West Valley Presbyterian Church: Emmaus, PA

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Luke 14.1-24

 

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Gonna ask you a question.  Thumbs up or down.  Yes or no.  Yeah or neah.  

Want your gut reaction.  Don’t think about it.  Just answer.  

 

If you met Jesus, for real... physically, existentially, just like people in the gospel of Luke... would you like him?  

Thumbs up, thumbs down.

 

Ask this: Would you invite Jesus to one of your parties in your house with your friends?

 

That’s this text.  Jesus is dining at the home of a Pharisee.  It’s a dinner party.  Now, as we’ll see... its not a normal dinner party.  But still... it’s a party.  

 

This is what we need to see this morning.  Jesus is not all fun and games.  Jesus crashes this party.  The Pharisees knew he wasn’t going to be the life of their party...  but still, Jesus ruined the party.  He wasn’t Mr. nice guy.  He takes his gloves off.  He goes after everyone.  There is not one person or group of people at this party who are left standing after Jesus takes them to task.  

 

We might say that this is “the first last supper”.  Not the last supper ... but it is the last meal shared between Jesus and the Pharisees (in Luke’s gospel).  

 

May not be apparent at first, but it appears that this is a trap. 

Jesus shows up to a dinner, and v.1 - “they were watching him carefully” (ESV).  Or, they were watching him lurkingly.  

 

v.2 - Behold!  there was a man before him who had dropsy.  Now, this disabled man could have just wandered into the Pharisee’s house.   But probably not. Just the way Luke writes it... They were watching lurkingly, and ... there he was, this man whom surely Jesus would heal.

 

Sounds like 11.53-54... the Scribes and Pharisees began to press him, to provoke him... to lie in wait for him to catch him in something.

 

Well... Jesus knows the hearts of man.  He knew the party was a trap.  He knew he was not invited as a special guest.  So what does he do?  He confronts everyone.

 

He confronts their religion/worldview first.   Then he confronts the guests, with their arrogance.  Then he confronts the host, with his “generosity”.  He crashes the party.

 

Jesus CONFRONTS.

 

14.1-6 Jesus confronts religion

[very similar to 13.10-17 -  Jesus healed the disabled woman on the Sabbath]

 

v.3 - he responded to the lawyers and Pharisees.  Interesting. Actual Greek word - “he answered” them.  But they hadn’t said anything.  Jesus is having a dialogue with their hearts.  

 

So, with this man standing before him...

He answered them: Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?  

 

He poses a dilemma.  If they said yes, their tradition would be undermined.  If they said no, their compassion would be called to question.  So they stayed silent.

 

I would venture to guess that in this case, in their hearts would have answered: NO - it would not be lawful to heal on the Sabbath... not this man!  Here’s why: dropsy was a condition of excessive bodily fluid ... swollen limbs and tissue.  For whatever reason, rabbinic tradition said that dropsy was caused either by sexual immorality, or “intentionally failing to have a bowel movement.”  Yeah, I know.  These Pharisees were probably thinking, It’s unlawful to heal THAT man.  Which is why they planted him!  

 

v.4 - Jesus healed the man and sent him away. So understated. Jesus just healed him.   Then Jesus asked:  

 

v.5 - which of you, having a son or ox who has fallen in a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him up?  Key word is “immediately”.  He’s saying, if that happened, you wouldn’t even pause to think about the law - not when something of worth to you is in danger.  

 

And they could not reply to these things. 

 

Just to note: second time in 20 verses that Jesus confronts the Pharisees about how they love their beasts more than broken people.

 

v.1-6 - Jesus confronts religion.  

Religion defined: ever-expanding restrictions beyond the rule of God.  Fence inside of fence inside of fence until life has been shriveled and there is no room to live or love... Jesus confronts that again here... He goes after their worldview.  How they DO life.  Restrictions for the Pharisees trump relationship, and rescue of real people.

 

Now, v7.  Jesus hones in on the guests at the party. They were watching Jesus lurkingly... Jesus is watching them!

 

v.7 - “he noticed something.”  He noticed how they all jockeyed for position around the table.  So he... confronts their arrogance

 

Tells a parable, with a simple point: at a party, don’t assume you’re the honored guest.  In life... don’t assume YOU are the honored guest.  

 

The meal was prepared, the guests were invited to the table.  

Table in a shape of a U.  The host generally at the bottom of the horseshoe, the seats of honor would be to his left and right, and the relative measure of honor would be expressed from there out... 

 

What Jesus must have seen is like the kids coming up here for a kids sermon... Train wreck to make it to the bottom of the U.  Maybe not overt, but it was obvious enough.  Multiple guests presumed that the places of honor were for them.

 

You don’t want to take the honorable seats when they’re not for you!  And...

I read somewhere this week that it would have been normal for the most honored guest to arrive fashionably late.  How bout it.  Thats why you guys are often 5-10 minutes late!

