Luke 14:1

In this passage of story we find,

I. That the Son of man came eating and drinking, conversing familiarly with all sorts of people; not declining the society of publicans, though they were of ill fame, nor of Pharisees, though they bore him ill will, but accepting the friendly invitations both of the one and the other, that, if possible, he might do good to both. Here he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees, a ruler, it may be, and a magistrate in his country, to eat bread on the sabbath day, Luk 14:1. See how favourable God is to us, that he allows us time, even on his own day, for bodily refreshments; and how careful we should be not to abuse that liberty, or turn it into licentiousness. Christ went only to eat bread, to take such refreshment as was necessary on the sabbath day. Our sabbath meals must, with a particular care, be guarded against all manner of excess. On sabbath days we must do as Moses and Jethro did, eat bread before God (Exo 18:12), and, as is said of the primitive Christians, on the Lord's day, must eat and drink as those that must pray again before we go to rest, that we may not be unfit for that.

II. That he went about doing good. Wherever he came he sought opportunities to do good, and not only improved those that fell in his way. Here was a certain man before him who had the dropsy, Luk 14:2. We do not find that he offered himself, or that his friends offered him to be Christ's patient, but Christ prevented him with the blessings of his goodness, and before he called he answered him. Note, It is a happy thing to be where Christ is, to be present before him, though we be not presented to him. This man had the dropsy, it is probable, in a high degree, and appeared much swoln with it; probably he was some relation of the Pharisee's, that now lodged in his house, which is more likely than that he should be an invited guest at the table.

III. That he endured the contradiction of sinners against himself: They watched him, Luk 14:1. The Pharisee that invited him, it should seem, did it with a design to pick some quarrel with him; if it were so, Christ knew it, and yet went, for he knew himself a match for the most subtle of them, and knew how to order his steps with an eye to his observers. Those that are watched had need to be wary. It is, as Dr. Hammond observes, contrary to all laws of hospitality to seek advantage against one that you invited to be your guest, for such a one you have taken under your protection. These lawyers and Pharisees, like the fowler that lies in wait to ensnare the birds, held their peace, and acted very silently. When Christ asked them whether they thought it lawful to heal on the sabbath day (and herein he is said to answer them, for it was an answer to their thoughts, and thoughts are words to Jesus Christ), they would say neither yea nor nay, for their design was to inform against him, not to be informed by him. They would not say it was lawful to heal, for then they would preclude themselves from imputing it to him as a crime; and yet the thing was so plain and self-evident that they could not for shame say it was not lawful. Note, Good men have often been persecuted for doing that which even their persecutors, if they would but give their consciences leave to speak out, could not but own to be lawful and good. Many a good work Christ did, for which they cast stones at him and his name.

IV. That Christ would not be hindered from doing good by the opposition and contradiction of sinners. He took him, and healed him, and let him go, Luk 14:4. Perhaps he took him aside into another room, and healed him there, because he would neither proclaim himself, such was his humility, nor provoke his adversaries, such was his wisdom, his meekness of wisdom. Note, Though we must not be driven off from our duty by the malice of our enemies, yet we should order the circumstances of it so as to make it the least offensive. Or, He took him, that is, he laid hands on him, to cure him; epilabomenos, complexus - he embraced him, took him in his arms, big and unwieldy as he was (for so dropsical people generally are), and reduced him to shape. The cure of a dropsy, as much as any disease, one would think, should be gradual; yet Christ cured even that disease, perfectly cured it, in a moment. He then let him go, lest the Pharisees should fall upon him for being healed, though he was purely passive; for what absurdities would not such men as they were be guilty of?

V. That our Lord Jesus did nothing but what he could justify, to the conviction and confusion of those that quarrelled with him, Luk 14:5, Luk 14:6. He still answered their thoughts, and made them hold their peace for shame who before held their peace for subtlety, by an appeal to their own practice, as he had been used to do upon such occasions, that he might show them how in condemning him they condemned themselves: which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, by accident, and will not pull him out on the sabbath day, and that straightway, not deferring it till the sabbath be over, lest it perish? Observe, It is not so much out of compassion to the poor creature that they do it as a concern for their own interest. It is their own ox, and their own ass, that is worth money, and they will dispense with the law of the sabbath for the saving of. Now this was an evidence of their hypocrisy, and that it was not out of any real regard to the sabbath that they found fault with Christ for healing on the sabbath day (that was only the pretence), but really because they were angry at the miraculous good works which Christ wrought, and the proof he thereby gave of his divine mission, and the interest he thereby gained among the people. Many can easily dispense with that, for their own interest, which they cannot dispense with for God's glory and the good of their brethren. This question silenced them: They could not answer him again to these things, Luk 14:6. Christ will be justified when he speaks, and every mouth must be stopped before him.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1-6. Sabbath healing of a Man with the Dropsy.

1. of one of the chief Pharisees] Rather, of the Rulers of the Pharisees. The rendering of our version gives the general sense but is inadmissible. It is perhaps due to the translators being aware that the Pharisees had (strictly speaking) no Rulers. There were no grades of distinction between-Pharisees as such. But obviously the expression would be popularly used of a Pharisee who was an eminent Rabbi like Hillel or Shammai, or of one who was also a Sanhedrist.

to eat bread on the sabbath day] Sabbath entertainments of a luxurious and joyous character were the rule among the Jews, and were even regarded as a religious duty (Neh_8:9-12). All the food was however cooked on the previous day (Exo_16:23). That our Lord accepted the invitation, though He was well aware of the implacable hostility of the Pharisaic party towards Him, was due to His gracious spirit of forgiving friendliness; and to this we owe the beautiful picture of His discourse and bearing throughout the feast which this chapter preserves for us. Every incident and remark of the banquet was turned to good. We have first the scene in the house (Luk_14:1-6); then the manoeuvres to secure precedence at the meal (Luk_14:7-11); then the lesson to the host about the choice of guests (Luk_14:12-14); then the Parable of the King’s Feast suggested by the vapid exclamation of one of the company (Luk_14:15-24).

that they watched him] More emphatically in the original ‘and they themselves were carefully watching Him,’ comp. Luk_6:7. The invitation in fact even more than those in Luk_7:36, Luk_11:37 was a mere plot;—part of that elaborate espionage, and malignant heresy-hunting (Luk_11:53-54, Luk_20:20; Mar_12:13), which is the mark of a decadent religion, and which the Pharisees performed with exemplary diligence. The Pharisees regarded it as their great object in life to exalt their sacred books; had they never read so much as this? “the wicked watcheth the righteous and seeketh occasion to slay him,” Psa_37:32; “all that watch for iniquity are cut off, that make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate,” Isa_29:20-21.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk_14:1-6

He went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees

The gospel for the seventeenth Sunday after Trinity

I.

WE HERE BEHOLD OUR SAVIOUR IN THE SOCIAL CIRCLE. Jesus was not a recluse. He had a kind and social heart. He came to instruct, benefit, and redeem men, and He took pleasure in mingling with them. With all His holiness, majesty, and glory, He was a meek and social being, worthy of all admiration and imitation.

II. WE HERE HAVE A REMARKABLE TESTIMONY TO CHRISTS GOODNESS. There is reason to suspect that His invitation to this Pharisees house was for no friendly purpose. The Pharisees, as a class, hated Jesus, and were intent upon bringing Him into condemnation; and this man had distinguished friends with him on this occasion, who were no exception. This is proven from what occurred when they all got together in the house. Immediately in front of Christ, and in a manner thrust upon His notice, was a certain man that had the dropsy. How he got there is to be inferred. Evidently he was placed there to tempt our Lord to commit Himself. Yes, even their hard and bitter hearts were so assured of the Saviours goodness, that they felt warranted in building on it their plot to ruin Him. Sabbath day as it was, their convictions were deep and positive that He would not pass by the opportunity for exercising his marvellous power to cure the invalid they had stationed before Him. And that one incidental fact speaks volumes. It tells of the constant stream of healing power dispensed by the Saviour wheresoever He went. As the very cloud that would cover the sun with darkness bears the bow which the more beautifully reflects his glory, so the very wrath and malignity of these designing hypocrites did the more magnificently attest the gracious goodness of our Lord. Nor did they miscalculate. Knowing full well the nature and intent of the arrangement, and comprehending all the ill use the treacherous watchers around Him meant to make of it, He did not flinch from His wont, nor suffer His merciful power to be diverted or constrained.

III. BUT HOW BASE THE COWARDICE BROUGHT BEFORE US IN THE CONDUCT OF THESE MEN! To wish to unseat and injure one of whose goodness they were so thoroughly convinced, was in itself a self-contradictory wickedness almost beyond comprehension. Shame on a zeal that attaches sanctity to such hypocrisy, or honour to such cowardice!

IV. WE HERE BEHOLD THE TRUE SPIRIT OF THE LAW. The Sabbath was not ordained for itself and its own sake; nor as a mere arbitrary act of Divine sovereignty; but for the good of the living beings concerned in its observance.

V. WE LIKEWISE BEHOLD FROM THIS NARRATIVE, THAT AN UNCHARITABLE PUNCTILIOUSNESS ABOUT RELIGIOUS THINGS, IS APT TO HAVE, AS ITS ACCOMPANIMENT, IF NOT ITS ROOT, SOME HIDDEN SELFISHNESS AND SELFCONSEQUENCE. It was not that they so loved Gods appointments, or that they were so devoutly concerned to obey them; but anxiety for a bludgeon to break the head of Him whose pure teachings were undermining their falsehood and tyranny. It was not God, but greed; not righteousness, but honour, place, and dominion; not concern for Moses and the prophets, but for themselves and their own consequence. On the occasion before us, there was a marked concern about honours and place. This was the inspiration of their assumed sanctity, and all their superior orthodoxy was only a sham for pride and lust of power. And only too apt is this to be the case in every intolerant and uncharitable ado about the mere mint, anise, and cummin of the faith.

VI. BUT THE END OF THE WHOLE MATTER IS ALSO HERE SHOWN US. Such a spirit has no favour with God, and has nothing good to expect. (J. A.Seiss, D. D.)

They watched Him

What may be learnt from watching Christ

If we watch Christ also, we see how exalted piety instructs the worldly-minded.

1. He condescends to accept in friendly spirit the invitation that appeared to be friendly.

2. He explains and defends the right use of the Sabbath.

3. He rebukes pride by inculcating humility.

4. He unfolds to those around Him the nature of true humility.

5. From humility as His subject, in the presence of the proud, He proceeds to speak of hospitality in the presence of the selfish.

6. Our Lord distinguishes between the hospitality of ostentation, and the hospitality of true benevolence.

7. He deduces His instruction from passing events or from surrounding objects.

8. Seated at the supper, He utters to His host and the guests the parable of the Great Supper. (Van Doren.)

Healing on the Sabbath

Is it lawful to do anything but heal on the Sabbath day? Certainly not; that is the purpose of the day; it is a day of healing. If, therefore, in the very complex arrangements of our modern life, we are trying to interfere with anything that is customary on the Sabbath day, we should ask whether we are interfering with that which has a healing effect, or whether we are interfering with that which has an injurious effect; because there are many things that in their outward form are works that nevertheless in their general effects are healing. (T. T. Lynch.)

The coming Sabbath

We have been thinking and speaking of a miracle done on the Sabbath. It is evident that our Saviour had a preference for the Sabbath as a time for working miracles. How, then, is it with respect to ourselves--we who, many of us, would be glad to have a miracle wrought on our behalf, and yet have no right whatever to expect one? It is just thus--we are waiting for the Sabbath. In other words, it was intended, no doubt, to be taught us by our Saviours practice, that there is a special time of rest coming, when all the various troubles that hamper and injure us will be utterly removed--our burdens unbound; our fevers cooled for ever; our weakness changed to strength; all our heaviness lightened; our blind eyes made clear; our deaf ears unstopped; our feet filled with vigorous leaping blood; and all that is within us lighted up with joy, even as the house was lighted up, and music and dancing sounded in it, when the prodigal came home. There is a Sabbath coming; and as Christ wrought His cures upon the Sabbath, when He was upon earth, we are taught to look on to a day of cure that is coming--that Sabbath, namely, of rest, into which we hope to enter hereafter. It may be needful for our perfection, and the perfection of our friends, that we should still be burdened; but we are quite sure that, after the round of the six days, there will come the seventh; we are quite sure, when the time of trial has ended, the boon of health will be granted. (T. T. Lynch.)

The dropsy

Dropsy a figure of avarice

Dropsy is a disease which in general attacks only those of an advanced age. In a similar manner, from indifference to God and celestial things, and attachment to earthly goods, arises avarice--a vice to which many fall victims, especially in advanced years.

I. SIMILARITY BETWEEN DROPSY AND AVARICE.

1. In the thirst occasioned by both.

2. In the sufferings occasioned by both.

(1) Want of rest and joy.

(2) Pains throughout the whole body.

3. In the dangerous character of the respective diseases.

(1) Avarice is difficult of cure.

(2) Should the avaricious man be converted, there is the utmost danger of his relapsing into his former sins.

(3) Avarice frequently causes premature death.

