Luke 14:7-14

Transcript

00:00:00:28 – 00:00:19:27
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Thanks for closing out. The week with us has been a little bit of a hit and miss. We appreciate your flexibility as we continue through the gospel of Luke as if you didn’t join us. Priest Study it. Just a reminder, we will be off following today until the following Tuesday, the 15th of November, where we will get back at it.

00:00:19:31 – 00:00:44:33
Clint Loveall
Interesting text today. I think some really good theme. So we’re in the seventh verse of the 14th chapter. Let me read through the next couple sections here and then we’ll come back and see what we find in them. When Jesus, when Jesus noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. When you’re invited by someone to a wedding banquet, don’t sit at the place of honor.

00:00:44:33 – 00:01:06:34
Clint Loveall
In case someone more distinguished than you has been invited to by your host. And then the host who invited both of you may come up and say to you, Give this person your place, and then in disgrace you would start to take the lower place. But when you’re invited, go sit down at the lowest place so that when your host comes, he may say to you, Friend, move up higher.

00:01:06:39 – 00:01:30:36
Clint Loveall
Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you, for all who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves would be exalted, he said. Also to one who had invited you. When you give a lunch or dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors in case they may invite you in return, and then you would be repaid.

00:01:30:41 – 00:01:58:52
Clint Loveall
But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. So an interesting way for Luke to get here, for Jesus to get here. But two very important themes, the theme of humility and the theme of of kind of hospitality.

00:01:58:57 – 00:02:19:39
Clint Loveall
This sense that runs through the gospels of kind of getting paid back. This is pretty, pretty well-established in Jesus culture, this idea of a seating chart and honored guests in places. We still do that to some extent, probably at weddings. If you get in the far table, you’re probably not as close to the couple as if you sit up front.

00:02:19:49 – 00:02:47:46
Clint Loveall
We still see vestiges of that, I think, in our culture. But but these are not I don’t know, Michael, maybe I’m biased here. These aren’t what I would call it sounds like Jesus is just giving advice on social functions. And that’s exactly not what’s going on here. What Jesus is doing is speaking to a bent that the Bible has a kind of leaning that the Scripture has toward humility.

00:02:47:51 – 00:03:17:13
Clint Loveall
Don’t don’t put yourself in a place above others, put yourself behind others, put yourself lower than others, and then you will be lifted up. But don’t try to get ahead on your own. And I don’t know if this is the easiest way for us to understand these words, but I think particularly in this first example of where you sit, that Jesus is tapping into a theme that is well attested in Scripture and he ends with those words that are fairly familiar.

00:03:17:13 – 00:03:28:00
Clint Loveall
Few exalt yourself. You’ll be humbled. If you humble yourself, you’ll be exalted. It may not be the cleanest path to get there, but he does arrive at a place that Scripture affirms often.

00:03:28:04 – 00:03:54:41
Michael Gewecke
I want to dig in for just a moment to that comment that you make, Clint, that this is indeed not just a lesson on social ethics or politeness. That’s not what’s happening here, though. That’s the surface reading of the text. What this actually is, is a teaching of Jesus on the revelation of the Kingdom of God. And Luke has been showing us how Jesus represents, proclaims and and demonstrates that kingdom through everything that He does and says.

00:03:54:41 – 00:04:19:57
Michael Gewecke
And here in this particular telling of the story, at least as we start with this first telling, what we have is someone who puts themself in position of honor and then is moved from that place of honor to a place of disgrace. And then on the converse, this teaching that ultimately those who are put in the lower position at first can be moved up.

00:04:20:02 – 00:04:48:00
Michael Gewecke
And that then is the humbled being exalted. And we’ve talked about this theme in Luke over and over again, how he has a concern for the poor, how he shows from Jesus’s life, and teaching that Jesus was distinctly interested in the plight of those who were powerless and those who needed to be exalted and ultimately exaltation. Then in this text is something that has an arc even beyond what we can see.

00:04:48:00 – 00:05:15:27
Michael Gewecke
This is going to be fleshed out more in that second part of the text, but it’s still having present here in the first when you read them together that this idea that Jesus’s kingdom has a longer frame than your current status. So today you may find yourself among the poor in spirit, but that isn’t determinative for you. There’s no kind of permanent class system in the Kingdom of Jesus that ultimately those who set themselves up wrongly will be brought down.

