“One Sabbath, Jesus went into the home of one of the leading Pharisees to have lunch. The Pharisees were watching Him closely. And there was a man with dropsy sitting in front of Him. Jesus spoke up and said to the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?’ 

They remained silent. Then Jesus took the man by the hand, healed him, and sent him on his way. Then He said to them, “Which of you, if your child or your ox falls into a well, will not immediately pull it out, even on the Sabbath?” And they could not answer him a word in reply to these words. Then, when he saw that those invited to the banquet were choosing the places of honor, he told them a parable. He said to them, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor; lest there be another guest more distinguished than you among those invited, and the host, who invited both you and him, come and say to you, ‘Give your seat to this man.’ Then, in embarrassment, you will have to take the last seat. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place; so that when the host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ This will bring you honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”^[1]

Two thousand years ago, the Lord Jesus was invited to dine at a home. The entire account in this chapter of Luke takes place in that house, on a Sabbath day at the home of one of the leaders of the Pharisees. Many Pharisees were also invited to this meal; they had come with the intention of lying in wait for Jesus. Although He knew why He had been invited to that Pharisee’s house, He agreed to eat there.

A man suffering from dropsy was also present there. When the Lord asked the Pharisees whether it was lawful to perform healings on the Sabbath, they chose to remain silent. Silence is not always a sign of wisdom, for in this case, the Pharisees’ silence was a sign of opposition. The Lord immediately explained to them why it is permissible to perform healings on the Sabbath, giving the example of a child or an animal that had fallen into a well—which no one would leave to die there simply because of the Sabbath. This was His motivation for healing—namely, His love for people. The guiding principle of the Lord Jesus throughout His three and a half years of ministry was this: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”^[2] We, too, should understand that our relationship with people is more important than programs or religion. On the day we go out to seek lost souls, programs and religion have no value in the sight of the Lord Jesus.

The Lord never conformed to the ways of religious people because He always sought God’s approval, not that of men. Amid the tension that had arisen in the house, beginning in verse 7, the Lord adds fuel to the fire by telling another parable. Seeing that everyone was choosing the best seats at the table, He tells the parable of those invited to the dinner to expose what the Pharisees were hiding in their hearts—namely, the desire for self-exaltation. He does not spare even the host from rebuke, making it clear that he had invited the wealthiest people to his table so that they, in turn, would invite him to theirs. The Lord urges the Pharisees to invite to their tables the poor, who have no way to repay their generosity. The Lord Jesus does not attack anyone with His Word, but He rebukes and disciplines all those whom He loves.^[3]

We are accustomed to flattering one another so as not to offend anyone, but with God, things are not like that. He must reveal the sin in a person’s heart so that the person may acknowledge it and repent of it. The Lord sought to awaken these people from the state of delusion in which they found themselves so that they might save their souls. Essentially, the Lord’s rebuke toward them was directed at the pride they displayed. God’s Word will always strike us where it hurts so that we may be cleansed. The Lord’s Word cuts deep; He is like a hammer that shatters our hearts and like a double-edged sword.

One of the men sitting at the table with Him, thinking he would lighten the mood, said these words: “Blessed is the one who will eat lunch in the Kingdom of God!” This man spoke three truths with his statement:

1. The Pharisees knew that the Kingdom of God was coming.
2. The Pharisees knew that those who would be in the Kingdom of God would be eternally happy.
3. The Pharisees knew that one would dine in the Kingdom of God.

The words of the Lord Jesus that are worthy of belief were these: “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, but you yourselves are cast out. People will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and will take their places at the table in the Kingdom of God.”^[4] So there will be a Kingdom, and there will also be a feast. It is God who prepares the table, and every person is invited to partake without money and without payment. The Lord says that at the hour of the supper He sent His servant—who can be any person who proclaims the Gospel of the Lord Jesus.

The first excuse the Lord’s servants encounter is related to possessions: “I have bought a field and must go to see it; please forgive me.” This is a flimsy excuse because no one could buy a piece of land without first seeing it. The second excuse concerns excessive work: “I’ve bought five pairs of oxen, and I’m going to test them out; please forgive me.” The same principle applies here as with the first excuse. It’s as if, in our day, we were to buy five cars and then go test-drive them to see if they work. The third excuse relates to family ties: “I’ve just gotten married, and that’s why I can’t come.” Even if this person had gotten married, he could have accepted the Lord’s invitation and gone to the dinner with his wife. In Israel, a man who had just gotten married was exempt from military service and social duties for one year.

The Lord wants to show how foolish and illogical the excuses of those who reject the Gospel are. The Word of God as a whole is like a mechanism that must be put together, piece by piece. In this parable, we find the three obstacles that prevent a person from coming to God and following Him. “The first obstacle is material possessions and man’s concern for them. In the parable of the sower, the Lord says that the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches make His Word unfruitful in people. The second obstacle is excessive work. We must all work, but within limits. This man says he bought five pairs of oxen and was going to test them at dinnertime. This is a man who never stopped working. The third obstacle to coming to the Lord is the family. Each person will be judged individually, so a husband or wife will have no excuse before God if they rejected the Gospel on the grounds that one of them is an unbeliever and that they did not want to cause conflict within the family.

The house of the Lord will be filled with people we do not expect. Just as in the time of Jesus, those who came to Him were tax collectors, prostitutes, and thieves, so it will be in our day when God calls people from the roads and from the hedges to invite them to the supper of His Son. Today, people are hindered by their prosperity, their work, and their families.

The Lord addresses all three of these things and lists them in reverse order, placing family as the first obstacle to following Him. “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father, his mother, his wife, his children, his brothers, his sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be My disciple.”^[5] The Lord does not call us to Him merely to receive salvation and then live our lives as we please; rather, He wants us to be His disciples. A disciple learns from his master how to be like him. If we are not His disciples, we will not be saved at the end of our lives. Family must not be an obstacle to following the Lord. If we do not follow the Lord Jesus, we are walking the path of the evil one, for there is no middle ground. If we love anything else in our lives more than God, we are not worthy to be His disciples. If we are not willing to give our lives to the Lord, we cannot say that we are saved. Our spiritual condition must not influence our relationship with the Lord. Whoever truly serves the Lord will face persecution even from those within his own household.

There is no disciple who does not work for his master. We must seriously consider how much time we spend working for ourselves and how much time we spend working for the Lord. The early Christians were completely devoted to the Lord, and their workplaces were transformed into holy places. The Lord says very clearly that if we have food to eat and clothes to wear, that will be enough for us.^[6] If we do not renounce everything we have, we cannot be His disciples. Nothing should bind us to this earth, and our hearts must be detached from all our possessions. What we truly have is what we build behind us for God.

^[1] Luke 14:1–11.

^[2] Matthew 12:7.

^[3] Revelation 3:19.

^[4] Luke 13:28, 29.

^[5] Luke 14:26.

^[6] Matthew 6:25.