Daily Bible Reading (Wednesday, March 21st)
13Luke 14 (ESV)
Healing of a Man on the Sabbath
One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. 2 And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. 3 And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4 But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. 5 And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son[a] or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” 6 And they could not reply to these things.
The Parable of the Wedding Feast
7 Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, 9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you.11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
The Parable of the Great Banquet
12 He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers[b] or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
15 When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” 16 But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. 17 And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant[c] to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ 18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ 19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ 20 And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ 21 So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ 22 And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23 And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you,[d] none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’”
The Cost of Discipleship
25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “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. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Salt Without Taste Is Worthless
34 “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?35 It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Footnotes:
- Luke 14:5 Some manuscripts a donkey
- Luke 14:12 Or your brothers and sisters
- Luke 14:17 Or bondservant; also verses 21 (twice), 22, 23
- Luke 14:24 The Greek word for you here is plural
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13 Comments
Nicci Hunt Mar 21, 2018 @ 5:20 pm
I remember hearing Steve Lawson preach on Luke 14:25-33 and what it will cost you to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. His sermon was titled It will cost you everything! It made a huge impact on how I viewed and lived my christian life. The days that I don’t lay down my life and live for Jesus Christ and others is wasted. Here is the sermon if you would like to listen to it http://media.resolved.org/2007/S07_Steve_Lawson_-_It_Will_Cost_You_Everything.mp3
Art Wachdorf Mar 21, 2018 @ 3:48 pm
Starting in verse 25, Jesus helps us understand the true nature of discipleship. As Bruce said in a recent sermon, it can't be Jesus plus. Jesus makes it clear that we need to give up everything for Him. After all, He is worth it. We must all be willing to carry our cross, daily. I confess I don't always do this as perfectly as I should, but my desire it to forsake all for Christ.
Tyler T. Bull Mar 21, 2018 @ 11:42 am
Thankful a a God who sought us from the "highways and hedges". It seems such a common response to put Christ and His offers of grace on the backburner. Lots of excuses. We once made similar excuses before he showed us that we were the poor ones on the highways and byways. Thankful for that. Praying for those who yet make excuses, and that I not make excuses.
Bruce Blakey Mar 21, 2018 @ 9:41 am
Many will make their excuses but the Master will have His house full. We need to be like the faithful servant who compelled people to come in. Praying that this Easter season will see many come into the Master's house through faith in the risen Lord.
Ben Tiemeyer Mar 21, 2018 @ 7:44 am
This chapter was a great reminder that there is a cost associated with following Jesus and that “anybody who does not renounce all that he has cannot be [Jesus’] disciple. Lord please continue to work in our hearts to curb our idolatrous desires for things besides you, please show us your surpassing glory so that we can love You supremely.
Dee Escobedo Mar 21, 2018 @ 7:25 am
I thank God for His gospel! I was, in a sense, out on the highways and hedges, yet I was called and compelled to come into the Master’s great banquet!
Sarah Birch Mar 21, 2018 @ 7:18 am
Verses 25-27 are good reminders that Christ is to be our first love. He is to be our obsession with everyone/everything else coming after Him. If anything is competing with our love for Christ we have an idol because our love for Christ should be supreme. Yet how often I find myself with my affectionates in the wrong order! Oh Lord, forgive me for my idolatry and help my love for you to be first and foremost with my love for others coming after you. Help my gaze to be fixed on you and never waver.
Jason Adam Mar 21, 2018 @ 7:05 am
This chapter is so clear in its denouncement of easy believism/cultural Christianity. Christ is clear that this type of faith is no faith at all. We must humble ourselves, bear our own cross, count the cost, and renounce everything else in our life as having any value compared to the value of knowing and being known by Christ.
David Contreras Mar 21, 2018 @ 5:43 am
Verse 23: "And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled". God what a wonderful reminder that Your house is still far from being filled! There are still millions of people that don't know the gospel and You desperately want them in Your kingdom. But the task remains on us, your unworthy servants, to go and spread the good news. God I thank you for this reminder that we must constantly be sharing the gospel so that one day Your house may be filled!
Keagan McLeese Mar 21, 2018 @ 5:17 am
v13-14: Guaranteed payment at the resurrection: I want to take that one to the bank, baby! v21: And what’s amazing is that I am one of the poor, crippled, lame, and blind who has been invited to the feast and can’t repay Him!
Lorraine Cho Mar 21, 2018 @ 5:04 am
How embarrassing! God is truly trying to humble me; I copied and pasted what I wrote in my comment twice. I mean, I recognize that I possess a propensity towards verbosity (translation: I'm wordy - and Wordy?), but I knew I didn't write THAT much!
Lorraine Cho Mar 21, 2018 @ 4:57 am
Pride has always been one of my greatest sin struggles. Verse 11 was a stark reminder for me to choose to be humble, "for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” The juxtaposition of Satan's pride in wanting to compete with God versus Jesus, "who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped" (Phil. 2:6). Rather, Christ "emptied himself, taking the form of a servant" and "humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death" (Phil. 2:7-8). Phil. 2:9 concludes, "Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father"Pride has always been one of my greatest sin struggles. Verse 11 was a stark reminder for me to choose to be humble, "for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” The juxtaposition of Satan's pride in wanting to compete with God versus Jesus, "who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped" (Phil. 2:6). Rather, Christ "emptied himself, taking the form of a servant" and "humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death" (Phil. 2:7-8). Phil. 2:9-11 concludes, "Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, Pride has always been one of my greatest sin struggles. Verse 11 was a stark reminder for me to choose to be humble, "for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” The juxtaposition of Satan's pride in wanting to compete with God versus Jesus, "who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped" (Phil. 2:6). Rather, Christ "emptied himself, taking the form of a servant" and "humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death" (Phil. 2:7-8). Phil. 2:9 concludes, "Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." The example of Satan and Jesus epitomizes how "God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble" (Js. 4:7, 1 Pet. 5:5). I want to follow in Jesus' footsteps rather than Satan's, so I claim the conditional promise in 1 Pet. 5:6, which says, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time." Yesterday, I couldn't find parking and parked in an open spot that I found, even though it was marked. It turned out that it was a general's parking spot, so I had to go and move my car. So, I've recently experienced firsthand what Jesus talks about with the parable of the wedding feast. My rather long walk of shame after moving my car didn't have to be so shameful. So, today, I will park in a spot that is suitable for my rank and enjoy walking with God to work.
Anthony Leija Mar 21, 2018 @ 12:29 am
What I have seen in this reading is that God is a jealous God and wants to be first in our lives. When the rich man was asking people to go to his banquet and they didn't there was a righteous burst of anger towards them because they were putting things before him. People and cattle and other things that was first in their heart before God is a sin because God deserves to be first than any body or any thing in our hearts desire. We might fail but God never fails, but bring al that are lame blind and cripple and compel them to come in to my banquet I believe that these people were the poor in spirit that new they needed God in their lives but the others are people that don't want to understand that they need God too in their lives but because pride they didn't entered to God's banquet.