast majority of people would rather hear than practice.⚜
15 📚And when one of those who were sitting with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is he who will eat bread 📖 in the kingdom of God 📖!”
The parable of the great feast
16 📚Then he said to him, “A certain man 📖 gave a great supper, and invited many. 17 📚And he sent his servant at supper time to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is ready now.’
18 📚“And they all with one mind began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I need to go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’
14:18 Here is an amazing thing! Who does not like to attend a great feast? These people behaved as if they had been invited to a very unpleasant occasion that had to be avoided at any cost. The reason for their behavior is found in verses like John 3:19-20; 7:7; 15:18; Rom 8:6-7; 2 Cor 4:3-4; Eph 4:18. The excuses men make to keep from receiving Christ as their Lord and Saviour are as foolish as these recorded here. What sensible man buys a field without ever seeing it? Or buys oxen without seeing and testing them (v 19)? What sensible man would not think that perhaps his wife would like to go with him to a feast (v 20)? The truth is they simply did not want to go to the feast, and no excuse could conceal this fact.⚜
19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ 20 📚And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and so I can’t come.’
21 📚“So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house was angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.’
14:21 The man was sure to be angry. By refusing his invitation the invited ones were giving a terrible insult. And those who refuse God’s invitation to salvation and blessedness and heaven are insulting Him. And will He not be angry? But in the end He will have His house full of guests, even though they may be poor and disabled in themselves. See 1 Cor 1:26-29.⚜
22 📚And the servant said, ‘Master, it has been done as you commanded, and still there is room.’
23 📚And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedgerows, and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.
14:23 This shows how God longs for the salvation of men. It is not enough for Him to prepare it all in Christ, and send out His invitations everywhere through Christ’s servants. He uses every means to overcome people’s reluctance to be saved. The great Creator pleads with His creatures to come for blessings which, if they displayed the slightest spiritual understanding, they should be rushing eagerly to obtain (Isa 55:1-3; Ezek 18:30-32; 2 Cor 5:18-21).⚜
24 📚For I tell you that none of those men who were invited will taste of my supper.’ ”
14:24 This was a warning to the Jewish nation which was rejecting Him (compare Matt 21:43), but also to any individual who keeps refusing God’s invitation to come to Christ.⚜
Jesus reveals qualifications for discipleship
25 📚And great crowds were going along with him. And he turned around and said to them,
14:25 He knew that many in such crowds were not true followers. And many, doubtless, would misinterpret stories such as vs 16-23 and think that the requirements for discipleship were not very demanding. Now the Lord sets out to correct any possible misunderstanding. He gives three absolutely necessary requirements for those who would follow Him and learn from Him. These are:
The disciple’s attitude toward others must be right (v 26)
His attitude toward himself must be right (vs 26,27)
And his attitude toward things must be right (v 33).
These requirements are inward attitudes of the heart, and they reveal the work of God there. They are not in any of us by nature, but are produced by the operation of the Holy Spirit when He brings people to true faith in Christ. Observe that the qualifications Christ demands for discipleship have nothing to do with what men prize such as intellect, education, position in society, nationality, or other matters.⚜
26 📚“If anyone comes to me, and does not hate 📖 his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life 📖 also, he cannot be my disciple. 📖
14:26 The Lord Jesus demands first place in His disciple’s heart. See Matt 10:37. The order is Christ first, others second, self last (or indeed not at all – v 27). In many professing Christians, alas, this order is reversed – self first, others second, Christ last (or not at all).⚜
27 📚And whoever does not carry his cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
28 📚“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first, and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it? 29 Otherwise, after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will begin to make fun of him,
14:28-29 Discipleship is about building a life – a spiritual life for God (Matt 7:24). The person who does not meet the requirements will not be able to build and finish. Many seem to begin well who do not go on. This is because from the beginning their inner attitudes were not right.⚜
30 📚saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 📚“Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to meet the one who is coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 📚Otherwise, while the other is still a long way off, he will send a delegation and ask for terms of peace.
14:31-32 Discipleship is about a battle – a spiritual warfare (Eph 6:10-18). Those who do not meet Christ’s requirements will not be able to win. The only way to defeat Satan is to love Christ above all. Compare Rev 12:11. Those who want to be disciples of Jesus should in advance consider carefully what is required to finish and to win (vs 28,31).⚜
33 📚“So, in the same way, any of you who does not give up all that he has, he cannot be my disciple.
14:33 The disciple’s attitude toward things must be right (Luke 6:20-24; 12:15; Matt 6:19; 1 Tim 6:6-11). God will not give us the resources we need to finish the spiritual building, or win the war unless we are willing to give up all of our own resources for Christ. Compare Phil 3:7-8. This is an infallible principle – those who renounce will receive, those who greedily grasp will lose (Compare Luke 9:24; 17:33; Matt 10:39; John 12:25). Here is another – if we are not willing to give up all we have for Christ, this shows that we value what we have more than Him and His blessings. And why should God give us something that we value so little? Compare Prov 4:7; Mark 10:21-22.⚜
34 📚“Salt is good. But if salt loses its taste, with what will it be seasoned? 35 📚It is not fit for the soil or for the manure pile. Men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear”.
14:34-35 Matt 5:13; Mark 9:50. To profess to be Christ’s followers and to be lacking in the requirements for discipleship is to be like salt that has no saltiness. It is fit for nothing, and its end is to be thrown out (compare Matt 25:30). Christianity without discipleship, without sacrifice is not only useless, it is surely a source of amusement to the devil.
Every person who reads this should ask “Am I really a disciple of Christ? In the light of these requirements, do I even want to be a disciple of His?” The answer we give to such questions is exceedingly important and has eternal consequences.⚜