00:05:15:39 – 00:05:32:07
Michael Gewecke
Those who are humble from the start, they will be raised up by the mercy, grace and power, the master. And that’s Jesus proclaiming what the Kingdom of God is like, which is a way of teaching about who God is and what God is like. And that’s where this text is really trying to point us.

00:05:32:16 – 00:05:58:04
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I think that I suppose you could read this and think that Jesus is instructing the disciples on how to kind of trick the system or how to, you know, be shrewd. And maybe there is some element to that, but I think more so, Jesus is saying that a life of discipleship doesn’t seek the spotlight. A life of discipleship isn’t about trying to put yourself ahead of others.

00:05:58:09 – 00:06:20:29
Clint Loveall
It it is about the humility that is built in to Christian faith. And we see that again. We see this theme in the second part of the passage. He said. You know, you don’t invite people who will invite you in. In other words, don’t think about payback. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled and the lame.

00:06:20:29 – 00:06:46:53
Clint Loveall
Now, in our next study, we’ll see that Jesus is going to tell a story where exactly that happens. But I don’t think I mean, I don’t think it hurts to read these words literally, but I don’t think they’re intended to be literal words. I think what Jesus again has in mind here is a common theme in Scripture that when you do for people who can return the favor, it’s not service.

00:06:47:07 – 00:07:10:36
Clint Loveall
It may be kind, it may be wonderful, but true service to true compassion, true giving is to those who offer you nothing in return. And that’s the bar that Jesus set. And I think that’s the standard the New Testament sets over and over again. So here he he gives this language is kind of an ultimate example of it.

00:07:10:40 – 00:07:29:42
Clint Loveall
Why don’t don’t worry about the people who can pay you back care for and include the people who can’t. And I don’t know if that’s a good way to plan a party, Michael, but I don’t actually think that’s what Jesus is talking about. It is a good way to live out the faith. And I think ultimately that’s what he means.

00:07:29:47 – 00:07:58:33
Michael Gewecke
There’s another deeper level to attacks like this. Clint’s on one hand, you could look at this first 12 and you could say, we’re talking about a luncheon, we’re talking about the dinner verse 13, We’re talking about a banquet that just seems obvious very clearly. We’re talking about party planning on some level. But if that’s where you end, then you failed to have seen the great New Testament emphasis upon this idea of the Lord’s table.

00:07:58:33 – 00:08:31:15
Michael Gewecke
What happens at dinner, the great banquet, this theme that appears over and over again, is not just limited to human parties and festivals. It has a kind of spiritual significance and what it draws to mind is this idea that when we come to table that we are coming together as a body, seeing a gift from God himself, that when Jesus says to his disciples in the upper room, This is my body, this is my blood, what’s behind that is this idea of constant presence and fellowship and unity that comes in this great feast.

00:08:31:15 – 00:08:53:18
Michael Gewecke
And so here, as we return to that theme and this idea, when you give a banquet, have in mind more than just the stuff you’re going to get out of it. When you celebrate have in mind more than just the good feeling of that day, because that will pass. That will be something that will become corrupted by time, but instead invite those who won’t repay you.

00:08:53:18 – 00:09:19:17
Michael Gewecke
Invite those who This invitation will represent a new way of life beyond this life for you that participate in the kind of celebration that goes on even to the resurrection of the righteous. The idea that those who have done righteously or been found righteous in God’s sight, those will get to celebrate at the greatest banquet. And, you know, I’m reading that very allegorically.

00:09:19:17 – 00:09:28:04
Michael Gewecke
If you allow me to use that word. But I think there is deeper spiritual meaning in the text like this than just the first layer or maybe even the second layer.

00:09:28:17 – 00:09:57:02
Clint Loveall
I agree 100%. And I think it hinges on that last verse there, verse 14, You will be blessed for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. There are many scriptures, in fact, that we saw alluded to in Luke. It’s probably most clear in Matthew the passage about don’t store up for yourself treasure on earth, where the moths break in and rust is present and people can steal things.

