The Gospel Of Luke
Chapter 14
(V1) Even though Jesus had some of His greatest disputes with the Pharisees, He still associated with them – not to be one of them, but to love them and show them a godly example.
(V2-4) Because this was in the home of one of the rulers of the Pharisees this man was an invited guest. Some believe that he was invited simply to provoke Jesus into doing something that they could accuse Him regarding.
The issue was not about the healing directly, but on healing on the Sabbath. When Jesus healed the man, His accusers believed that He worked on the Sabbath, and violated God’s command, but that wasn’t true. With this question, Jesus reminded them that there was no command against healing on the Sabbath.
(V5-6) Jesus’ logic was simple and impossible to dispute. If it was allowed to help animals on the Sabbath, how much more was it right to heal people who are made in God’s image?
If they said no, they would reveal themselves for what they really were – inhumane religious leaders. If they said yes, they would be breaking their own laws governing the Sabbath.
One reason they could not answer was that in using this analogy Jesus appealed to something good in His accusers. You aren’t brutal and cruel men. You will help your animals in need.
So, while Jesus rebuked the wrong attitude and temper of these men, He did so by appealing to the best within them and calling them act more like that . His purpose is not to shame these men, but instead He was saving them.
(V7) At the home of the Pharisee, Jesus noticed how people strategically placed themselves so as to be in, the places of most honour. In Jesus’ day, the seating arrangement at a dinner showed a definite order of honour.
(V8-11) We don’t have the same exact customs illustrating social standing by the seating arrangements at a wedding, as now days the only place of honour is the top table which is mostly used for family.
When we are at the lower place, we aren’t there just to be noticed so we can go up higher. Nor are we miserable there, and letting everyone know by our facial expressions that we really don’t belong there.
When we seek to take honour to ourselves, we will always be humbled – if not on earth, then for all of eternity. The promise of exaltation for the humble and humiliation for the proud is one ultimately fulfilled in eternity. Jesus was the perfect One to teach on this subject, because He fulfilled it perfectly. He is the ultimate example of someone who deserved the highest place, but took the lowest place, and was granted the highest place.
(V12-14) Jesus spoke this specifically to him who invited Him. Jesus saw that His host chose his guests from a sense of exclusion and pride, lacking love to others. Jesus told him to not only ask those who could repay something to the host.
It is wrong to only associate with people who can advance us or give something to us. It is easy for us to limit our friends to a few comfortable, easy people, instead of reaching out to others.
Jesus here told us to not associate with people only on the basis of what they could do for us. That is self-centred living; we are called to follow Jesus, and He showed others-centred living.
There is something wonderful in giving a gift that can never be repaid. This is some of the more blessing Jesus spoke of when He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive- Acts 20:35. This helps to explain some of the pleasure of God in giving the gift of salvation and blessing to His people.
(V15) I like to think this guy shouted this out just to break the tension of the scene. What he was talking about is spoken often in the Old Testament and in The New Testament we now call it the wedding feast of the Lamb from Revelations 19:7
(V16-20) Jesus told a parable about a man who gave a great feast, a large banquet, inviting many people to come. Normally, this was just the sort of occasion that people would be thrilled to attend, and be quite happy to be invited.
In an age before the clock, the date of the banquet was announced long before, but the exact time only was announced the very day. This means that many accepted the invitation when it was first given; yet when the actual time of the banquet came, they were of a different mind. In Middle East Culture to accept the invitation beforehand and then to refuse it when the day came was a grave insult.
Central to this parable are the excuses that were offered. The excuses are different but all They start with an explanation of why such a wonderful invitation was rejected.
This answers an important question asked by many – If Christianity is so true and so good, why don’t more embrace it? Why don’t more accept the invitation?
“I have just bought a field…..I have just bought five oxen” The first two excuses had to do with material things, and were foolish excuses. Only a fool first buys a piece of land, and then goes to check it. Only a fool buys ten oxen and is only interested in testing them after the purchase.
When we buy something new, we are almost always preoccupied by it. Preoccupation with material things and experiences is a common excuse for not following Jesus.
I have married a wife: The third excuse had to do with a man who put his family before everything. The best thing we can show to our family is that they are not first in our lives, but that Jesus Christ is.
The people making these excuses were condemned themselves; their excuses were only a thin veil hiding the fact that they did not want to come.
There is no real reason why someone would not want to be part of this feast; they just didn’t want to.
(V21-24) The master of the feast must have been surprised at the response; he was certainly angry. It was strange and offensive that so many made excuses when given such a wonderful invitation. If those first invited to the feast refused, there would still be a feast, because the master would not prepare a banquet in vain.
This parable is a veiled reference to the Gentile nations who indeed after the Jews refused to come to Jesus and His Feast. So now God has opened His home to all the other nations.
Compel them to come in, that my house may be filled – KJ Bible translation.
Jesus said compel to indicate God’s great desire to fill His house, and because these wanderers and outcasts needed to be convinced that they were welcome, compelled by love.
