Luke 14:1-11 The Man Who Came to Dinner part one
Good morning! Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke 14. This morning we are going to examine verses 1-11, and that’s on page 873 in the pew Bibles.
We are going to look at Jesus at a dinner party held by a prominent Pharisees this week and next and some of the crucial teaching that He shared there.
So let’s jump right into the text.
One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. 2 And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. 3 And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4 But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. 5 And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” 6 And they could not reply to these things.
7 Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, 9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Let’s pray.
It was not uncommon for people to host a dinner party after worship services on the Sabbath in Jesus’ day, as I hope it is not uncommon among us even today. But this particular dinner party smells a little fishy, a little like a set-up.
One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. 2 And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy.
Now let’s just imagine what the pre-meeting-meeting looked like… The Pharisees gather together and talk about how Jesus of Nazareth was in town and what a sketchy character He was, threatening their influence and cultural power and prestige. He was known for healing on the Sabbath day, and I bet if we can get Ralph’s neighbor, the one who’s all swollen up with dropsy to come over on the Sabbath we can get this rabble rouser to perform a miracle on the Sabbath and we’ll have Him! We can turn Him right over to the Sanhedrin and we can be done with Him!
Not that it matters that much really but what the Bible calls dropsy today we would call edema, or swelling due to congestive heart failure. Their treatments would have included bloodletting and other nasty, mostly ineffective treatments, where today a person would be prescribed a diuretic, but in reality, Jesus was the Greatest Cure.
Now there are two very important facts that we must be aware of before we move on, one fact that applies directly to this first part of the dinner party that we are looking at, and the second fact kind of covers both parts that we are looking at today.
Fact number one is that there is absolutely nothing in the Law of Moses that prohibits acts of mercy or healing on the Sabbath Day. None whatsoever.
The second fact is that Jesus sees the hearts of men and women, He sees through our pretense and examines the heart.
Just as God the father said to Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:7, For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
So knowing these two facts, that the Lord looks on the heart of these Pharisees, knows their intentions, and also knows the fact that there is no prohibition in the Law of Moses for healing on the Sabbath he asks them simply: Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?
But they remained silent.
They’re non-answer was their answer. Their plan to trap Jesus had backfired. They knew that Moses had not prohibited healing on the Sabbath, it was not against the Law, it was against the Rabbinical rules. It was against their man-made code that heaped all kinds of other requirements on people that were outside of God’s Word and will.
And so knowing that this poor man with dropsy was just their unwitting pawn, out of compassion for the man, Jesus healed him and sent him home.
So then Jesus asks a second question: “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” 6 And they could not reply to these things.
Why couldn’t they reply?
If they said that they would not pull out their son or their ox from a well on the Sabbath, they would be lying first of all, second of all they would admit to giving the life of their son, or their livelihood provided by their ox in the name of their silly man-made rules.
If they said that of course they would pull their kid out of the well on the Sabbath, or their ox, whatever was the case, Jesus would immediately point out that they were treating the life of their livestock as more important than this poor neighbor with dropsy.
They couldn’t reply because they wouldn’t reply. They refused to accept that Jesus was right. So what was it that kept their mouths shut? Pride.
That’s the subject of Jesus’ next comments to them. I’m sure by now they were already regretting this clever little plan of theirs…
7 Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, 9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.
As I read this text this week, I thought about how grateful I am for place cards at weddings. In our culture it is customary for the bride and groom to assign seats at their wedding reception. Do you know why this is such a good thing? It keeps people from taking seats of honor that they don’t belong in and sparing them the humiliation of being asked to move.
Imagine sitting down at the head table when you’re not in the wedding party, or the bride and groom’s family, you’re just a neighbor or coworker or a wedding crasher. That isn’t your spot, you aren’t that important, go sit at the kids’ table, or over by the bathroom! How humiliating!
James 4:6 says, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Instead of elbowing your way to the best seat, go sit in the lowest place.
Proverbs 25:6-7 says, Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presence or stand in the place of the great, for it is better to be told, “Come up here,” than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.
Jesus said in verse ten, 10 But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Now here is where it can get tricky, at least for me. Motivation for this kind of behavior is very important because sometimes pride wears humility like a mask. What I mean is finding the lowest seat SO THAT someone will come and give you a better seat or a seat of honor or tell you that you’re great when you say that you’re not. Motivation is very important here. Seeking this kind of attention reeks of pride just as much as elbowing your way to the front.
The trick is to recognize what we deserve and recognize God’s grace.
God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
This is a principle that covers all of life not just where we sit at weddings.
In order for us to recognize the grace of God we must humbly recognize what we truly deserve, it isn’t honor, it’s destruction. If the wages of sin is death like the Bible says, and all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, then every breath is a gift from God, every heartbeat an extension of His grace.
CS Lewis wrote, “Pride is the mother hen under which all other sins are hatched.”
Pride says that I come first, that I am special in the world, that I deserve good things, that I belong at the head of the line, and that everybody should recognize this about me.
But Jesus, our Lord, our Savior, our soon coming King, is our great example.
Paul wrote in Philippians 2: 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Jesus is our Great Example, though He deserves to sit at the head table, He washed His disciples feet, though He deserves the throne, He humbled Himself being obedient to the point of death on a cross.
He humbled Himself truly and God exalted Him eternally.
Praise His glorious grace!
Amen.