(4) Avarice causes everlasting death.

II. DEATH THE DELIVERER FROM BOTH DISEASES.

1. Death and the grave warn us to despise earthly goods.

2. The judgment warns the avaricious to tremble on account of their possessions. For they provoke God--

(1) By their injustice and hard-heartedness, which are often the cause of sins crying to heaven.

(2) By the false confidence which they place in their goods.

3. Eternity teaches us to covet unfailing goods. (Venedien.)

Grief aiding thought

Here, then, stands the man that had the dropsy. Does he object to a miracle on the Sabbath day? It is surprising how our own necessities give an internal light to our principles. Many a thing that has been wholly dark to a man, so that he has said, I cannot understand it, becomes translucent to him as soon as God has lighted up a grief within him. Put a grief inside a thought, and it is astonishing how much clearer the thought is. This man had clear views of the Sabbath--very clear views. The dropsy had given him those views. (T. T. Lynch.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 14:1-4. And it came to pass — About this time, probably just as our Lord was finishing his journey through Herod’s dominions; he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees — Τινος των αρχοντων Φαρισαιων, of a certain one of the ruling Pharisees, that is, of a magistrate, or a member of the great council, called the sanhedrim. This person probably resided generally in Jerusalem, but had a country-seat in Peræa; and happening to meet with Jesus while he abode there, he carried him home to dinner. The invitation, however, it appears was insidious; for we are told they watched him — That is, the chief Pharisee and others of his sect, who were gathered together for this very end, watched all his words and actions, in order that they might find something to blame in them, whereby they hoped to blast his reputation as a prophet. And behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy — Who, having heard that Jesus was to dine there, had got himself conveyed thither, in hopes of receiving a cure. And Jesus — Answering the thoughts which he saw arising in their hearts; spake unto the lawyers — The doctors of the law; and other Pharisees who were then present. Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day — Can there be any thing in so benevolent an action, as healing a distempered person, inconsistent with the sacred rest required on that day? And they held their peace — Not being able, with any face, to deny the lawfulness of the action, and yet being unwilling to say any thing which might seem to authorize or countenance those cures which Christ performed on sabbath days, as well as at other times, and which in general they had been well known to censure. And he took him — Επιλαβομενος, taking him by the hand, or laying his hand on him, he healed him and let him go — Απελυσε, sent him away. The moment that Jesus laid his hand on the man, his complexion returned, and his body was reduced to its ordinary size; becoming, at the same time, vigorous and fit for action, as appeared by the manner in which he went out of the room. Doubtless our Lord could have accomplished this cure as well by a secret volition, and so might have cut off all matter of cavilling. But he chose rather to produce it by an action, in which there was the very least degree of bodily labour that could be, because that thus he had an opportunity of reproving the reigning superstition of the times.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL NOTES

Luk_14:1. One of the chief Pharisees.—Rather, “one of the rulers of the Pharisees” (R.V.). The phrase is a peculiar one, since the Pharisees, as such, had no rulers; it may refer to some influential Rabbi, or to some member of the Sanhedrim. To eat bread.—The Jews were accustomed to give feasts on the Sabbath (all the food having been cooked the day before), and in the writings of the early Fathers there are many allusions to sumptuous eating and drinking among the wealthier Jews on that day. (Cf. Neh_8:9-12; Tob_2:1.) The phrase “to eat bread” is a Hebraism which is often used to denote “to feast,” “to make good cheer.” They watched Him.—Rather, “they were watching Him” (R.V.). It would seem as if they went further and laid a trap to ensnare Jesus. The man with the dropsy seems not to have been a guest, but to have been planted among the company in the sight of Jesus. This appears from the phrase (Luk_14:2) “before Him,” and (Luk_14:4) “let Him go”—as of dismissing him from the room.

Luk_14:3. And Jesus answering.—I.e., knowing their thoughts and, replying to them, though they were unexpressed (cf. Luk_5:22). Is it lawful?—They were in a dilemma; for if they answered in the negative they exposed themselves to an overwhelming retort like that given in chap. Luk_13:15, while if they answered in the affirmative their whole case against Jesus would fall to the ground.

Luk_14:4. Held their peace.—And even thus could not avoid giving an answer to the question. They did not forbid the miracle, by declaring that it was unlawful to heal on the Sabbath day. Took Him.—I.e., took hold of Him, laid His hands upon him.

Luk_14:5. An ass or an ox.—The balance of evidence is about equal in favour of “a son or an ox,” or “an ass or an ox.” The R.V. retains the latter in the text and relegates the former to the margin. The natural connection between “ass” and “ox” (cf. Luk_13:15) may account for that reading. The other is a more difficult reading, and therefore more likely to have been the original one, according to a well-known canon of criticism. The reading “son” suggests two different kinds of ownership—“one of your children, or even one of your cattle.” Fallen into a pit.—Rather, “into a well” (R.V.). There is a certain analogy between the disease and the accident—dropsy, and death by drowning. Pull him out.—Rather, “draw him up” (R.V.).

Luk_14:6. Could not answer Him.—Silent, but not convinced: obstinacy and spiritual pride sealed their minds against the force of His reasoning.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Luk_14:1-6

There is little that is specially characteristic about this miracle. On other occasions than this Jesus healed disease by a word, or by a touch; on other occasions, as on this, He gave offence to those who were anxious to find it by healing upon a Sabbath, and amply vindicated His action, to the confusion of His adversaries. Yet the incident here recorded is not, by any means, superfluous or wanting in suggestiveness; it gives us a vivid picture of a scene in the life of Jesus, in which both the graciousness of the Saviour and the sullen malice of His adversaries are set forth.

I. The graciousness of the Saviour.—This was manifested, first of all, in His consenting to accept the invitation of the ruler of the Pharisees to eat bread in his house. After the preceding scenes, a certain measure of courage, as well as of kindly feeling, is implied in our Lord’s sitting down at table with members of that party, whose hostility to Him could not be concealed. Yet the righteous anger and indignation which the conduct of the Pharisees had, from time to time, excited in the mind of Jesus, did not exasperate Him against them; the Divine compassion which He manifested towards publicans and sinners was not withheld from those who were blinded by prejudice, and led astray by a delusion as to their own righteousness. The patience and love of the Saviour toward those who were animated by dislike to Him, are, indeed, more wonderful than His compassionate treatment of the outcast and defiled; just as, in the parable of the Prodigal Son, the patience of the Father with the harsh elder brother surprises us more than his kindness to the returning penitent. He knows that He is the object of their malicious suspicions, even if they have not laid a snare for Him, and yet He utters no reproaches against them. On the contrary, He reasons calmly with them, in order to convince them of their error and to win them to a better mind. Then, too, we see the graciousness of the Saviour in the cure of the man with the dropsy. The sight of the sufferer awoke pity in His heart, and though no direct petition for relief was offered to Him, the mute appeal was sufficient to call forth His miraculous power. He not only had compassion upon those who besought His help, but also upon those who stood in need of it, even if they were too timid or faithless to apply to Him for relief. And no sooner has Jesus healed him than He dismisses him from His presence, apparently to spare him the acrimonious criticism which the sight of a cure wrought on the Sabbath might provoke (cf. Luk_13:14).

II. The sullen malice of Christ’s enemies.—They were not ashamed to violate the laws of hospitality by narrowly watching to find some cause of offence, or ground of accusation, in His conduct in private life, on an occasion when He might be expected to be somewhat off His guard. The feast was a formal and elaborate one, but the spirit of love was absent from it. So far from avoiding controversy with their guest, they lay in wait for Him. Nor did they lay aside their hostility when His words of calm wisdom overthrew their theories and arguments, and left them silent in His presence. They could not answer Him, and yet they refused to be persuaded by Him. Could we have a more striking illustration of the power of religious prejudice to blind the eyes and deaden the feelings of those who cherish it? They were in the presence of the Incarnate Son of God, and yet they could not discern His Divine Majesty! They saw the sufferer delivered in an instant from a dreadful form of disease, and yet felt no gladness—their thoughts were taken up with the frivolous question as to whether the miracle could be lawfully wrought on that day! They did not see that their own souls were smitten with a spiritual disease, and that they were rejecting Him who alone could heal them. And in all ages religious prejudices exercise the same baneful influence upon all who indulge in them—they make men hard-hearted towards their brethren, and they come as a thick veil between the soul and Christ, so that His words cannot be understood nor His gracious working recognised.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luk_14:1-6

Luk_14:1-24. Lessons from the Great Teacher.

I. In Sabbath-keeping.

II. In true humility.

III. In true hospitality.

IV. In God’s hospitality.—Taylor.

Luk_14:1-6. The Dropsical Man.—The miracle with the account of which this chapter opens gave rise to a conversation of graphic originality, carried on by a series of parabolic illustrations. Chiefly, perhaps, for the sake of introducing these is the healing narrated. The incident in itself is not dwelt upon, and the reasoning which arose upon it closely resembles previous cases of Sabbath healing. The number of these, and the living detail with which they are recorded in the gospels, are noteworthy. Jesus puts signal honour on this day as a day for public worship and for showing acts of mercy. His example must ever remind Christians that care for the poor, the sick, and the ignorant, are duties specially fitted for the Lord’s Day. It is consecrated by His Spirit for the service of man, as well as for the worship of God.—Laidlaw.

Luk_14:1. One of the Chief Pharisees.—In this last period in which the hatred of the Pharisees against Him was most distinctly expressed, the Saviour does not withdraw from them. Obviously Jesus hoped, by the power of the truth, to gain over for Himself and the cause of God the better disposed, at least, among them.

A Treacherous Invitation.—The invitation of the Pharisee was a treacherous one. He was carrying out the policy indicated in Luk_11:53-54, and had set this diseased man in a place where he would catch the attention of Christ, in order to see what He would say or do. “Behold” in Luk_14:2 implies something unusual and unexpected; and this circumstance implies that the presence of the diseased man was not accidental.

“To eat bread.”—It belongs to the peculiarities of St. Luke that he loves to represent to us the Saviour as sitting at a social table, where He most beautifully reveals His pure humanity, through table-talk which, more than that of any other “was seasoned with salt” (Col_4:6), and was addressed, first to the guests (Luk_14:7-10), then to the host (Luk_14:11-14), and, finally, on occasion being given (Luk_14:15), to both (Luk_14:16-24).—Van Oosterzee.

“They watched Him.”—The kindness and long-suffering of Christ in accepting the invitation of the Pharisee are very noteworthy, when we consider the bad faith displayed in the desire to find something in His words and deeds out of which they might frame an accusation against Him.

They watched whether He would not transgress their Sabbath restrictions: that was the way that they kept the Sabbath.

Luk_14:2. “There was a certain man before Him.”—The Pharisees argued

(1) that Jesus could not ignore the presence of a man conspicuously placed in front of Him;

(2) that perhaps He might fail in the cure of a disease exceptionally inveterate;

(3) that if He did heal the man on the Sabbath day there would be room for another charge before the synagogue or the Sanhedrim.—Farrar.

Christ Moved by the Sight of Suffering.—The sight of the suffering man standing there silent moved the heart of Jesus, as the Pharisees had justly expected that it would.

Luk_14:3. “Sabbath day.”—Our Lord studiously and designedly selected, rather than avoided, the Sabbath day for the performance of His miracles of mercy. The five distinct instances recorded were probably but a few out of many. Add to which, that they seemed, humanly speaking, to cause offence; which our Lord would have avoided, were it not for some great purpose or principle.—Williams.

“Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—The question was an embarrassing one. If they answered Yes, the occasion of finding fault was taken away; if No, they were open to the charge of want of compassion.

Luk_14:4. “Let him go.”—A delicate courtesy is indicated in the man being thus dismissed after being cured, before the conversation is resumed upon the work of mercy which had been wrought in his case.

Luk_14:5-6. Christ and the Sabbath.—The teaching to be derived from the Sabbath healings, as recorded in the gospels, may be summarised as follows:

1. We see that Jesus took pains to emphasise the humane element in the original institution as a day of rest, while He rescued it from the exaggerations of Pharisaism.

2. He gave it the sanction of His own observance as a day of public worship and religious congregation.

3. By these deeds of healing He put singular honour upon it as a day for showing mercy.—Laidlaw.

Luk_14:5. “Answered them.”—Again, it is said, “He answered them,” although they had held their peace. That is because their minds were full of fierce, rebellious thoughts; and thoughts are words in the ears of Him with whom we have to do.—Burgon.

“Son or ox” (R.V.)—The argument proceeds from a thing of greater value to one of less. “You deliver your children, and even your oxen, on the Sabbath; shall not I much more deliver My creatures and My children?” If “ass” were the true reading, it should follow “ox”; the Scriptures often say “ox and ass,” never “ass and ox.” In Deu_5:14, in the law of the Sabbath, “son” stands first in the list of rational creatures, “ox” in that of irrational.

Inconsistency of the Pharisees.—As on other occasions (Luk_13:15; Mat_12:11), the Lord brings back those present to their own experience, and lets them feel the keen contradiction in which their blame of Christ’s free work of love sets them with themselves, in that, where their worldly interests were at hazard, they did that very thing whereof they now made an occasion against Him.—Olshausen.

