Discussions at Mealtimes. (Luke 14: 1-14)

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Welcome to another captivating episode. Today, we delve into the intriguing world of a dinner conversations with none other than Jesus Himself based on Luke 14:1-14.

Episode Notes: Discussions at Mealtimes.

Introduction:
Reflecting on the lost art of meaningful mealtime conversations and the significance of dining with Jesus.
Exploring the dynamics of dinner conversations and the potential for important discussions over food.

Verse 1-3: Setting the Scene:
Examining the context of Jesus dining at the house of a prominent Pharisee on the Sabbath.
Highlighting the presence of a man suffering from abnormal swelling and the Pharisees' scrutiny of Jesus.

Verse 4-6: Healing on the Sabbath:
Analysing Jesus' question to the Pharisees about healing on the Sabbath.
Observing the Pharisees' silence and Jesus' compassionate act of healing the sick man.
Highlighting the inconsistency in the Pharisees' objections to healing on the Sabbath.

Verse 7-11: Parable of the Seats:
Exploring Jesus' parable about humility and the choice of seats at a banquet.
Emphasizing the eternal truth of humility and the consequences of self-promotion.
Drawing parallels to Proverbs 25:6-7 and the wisdom of humility before God.

Verse 12-14: Inviting the Marginalized:
Discussing Jesus' advice to the host about inviting the poor, crippled, lame, and blind.
Challenging societal norms of inviting only those who can repay the favor.
Emphasizing the blessing of sacrificial love and the promise of reward at the resurrection.

Conclusion:
Reflecting on the spiritual truths revealed through Jesus' interactions at the dinner table.
Encouraging humility, sensitivity to others' needs, and sacrificial love.
Reminding listeners of Jesus' perspective on every aspect of life as an opportunity to teach spiritual truths.

Join us on our journey through Luke as we uncover further insights into humility, compassion, and the transformative power of sacrificial love. Let's be inspired to emulate Jesus' example in our own lives and interactions with others.

Thank you for tuning in

Transcript

Discussions at Mealtimes.  (Luke 14:1-14)

It seems to me we've lost the art of just sitting down having a meal together and talking to each other.  When I grew up the mealtime conversations were often deeply significant. I think I would say that some of the most deeply significant meaningful conversations I've had have occurred over food. 

That led me to wonder, what would it be like to have dinner with Jesus. Suppose he were sitting at the table what would that be like. Suppose you invited him over to your house for dinner and there were other guests there how would the conversation go. Would it just be chit chat, or would he do something else as well? Would Jesus also want to make mealtime a time to have important conversations? 

We’ll we don’t have to guess because we have several illustrations in the scripture where he does just that. One, in particular is described it for us in Luke chapter 14.

 1: 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?” 

(Luke 14: 1-3)

Now, just a simple reading of this passage obviously indicates that the occasion was a meal, but a little closer look indicates that there are all kinds of dynamics going on in this meal.

It says he was in the House of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath. Now, apparently, at this point, they weren't seated at the table yet; they were just gathered at the house. 

We're told that it was the house of a rather influential person. He even might have been a member of the Sanhedrin, and if not, at least one of the leading Pharisees in the town.. 

At any rate, he was in the House of a prominent Pharisees, gathering to eat on the Sabbath day and the latter part of verse one says, 'and they watched him closely.' 

Now, if all you had was that verse, you would assume that the ones watching him were the Pharisees, and that's true. But there were others scrutinizing him at this point. Drop down to verse three, and Jesus answered and spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, so there were more than just the Pharisees there; there were these finicky lawyers called the scribes.

Verse, one says they were all watching him closely. The original word used seems to indicate that they were examining him with the implication of finding some fault with him. 

It then tells us there was this man before him who had what the King James calls ‘dropsy’, which was a very painful disease that led to an extreme swelling of the body.

A person suffering like that would not normally have been invited to a dinner, not the ruler of one of the Pharisees. So, the suggestion has been made by some bible experts that the Pharisees planted him there, because they new what Jesus might do. 