 

So Jesus said: when you’re invited to a party, take the least of the seats so the host can honor you should he usher you to a place of prominence.  Don’t set yourself up for the shameful walk to the end of the table... to the last place.

 

This is realistic, isn’t it?  Who sits where? Who’s who?  We know this game.

This is sad.  Some people really do think they - all the time - are the guest of honor.  the most important person in the room.

the Count of Monte Cristo

This is realistic.  This is sad. This is offensive.  

Jesus has the audacity to tell esteemed persons how to be among the esteemed.   Does he not know who he is talking to?  Jesus, you’re talking to the esteemed who are in social gatherings like this all the time!  Who are you to critique?  You’re the new guy!

 

Jesus knows who he is.  He is the real esteemed guest, recognized or not.  He is the only one who knows what humility truly is... even as he is the only one who embodies true honor.  He is the one who can say with authority that whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted, v11.

 

So... 

Jesus confronts their religion/worldview - v.1-6.

Jesus confronts their arrogance.   v.7-11

v.12-14, Jesus has something for the host, too.  

Jesus confronts his manipulation 

 

This is socially outrageous.  Presumably in front of other guests, Jesus tells the host how to throw a real dinner party.  Who are you Jesus?  You’re crossing social boundaries, basic social morays.  You don’t tell a host who to invite / who not to invite to his own party.

 

But he did.

v.12... when you give a party, don’t invite your friends, your brothers, your relatives, or your wealthy neighbors?  

Well then who are we supposed to invite?

Invite those who need a party and could never repay.  

The poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.  

Some on this list, so disestablished from society ... not allowed in the synagogue.  

 

You want to give a generous party? Invite those who need a party but could never repay.  

Jesus adds... you will be repaid when you are invited to that very kind of a party... the one that comes at the resurrection... when you are the needy person who gets an invitation to the party from God and you can never repay because you’re not wealthy enough in righteousness to even think about it!  That’s the gospel, v.14.

 

Waded through all that.  Here’s the question:

Do you need Jesus to crash your party?  

... the party of your life... would that be a good things if Jesus went on the offensive?

 

• Would he assault your empty religious worldview with its heartless restrictions... which leaves you striving and fixing and fencing and controlling?
  • everybody has a religious worldview
  • it’s very personal... story/belief system (TapnTable)

 

• Would Jesus confront your assumption that you are the guest of honor in life?  
  • Do you need to be exposed anew to the seismic difference between humility and pride?
  • Humility is not just a lack of pride.  Humility is not just a willingness to take a lower seat than one thinks one deserves.  Humility is unconcerned about seats at a table.  Unaware of recognition by others. Humility is unaware of self.  
  • CS Lewis on humility (Mere Christianity)
    •  “forget about yourself altogether.”  Freedom in that... 
    • I wish I could... tell you more about the relief, the comfort, of taking the fancy-dress off - getting rid of the false self, with all its “Look at me” and “Aren’t I a good boy?” and all its posing and posturing.  To get even near it, for a moment, is like a drink of cold water to a man in a desert.

 

In the party of your life, would Jesus confront your arrogance, maybe he is by some of your resent struggles and exposures... or,  would he exalt you from your humble self-unawareness to a place of honor... he does by the gospel.

 

And... in the party of your life,

• Would Jesus confront your manipulation of everything to your own ends?  Are you ultimately a taker not a giver, even when you are “giving”?  Do you need Jesus to call to question your generosity as being self-serving?  Would he say that you frequently or rarely give yourself to people who just need it... as opposed to people you enjoy, whom you need?  

 

This is tough!

 

We are all exposed by this!  Who is this Jesus and is he crashing into you this morning?

Is there any of us here who give without reciprocity?  Who know how to give without getting anything back?

 

David Goetz 

Death By Suburb: How to Keep the Suburbs from Killing Your Soul - 2006

 

We are like shirker bulls.

The shirker bull is a male elk that is able to grow very large antlers because it ‘shirks its biological duty by choosing not to participate in the rut’(Geist).  The rut is the annual fall ritual when deer and elk males square off against one another to determine sexual dominance and sire the next generation.  The shirker bull avoids fighting other males and thus pours all his caloric energy into ‘growing exceptionally large antlers’(Geist). (100)

 

In the suburban wild, Shirkers are religious folk who inadvertently disengage from the suffering of the world [while] unwittingly collecting to themselves every available religious experience.  Shirkers are wild for ideas about God.  One sure sign of a Shirker is his or her relentless, unreflective pursuit of significance: I want to make a difference with my life. (101) …  I want results when I serve the poor, the imprisoned, the destitute.  I want results because I want to make a difference with my life. (106)

 

The way out of [a Shirker Lifestyle] ... the way through it – is to pursue action without the thought of results...  Find a place to serve where no matter how many resources you leverage for the kingdom of God, you don’t see much change. 