Luk_14:6. “Could not answer.”—Nothing is said, however, about their being convinced of error. Prejudice and malicious feelings are not always to be overcome, even by the best-ordered arguments.

The Truth Exasperates Them.—The truth, which did not win them, did the only other thing which it could do—exasperated them the more; they replied nothing, biding their time (cf. Mat_12:14).—Trench.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

G. The Son of Man Mating and Drinking. Luk_14:1-24

1. The Healing of the Dropsical Man and the Beginning of the Discourses at Table (Luk_14:1-14)

(Luk_14:1-11, Gospel for the 6th Sunday after Trinity.)

1And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat2bread on the sabbath day, that they watched [were watching] him. And, behold,there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy. 3And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day4[or not1]? And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and lethim go; 5And answered them, saying,2 Which of you shall have an ass3 or an ox falleninto a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day? 6And they couldnot answer him4 again to these things. 7And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden [invited], when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms [places];saying unto them, 8When thou art bidden [invited] of [by] any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room [place]; lest a more honourable man than thou be biddenof [invited by] him; 9And he that bade [invited] thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room [place].10But when thou art bidden [invited], go and sit down in the lowest room [place]; that when he that bade [invited] thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship [honour] in the presence of them that sit at meat [attable] with thee. 11For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humblethhimself shall be exalted. 12Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid [invite] thee again, and a recompense bemade thee. 13But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the14blind: And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot [have not wherewith to] recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Luk_14:1. And it came to pass.—The narrative of the healing of the dropsical man, peculiar to Luke, belongs without doubt to the journey communicated Luk_13:22, and the here-mentioned meal therefore took place apparently on one of the there-mentioned three days. As in the answer of the Saviour to the Pharisees (Luk_13:31-33) a kind of melancholy joy appears, which can be better felt than described, so was it undoubtedly the same frame of mind which impelled Him even in this critical period of His life to accept a dangerous expression of honor, and sit down at the table of a Pharisee.

One of the chief Pharisees.—According to Grotius and Kuinoel, it was a Sanhedrist belonging to the Pharisees, and according to De Wette a president of the synagogue, one of the heads of the Pharisees. They, however, had as a sect no chiefs in the common sense of the word, and we shall hardly be able to understand anything else here than a Pharisee who, by his rank, learning, or influence, had obtained a moral predominance over those of his sect, like Nicodemus, Gamaliel, Hillel, Shammai, or others.

To eat bread.—The Jews were accustomed on their Sabbath days to make visits and give entertainments, Neh_8:10. It, however, could be done the more easily, without actual desecration of the Sabbath, as they did not need to make a fire for cooking their food, as they had already prepared this the day before; so that the members of their family had to perform no special work on the Sabbath, Exo_35:3. We are not here to understand, however, a public banquet (Paulus). Our Lord was, on the other hand, as had several times already been the case, invited in with the family, Luk_14:12. It belongs to the peculiarities of Luke, that he loves to represent to us the Saviour as sitting at a social table, where He most beautifully reveals His pure humanity. This time He glorifies the meal through table-talk which, more than that of any other, was “seasoned with salt,” Col_4:6, and, according to the exceedingly vivid and internally credible account of Luke, was addressed first to the guests (Luk_14:7-10), then to the host (Luk_14:11-14), finally, on occasion being given (Luk_14:15), to both (Luk_14:16-24). A Sabbath miracle takes place immediately previously.

Luk_14:2. Which had the dropsy.—The commencement καὶ ἰδού evidently emphasizes the unexpectedness of the appearance of the man, who had by no means been invited as a guest, since Jesus, after his healing, sends him away. Since now in this place we read nothing of a great throng of the people, such as appears to have been found at other similar meals, in consequence of which this man might have boldly come in, it is highly probable that the Pharisee had placed him there with a malicious intention. This view is not arbitrary (Meyer), for, Luk_14:1, we read that the Pharisees were watching Jesus, and although Luk_14:2 does not begin with γάρ, yet it appears plainly enough that here the very crisis is related which gave occasion to such a lying in wait; a case entirely similar to that in Luk_6:6-7. Therefore, also, we find the patient just ἔμπροσθεν αὐτ. in a place where he must meet the eye of the Saviour. The same treacherous disposition lay at the bottom of the hospitality of the Pharisees, as previously at the bottom of their friendly warning, Luk_13:31. The sick man, however, probably did not know to what end he had been led there, nay, perhaps they had already, by large promises, awakened in him the spark of faith and hope which the Saviour always made the condition of His miraculous power, of which, however, nothing comes to be mentioned, unless it be that before the healing more had taken place between Jesus and the sick man than the narrative informs us. Perhaps they thought, in view of the helpless condition of the dropsical man, that the healing this time would not succeed, and that their craftiness, therefore, would bring the powerlessness of the Saviour to light. And in the worst case, yet even by a healing on the Sabbath, would they not have again new matter for an accusation? Grounds enough which might occasion them to grant to this unhappy, perhaps also poor, man, for some moments the honor of their presence in the neighborhood of the festive table.

Luk_14:3. And Jesus answering.—These words of the Saviour are an answer to this act of His enemies, and to the secret evil thoughts which He had therewith read in their hearts. He will not perform the miracle without first showing them that He sees through their plan. Therefore He begins of His own accord to speak, while the sick man, out of timidity before so distinguished a company, or, perhaps, in the expectation of a friendly word, stands there in silence.

Is it lawful.—In a certain sense we can say that the Saviour shows them His superiority by this, that He lays for them with so categorical a question a snare. For had they answered unconditionally, Yes, they would thereby have sanctioned His miracle; while their answering No, would, in this particular case, have betrayed their own want of love. On this account they held their peace as before, Luk_6:9. Only after this triumph does the Saviour go on to speak by deeds: He lays hold of the dropsical man with mighty hand (ἐπιλαβόμενος) and lets him go from Him healed. In this, however, it is worthy of note how He still spares the enemies at whose table He sits, inasmuch as He castigates them not in the presence, but only after the departure, of the recovered man.

Luk_14:5. Which of you.—Here also, as before, the act is vindicated with a reference to daily life, yet this time again in a peculiar form, with relation to the nature of the miracle. At the healing of the woman whom Satan had bound eighteen years, Luk_13:16, our Saviour speaks of the loosing of the ox and ass. Here, where a dropsical man has been made sound, He speaks of a well in which the cattle ran the danger of drowning (a minor proof, we may cursorily remark, for the accuracy of the Evangelist in the communication of the sayings of the Saviour). In general, the Sabbath miracles of our Lord, even with inevitable coincidences, present so many fine shades of difference, that the opinion (Strauss) as if all were only mythical variations upon the same monotonous theme, is, by a more exact comparison of them, best shown to be a lie.

An ass or an ox.—The reading υἱός has, it is true, a great number of external testimonies for it (see the enumeration in Lachmann and Tischendorf), and has been acutely defended by Rettig (Stud. und Krit., 1838), but brings a disturbing element into the discussion. There is here, at all events, plainly a conclusion a minori ad majus, which by the combination of Son and Ox in great part falls away. The appeal to the paternal sensibility of the Pharisees would here, where it was the healing of a stranger that was in question, have entirely failed of its end. The various reading mentioned appears, on the other hand, to require an explanation in this way, that an ignorant copyist wished to put a still stronger expression into the Saviour’s mouth than that which He had, according to the common reading, made use of, but for this very reason weakened involuntarily the force of His argument. That the Saviour wished here to express the ethical principle, that what we do in relation to our own on the Sabbath we are also bound to do for others (Meyer), is certainly possible, but, when compared with similar apologetical dicta, is yet by no means probable. Had the Saviour wished to impress the rule, Mat_7:12, in this manner, the mention of the ox, at all events, would have been superfluous. Moreover, the son in the well appears, at all events, in a somewhat singular case. On all these grounds, we do not venture to apply here the elsewhere so trustworthy rule, lectio difficilior prœferenda. The various reading πρόβατον (D.) also points already to an uncertainty of the reading, in which case it is, perhaps, safest to keep to the Recepta.

Luk_14:7. He put forth a parable to those which were invited.—The word “parable” is here to be taken in the wider sense, not in that of an invented narrative, but in that of a parabolic address. Against the imputation of the indecorum of this table-talk (Gfrörer, De Wette), see the remark on Luk_11:37. Meyer, “Here, moreover, the occurrence with the dropsical man had prepared another point of view than that of urbanity;” and if we assume, moreover (Lange), that the two brief parables also, Luk_14:7-14, bear a symbolic character, by which the relation of the guests to the kingdom of God is intimated, there vanishes the lightest semblance of indecorum. But even apart from this, we are not to forget how much here depended on the tone of the speaker, and we may here well remind the reader of the familiar expression, “Quod licet Jovi, non licet bovi.”

When He marked.—The unseemly demeanor of the guests gives of itself the occasion for the first parable. It is hard to suppose that the Saviour here wished to instruct them what demeanor became them in reference to the feast in the kingdom of God, since He does not regard the unbelieving Jews as those who really sit at the head of the festal board, but, on the contrary (Luk_14:18 seq.), as those who have, indeed, been invited thereto, but have not made their appearance. No, as yet the instruction is framed entirely according to the circumstances of the moment: “Go and sit down in the lowest place.” We might almost suppose that the Saviour Himself, with His disciples, belonged to those who sat below, and with right, but in vain, waited for a higher place, but would, however, in no way appropriate this to themselves. In this case, the noblest sense of dignity and His highest hope for the future also expressed itself in the utterance: “He that humbleth himself shall be exalted,” as, on the other hand, a sharp threatening for the Jews lay in the warning, which He for this particular case utters as a general truth: “He that exalteth himself shall be humbled.” That this saying was one of those which the Saviour on different occasions could very fittingly repeat, strikes the eye at once, comp. Mat_23:12; Luk_18:14. As to the rest, the whole picture is taken from life, and shows anew with what observant look the Saviour often noticed the most habitual usages of daily life. The feast which is here spoken of is no common δεῖπνον, but a wedding, in which decorum as to the place is yet more important than on other occasions. Where a strife arises about places, it must naturally not be one of the guests but the impartial host who decides, who has invited the one and the other (σὲ καὶ αὐτόν, te et illum, Vulg.). To the one pressing forward with so little modesty he says briefly, “Give this man room;” thus put back, he begins then (ἄρξῃ, the lingering beginning of receding, with a feeling of shame, Meyer) to take not only one of the lower but the lowest place (τὸν ἔσχ. τόπ.). “Qui semel cedere jubetur, longe removetur.” Bengel. The humble one, on the other hand, who has gone blithely and joyfully to the feast (πορευθείς), and contents himself there with the lowest place, receives a friendly φίλε, that urges him to come up, if not in every case to the highest seat of all, at least higher, ἀνώτερον, and the honor which is herewith connected even in and of itself gains yet double worth by the fact that it falls to him ἐνώπιον his fellow-guests, comp. Pro_25:6-7.

Luk_14:12. Then said He also.—The second parable is not a eulogy on the host because he had invited the Saviour, although He did not belong to the high in rank, and to his friends (Ebrard), but is, on the other hand, a sharp rebuke on account of a fault which is almost always committed in the choice of guests at splendid banquets. It is, of course, apparent that the precept of the Saviour must not be understood absolutely, but a parte potiori. The Mosaic law had already allotted to the poor and needy a place at the feast-table, Deu_14:28-29; Deu_16:11; Deu_26:11-13, and the Saviour also wills that one should henceforth show his kindness not exclusively or primarily to those who can most richly requite the same. The thought that the origin of the Christian Agapæ must be derived from this precept (Van Hengel) is purely arbitrary.

Lest they also invite thee again.—The common understanding with which one gives a feast to a man of consequence, namely, that he shall be invited in turn, the Saviour here represents as something that is far more to be avoided than anxiously to be sought. It is of like character with the ἀπέχειν τὸν μισθόν, Mat_6:5. “Metus, mundo ignotus.” Bengel. Only where one does something, not out of an everyday craving for advantage, but out of disinterested love, does the Saviour promise the richest reward.

Luk_14:14. At the resurrection of the just.—The last phrase, τῶν δικαίων, would have been entirely purposeless if the Saviour had here had in mind the general resurrection which He describes, e. g., Joh_5:28-29. He distinguishes like Paul (1Th_4:16; 1Co_15:23) and John (Rev_20:5-6) between a first and a second resurrection, comp. also Luk_20:34-36, and impresses thereby on this oftcontroverted doctrine the stamp of His unerring αὐτὸς ἔφα. At all events, this word contains a germ which is further developed in the later apostolic writings. Comp. Bertholdt, Christol. Judœorum, § 38. That which according to Paul and John intervenes between the first and second resurrection, the Saviour here leaves untouched, without, however, in any respect contradicting it. That He does not speak of δικαίων in the Pharisaical, but in the ethical, sense, is, of course, understood. Nor is He here concerned to praise His host, who had invited Him, Luk_14:1, apparently with a perverse intent, but only to lay down the general principle which in social intercourse may never be lost out of mind, and to allude to the joyful prospect at which every one may rejoice who obediently conforms himself to this precept.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. See Exegetical and Critical remarks, and the remarks on Luk_6:1-11.

