"I did it" (Luke 14a)

Luke 14:1-14
Key verse 14:11

These days not many people are interested in going to church. Rather, people criticize church. Do you know why? I think that the first reason is that they do not see differences between church and the world. To them, church people are also selfish and secular like them. I do not totally agree with them but admit that they have a point. If we Christians are not different from worldly people, how can we preach? Through today’s passage, I learn that I myself live a self-centered Christian life. I teach people the Bible but don’t teach myself well. I am still selfish, proud, and indifferent. May God have mercy on me and help me live as God’s people. I also pray that you may examine yourselves too to see if you live as God’s people and render glory to God by your good deeds. May God help us know what value system we should live for and how to influence the world as God’s people.

1 One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched.

The original text says that Jesus went there to eat bread, which indicates it was a fellowship meal gathering. Jews had a custom to invite people, including traveling rabbis, to luncheon or dinner on the Sabbath day and share fellowship together. It looked like Jesus was invited along with other Pharisees and experts in the law. The Pharisee who invited them was a leader of the Pharisees so his invitation was an honor to those who were invited. The meal fellowship should be joyful and pleasant. People conversed with each other, breaking and dipping bread. But strangely the people there did not speak to Jesus. Instead, they watched him carefully. They paid super attention to everything Jesus and did not to miss anything about him. Imagine that you go to a party but no one speaks to you but you are closely watched. What a strange and awkward party it is! Then, Jesus took the initiative and spoke to them.

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.

A man happened to be in front of Jesus. Jesus saw that his body was abnormally swollen. It looks like the man was suffering dropsy. It is a disease that excess water is accumulated in the body. We have no idea who he was. Probably he happened to be there or came there to be healed by Jesus. Anyway, he was suffering from his illness. But no one seemed to pay attention to him and he was left out. But Jesus had compassion on him and wanted to heal him. However, it was the Sabbath day. Healing was regarded as work, which was the violation of the Sabbath law. Healing the man in front of the Pharisees and scribes and in the house of the leader of the Pharisees would bring a big trouble. Previously, Jesus had confronted with them two times on healing on the Sabbath. (6:6-11; 13:10-17) Regardless, Jesus turned to them and asked them first if it was right to heal on the Sabbath, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

But no one answered. They did not want to be involved in the argument with Jesus. Whether it was lawful or not, they seemed not to agree with Jesus. Their silence showed their hostility to Jesus and their indifference to the man in suffering. At this, Jesus took the man and healed him and sent him on his way. By doing this, Jesus himself answered his question. “Yes, it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath. It is right and necessary to help such a man on the Sabbath.”

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.

Now Jesus pointed out that when their child or an ox fell into a well on the Sabbath, they pulled it out immediately without hesitation. If human life was in danger, all rules regarding not working on the Sabbath could be set aside for the reason of saving life, which is called pikuah nephesh. Here, Jesus compared the man with dropsy to a child or an ox that fell into a well. That meant that the man must be healed immediately without reasoning. Sabbath was made for man, not man for Sabbath. (Mark 2:2) So, saving life superseded the Sabbath law. Actually, saving life is compatible with the spirit and purpose of Sabbath. As such, Jesus upheld his healing and also exposed their problem. And they had nothing to say.

This incident was similar to the one in Luke 6:6-11. One Sabbath when Jesus was in the synagogue, there was a man whose right hand was shriveled. The Pharisees and the experts in the law looked for a reason to accuse Jesus so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. Knowing their thoughts, Jesus healed the man and asked them “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” Jesus taught them the spirit of the Sabbath. Similarly, today’s passage is about what is lawful but with a little different focus, which is their silence towards Jesus’ healing and their indifference to the man who was suffering from dropsy.

They paid close attention to Jesus but not to the man in suffering. Jesus healed the man from his illness but they remained silent. They saved their child and ox immediately even without thinking about whether it was lawful or not because their child and ox were valuable to them. But they were indifferent to others in suffering. They used two different measures. One for themselves, which was generous, and one for others, which was rigorous. They knew it was lawful to heal and save a life on the Sabbath. But they interpreted and applied the Sabbath law according to their needs and for their sake.