 

Who wants that!  Someone who wants to let go of their self-serving striving after significance!  Someone who longs to for their generosity to be totally generous with no “take back.”

 

Jesus told the host that he should want this.  And I would say: WE WANT THIS!!!

 

Gary Haugen Just Courage 2008

I sense among many Christians today a subtle but deep discontent.  I don’t think they would call it boredom because that sounds flippant… [but] a largely unspoken sense of disappointment in the way their Christian life is turning out… 

 

Like Groundhog Day.... 

 

Are [you] brave, or [are you] safe?  In the end, it depends on whether we think God can be trusted.

 

We fret over what might happen to our stuff, our reputation, our standing, our children, our ideology, and our investments, and in the process we forget that we have all these things so we can live fully for Christ.  All the things we value were never meant to be safeguarded.  They were meant to be put at risk and spent...

 

Do we need to be confronted as takers, not givers even if we are party throwers!  

 

I don’t know about you, but there are parts of me that I want Jesus to crash.  I want to have my heartless religious fences chopped down, my arrogance hosed down, and my manipulation ripped down.  

 

One guest, at least, loved this.  

v.15- he sat up, and said, Jesus, blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God! 

 

Whatever this guy saw/heard as Jesus crashed the party, he thought of the great future, new-heavens and earth banquet that God would bring on the day of mercy and Jubilee (Isaiah 25).  He thought of the better banquet.  Jesus you should throw a party!

 

When Jesus heard what this man said, he... CLARIFIES things (14.15-24)

 

Blessed will be the kingdom.  YES.

Feasting will be in the kingdom.  YES.

Everyone will be in the kingdom.  NO.

 

He tells another parable: Everyone will NOT be blessed by kingdom because many will give lame excuses.

 

The parable is this:

A man gave a great banquet.  Sent out invitations to his guests.  They all RSVPd but then they all NO-SHOWED.  Not cool.  The house is prepared, the food is on the table.  So the master sent out his servant to those who said they’d come. 

v.18 - they all alike began to make excuses.

 

3 excuses are mentioned, 2 categories of excuse. (little close to home)

financial.

-I bought a field and I want go look at it. Look at it tomorrow, you own it?  

-I bought five yoke of oxen and I want to go drive them.  Really.

familial.

-I just got married.  Deut  20 - free from war.  No law about skipping feasts that you RSVPd!

 

Gets me about these excuses... they are all, basically, rooted in momentary excitement!  Which is like my world... your world.  Whatever is most enthralling at the moment wins.

 

These excuses are a little close to home, aren’t they.  Finances and family are lame excuses for missing the kingdom dinner?  Finances and family are what mainly preoccupy us!

 

Of course, finances and family can be leveraged for kingdom feasting (plug - come tonight).

 

When Jesus returns... if you believe he will, some of you may not.

If you believe Jesus will return and create a new heavens and new earth of righteousness and feasting on all that is good... if you are found with excuse as not being quite ready to give up what you are doing for that moment... what will your particular excuses be?  You know yourself.

Don’t have time.

Wanted to prioritize this pleasure first.

Didn’t think that the kingdom feasting would be much greater than the here/now.

 

What will the master do whose table was empty? He will angrily exclude those who RSVPd, and he will send out his servant to invite those who need a party, who don’t deserve a party, who aren’t expecting a party, who have never met the host of the party, who could never repay the party, but who will come when invited.  

 

v.21 - the master: Go invite the poor the crippled the blind and the lame.  

v.22 - the servant: I did, but there’s still room.

v.23 - the master: Go to the highways outside of town... to the outcasts and socially dysfunctional and compel them to come, for my house will be full.

 

Guess what?  This is a parable for you and me the reader.  In this parable, who is who?

God the Father is the host.  Jesus is the servant.  You and I are those on the edges, the highways... not in Jerusalem anymore... we are those who need a party (no sin and shame), who don’t deserve a party, who aren’t expecting a party, who could never repay the party, who are being invited by the son, the servant in this text?

 

Here’s the thing: this is a kingdom that COMPELs to COME

 

v.23 - compel them

v.21 - bring them

 

Picture is one of the disabled: “actually carried, or literally brought in... 

The spiritually broken and disabled are actually carried into the Master’s feast.  

 

The spiritually doubting: “who is this master?  What did I do to deserve a banquet?”

Compelled to come by being convinced of the character of the Master.

He’s the King. He’s saved a seat for you in his presence... not the least of seats.  He offers you his son’s seat, at the right hand of the King. The son himself seated at the lowest place. 

 

The gospel is this: the least are given the seat of honor in a feast that will never end.  That changes everything: Don’t have to pine after it... don’t have to manipulate others for your honor.  Don’t have to race others to the places of honor... free give and be generous and receive no results ... to give to others who can’t pay you back.  Because you don’t have to pay back...

 

Jesus is the party crasher of the self-exalted, because he’s the party thrower for the humble... the undeserving, the unclean...