2. Here also the Saviour does not reject the offered feast of the Pharisee, and shows thereby the human kindliness of His character. In the miraculous deed which He performs on the occasion, in the humiliating words which He thereby utters, He reveals His Divine greatness. He shows even in social intercourse a free-spokenness, but at the same time a conscientiousness and dignity, according to which His disciple can direct himself in all cases with safety.

3. The warning of the Saviour against seeking after vain honor may be applied also in a wider sense to the seeking after high places and offices of honor in the kingdom of God, when it offends us to see another before us, in which, however, the high-aiming ones draw upon themselves very many a humiliation. So far this admonition coincides with the general principles stated more in detail, Mat_23:6-8; Joh_13:1-17, and elsewhere. Comp. 1Pe_5:5; Jam_4:6. Here the Saviour represents self-humiliation as an act of holy prudence. Other motives, however powerful, could in this connection not well be touched upon. But certainly he acts most according to the spirit even of this admonition who names himself, with Paul, the chief of sinners, 1Ti_1:15.

4. The eternal rule in God’s government according to which the humble is raised and the lofty is humbled, was not unknown even to God-fearing heathen. Comp. the admirable answer of Æsop to the question, What God does? “elata deprimere, humilia extollere.” Yet we may affirm with certainty that humility such as the Saviour here and in other places required, remained unknown to the heathen, and must be called a peculiar Christian virtue.

5. Not ungrounded is the complaint (Newton) that the Saviour’s precept in respect to those whom one must principally invite to a feast is only all too often forgotten by His disciples. On the other hand, however, it must not be overlooked that admonitions of this kind are not possible to be interpreted κατὰ ῥητόν, but rather like Mat_5:39-42, and similar passages. Upon the disinterested temper which is here emphatically commanded, all at last depends in the case of His disciples. As to the rest, even heathen antiquity was not wholly without similar precepts. Call to mind Martial’s poscis munera, Sexte, non amicos, and especially the remarkable words of Plato in the Phœdrus, Edit. Bipont. X. 293, a proof the more that in this saying of the Lord a purely human feeling, but not a breach against decorum, expresses itself. To the Saviour alone did it belong to bring the here-commended principle into direct connection with the future and everlasting happiness of His people.

6. What the Saviour here commends to others He has Himself fulfilled in the most illustrious manner. To the feast in the kingdom of God He has principally invited not such as were related to Him after the flesh, and from whom He might hope for recompense again, but the poor, blind, etc., in the spiritual sense of the word. But for that reason, also, He has now joy to the full in the kingdom of the Father, and a name that is above every name.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Even in the thickening conflict of His life, the Saviour is not unreceptive of social enjoyment.—The Sunday meals, Sunday dangers, Sunday duties of the Christian.—Even where we should not expect it, hostile looks are often directed against us.—Human misery in the midst of the house of joy.—The house of mourning and the house of feasting (Ecc_7:3) here united under one roof; in both the Lord is perfectly in His place.—Jesus understands even the unuttered sighs.—Where Jesus stretches forth His hand there follows healing.—Humanity even towards beasts is also promoted by the Saviour.—Humanity towards beasts not seldom united with inhumanity towards men. [Eminently exemplified among the Hindoos.—C. C. S.]—Powerless silence over against the great deeds of the Lord: 1. From rancor; 2. from perplexity; 3. from inflexible disdain.—The seeking after vain honor: 1. In daily life; 2. in Christian life.—The shame prepared for unrestrained craving after honor, even on this side of the grave.—“Take the lowest place” (Address at the Communion): 1. Even there dost thou as guest most fittingly belong; 2. there does the Host love best to see thee; 3. there does the feast most refresh thee; 4. there dost thou most quickly attain to the place of honor.—“Whosoever exalteth himself,” etc.: 1. The result of the world’s history; 2. the fundamental law of the kingdom of God; 3. the chosen motto of every Christian.—Selfish profit the ground of most of the exhibitions of love of the natural man.—The giving of feasts is by no means forbidden to Christians, but not every feast is alike good in the eyes of the Lord.—Recompense from man and reward from God go seldom hand in hand.—The blessedness of Him who receives no earthly recompense for his love.—True love does not only help the needy, but it quickens and gladdens him also.—He that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord.—The resurrection of the just a time of the noblest recompense.

Starke:—Brentius:—Although learned mahco is the worst of all, yet one has not to be too greatly in fear of it.—Canstein:—People of repute and preachers should consider, wherever they are, that notice is taken of them, 2Co_6:3.—Our entertainments should be only feasts of love, but falsehood is the first dish that is served up.—Although we find ourselves among evil people, yet we shall not lack opportunity to do good.—Cramer:—Silence is sometimes good, but malicious silence, when one should speak, is sin.—Canstein:—Them that need help we should willingly assist, and not allow ourselves to be begged out and moved with long entreaties, but rather anticipate them out of compassion.—According to circumstances, it is fitting and profitable to give account to people of one’s doing.—Nova Bibl. Tüb.:—Falsehood is put to shame by sincerity, craftiness by wisdom, malice by the light of truth, and must be dumb.—It is good at a meal, even where a number are present, to hold edifying discourse, 1Ti_4:5.—Zeisius:—Among the proud there is ever strife, Pro_13:10.—Osiander:—Dear Christian, thou must concern thyself not only for godliness, but also for courteousness and good manners, Php_4:8.—Nova Bibl. Tüb.:—In lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than himself, Php_2:3.—Brentius:—Between seeking power, and accepting beseeming honor in humility, there is a great distinction, which one has occasion to take good note of, 1Th_2:5-6.—Biblical hospitality belongs especially to the poor and distressed.—Hedinger:—Love is not covetous; God’s children share as long as they have.—To entertain the poor and needy is the same as to receive Christ, and has the promise of this life and that which is to come, Isa_58:7.—Quesnel:—Happy indeed does he esteem himself who in case of need advances something to a royal prince who is expecting the crown; (pious) poor people are nothing but needy princes; the kingdom of heaven is theirs; we without doubt make our fortune if we lend to them in need.

Heubner:—The dangers in high society.—Jesus brings the man into his heart; he is himself to feel the right and declare it to himself.—Against its will the evil heart must secretly acknowledge the truth.—The discourse of Christ is earnest, convincing, but never satirical against His enemies.—To save a man from danger of life every one accounts a duty, why then not also to save his soul?—Demeanor of Christians in reference to rank.—The power of dispensing with worldly honor makes worthy of honor.—Examples of exact fulfilment of the precept, Luk_14:12-14, vol ii. pp. 108–110.

On the Pericope:—Jesus as Guest in the Pharisee’s house.—The dangers of Sunday.—The right employment of Sunday.—Lisco:—Occasion for thought in the history of the miracle; Thou shalt sanctify the solemn day.—Ulber:—The bounds of Christian freedom: 1. In reference to Divine service, Luk_14:1-6; Luke 2. to intercourse with one’s neighbor, Luk_14:7-11; Luke 3. to temporal recreation, Luk_14:12-14.—Fuchs:—Divine service on Sunday: 1. The Divine service of the temple; 2. Divine service of the house; 3. Divine service of the heart.—Self-exaltation and self-humiliation: 1. Their nature; 2. their expression; 3. their consequences.—Ahlfeld:—How celebrates the living Christian Church her Sunday? 1. She has the Lord in the midst of her; 2. exercises love; 3. is humble before the Lord her God.—Westermeyer.—Jesus at the table of a Pharisee; how He reveals Himself: 1. In His great-hearted love; 2. in His unsurpassable Wisdom 3. in His humble seriousness.

Footnotes:

[1]Luk_14:3.—According to the reading θεραπεῦσαι ἢ οὔ, accepted by Tischendorf on considerations not without weight and in some measure already supported by Lachmann. The Rec. is taken from Mat_12:10.

[2]Luk_14:5.—The fuller reading, ἀποκριθ. πρὸς αὐτ. εἶπεν, is critically suspicious. See Lachmann and Meyer. [B. omits, Cod. Sin. inserts.]

[3]Luk_14:5.—The widely-diffused reading υἱός appears to us, often as it has been vindicated, on internal grounds to be rejected. See below in the Exegetical and Critical remarks. [Υἱός supported by A., B., 10 other uncials; ὄνος by Cod. Sin., 3 other uncials. Υἱός accepted by Lachmann, Tischendorf, Meyer, Bleek, Alfred, Tregelles. It appears to me that to read it climactically “his son, or even his ox,” is the only way in which this reading becomes tolerable, notwithstanding its weight of external authority.—C. C. S.]

[4]Luk_14:6.—The αὐτῷ of the Recepta is untenable.

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luke

THE LESSONS OF A FEAST

Luk 14:1 - Luk 14:14.

Jesus never refused an invitation, whether the inviter were a Pharisee or a publican, a friend or a foe. He never mistook the disposition of His host. He accepted ‘greetings where no kindness is,’ and on this occasion there was none. The entertainer was a spy, and the feast was a trap. What a contrast between the malicious watchers at the table, ready to note and to interpret in the worst sense every action of His, and Him loving and wishing to bless even them! The chill atmosphere of suspicion did not freeze the flow of His gentle beneficence and wise teaching. His meek goodness remained itself in the face of hostile observers. The miracle and the two parables are aimed straight at their errors.

I. How came the dropsical man there?

Possibly he had simply strayed in to look on at the feast, as the freedom of manners then would permit him to do. The absence of any hint that he came hoping for a cure, and of any trace of faith on his part, or of speech to him on Christ’s, joined with his immediate dismissal after his cure, rather favours the supposition that he had been put as the bait of the trap, on the calculation that the sight of him would move Jesus to heal him. The setters of the snare were ‘watching’ whether it would work, and Jesus ‘answered’ their thoughts, which were, doubtless, visible in their eyes. His answer has three stages-a question which is an assertion, the cure, and another affirming question. All three are met with sulky silence, which speaks more than words would have done. The first question takes the ‘lawyers’ on their own ground, and in effect asserts that to heal did not break the Sabbath. Jesus challenges denial of the lawfulness of it, and the silence of the Pharisees confesses that they dare not deny. ‘The bare fact of healing is not prohibited,’ they might have said, ‘but the acts necessary for healing are.’ But no acts were necessary for this Healer’s power to operate. The outgoing of His will had power. Their finespun distinctions of deeds lawful and unlawful were spiders’ webs, and His act of mercy flew high above the webs, like some fair winged creature glancing in the sunshine, while the spider sits in his crevice balked. The broad principle involved in Jesus’ first question is that no Sabbath law, no so-called religious restriction, can ever forbid helping the miserable. The repose of the Sabbath is deepened, not disturbed, by activity for man’s good.

The cure is told without detail, probably because there were no details to tell. There is no sign of request or of faith on the sufferer’s part; there seems to have been no outward act on Christ’s beyond ‘taking’ him, which appears simply to mean that He called him nearer, and then, by a simple exercise of His will, healed him. There is no trace of thanks or of wonder in the heart of the sufferer, who probably never had anything more to do with his benefactor. Silently he comes on the stage, silently he gets his blessing, silently he disappears. A strange, sad instance of how possible it is to have a momentary connection with Jesus, and even to receive gifts from His hand, and yet to have no real, permanent relation to Him!

The second question turns from the legal to a broader consideration. The spontaneous workings of the heart are not to be dammed back by ceremonial laws. Need calls for immediate succour. You do not wait for the Sabbath’s sun to set when your ox or your ass is in a pit. {The reading ‘son’ instead of ‘ox,’ as in the Revised Version margin, is incongruous.} Jesus is appealing to the instinctive wish to give immediate help even to a beast in trouble, and implies that much more should the same instinct be allowed immediate play when its object is a man. The listeners were self-condemned, and their obstinate silence proves that the arrow had struck deep.

II. The cure seems to have taken place before the guests seated themselves.

Then came a scramble for the most honourable places, on which He looked with perhaps a sad smile. Again the silence of the guests is noticeable, as well as the calm assumption of authority by Jesus, even among such hostile company. Where He comes a guest, He becomes teacher, and by divine right He rebukes. The lesson is given, says Luke, as ‘a parable,’ by which we are to understand that our Lord is not here giving, as might appear if His words are superficially interpreted, a mere lesson of proper behaviour at a feast, but is taking that behaviour as an illustration of a far deeper thing. Possibly some too ambitious guest had contrived to seat himself in the place of honour, and had had to turn out, and, with an embarrassed mien, had to go down to the very lowest place, as all the intermediate ones were full. His eagerness to be at the top had ended in his being at the bottom. That is a ‘parable,’ says Jesus, an illustration in the region of daily life, of large truths in morals and religion. It is a poor motive for outward humility and self-abasement that it may end in higher honour. And if Jesus was here only giving directions for conduct in regard to men, He was inculcating a doubtful kind of morality. The devil’s

‘darling sin

Is the pride that apes humility.’