They knew that Jesus would heal him, and so they planted this fellow there so they could get him for healing on the Sabbath day. Prior to this occasion, the Lord has healed or worked some kind of miracle seven times already in this gospel, so why not today. 

So, this isn't the first time he does this. And sure enough, Jesus speaks to the lawyers and Pharisees, asking, 'Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?'

Now, let's examine their response in verse four.

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 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.

(Luke 14: 4- 6)

They were silent—good move. This question put them on the horns of a dilemma. If they said yes, they would be breaking the Sabbath or at least acknowledging that it could be broken according to their rules. If they said no, it would seem heartless, towards this sick person. 

So, they chose the wise route; they shut up. And may I suggest that that's a good idea sometimes, sometimes the best course of action is just to say nothing. 

Then he is saying, "Look, if you had a donkey or an ox fall into the ditch, would you pull him out?" 

Now, yes. As a matter of fact, that was a common occurrence, and furthermore, the law allowed for that. He's asking them if it would be lawful for them to do, such a thing and they would have to say yes to that.

So sure enough, Jesus, for no other reason than a man was sick and needed to be healed, has compassion on him and he heals him. 

Now, put that in juxtaposition. They know that in the situation Jesus described they would take their animal out of the ditch maybe just with a selfish motive in mind, or a best to prevent their animal from being hurt and losing the potential profit from the animal. Yet Jesus here healed a sick man.

In examining their response in verse four, their silence was a prudent move because the question placed them in a dilemma: if they said yes, they would be breaking the Sabbath or, at the very least, acknowledging that it could be broken according to their rules. If they said no, it would appear heartless regarding the sick person. 

He highlights the inconsistency in their actions of readily rescuing an animal for personal gain yet objecting to healing a person out of legalistic concerns and using the Sabbath as an excuse.

7: When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honour at the table, he told them this parable: 8: “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honour, 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 honoured 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.”

(Luke 14: 7-11)

So, Jesus has a piece of advice based on the very things he has just witnessed as these people gathered together to eat on this day.

Here's the option: you can seek the best seat and end up with embarrassment and shame, or you can seek the lowest seat and end up in the best seat with glory and honour. 

Of course, what's going on in this situation is the exact opposite; they were all seeking the best seat. They wanted the place of honour.

And, according to Jesus in this parable, self-promotion is temporary. When you start low, you've got no place to go but up. By the way, there's a proverb about this

'Do not exalt yourself in the presence of the king, and do not stand in the place of the great; for it is better that he says to you, 'Come up here,' than you should be put lower in the presence of the prince whom your eyes have seen.'

(Proverbs 25: 6-7)

Exactly what Jesus teaches here by parable, Solomon gave us in the Old Testament as a proverb.

So, the point is simply this: This is not about manners. This is about more than manners this is an eternal truth, and the eternal truth is to always be humble. 

Be humble, as James says, 'God resists the proud, and He gives grace to the humble.' 

We need to learn to humble ourselves before the Lord and before other people, instead of being haughty and high-minded. 

Ironically some people think they are humble and are proud of their humility they were it like a badge. 

True humility is an unconscious grace that comes from a sense of our own utter insignificance and a realization of the wonderful grace of God. It is not a depreciation of self as much as it is an appreciation of God”.

Now, maybe the two things we've talked about so far are related. That if you're going to be truly compassionate, then maybe you need to be a little more humble. 

If you thought less of yourself, maybe you would think more of others.

Maybe the problem is we think so much of ourselves; we don't think of others at all. 

Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

So, he caps it off with one more spiritual truth. Let’s pick the story up at verse 12.

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 neighbours; 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.”

(Luke 14: 12-14)

Now, he looks directly at the ruler of the synagogue. Now, there are different dynamics going on in this passage. There's the ruler of the synagogue and the Pharisees’ and lawyers and there has been all the people scrambling to get the best seat. 

But now he turns to the host and says, ‘As where gathering together for this meal listen to this.'

When you give a dinner or supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, or your rich neighbours in the hope they will also invite you back, and you’ll be repaid in that way.'

