Luke 14, a visual study from The Lampstand Project.
Bless those who cannot repay you.
A man healed at a Pharisee’s table. The parable of the wedding seats. Invite those who cannot repay you. The parable of the great banquet. The cost of discipleship. Salt.
Three movements. Healing and humility, invitation, cost.
Luke 14 is the great chapter of the table. It begins at a table, teaches about the seating at tables, explains who to invite to tables, tells a parable about a great banquet to which the invited guests will not come, and ends with the question of whether you have counted the cost. The chapter reconfigures the social logic of the banquet from top to bottom.
A chapter in 3 movements.
Tap any numbered marker to read its part
“Every one who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
The dropsy healed. Do not take the seat of honor.
On a Sabbath, Jesus goes to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, and they are watching him carefully. A man before him has dropsy. He asks the lawyers and Pharisees: is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? They are silent. He heals the man and sends him away. Then: which of you, having a son or ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath, will not immediately pull him out? They cannot reply.
He notices how the guests choose the places of honor. He says: when you are invited to a wedding feast, do not sit in a place of honor lest someone more distinguished be invited, and the host comes and says: give your place to this person. Then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say: friend, move up higher.
“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”
“Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.”
Invite those who cannot repay. The great banquet parable.
He says to the man who invited him: when you give a dinner, do not invite your friends or relatives or rich neighbors, lest they invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. You will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. One of those reclining says: blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.
Jesus tells the parable. A man gives a great banquet and invites many. When the time comes he sends his servant: come, for everything is now ready. They all alike begin to make excuses. One has bought a field. Another has five yoke of oxen to examine. Another has married a wife. The master is angry: go out quickly to the streets and lanes and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame. Then: go out to the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
“Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”
Count the cost. The tower. The king. The salt.
Great crowds travel with him. He says: if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. The word ‘hate’ is a Semitic idiom for the ordering of priorities: the call to follow Jesus must take precedence over every other loyalty.
Which of you, wishing to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost? Which king, going to war against another king, does not first consider whether he can meet him? So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Salt is good. But if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
The kingdom-table does not operate on the logic of reciprocity. Invite those who cannot repay you — not as charity toward them, but because this is what the kingdom feast looks like. The repayment will come at the resurrection of the just. The logic of the banquet parable confirms it: when the invited guests refuse, the poor and crippled and blind and lame fill the hall.
The chapter of the great banquet.
On a Sabbath, Jesus goes to dine at a Pharisee’s house. They are watching him. A man with dropsy is before him. He heals the man. He observes guests choosing the places of honor and tells a parable: when invited to a wedding feast, do not recline in the place of honor lest someone more distinguished arrive. Take the lowest place. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and everyone who humbles himself will be exalted.
He says to the host: when you give a dinner, do not invite your friends or rich neighbors, for they may invite you back. Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. They cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection. One of those reclining says: blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom. Jesus tells the parable of the great banquet. The invited guests all make excuses. The host sends his servant to bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, the lame, from the streets and highways, until the house is full.
“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”Luke 14:11 ESV
All scripture quoted from the English Standard Version (ESV). A study from The Lampstand Project.