Jesus was not recommending that, but what is crafty ambition, veiling itself in lowliness for its own purposes, when exercised in outward life, becomes a noble, pure, and altogether worthy, thing in the spiritual sphere. For to desire to be exalted in the kingdom is wholly right, and to humble one’s self with a direct view to that exaltation is to tread the path which He has hallowed by His own footsteps. The true aim for ambition is the honour that cometh from God only, and the true path to it is through the valley; for ‘God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.’

III. Unbroken silence still prevailed among the guests, but again Jesus speaks as teacher, and now to the host.

A guest does not usually make remarks on the composition of the company, Jesus could make no ‘recompense’ to His entertainer, but to give him this counsel. Again, He inculcated a wide general lesson under the guise of a particular exhortation appropriate to the occasion. Probably the bulk of the guests were well-to-do people of the host’s own social rank, and, as probably, there were onlookers of a lower degree, like the dropsical man. The prohibition is not directed against the natural custom of inviting one’s associates and equals, but against inviting them only, and against doing so with a sharp eye to the advantages to be derived from it. That weary round of giving a self-regarding hospitality, and then getting a return dinner or evening entertainment from each guest, which makes up so much of the social life among us, is a pitiful affair, hollow and selfish. What would Jesus say-what does Jesus say-about it all? The sacred name of hospitality is profaned, and the very springs of it dried up by much of our social customs, and the most literal application of our Lord’s teaching here is sorely needed.

But the words are meant as a ‘parable,’ and are to be widened out to include all sorts of kindnesses and helps given in the sacred name of charity to those whose only claim is their need. ‘They cannot recompense thee’-so much the better, for, if an eye to their doing so could have influenced thee, thy beneficence would have lost its grace and savour, and would have been simple selfishness, and, as such, incapable of future reward. It is only love that is lavished on those who can make no return which is so free from the taint of secret regard to self that it is fit to be recognised as love in the revealing light of that great day, and therefore is fit to be ‘recompensed in the resurrection of the just.’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CHAPTER 14

1. The Man with the Dropsy Healed on the Sabbath. (Luk 14:1-6)

2. The Wisdom of Humility. (Luk 14:7-11)

3. Recompensed in Resurrection. (Luk 14:12-14)

4. The Parable of the Great Supper. (Luk 14:15-24)

5. Conditions of Discipleship. (Luk 14:25-35.)

Luk 14:1-6

Again He heals on the Sabbath. In the house of a ruler, a Pharisee, they were watching Him. He had gone there to eat bread. What condescension! They were His enemies, yet He loved them. He healed the man with the dropsy. The question, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?” was answered by the very power of God.

Luk 14:7-14

The parable which follows, also peculiar to Luke, emphasizes the wisdom of humility. The natural man with the pride of life as a governing principle loves self-exaltation. Abasement for him follows in judgment to come; but if man humbleth himself before God, exaltation will follow. He, the Son of Man, had humbled Himself and taken the lowest place. How great is His exaltation! Then He exhorts to seek recompense at the resurrection of the just. Here is a hint on the two resurrections, which are so clearly distinguished in Scripture. The first resurrection is the resurrection of the just and includes all the Saints of God. In that resurrection there will be a reward according to works, but no sinner can work to make himself worthy of that resurrection.

Luk 14:15-24

The parable of the great supper is distinct from the similar one in Mat 22:1-14. They were spoken at different occasions. The parable in Matthew has clearly marked dispensational aspects, such as the twofold offer to Israel, before and after the cross, the judgment upon Jerusalem and the calling of the Gentiles, etc. The primary object of the parable in Luke is also to show the unbelief of the Jews, especially the self-righteous Pharisees and the call of the publicans and harlots. God has mercifully provided the feast. The Kingdom had come nigh. All things are now ready. The Son of God had come in their midst. But the parable also looks forward to the finished work of the Cross. That work has made all things ready. The self-righteous among the Jews refused and brought their excuses. Then exactly that came to pass of which the Lord had spoken (Luk 14:12-14). The publicans and harlots, the poor, maimed, blind and lame came. They could not have the excuses of the self-righteous of the nation. The call of the Gentiles is also seen in this parable: “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.” The doom of the rejectors is seen in Luk 14:24. The great multitude, which followed Him then hears from His lips the conditions of true discipleship. Let no one say, as it has been said, that they are not binding today.

Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Christ the Guest of a Pharisee. Luk 14:1-14

Healing a man afflicted with dropsy on the Sabbath:

v. 1. And it came to pass, as He went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath-day that they watched Him.

v. 2. And, behold, there was a certain man before Him which had the dropsy.

v. 3. And Jesus, answering, spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath-day?

v. 4. And they held their peace. And He took him, and healed him, and let him go;

v. 5. and answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath-day?

v. 6. And they could not answer Him again to these things.

The Pharisees continued their method of attempting to provoke Jesus to some rash utterance, Luk 11:53-54. It was for this reason, also, that He was invited by one of their number, as once before. His host was one of the chief, or first, among the Pharisees, occupying a position of honor among them, since they had no regular rulers. He may have been a member of the Sanhedrin, the highest council of the Jewish Church, or he may have been known for the excellency of his learning. In the house of this man Jesus was a guest; for feasting on the Sabbath was common among the Jews, though they were permitted to serve only cold dishes. The Pharisees had an object in inviting the Lord, for they were observing Him most carefully and suspiciously. They had, as they thought, arranged a trap for Him. For when Jesus came into the house, there was, as though by chance, and yet by most cunning planning, a dropsical man. The omniscient Christ knew their thoughts, answering them as though they had spoken aloud. He addressed Himself to all the scribes and Pharisees present, for they were all equally guilty. His question was the same which He had asked upon other occasions, whether it was the right, the proper, the obligatory thing to heal on the Sabbath-day or not. His question implied an assertion in the affirmative, and they found themselves unable to contradict Him, preferring to say nothing, since their heart and conscience told them that they could not deny the fact which Jesus wanted to convey. Works of love were indeed permitted on the Sabbath-day, even according to the strictest Mosaic law. And so Jesus fulfilled the greatest law of all: putting His hand upon the sick man, He healed him and sent him away. Then the Lord turned once more to the Pharisees and answered their unspoken thoughts, which condemned the healing on the Sabbath. He asked them whether it would not be self-evident for them, in case one of their domestic animals, a mere beast of burden, should fall into a pit, an empty cistern, to draw the poor victim of the accident up at once, without the slightest hesitation, without paying any attention to the fact that it might be the Sabbath-day. Once more they were silenced, not being able to contradict the statement of the Lord, since it was impossible to do anything but acknowledge the truth of His argument. Note: The Pharisee, in inviting Jesus, professed friendship, affection, and respect for Him, while at the same time he was preparing snares to catch Him. Thus many children of the world will simulate interest and regard for the Gospel and its ministry, while in reality they are trying to draw out the Christians, in order to ridicule their belief in the words of Holy Scripture. Also: The same Sabbath fanatics that made the life of Jesus miserable at times are at work also in our days, insisting upon all manner of outward observances of Sunday, though many of them are not one whit concerned about the pure preaching of the Gospel. "The doctrine of Sabbath has mainly this object, that we learn to understand the Third Commandment correctly. For to sanctify the Sabbath means to hear God’s Word and to help our neighbor wherever possible. For God does not want the Sabbath kept so holy that we should on that account leave and forsake our neighbor in his trouble. Therefore, if I serve my neighbor and help him, though this means work, I have kept the Sabbath rightly and well; for I have performed a divine work on it."

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CHAPTER 11

THE DROPSICAL MAN HEALED

Luk 14:1-6. “And it came to pass that He entered into the house of a certain one of the rulers of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, and they were watching Him;” i.e., hawk-eyes were on Him every minute, with diabolical vigilance, watching every word and act, if possible to implicate Him. If you do not stir the devil enough to concentrate on you demoniacal eyes, to watch and criticize you night and day, remember you are not much like Jesus. Satan is no fool. He always shoots at something. If he does not shoot at you, go back to the mourner’s-bench, and stay till the Lord makes something out of you, which Diabolus will count worth firing on. While these preachers and official laymen were hounding Jesus, incessantly charging Him with violating the Sabbath, you see here that one of the rulers of the Pharisees actually had a big festival at his house on the Sabbath, thus overtly desecrating the holy day — a thing which Jesus never did. N.B. — He is still in Perea, east of the Jordan.

“Behold, there was a certain dropsical man before Him. And Jesus, responding, said to the theologians and Pharisees, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day or not? And they were silent. And taking him, He healed him, and sent him away. Responding to them, He said, Of which one of you shall the son or the ox fall into a pit, will he not lift him up on the Sabbath day? And they were unable to respond to these things.” That rugged limestone country abounds in caves, precipices, chasms, and pits. Hence the liability of their livestock, and actually little children, falling in. All knew they would rally at once in that case, and extricate the sufferer, even on the Sabbath. Consequently those theologians, so shrewd in their exposition of the Scriptures, and those Pharisees, the official laymen of the Church, were all dumbfounded, and utterly unable to gainsay this plain, practical statement of Jesus. Nomikos, “lawyer,” E. V., is from nomos, “law,” and means a man cultured and skilled in the law of Moses, and an exegete of the O. T. Scriptures. Though here for the avowed purpose of lassoing Him by some vulnerable utterance which might drop from His lips, they are all utterly disconcerted.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14:1 in the home of a leader of the Pharisees: In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is frequently seen dining.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk 14:1. Ἐν τῷ ἐλθεῖν, when He was coming) by invitation. See Luk 14:12.—ἀρχόντων, of the chiefs) The Pharisees had their own chiefs, and these also numerous, possessing pre-eminent authority; which, however, Jesus did not regard with fear. See Luk 14:12, at the beginning. [—ἦσαν παρατηρούμενοι αὐτὸν, they were craftily watching Him) The spiritual Sabbath is grossly profaned by crafty and wicked thoughts.—V. g.]

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk_14:1-6 peculiar to Luke from his source of the narrative of the journey.

Ἐν τῷ ἐλθεῖν κ.τ.λ.] when He came, to wit, in the progress of the journey, Luk_13:33.

τῶν ἀρχόντων τ. Φαρισαίων] not: of the members of the Sanhedrim belonging to the Pharisees (Grotius, Kuinoel, and many others), such as Nicodemus therefore, Joh_3:1; for the incident is in Galilee (not Jerusalem, as Grotius; not Judea, as Schenkel will have it), and, literally, it means nothing more than: of the Pharisee leaders, i.e. of the chiefs of the Pharisees. It is not to be defined more precisely; but men such as Hillel, Schammai, Gamaliel, and others belong to this category.

σαββάτῳ] the holiness of which (the preparation occurred previously) was not opposed to it, nay, lautiores erant isto die illis mensae … idque ipsis judicantibus ex pietate et religione, Lightfoot. Comp. Neh_8:10; Tob_2:1; also Joh_12:2; Wetstein in loc.; Spencer, de leg. rit. p. 87 ff.

φαγεῖν ἄρτον] comp. Mat_15:2. Jesus was invited, Luk_14:12.

καὶ αὑτοί] This is the common use of καί after ἐγένετο; αὐτοί, they on their part, the Pharisees.

παρατηρούμ.] generally, whether He would give them occasion for charge or complaint. Otherwise, Luk_6:7.

Luk_14:2. And behold a dropsical man was there in His presence. This denotes the unexpected sight of the presence (not as a guest, see Luk_14:4) of the sick man, who ἦν ἱστάμενος, καὶ μὴ τολμῶν μὲν ζητῆσαι θεραπείαν διὰ τὸ σάββατον καὶ τοὺς Φαρισαίους· φαινόμενος δὲ μόνον, ἵνα ἰδὼν οἰκτειρήσῃ τοῦτον ἀφʼ ἑαυτοῦ καὶ ἀπαλλάξῃ τοῦ ὕδρωπος, Euthymius Zigabenus. The view of many (see also Wetstein, Kuinoel, Glöckler, Lange), that the sick man was intentionally brought in by the Pharisees, is the more arbitrary, as Luk_14:2 is not linked on by γάρ. Moreover, the cure occurred before the dinner, Luk_14:7.

Luk_14:3. ἀποκριθ.] at this appearance of the sick man.

Luk_14:4. ἑπιλαβόμενος] a taking hold which brought about the miraculous cure, stronger than ἁψάμενος.[172] Otherwise Mar_8:23. The accusative αὐτόν is not dependent on ἐπιλ. See Buttmann, Neut. Gr. p. 140 [E. T. 160].

Luk_14:5. Comp. on Mat_12:11. The construction is such that the nominative of τίνος ὑμῶν is the subject in the second half of the sentence. Comp. generally, Bernhardy, p. 468; Stallbaum, ad Plat. Phaed. p. 72 B.

In respect of the reading υἱός (see the critical remarks; Mill, Bornemann, and Lachmann, Praef. II. p. vii., unjustifiably conjecture ὄϊς), which is not inappropriate (de Wette), the conclusion of Jesus is not drawn, as Luk_13:15 f., a minori ad majus,[173] but from the ethical principle that the helpful compassion which we show in reference to that which is our own (be it son or beast) on the Sabbath, we are also bound to show to others (love thy neighbour as thyself).