Tragically, Augustine and others used the phrase compel them to come in as a justification to force people into Christianity by using persecution and torture. This verse was again used as a defence of by the inquisition when using torture and the threat of death in their campaigns against heretics.
(V25-26) As Jesus continued toward Jerusalem, many went with Him. He then spoke an appropriate word to these crowds.
Jesus clearly spoke about the kind of person who could not be His disciple. The word disciple simply means “learner.” A disciple is someone who is a student, a learner of Jesus.
Previously, Jesus said that coming to God was like accepting an invitation. Jesus was careful to add that there is more to being His follower than simply just accepting an invitation.
hate everyone mother, father …..brother, sister ….even your own life.
Now this was an bold demand. None of the prophets or apostles asked for such personal commitment and devotion. If Jesus was not and is not God, this would be idolatry and probably madness.
You will probably get this verse quoted to you by atheists, as it’s a favourite of theirs to show how our faith is at best silly and at worst dangerous. But again with love explain the context of the passage as most will only know this single verse.
The whole section is to show that we will put Jesus above all else in our lives and not that we literally hate anyone as this goes against the rest of Jesus teachings.
(V27) Againremember that Jesus spoke this to the huge crowds that were following Him. Instructing them on what it meant to be a His disciple just as He said privately to all His disciples in Luke 9:23–saying again, that there is more to it than just accepting an invitation.
This probably horrified His listeners. As Jesus spoke these words, everybody knew what He meant.Carrying a cross always led to death on a cross. No one carried a cross for fun. The first hearers of Jesus didn’t need an explanation if someone took up his cross, he never came back. It was a one-way journey.
NOTE – Everyone knew this. When the Roman general, Varus, had broken the revolt of Judas in Galilee 4 BC, he crucified two thousand Jews, and placed the crosses along the roads to Galilee.
your own cross: Jesus chose this phrasing instead of saying, “The cross” or “A cross.” The idea is that there is a cross suited to each individual, and one person’s experience of the cross may not look just like another person’s experience of the cross.
(V28-33) In the parable of the tower Jesus said, “Sit down and see if you can afford to follow Me.” In the parable of the king Jesus said, “Sit down and see if you can afford to refuse My demands.”
Jesus perhaps alluded to the idea that the work of His kingdom was like building and battle. Each of these are usually more costly than one thinks before beginning.
We have a difficult challenge in understanding and communicating the gospel here; there are two extremes to avoid.
- We can never give people the impression that they have to clean up their lives before they come to Jesus; that is like washing up before you take a bath.
- But we can never give people the impression that Jesus won’t want to clean up their lives with their cooperation after they come to Him.
It is important for every potential disciple – those in the crowd that followed and heard Jesus to consider the cost of being a disciple of Jesus. Yet those who choose to reject and resist God should count that cost as well. What possible good can come from opposing God? It costs something to be the disciple of Jesus; it costs more to reject Him.
(V34-35) Salt that loses its “saltiness” is of no use. A believer who through various reasons loses their flavour, or preservative value is of no use as a follower of Jesus.
Salt is good for seasoning. But if it loses its flavour, how do you make it salty again? Flavourless salt is good neither for the soil nor for the manure pile. It is thrown away.
Salt was accepted and collected as taxes by the Romans from the people of the Holy Land. One of the main sources of salt for Palestinians, of course, was the Dead Sea, or Salt Sea. So oppressive were these taxes that the people used to cut the salt with sand. Remember this salt to begin with was not our nice pure table salt. The government then had to purified the salt by spreading it in big vats or tanks, filling them with water and drawing off the concentrated salt solution or brine. All that remained was the earthy, insoluble material. Indeed, the salt had lost its saltiness because it was no longer salt. It was fit to be trodden underfoot.
(Following is for Gareth Chemical stuff)
And this was not the only way that salt could lose its saltiness. The surface waters of the Dead Sea, on evaporation, have a chemical salts content of about 31 percent sodium chloride, 13 percent calcium chloride, and 48 percent magnesium chloride, together with other impurities. The calcium and magnesium chlorides are hygroscopic (take water out of the air) and will thus literally dissolve the sodium chloride. A bitter tasting composition results. It was the custom to store vast amounts of this salt in houses that had earthen floors. In time, the salt next to the ground spoiled because of the dampness. Since it would be harmful to fertile land because of its salt content, no man would allow it to be thrown on his field. The only place left was the street, where it was trodden under foot of man. Thus the Bible was proved scientifically accurate, even in its many small details – for this was just a lone example.
Salt keeps food from being insipid and preserves it from corruption. Both these functions are performed by Christians for society as a whole. A little more salt true followers of God would have saved Sodom and Gomorrah from destruction.
If ten are found I will not destroy the city Genesis 18:32.
It is also proper to observe that SALT IS INDISPENSABLE. So are Christians. The world at large little realizes the debt of gratitude that is owed by the whole race to that small percentage who walk in the commandments of the Lord.
We are THE SALT OF THE EARTH !
AMEN