By the way the place was a Sabbath feast. How could it be possible to enjoy a Sabbath meal while a man was suffering from illness in front of them? Sabbath should be joyful to everyone in the Lord. Then, they should have paid attention to the man in suffering and help him or at least agree with Jesus. Sabbath is to share God’s blessing and rejoice together with others. But what was their real interest?

7 When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable:

Now the guests began to sit around the table. They were about to eat. But Jesus noticed that they tried to sit at the places of honor. In Jesus’ day, Jewish people sat around the table according to their seniority, social rank, age, and something like that. The most important person sat at the best seat and the second at the next honor seat. In other words, the place they sat showed who they were. So, they wanted to pick the places of honor to show how important they were. Seeing this, Jesus told them a 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.

Here is a wedding feast. It is a greatest occasion and so all the people in the village and guests from other towns come. Tables are set for food and people sit around it according to their social status. Then one man takes the place of honor, thinking he is deserving. Then, the host comes to him with another guest more distinguished than the person. The host says to the person, “Excuse us. Sorry to tell you this but this seat is reserved for this guest. Please give this seat to him.” Then the man who sit there should move down to the least important place like the table near the restroom in the restaurant. He will be greatly humiliated in the eyes of many people at the wedding. What if you sit at the front table at the wedding reception, which belongs to the family members? Someone will come and move you to another table. What an embarrassment! What should he do then at the wedding feast? 

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.

The man should sit at the lowest place. Then he will be never humiliated since there is no seat less important than that. Then, the host will notice him and come to him, “Sir, please move up to a better place.” Then, he will be honored in the presence of all other guests.  

So, what is the point of Jesus’ parable?

11 For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

The guests who took the places of honor tried to exalt themselves. Like them, we humans have sinful nature to show ourselves that we are better than others. That way, we think we are somebody and we feel good and we can get benefits from it. So we try to exalt ourselves by having money, power, knowledge, good school diploma, good cars, good houses, and so on. That way we feel we are better and we are successful. So people seek after such things to exalt themselves and say to people, “I did it.” And self-exaltation is necessary to survive in the world and it seems to works. But truth is that those who exalt themselves are never exalted in the end. Rather, they will be humbled.

There lived two ducks and a frog together in a pond. As summer was passing by, the pond dried up. So they had to move to somewhere. The problem was how the ducks could move together with the frog. They came up with a very good idea, which was that the two ducks fly, holding the ends of a stick by their mouths and then the frog holds the middle by its mouth. They made sure that no one should open the mouth while flying. And they began to fly and it worked pretty well. A farmer happened to see this and was impressed and said, “Whose idea is this?” Then the frog opened his mouth and said, “I did it.”  Now you know what happened next. This is the end of those who exalt themselves.

Why then do people exalt themselves? We humans cannot be satisfied and happy by ourselves since we are creations. It is only possible with God the Creator. But people deny God and try to exalt themselves with worldly things instead. For example, King Saul forgot God’s grace for him and tried to exalt himself by gathering many warriors around him (1 Sam 14:52), exercising his power, and removing whoever he thought was his opponent. God detests such people. (Prov 16:5) See how miserably King Saul died and lost everything he earned. Self-exaltation is nothing but decoration or pretension. It does not last long. Actually, the end of self-exaltation is self-destruction.

However, those who humble themselves will be exalted. A good example is King David. He was a warrior, a poet, and a good-looking man. And he was a king of Israel. But he did not forget who he was. He put God first and honored him. When he humbled himself, people loved him and followed him. God exalted him to be a king.

“All those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

There is no exception to this. This happens in this life, but it will take place most fully at the final judgment. Interestingly, Jesus told the parable in the setting of wedding feast. The Bible compares the heavenly banquet to a wedding feast. (Matt 22:1-14; Reve 19:9) That means that this parable is not only a general truth but a biblical truth about who will be honored in the kingdom of God. As we can see in the parable, the guests do not choose their seats but the host does. We can’t exalt ourselves. It is God who exalts us because he is the host in the Kingdom. And it is God who humbles us as well.