[172] Paulus after his fashion makes use of the word for the naturalizing of the miracle: Probably Jesus took him aside, and looked after the operation of the means previously employed.

[173] This reading, moreover, sets aside the opinion of Schleiermacher, p. 196, that in respect of the quotation of this expression there is no reference back to Luk_13:10.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 14:1-24 contain a digest of sayings of Jesus at the table of a Pharisee, this being the third instance in this Gospel of such friendly intercourse between Him and members of the Pharisaic party. The remaining part of the chapter consists of solemn words on self-sacrifice and on counting the cost represented as addressed to the people.

Luk 14:1-6 . The dropsical man healed, with relative conversation , in Lk. only ( cf. Mat 12:9-14 ).

Luk 14:1 . ἐν τῷ ἐλθεῖν , etc.: the indication of place and time is very vague so as to lend plausibility to the suggestion that the introduction is extracted from the parabolic speeches, Luk 14:7-24 (Holtzmann, H. C.). ἀρχόντων τ . φ ., the house is described as that of one of the rulers of the Pharisees, an inexact expression, as the Pharisees as such had no rulers, being all on a level. Omitting the article before φαρ . (as in [116] ) we might take this word as in apposition and render: one of the rulers, Pharisees; rulers meaning the Sanhedrists, and Pharisees denoting their religious tendency (so Grotius, who therefore thinks the scene was in Jerusalem). σαββάτῳ φαγεῖν ἄρτον : feasting on Sabbath was common among the Jews, ex pietate et religione (Lightfoot), but the dishes were cold, cooked the day before. καὶ , introducing the apodosis, and the main fact the suspicious observation of Jesus by those present at the meal ( αὐτοὶ ). Altogether a strange situation: Jesus the guest of a great man among the Pharisees, as if held in honour, yet there to be watched rather than treated as a friend; simple-hearted geniality on one side, insincerity on the other.

[116] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chap.

14:1-6.] Healing of a dropsical man on the Sabbath. Peculiar to Luke.

1.] ἐν τῷ ἐλθ. αὐτ., viz. during the πορεύεσθαι, ch. 13:33.

τ. ἀρχ. [τ.] Φ., of the chief men of the Pharisees; or, if the τῶν be omitted, of the Pharisees who were rulers. Though the Pharisees had no official rulers as such, they had men to whom they looked up, as Hillel, Schammai, Gamaliel, &c. (Meyer.)

φ. ἄρτ.] The Jews used to give entertainments on the Sabbath, see Neh 8:9-12: Tobit 2:1. The practice latterly became an abuse,—‘Hodiernus dies sabbati est: hunc in præsenti tempore otio quodam corporaliter languido et fluxo et luxurioso celebrant Judæi.’ in Psa 91:1, Enarr. § 2, vol. iv. Again, ‘observa diem Sabbati, non Judaicis deliciis …’ in Psa 32:2, Enarr. ii. § 6.

καί, usual after ἐγένετο: not ‘also,’ or ‘even.’

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14:1-17:10. The Second Period of the Journey

This forms a new division of the section which has been styled “the Journeyings towards Jerusalem”: see on 9:51. The first portion of it (14:1-24) may be thus subdivided. A Sabbath-meal in the House of a Pharisee, including the Healing of a Dropsical Man on the Sabbath (1-6), a Discourse about taking the lowest seats (7-11) and inviting Lowly Guests (12-14), and the Parable of the Great Supper (15-24). The whole is peculiar to Lk., and probably comes from some source unknown to Mt. and Mk.

1-24. § A Sabbath-meal in the House of a Pharisee. Time and place are quite undetermined. The chief men among the Pharisees no doubt lived mostly at Jerusalem. Beyond that we have no clue.

1-6. The Cure of a Dropsical Man at the Sabbath-meal. The cure of the man with the withered hand (6:6-11; Mat 12:9-14; Mar 3:1-6) should be compared but not identified. Although Lk. records both cures, with very important differences of detail, Strauss and Keim maintain that this is a mere doublet of the other, and reject both. The style of the opening words indicates an Aramaic source.

Of the seven miracles of mercy on the Sabbath, Lk. records five: the Demoniac at Capernaum (4:31), the Withered Hand (6:6), the Woman bowed down eighteen years (13:14), Simon’s wife’s mother (4:38), and this. The others are: the Paralytic at Bethesda (Joh 5:10), the Man born blind (Joh 9:14).

1. Καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ ἐλθεῖν αὐτό́ν. “And it came to pass after He had entered” (aor.), not “as He entered” (AV.) nor “when He entered” (RV.): cum intrasset or introisset (some MSS, of Vulg.) rather than cum intraret (Vulg.). See on 3:21 and the note at the end of ch. i. p. 45.

τινος τῶν ἀρχόντων τῶν φαρισαίων. “Of one of the chief men of the Pharisees.” We have no knowledge of official rulers of the Pharisees; but of course they had their leading men. That the invitation of a leading Pharisee was accepted (ver. 12) after what is recorded 11:37-54 might seem surprising, especially as Jesus knew the minds of those whom He was to meet (ver. 3). But there was still the possibility of influencing some of them for good. We know of no case in which Jesus refused an invitation.

σαββάτῳ φαγεῖν ἄρτον. Sabbath banqueting was common, and became proverbial for luxury. Observa diem sabbati, non Judaicis deliciis; and Hodiernus dies sabbati est, hunc in præsenti tempore otio quodam corporaliter languido et fluxo et luxurioso celebrant Judæi (Aug.). See Wetst. ad loc., and Polano, The Talmud; Selections translated from the original, p. 259.

καὶ αὐτοὶ ἦσαν παρατηρούμενοι αὐτόν. Lk.’s favourite construction. See on 5:14 and 6; 20. The καὶ introduces the apodosis of ἐγένετο: “it came to pass … that the Pharisees themselves were persistently watching Him.” For παρατηρεῖσθαι of interested and sinister espionage see on 6:7. Excepting Mar 3:2 and Gal 4:10, verb occurs only in Lk. (20:20; Act 9:24).

The translation “were there, watching” is erroneous: ἦσαν παρατηρούμενοι is the periphrastic imperf. It is also an error to carry on the construction of ἐγένετο beyond ver. 1: vv. 1 and 2 are quite independent statements.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. Jesus at a Feast: Luk 14:1-24.

The following piece allows us to follow Jesus in His domestic life and familiar conversations. It is connected with the preceding by the fact that it is with a Pharisee Jesus has to do. We are admitted to the entire scene: 1 st. The entering into the house (Luk 14:1-6); 2 d. The sitting down at table (Luk 14:7-11); 3 d. Jesus conversing with His host about the choice of his guests (Luk 14:12-14); 4 th. His relating the parable of the great supper, occasioned by the exclamation of one of the guests (Luk 14:15-24).

Holtzmann, of course, regards this frame as being to a large extent invented by Luke to receive the detached sayings of Jesus, which he found placed side by side in Λ. This is to suppose in Luke as much genius as unscrupulousness. Weizsäcker, starting from the idea that the contents of this part are systematically arranged and frequently altered to meet the practical questions which were agitating the apostolic Church at the date of Luke’s composition, alleges that the whole of this chapter relates to the agapae of the primitive Church, and is intended to describe those feasts as embodiments of brotherly love and pledges of the heavenly feast; and he concludes therefrom, as from an established fact, the somewhat late origin of our Gospel. Where is the least trace of such an intention to be found?

1 st. Luk 14:1-6.

To accept an invitation to the house of a Pharisee, after the previous scenes, was to do an act at once of courage and kindness. The host was one of the chief of his sect. There is no proof of the existence of a hierarchy in this party; but one would naturally be formed by superiority of knowledge and talent. The interpretation of Grotius, who takes τῶν Φαρισαίων as in apposition to τῶν ἀρχόντων, is inadmissible. The guests, it is said, watched Jesus. Luk 14:2 indicates the trap which had been laid for Him; and ἰδού, behold, marks the time when this unlooked-for snare is discovered to the eyes of Jesus. The picture is taken at the moment. The word ἀποκριθείς, answering (Luk 14:3), alludes to the question implicitly contained in the sick man’s presence: “Wilt thou heal, or wilt thou not heal?” Jesus replies by a counter question, as at Luk 6:9. The silence of His adversaries betrays their bad faith. The reading ὄνος, ass, in the Sinaiticus and some MSS. (Luk 14:5), arises no doubt from the connection with βοῦς, ox, or from the similar saying, Luk 13:15. The true reading is υἱός, son: “If thy son, or even thine ox only...” In this word son, as in the expression daughter of Abraham (Luk 13:16), there is revealed a deep feeling of tenderness for the sufferer. We cannot overlook a correspondence between the malady (dropsy) and the supposed accident (falling into a pit). Comp. Luk 13:15-16, the correspondence between the halter with which the ox is fastened to the stall, and the bond by which Satan holds the sufferer in subjection. Here again we find the perfect suitableness, even in the external drapery, which characterizes the declarations of our Lord. In Mat 12:11 this figure is applied to the curing of a man who has a withered hand. It is less happy, and is certainly inexact.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Either one of the Elders, whom they called the Sanhedrin, or one of the chiefs of the Synagogue, John 7:48, for this word Pharisee was the name of a sect, though it appears by the whole history that the Pharisees were in great credit.

The Law of the very Sabbath ought not to hinder the offices of charity.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

CHAPTER XIV.

Christ heals a man ill of the dropsy, on a Sabbath day, 1-6.

He inculcates humility by a parable, 7-11.

The poor to be fed, and not the rich, 12-14.

The parable of the great supper, 15-24.

How men must become disciples of Christ, 25-27.

The parable of the prudent builder, who estimates the cost

before he commences his work, 28-30.

And of the provident king, 31, 32.

The use of these parables, 33.

The utility of salt while in its strength and perfection; and

its total uselessness when it has lost its savour; 34, 35.

NOTES ON CHAP. XIV.

Verse 1. Chief Pharisees] Or, one of the rulers of the Pharisees. A man who was of the sect of the Pharisees, and one of the rulers of the people.

To eat bread on the Sabbath day] But why is it that there should be an invitation or dinner given on the Sabbath day? Answer: The Jews purchased and prepared the best viands they could procure for the Sabbath day, in order to do it honour. See several proofs in Lightfoot. As the Sabbath is intended for the benefit both of the body and soul of man, it should not be a day of austerity or fasting, especially among the labouring poor. The most wholesome and nutritive food should be then procured if possible; that both body and soul may feel the influence of this Divine appointment, and give God the glory of his grace. On this blessed day, let every man eat his bread with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God. In doing this, surely there is no reason that a man should feed himself without fear. If the Sabbath be a festival, let it be observed unto the Lord; and let no unnecessary acts be done; and avoid that bane of religious solemnity, giving and receiving visits on the Lord's day.

They watched him.] Or, were maliciously watching, παρατηρουμενοι - from παρα, intens. or denoting ill, and τηρεω, to observe, watch. Raphelius, on Mr 3:2, has proved from a variety of authorities that this is a frequent meaning of the word: - clam et insidiose observare, quid alter agat - to observe privately and insidiously what another does. The context plainly proves that this is the sense in which it is to be taken here. The conduct of this Pharisee was most execrable. Professing friendship and affection, he invited our blessed Lord to his table, merely that he might have a more favourable opportunity of watching his conduct, that he might accuse him, and take away his life. In eating and drinking, people feel generally less restraint than at other times, and are apt to converse more freely. The man who can take such an advantage over one of his own guests must have a baseness of soul, and a fellness of malice, of which, we would have thought, for the honour of human nature, that devils alone were capable. Among the Turks, if a man only taste salt with another, he holds himself bound, in the most solemn manner, never to do that person any injury. I shall make no apology for inserting the following anecdote.

A public robber in Persia, known by the name of Yacoub, ibn Leits Saffer, broke open the treasury of Dirhem, the governor of Sistan. Notwithstanding the obscurity of the place, he observed, in walking forward, something that sparkled a little: supposing it to be some precious stones, he put his hand on the place, and taking up something, touched it with his tongue, and found it to be salt. He immediately left the treasury, without taking the smallest article with him! The governor finding in the morning that the treasury had been broken open, and that nothing was carried off, ordered it to be published, that "Whoever the robber was who had broke open the treasury, if he declared himself, he should be freely pardoned, and that he should not only receive no injury, but should be received into the good graces of the governor." Confiding in the promise of Dirhem, Yacoub appeared. The governor asked; How it came to pass that, after having broken open the treasury, he took nothing away? Yacoub related the affair as it happened, and added, "I believed that I was become your FRIEND in eating of your SALT, and that the LAWS of that friendship would not permit me to touch any thing that appertained to you." D'Herbelot. Bib. Orient. p. 415. How base must that man be, who professes Christianity, and yet makes his own table a snare for his friend!

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

XIV.

(1) Into the house of one of the chief Pharisees.—Better, of the rulers of the Pharisees. The meaning of the phrase is probably more definite than that suggested by the English. The man was either a “ruler” in the same sense as Nicodemus (Joh_3:1), or the rich young man in Luk_18:18 - i.e., a member of the Sanhedrin (which seems most likely)—or else occupied a high position in the lay-hierarchy (if the phrase may be allowed) which had developed itself in the organisation of Pharisaism.