00:09:57:07 – 00:10:21:59
Clint Loveall
Set your mind on the things of heaven. There is again a very prolific theme throughout the New Testament of earthly and heavenly rewards, and Jesus is simply saying here that as kingdom people we are mine should not be first and foremost concerned with earthly rewards, with what place we have at a banquet or with who came to the banquet of what’s important.

00:10:21:59 – 00:10:57:32
Clint Loveall
People are going to owe us a favor, are going to invite us to their thing next time that our concern ought to be what is our heavenly reward? What are the things I’ve done for which God would be pleased with me? And if God is pleased with me, then what are those things that would merit? I hesitate to say reward, but would would merit God sharing goodness with me because I have taken from that example to share goodness with others.

00:10:57:32 – 00:11:24:27
Clint Loveall
So it’s not a it’s not a works righteousness. It’s not earning God’s favor. It is to say that kingdom people are conscious of pleasing God and less concerned, if at all, with earthly rewards and earthly results. And so I think that verse helps kind of frame if you read this backwards and you see that versus the starting place, I think it may be helps with the entire passage.

00:11:24:28 – 00:11:47:48
Michael Gewecke
And the end of verse 12 is really helpful. This idea, in case they may invite you to in return and you would be repaid. Repaid is is a key word there. This is speaking to motivation. What’s motivating your action? What is the state of your heart? What is your intention in what you’re doing? And Jesus does this as a repeated theme throughout his teachings.

00:11:47:52 – 00:12:17:22
Michael Gewecke
The lawyers or the Pharisees will come to Jesus and they’ll ask him, What’s the letter of the law? Where does it end? Right? Who’s my neighbor? Or How many times do we need to forgive, though that wasn’t the Pharisees. But you like all of these sort of where’s the line Jesus type questions? And Jesus repeatedly over and over and over again resists that kind of simplicity and pushes the teaching to the teaching of of motivation, the inner stay, the soul.

00:12:17:22 – 00:12:51:09
Michael Gewecke
The heart is to say, you know, ultimately, are you giving this party for the sake of celebration or are you giving it to get something out of the return? And when Jesus encounters that kind of self-deception, that kind of self-interest, that kind of self, congratulation, even Jesus is very quick to extinguish that and to to make it very, very clear that the ultimate call for the Christian is to invest in doing good, to whether that’s being the humblest at the table or whether that’s simply giving for the sake of the gift itself.

00:12:51:09 – 00:13:14:18
Michael Gewecke
The motivation is what matters. Why you do it is the most important thing. And of course, it’s also Clint, the most complicated thing, the most difficult thing, the thing that requires the most discernment and pressing into. And that’s no mistake. Jesus calls the Christian to a higher road. And this text, I think, you know, this seems simple, but it’s not.

00:13:14:18 – 00:13:19:26
Michael Gewecke
When you really look into it, it’s an invitation to a different way of life than the kind of life you might take for granted.

00:13:19:32 – 00:13:42:00
Clint Loveall
I think both of these texts and we could confirm this with our own experience, people tend to look up the ladder, right? They tend to look at who’s above them and what it would take to please those people and gain their notice. And maybe get into their circle. But the gospel teachers look down the ladder, look at who’s beneath you.

00:13:42:00 – 00:14:05:58
Clint Loveall
Look at who needs a hand up, not who can give you a step up, but who can you help, who can you assist, who can you bless? And it it is why that Jesus is teaching or sometimes called the upside down kingdom because it stands the rules and common practice of the world on its head and Luke gives us a great example of it.

00:14:06:03 – 00:14:15:52
Clint Loveall
There’s a second part to this that we’ll look at next time we’re together and where Jesus kind of tells a parable that plays this out.

00:14:15:57 – 00:14:35:06
Michael Gewecke
So that said, we would love to see you there. We’re going to be off until the 14th and we would look forward to seeing you there if you join us for the daily study, we will be releasing a study of the Bible and its relation in your life. We’d love for you to tune into that next Tuesday, which would be the seventh until we join together again.

00:14:35:11 – 00:14:39:12
Michael Gewecke
Hope that you’re blessed and we look forward to studying the Scriptures with you again real soon.