So it is meaningless to exalt ourselves. The way to exalt ourselves is to humble ourselves before God. Instead of saying “I did it,” we should say “He did it.” God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble. (James 4:6, 10; 1 Pet. 5:5–6). Fear him; praise Him; thank him; and submit to Him, and he will exalt you.

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.”

Now Jesus turned to the man who invited the guests. Jesus saw that the host invited his friends, his family members, his relatives, and his rich neighbors. He invited only those who were close or beneficial to him. Jesus said to the host that he should not invite such people because they would invite him back and so he would be repaid. His way of life was “Give-and-take.” Probably, the host did it on purpose to show how great he was and to increase his power and reputation. But the truth was that he would not be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. The host would be repaid here in this world but would receive nothing from God. So, the host rather should invite those who could not repay, such as the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and the like. They could not pay back and so he would not get any benefits from them. But he would be regarded righteous at the resurrection day and repaid by God with better rewards.

In Matt 25:40 and 45, Jesus said, “…whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” When we show generosity and care to others, we should do it to more of those in need without anticipation of any repayment. We are often disappointed when the people we serve do not appreciate our service or forget about it. The more we expect the more we will be disappointed and discouraged. But the less we expect, the less we will be disappointed and the more we will be repaid by God. When we stand before God at the last day, God will recognize our service. Our labor, our service, our sacrifice in the Lord is not in vain but will be repaid richly.

There lived a man in Korea who always walked with his bare feet. He took subway every day and said something to the people there. He looked homeless with a mental problem. People thought he was a lunatic. However, he was not. He was born in a very rich family and well educated. He was smart enough to speak five languages. But one day he learned that he got an incurable disease. In such a difficult time, he came to know God and he was cured. He was so thankful and then realized that nothing was his and everything should be shared with others. In appreciation of this, he doled out all his land and possession to others in need and he himself lived a poor life. But he still served people and bought bread for homeless. And he preached the gospel in subway for 30 years until he died there, saying, “Jesus, salvation, the kingdom of God!” Many Korean Christians know him and even consider him as a prophet who lived in obedience to the word of God. He shared everything with others and invited them to the kingdom of God. No doubt, he is in the kingdom of God.

 So far, we have learned that

·         The Pharisees and the experts in the law observed the Sabbath but they served themselves first, showing no concern for the man in suffering.

·         They should not choose the places of honor for themselves because those who exalt themselves will be humbled whereas those who humble themselves will be exalted.

·         The host served himself by inviting only those who were close and beneficial to him. So, there would be no repayment from God.

What is their common problem? That is self-serving. They served themselves first rather than others in need. They paid more attention to their own things rather than those in suffering. They tried to exalt themselves to serve themselves better. They associated with those who could be beneficial to them but showed indifference to the least of their brothers.

Jesus told these in regard to the kingdom of God. All these happened on Sabbath. One of the reasons for keeping the Sabbath is to look for the final rest in the kingdom of God. The Wedding feast in the parable refers to the kingdom of God. The resurrection day also refers to the coming of the kingdom of God. In other words, all these are about how to live on earth as God’s people in anticipation of the coming of the kingdom of God. That is serving people without selfish desire but with God’s compassion and living in this world in the fear of God, who will judge us according what we have done (Rev 23:13). This will enables us to serve others in need first rather than serving ourselves.

Remember that we have the kingdom of God through Jesus. So, we do not have to exalt ourselves or expect something in return for our service and labor on earth. Because we have the reward in the kingdom of God, we can serve others without repayment. That makes us truly happy. Our ministry prayer for this year is to know God’s will so that we may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him by bearing fruit in every good work and giving joyful thanks to God, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of his kingdom. (Co 1:10-12) Let’s pray we can render glory to God by living as light and salt in the world through our unselfish service and fruit of righteousness. Let’s reach out to those in need. Let’s pray that the people in the world may see our God through our holy life so that they can come to God and praise him. Amen!

By David Yun