To eat bread on the Sabbath day.—Sabbath feasts were then, as at a later time, part of the social life of the Jews, and were often—subject, of course, to the condition that the food was cold—occasions of great luxury and display. Augustine speaks of them as including dancing and song, and the “Sabbath luxury” of the Jews became a proverb. On the motives of the Pharisee—probably half respect and half curiosity—see Notes on Luk_7:36.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1 And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him.

Ver. 1. They watched him] Gr. παρατηρουμενοι, They superstitiously and maliciously observed him. (Aristot. lib. ii. Rhet.) Accipit pro eo quod est ulciscendi tempus captare. They watched as intently as a dog doth for a bone; they pried as narrowly into his actions as Laban did into Jacob’s stuff.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

It came to pass - It so happened or occurred.

As he went ... - It is probable that he was invited to go, being in the neighborhood Luk 14:12; and it is also probable that the Pharisee invited him for the purpose of getting him to say something that would involve him in difficulty.

One of the chief Pharisees - One of the Pharisees who were “rulers,” or members of the great council or the Sanhedrin. See the notes at Mat 5:22. It does not mean that he was the head of the “sect” of the Pharisees, but one of those who happened to be a member of the Sanhedrin. He was, therefore, a man of influence and reputation.

To eat bread - To dine. To partake of the hospitalities of his house.

On the sabbath-day - It may seem strange that our Saviour should have gone to dine with a man who was a stranger on the Sabbath; but we are to remember:

That he was traveling, having no home of his own, and that it was no more improper to go there than to any other place. That he did not go there for the purpose of feasting and amusement, but to do good. That as several of that class of persons were together, it gave him an opportunity to address them on the subject of religion, and to reprove their vices.

If, therefore, the example of Jesus should be pled to authorize accepting an invitation to dine on the Sabbath, it should be pled just as it was. If we can go “just as he did,” it is right. If when away from home; if we go to do good; if we make it an occasion to discourse on the subject of religion and to persuade people to repent, then it is not improper. Farther than this we cannot plead the example of Christ. And surely this should be the last instance in the world to be adduced to justify dinner-parties, and scenes of riot and gluttony on the Sabbath.

They watched him - They malignantly fixed their eyes on him, to see if he did anything on which they could lay hold to accuse him.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

This was the Hebrew expression for taking a meal; their frugality probably suggested this method of expression, bread being the principal part of their repast. (Calmet) --- What a contrast here between the actions of the Pharisees and those of our Saviour! They watched all his actions, in order to have an opportunity of accusing him, and of putting him to death; whilst he, on the contrary, seeks after nothing but the salvation of his enemies’ souls. (Tirinus)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

We have before observed the freedom of our Saviour’s converse; sometimes he will dine with publicans, sometimes with Pharisees, becoming all things to all men that he might gain some. Christians certainly have the same liberty; the matter is not in whose houses we are, but what we do or say, how we behave ourselves there. In his going to a Pharisee’s house, he gives us a great precedent of humanity and self-denial, for the Pharisees were his great enemies, and we shall observe no great kindness showed to him in the invitation of him. Whether this Pharisee be called

one of the chief of the Pharisees because he was a member of the sanhedrim, or a ruler of a synagogue, or because he was one of the eldest and greatest repute, is not worth the inquiry. Thither Christ went

to eat bread, that is, to take a meal with him. It is a phrase often used to signify dining, or supping, for they ordinarily under the notion of bread understood all manner of victuals.

It was

on the sabbath day. In the mean time, the evangelist tells us,

they watched him, to wit, whether they might hear any thing from him, or see any thing in him, whereof they might accuse him.

It happened

there was a man which had the dropsy, whether casually, or brought thither on purpose by the Pharisees, the Scripture saith not; he was not there without a Divine direction, to give Christ an occasion of a miracle, and further to instruct people in the true doctrine of the sabbath.

Christ upon the sabbath begins us a discourse proper for the day, asking the Pharisees if it were

lawful to heal on the sabbath day. They make him no reply. Christ healeth him, then preacheth a doctrine to them, which he had twice before inculcated, in the case of a man who had a withered hand, Mat 12:10, and of the woman whom Satan had bound, of which we heard, Luk 13:11, viz. That works of mercy are lawful on the sabbath day. Then he justifieth his fact by the confession of their own practice, in lifting up beasts fallen into pits on the sabbath day. His argument is this: If it be lawful on the sabbath day to relieve a beast, it is much more lawful to relieve a man: but you do the former. The evangelist reports them put to silence, but saith nothing of their conviction. It is an easier thing to stop malicious persons’ mouths than to remove their prejudices. Malice will ordinarily hold the conclusion, when the reason of the soul infected with it is not able to justify the premises.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Dropsical Man. The Great Supper. Divers Sayings and Parables

1-6. The sabbath question again. The man with the dropsy healed (peculiar to Lk).

1. To eat bread] So far from being abstemious on the sabbath, the Jews carried the pleasures of the table to excess. 'The Hebrews honour the sabbath chiefly by inviting each other to drinking and intoxication' (Plutarch). 'Rabbah Abba bought flesh of thirteen butchers that he might be sure to taste the best, and paid them at the very gate, that he might hasten dinner, and all this in honour of the sabbath' (Talmud).

2. There was.. before him] Spectators often enter the house to witness an Eastern banquet.

3. Is it lawful to heal?] See on Mat_12:10.

5. An ass] Nearly all modern editors read 'a son.' The rabbis allowed 'an ox or an ass, a son or a daughter, a man-servant or a maid-servant' to be drawn out of a well on the sabbath. Thus they allowed to themselves breaches of the sabbath day which they denied to Christ.

7-11. On places of honour at feasts (peculiar to Lk, but a similar discourse occurs in the 'Western' text of St. Matthew, Luk_20:28, q.v.). It is probable that the dropsical man was healed before the dinner began, and that there then ensued an unseemly struggle for places, which gave occasion for the 'parable' following.

7. A parable] An elastic word. Here it means a piece of advice, inculcating humility.

Chose.. the chief rooms] RV 'seats,' i.e. places on the couches: see on Mar_12:39. A good illustration of the pride of the rabbis is the conduct of Rabbi Simeon ben Shetah, who when invited to dinner by king Jannæus (104-79 b.c.), placed himself between the king and queen, saying, 'Exalt wisdom and she shall exalt thee, and make thee to sit among princes.' But such conduct was not universally approved, and with the advice which our Lord here gives may be compared the more spiritual teaching of other rabbis. Rabbi Akiba said, 'Yield up thy place, and go down two or three seats, and sit down, until they say to thee, Go up higher. Go not higher of thyself, lest they say to thee, Go down lower, for it is better that they should say to thee, Go higher, than Go lower. Thus the son of Hillel used to say, My humiliation is my exaltation, and my exaltation is my humiliation.'

11. Cp. Mat_23:12 repeated Luk_18:14.

12-14. On entertaining the poor (peculiar to Lk, whose Gospel is full of sympathy with the poor).

12. Thy friends, etc.] A man is not in the true sense hospitable, who entertains only those who can entertain again. Such interested hospitality is not wrong, but there is no merit in it, and it does not lay up treasure in heaven.

14. At the resurrection of the just] i.e. at the glorious resurrection to life eternal which the righteous only will enjoy, with which is contrasted 'the resurrection of condemnation' which awaits the unrighteous (Joh_5:29). 'The resurrection of the just' here answers exactly to' the resurrection from the dead,' viz. of righteous persons only (Php_3:11 RV), as distinguished from 'the resurrection of the dead,' which includes all mankind (Act_17:32). Our Lord's words give no real sanction to the Jewish belief in two distinct resurrections, the first of the righteous the second of the unrighteous, traces of which some expositors find in 1Co_15:23; 1Th_4:16, and especially in Rev_20:5, Rev_20:6.

15-24. The great supper (peculiar to Lk, although Mat_22:1-14 presents many points of similarity: see on that passage). Here the 'certain man' is God, the many bidden are the rulers of the Jews, the servant who invites them is Jesus Christ. When the rulers refuse the invitation to the feast (i.e. to enter into Christ's Kingdom), the poor, the maimed, the blind, and the lame (i.e. the despised classes of the Jewish nation) are invited. They joyfully obey, and yet there is room, because the kingdom of Christ is meant to embrace all mankind (Luk_14:22). Then Christ, through His Apostles, goes out into the highways and hedges (i.e. into heathen lands), and compels the Gentiles to come in.

15. Eat bread in the kingdom of God] The mention of the 'resurrection of the just,' with which, according to Jewish ideas, the reign of the Messiah would begin, reminds this Jew of the great feast, which the Messiah would then hold: see on Mat_8:11.

18. The excuses show careless unconcern, not hardened wickedness. Business occupations, family ties, and various distractions, are pleaded as excuses for not taking God's summons seriously.

23. Compel them to come in] Our Lord does not here (as has often been supposed) sanction religious persecution. 'He said “Compel them,” not commanding force to be used, but indicating that in the case of Gentiles a more urgent and persistent kind of preaching must be used, seeing that they were under the power of demons, and sleeping in the deep darkness of error' (Euthymius).

24. For I say] Here Christ drops the parabolic form and speaks in His own person. 'For I (Christ) say unto you, that none of the Jewish rulers who have rejected My invitation shall taste of My supper, i.e. of the blessedness in store for the saints of God.'

25-35. That we must give up all to follow Christ, and count the cost before we do so. The two parables of the Rash Builder (Luk_14:28-30) and the Rash King (Luk_14:31-33) are peculiar to Lk. The multitude who follow Jesus (Luk_14:25) are inclined to believe that He is the Messiah, and expect great temporal benefits from their discipleship. Jesus warns them that, instead of this, they must expect persecution and even death (Luk_14:27), and that those who cannot make a complete sacrifice of earthly affections (Luk_14:26), and ambition (Luk_14:33), had better turn back while there is yet time.

26, 27. See on Mat_10:37, Mat_10:38.

26. Hate] 'This does not imply the feeling of hatred, but a readiness to act as if one hated. The nearest and dearest must be forsaken, and opposed, and offended, if need be, to follow Christ.'

28-33. None of the details of these two parables or similes are significant. The parables simply enforce the one idea that it is folly to undertake a serious business (here, becoming a disciple of Christ), without counting the cost.

33. Forsaketh not all] Only the Apostles (and the Seventy) were required to do this in act, but every disciple is required to do it in will, i.e. to subordinate all earthly interests and claims to Christ's, when the two are incompatible.

34, 35. Salt] i.e. 'discipleship.' In Mat_5:13; (q.v.) it means the pure and unselfish lives of Christians. 'The salt which has lost its savour' is here the discipleship which refuses to make the sacrifices which Christ demands (Luk_14:26-27, Luk_14:33).

35. The land.. the dunghill] These have no special meaning. The sense is that the discipleship which makes no sacrifices is valueless for any purpose.

J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1. One of the chief Pharisees—That is, one who was a leading character among the Pharisees. The Pharisees were not an official class, but a sect; and their chief men were their eminent doctors or wise men. But such were often promoted to office, as this sect was very influential in public affairs. Alexander Jannaeus, one of the Jewish kings, opposed the Pharisees with all his power during his own life; but when he came to his death, he advised his surviving queen to submit herself entirely to their control. Obeying this advice, she was able to rule in peace. This chief Pharisee was very likely one of the Sanhedrim.

On the Sabbath day—The Jews made it a point of honour to the Sabbath day to take a much more sumptuous meal than upon any other day. They must feast thrice that day as a religious merit; for who so did should be saved from the three punishments: the sorrows of the Messiah, the pains of hell, and the wars of Gog and Magog. Jesus was a guest on this occasion, and rendered it a religions assembly. Those who cannot, like Jesus, render a Sabbath social gathering a profitable occasion, had better absent themselves.

They watched him—The standing point of debate, Will he heal upon the Sabbath day? was evidently before their minds.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 1-6. The Pharisee"s feast on a sabbath day. The healing of the sick with dropsy.

And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day. Still on the same journey; the Lord was approaching gradually nearer Jerusalem. The house into which he entered this sabbath belonged to one who was a leading member of the Pharisee party, probably an influential rabbi, a man of great wealth, or a member of the Sanhedrim "To eat bread on the sabbath day," as a guest, was a usual practice; such entertainments on the sabbath day were very usual; they were often luxurious and costly. The only rule observed was that all the viands provided were cold, everything having been cooked on a previous day. Augustine alludes to these sabbath feasts as including at times singing and dancing. They watched him. This explains the reason of the invitation to the great Teacher, on the part of a leading Pharisee, after the Master"s bitter denunciation of the party. (see Luk_11:39-52) The feast and its attendant circumstances were all arranged, and Jesus" watchful enemies waited to see what he would do.

Vers. 1-24. The great supper.