Who do you think was sitting around the table at this point? 

Correct, all of his friends have been invited and obviously some other Pharisees to show off. And Jesus says, 'You invited the wrong crowd.' 

Instead, when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maim, the lame, the blind. 

Now, there is a significant lesson here. By the way, he is not saying don't ever invite your family. I think the point he is making is don't only invite the people we already get on with.

Those are called cliques, and they probably do more damage to hinder a church from growing than any other single thing. People come and they're interested in the church, but they don’t stay because they can’t penetrate the cliques. 

We sometimes only mix with people who are our family, and friends, and our church friends, the people we're comfortable with in the knowledge that they'll do the same for us. So in terms of social capital we always get paid back for living in that way.

So, what you need to do is invite the people that can't pay you back in that way. 

If you really want to grasp what's going on here, you need to get the principle, and that is, go do something for somebody that can't pay you back. Be a loving person practicing sacrificial love, with no expectation of receiving back, and that's the ultimate lesson at the dinner table on this occasion.

Let me quote for you a true story, I'm going to quote it:

'When William Carol Fowler's only daughter cancelled her wedding one month before she was set to walk down the aisle, the parents were faced with a venue, food, entertainment — all that had to be paid for, because of the contract they signed. Instead of cancelling everything and losing their 50% up front deposit they changed the guest list to 200 homeless people.

Carol said, "a month days prior to the wedding, we were made aware that we would no longer have a wedding. The idea of donating the reception was my husband's idea. We prayed about it, and when he woke up the next morning, he said, 'We're going to call it ‘The Feeding the Hungry, banquet. 

Yahoo News when they reported it titled their article. 'The First Fowler Annual Family Celebration of Love.' Because the family said it plans to host another charity dinner next year. 

Isn’t that a great example of how you can turn a bad situation into a positive."

In respect of the application of this passage today in our own individual Christians circle of friend, or even church of course we need to  love each other, right?

That’s the problem is we too easily just love those who love us when we also need to reach out and love the unlovable. 

That's what Jesus is teaching at this dinner. That was Jesus’ heart lesson is here, and it should be ours. We should love the unlovely; in unselfish service, and that is what the Lord is looking for.

So, if we do this and we don’t get the benefit back that we would get from our friends, then what do you get out of this?

I'll re-read, verse 14: You will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.' 

I think there are two different things going on in this verse:

 'You will be blessed,' and perhaps that's now. But for sure, you're going to be blessed at the resurrection of the just. 

So, to sum it up, they invited Jesus to dinner, and he used the opportunity to teach them all a spiritual truth. And the thing he wants s to get is that we need a little humility in our lives. Because it is through humility, we can begin to be compassionate and concerned for other people, even to the point of sacrificial love. 

OK, let me close by making a couple of final observations.

As I said, Jesus didn't just talk; he taught.

Jesus viewed all of life as opportunities to illustrate spiritual truths.

If you followed him around, what you would discover is that everything that happened, everything he saw, was an illustration of some spiritual truth."

Jesus saw everything as a potential spiritual lesson. So, maybe one thing we can glean from this passage that we need we need to be a little more sensitive to the spiritual truths that surround us.

Secondly, I would say is this instead of being self-absorbed or self-asserting we need to be sensitive to the needs of others. 

He who exalts himself in this life will be brought down to earth when the Lord who knows the human heart finally meets with him.

John in his first letter reminds us that we are to 

“Love him because he first loved us if someone says I love God and hates his brother he's a liar for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen how can he love God whom he has not seen and this is the command we have from him but he who loves God must love his brother also.

(1 John 4: 19-20)

So may I suggest the bottom, bottom line is that if we love the Lord more, we would be more humble and more sensitive and concerned about other people. 

Many years ago, at an organ recital the man who pumped the billows suddenly became ill. A very famous composer who was visiting the church that week stepped forward and took his place so that the service could continue.

When he told some of his friends what had happened, they criticised the composer for stooping to such commonplace work, doing such a common place thing. Nothing I could do for the Lord could ever seem commonplace to me, he replied.