BIBLE STUDY
#477 BIBLE STUDY
Scripture Luke 14:1-24 NIV Orig. 3/13/68
Rewr. 3/1971, 12/1974
Passage: One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. 2 There in front of him was a man suffering from abnormal swelling of his body. 3 Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” 4 But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him on his way. 5 Then he asked them, “If one of you has a child[a] or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull it out?” 6 And they had nothing to say. 7 When 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. 9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. 10 But 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 the other guests. 11 For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” 12 Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and 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 one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” 16 Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At 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 compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”
Keywords: Banquet Disenfranchised
Timeline/Series: Bible study
Introduction
Luke records four of the seven occasions of Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath. (1) In Chapter 4, the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law; (2) in Chapter 6, the man with the withered hand; (3) in Chapter 13, the woman with an 18-year infirmity; and (4) here, a man with dropsy—an excess of body fluids, known today as edema.
It would seem that anyone so intent on upgrading man’s physical and spiritual condition would have drawn the immediate acceptance of the people. Jesus, however, was hated by many.
Jesus’ Attitude at the Supper. 14:1 Jesus never refused any man’s invitation to hospitality. He went into the house of one of the Chief Pharisees on the Sabbath day to eat bread. They watched Him: Jesus never lost patience with men even in times of stress.
Jesus’ Action at the Supper. 14:2-6 His first responsibility is the alleviation of human suffering. V4 And He took him and healed him and let him go. Attention is called to the Pharisees’ lack of value judgment. “Which of you will not remove your beast from a pit on the Sabbath day?”
Jesus’ Analogy About a Supper. 14:7-11 His teaching is always relevant. V7 He marked how they chose out the chief rooms. His teaching here is in regard to humility. V9 When you are bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room. Humility is retained by examination and by comparison.
Jesus’ Advice to His Host at the Supper. 14:12-14 His advice is to examine our motives. V12 Do not invite your friends, your brethren, your kinsmen, thy rich neighbours, lest perhaps they also invite you. Their motives would be, perhaps, a sense of duty, self-interest, vanity, or an effort to befriend. The result will be blessing from God rather than men. V14 And thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense thee.
Apposition: Jesus Was Rebuffed By a Guest at the Supper. 14:15 The guest who said “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God,” was perhaps incensed at Jesus’ word to the host. What right had He, through healing, to contradict the Law? What right to instruct the spiritual leaders? What right to advise the Chief Pharisee? The guest might have said, “What do you know about blessing? He is blessed who is of the spiritual heritage of Israel.”
Application: Jesus Rebuked False Claims of the Jews at the Supper. 14:16-24 Even a word spoken to a cynic is spoken in kindness.
But those to whom the kingdom was offered, rejected it: Because of vocation, and so immersed in work that there is no time for fellowship—“I have bought a piece of ground”; because of avocation, so taken with some novelty—“I have bought five yoke of oxen” (Did you know that 80,000 people a week see the Saints play football?!); because of invocation, in that the Mosaic Law says a man with a new wife will not go to war or be charged with business for one year—“I have married a wife.”
Closing
There are those to whom the Christian life is a melancholy and a dread. Swinburne, the poet, wrote, “Thou hast conquered, O pale Galilean, The world has grown gray from thy breath.” John Ruskin, an English author, told of a jumping jack given to him as a child, taken away by a pious aunt with the remark that toys were not things for a Christian child. It’s little wonder that his brilliant mind turned to socialism and nature. Wesley founded a school where the rule was no play, “because he who plays as a child plays as a man.”
Jesus, however, pictured His Kingdom in terms of a feast.
***THE REMAINDER OF THIS BIBLE STUDY HAS BEEN LOST***