The feast of which Christ, was partaking had been carefully prepared, and was an event of some consequence in the town. This may be inferred not only from the tone of the Lord"s remarks, but also from the intimations of the evangelists. Thus from ver. 12 it appears that the Pharisee had gathered together the elite of the place, along with his more intimate friends and his kinsmen. From ver. 7 we learn that there had been an eager scramble on the part of the guests for the chief places, the precedencies, and dignities. It was the observation or" this which called forth the saying (ver. 11), "Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." Notice, too, as proving the care which had been bestowed on the entertainment, that there was an understanding among the more prominent guests that the movements and words of the invited Prophet should be closely watched. In fact, the supper was a trap laid. To complete the scheme, a man was introduced (ver. 2) who laboured under a severe illness dropsy; a man whose presence might be a temptation to the loving-hearted Healer to violate the sacredness of the sabbath. Jesus, we are told (ver. 3), "answering," i.e. knowing the intention of the lawyers and Pharisees, put a question to them which revealed the thoughts of the heart, whilst it so vindicated his work of mercy that it reduced his hypocritical friends to silence: "they could not answer him again to these things" (ver. 6). This great supper is the text of one of the most beautiful of our Lord"s parables. The introduction of the parable is very simple. He had taught his host a lesson of charity (vers. 12-14), when one of the company, catching at the last clause, "recompensed at the resurrection of the just," and giving this the accepted Pharisee-meaning a banquet at which the elect of the nation would sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (presuming, of course, that he would have a place at that banquet) exclaims, "Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God" (ver. 15). "Yes," virtually replies the Prophet, "only recollect that this kingdom of God is not the blessedness which you imagine; nay, since the call to it has been rejected by those who were biddeni.e. the covenant-people that call will be extended, in the fulness of its glory, to the publicans and sinners whom you reject the people of the streets and lanes; it will be extended further still, even to the ignorant heathen the people of the highways and hedges. For (representing in these words the giver of the festival) "None of those men that were bidden shall taste of my supper" (ver. 24). Such was the primary application of the parable. In its details it is entirely within the circle of prophetic ideas. The supper is an Old Testament symbol of the day of Christ, the Messiah. (see Isa_25:6) The "many bidden" were those who, having Moses and the prophets, were possessors both of the Word heard outwardly with the ear, and of the grace through which it is grafted inwardly in the heart. The servant at the supper-time denotes that preaching of the kingdom which began with John the Baptist, and was carried on by our Lord and those whom "he sent before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come." The excuses intimate the pleas on which the invited, with one consent, turned away from the call. And the further missions of the servant, first keeping within the city, to the streets and lanes, and, secondly, quitting the precincts of the city, to the highways and hedges, denote, as has been said, the inclusion of the excluded classes of the Jews, along with the Samaritans, and the bidding of the Gentiles to the light of the gospel. "I said," thus ancient prophecy expressed it, (Isa_65:1) "Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my Name." Passing from the first relations of the parable to those which more directly concern us, every part of it is suggestive of some aspect of Christian truth or life. Notice three points

I THE HOSPITALITY OF GOD. God is the Presence shadowed forth in the "man who makes, the great supper." In the notion of such a supper we see the Divine hospitality. A supper carries with it the thought of an abundant provision, of satisfaction for all want, of an infinite and various fulness. And is not this associated in the Scriptures with the very name of God? Take, e.g., one of the most beautiful utterances of the Psalter, Psa_36:5-9. Indeed, the manifold revelation of God in nature, providence, grace, in the firmament above us, the earth around us, the great and wide sea, our own consciousness, the Word who in the beginning was with God and was God God himself in every form of his communication, is the exceeding joy of the pure in heart. His greatness is so hospitable. It makes room for all our littleness and weakness "in its lap to lie." As Faber, in verses of sweetest music, has sung "Thus doth thy grandeur make us grand ourselves; "Tis goodness makes us fear; Thy greatness makes us brave, as children are When those they love are near. "Great God! our lowliness takes heart to play Beneath the shadow of thy state; The only comfort of our littleness Is that thou art so great. "Then on thy grandeur I will lay me down; Already life is heaven for me; No cradled child more softly lies than I: "Come soon, Eternity.

It is this hospitality that is declared in the Son of the Eternal Love. Christ is the Great Supper. In him God has "abounded towards us in wisdom and prudence." St. Paul speaks of" the love of Christ which passeth knowledge," of Christ "the All in all;" and, more particularly defining the supper-making, he says, "Christ, of God made to us Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, Redemption." All that we need as men, all that is salvation for sinners, is ours in him. And how is it ours? "If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

II THE CHURLISHNESS OF MEN. This is God, with the door thrown wide open, the table prepared, the life eternal given, the grand, ever-urgent "Come!" "Ho, every one that thirsteth and he that hath no money, come!" But what is the reception? Strange, wonderful, but still too true, "They all with one consent began to make excuse" (ver. 18). Look at the excuses. They are pictures of states of mind, of attitudes of thought, as real now as at any time. Three such pictures are sketched. The first (ver. 18), a mind which rejoices in a good realized. The man has the desire of his heart. He is the lord of broad acres. "Soul, take thine ease; what need for thee of the supper?" The second (ver. 19), a mind still immersed in business, with its cares and anxieties. The man has just concluded an important purchase; before all else he must prove it. The third (ver. 20), a mind absorbed in earthly delights and social relationships he "cannot come." We can trace, in the three pictures, a climax like that of the parable reported in Matthew 22, which closely resembles this. There is an ascending scale in the rejection. The first is covetous to a degree; he would go with all his heart only that little estate; he must needs "pray let me be excused." The second is polite, but more abrupt; there is a graceful wave of the hand, a gentlemanly "Pray let me be excused;" but there is no "I must needs." The third is rude and fiat in his denial; there is a quick "No, I cannot." Is it not the climax of worldliness in every period? And what is worldliness? The celebrated Robert Hall one day wrote the word "God" on a slip of paper. "You can read that?" he said, as he passed the slip to a friend. "Yes." He covered the name on the slip with a sovereign. "Can you read it now?" The sovereign was above, was nearer the gaze than God. That is worldliness. It is not the having, not the purchasing, of the ground or the oxen, It is the having the earthly thing in the first place, the setting of the "must needs" over against it. And it is the mind which does this, to which the heavenly kingdom is second to the earthly good, which is fruitful of excuses. Oh, how often it puts off! how often there comes even the rude "I cannot"! Has the Giver of the supper found such a mind in any of us?

III THE COMMISSION OF THE SERVANT. It is to bear the Master"s call, to declare that "all things are ready;" that salvation is full and is present; life now, life for ever, given with God"s "yea" and "amen" to even the chief of sinners. The word of the reconciliation is Come!" the ministry of reconciliation implies, "Go, ever out and out." The house of the Lord must be filled; he is bent on the winning of souls. A supper, and none to eat; a great supper, and only a few guests! "Salvation! O salvation! The joyful sound proclaim, Till earth"s remotest nation Has learnt Messiah"s Name.

"Compel them" is the voice of the Everlasting Love. Use, i.e. , all means of moral suasion; circle around their wills; plead, beseech, entreat, persuade, "instant in season and out of season;" draw them, watch over them; establish such links between the messenger and them that they shall feel that they must come with you, since God is with you of a truth. "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ"s stead, be ye reconciled to God.

HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR Vers. 1-24. Table-talk of Jesus.

We have now brought before us an interesting conversation which Jesus had with certain guests at an entertainment in the house of "one of the chief Pharisees." It was a sabbath-day feast, indicating that sociality was not incompatible even with Jewish sabbath-keeping. Into the guest-chamber had come a poor man afflicted with the dropsy, and, to the compassionate eye of our Lord, he afforded an opportunity for a miracle of mercy. But, before performing it, he tests their ideas about sabbath-observance. They were sufficiently merciful to approve of sociality among themselves, but the healing of neighbours was another matter. They could even be merciful to cattle if they were their own; but to be merciful to a brother-man would have shown too much breadth of sympathy. The sick man might wait till Monday, but an ass or an ox might die if not delivered out of its difficulty, which would be so much personal loss. In spite of their narrow mindedness, our Lord took the poor man and healed him, and then proceeded to give the guests very wholesome advice.

I LET US LOOK AT THE PARABLE ABOUT THE WEDDING. (Vers. 7-11). To the Lord"s eye the feast became the symbol of what is spiritual. The wedding of the parable is the consummation of the union between God and his people. The invitation is what is given in the gospel. Hence the advice is not instructive as to the prudential temper, but as to our spirit in coming before God. Shall it be the spirit which claims as right the highest room, or that which accepts as more than we deserve the lowest room? In other words, shall we come before God in a spirit of self-righteousness or in a spirit of self-abasement? Now, our Lord points out, from the collisions of social life, the absolute certainty of the self-important and self-righteous being abased among men: how much more in the righteous administration of God! The self-righteous under his administration shall be abased, how deeply and terribly we cannot conceive. On the other hand, those who have learned to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God shall be exalted in due season, and have glory in the presence of the celestial guests! Jesus thus attacked the self-righteousness of the Pharisees, not as a social, but as a spiritual question. God would at last cast it away from his presence and society with loathing and contempt. On the other hand, self-abasement is the sure sign of grace and the sure earnest of glory. He who takes with gratitude the lowest room in God"s house is certain of speedy promotion!

II OUR HOSPITALITY SHOULD BE DIVINE IN ITS SPIRIT AND CHARACTER. (Vers. 12-14) Having improved the conduct of the guests, and shown its spiritual bearings, he next turns to the host, and gives him an idea of what hospitality should be. It should not be speculative, but disinterested something, in fact, which can only be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. In no clearer way could our Lord indicate that hospitality should be exercised in the light of eternity; and the bearing of it upon spiritual interests should constantly be regarded. And here we surely should learn:

1. How important it is to be social. God is social. His Trinity guarantees the sociality of his nature. We are to be God-like in our sociality.

2. It may be most helpful to lonely spirits upon earth. Many a lonely heart may be saved for better things by a timely social attention.

3. There is great blessing in giving attention to people who cannot return it. It is a great field of delight that those with large hearts may have. "It is more blessed to give than to receive." We are following God"s plan in the attentions we bestow.

4. At the final arrangement of God"s kingdom, all such disinterested hospitality shall be recompensed. How? Surely by opportunity being afforded of doing the like again! The hospitable heart, which keeps eternity in view in all its hospitality, shall have eternity to be still more hospitable in.

III THE PARABLE OF THE GREAT SUPPER. (VEER. 15-24) Jesus proceeds from the question of hospitalities to present the gospel in the light of a supper provided by the great Father above, and to which he invites sinners as his guests. And here we have to notice:

1. The greatness of the supper. The preparations were long and elaborate. How many centuries were consumed in preparing the feast which we have in the gospel! It was to be the greatest "feast of reason and flow of soul" the world has seen. And so it is. Nowhere else does man get such food for his mind and heart as in the gospel of Christ.

2. The freedom of the invitations. Many were bidden. No niggardliness about the invitations. They are scattered so freely that, alas! they are not by many sufficiently prized.

3. The supplementary summons by the faithful servant. It is not an invitation by ink and pen merely that God sends, but he backs the written revelation by personal persuasion by the mouth of faithful servants. Here is the sphere of the gospel ministry. These true ministers tell what a feast is ready in the gospel, and what their own experience of it has been.

4. The triviality of the excuses. To the invitations sent out by God men make excuses. There is something peculiarly sad and significant in refusals upon insufficient grounds. Our Lord gives us three examples of the excuses men make for refusing salvation and the gospel.

(1) The first man puts a piece of ground before salvation. "Real property" keeps many a man out of the kingdom of heaven.

(2) The second puts cattle before salvation. Many men are so interested in good stock," and all the mysteries of breeding and work, as to have no time for their eternal interests. A few chattels keep multi-ruder out of God"s kingdom.

(3) The third puts social concerns before spiritual. He has married a wife, and so cannot attend to the claims of God. Society, its attractions and allurements, is keeping multitudes out of the kingdom above. These are but specimens of the trivialities which are monopolizing men"s attention, and preventing their giving good heed to the things of the gospel.

1. The extension of the invitation to those who are sure to accept it. The poor, maimed, halt, and blind represent the souls who feel their spiritual poverty and defects, and who are sure to appreciate God"s gracious invitation. When the self-righteous spurn it, the abased and humiliated greedily receive it.

2. The abundant room, and the difficulty in getting the places filled. There is no possibility of any one coming and being refused admittance. There is room for all who Care to come. Those who will not taste of the supper are those who thought themselves better employed. In compelling men to come in, we must do our best in persuading them to accept the gospel. May we leave nothing undone that the Divine table may be filled. R.M.E.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

until (See Scofield "Mat 23:39").

Lord Jehovah. Psa 118:26.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 14:10

I. To take the "lowest room" towards God is: (1) To be content simply to take God at His word, without asking any questions or raising any doubts, but to accept at His hand all that God graciously vouchsafes to give you—the pardon and the peace; to be a receptacle of love, a vessel into which, of His free mercy, He has poured and is pouring now, and will go on to pour for ever, the abundance of His grace. (2) Next, it is to be just what God makes you—to rest where He places you—to do what He tells you—only because He is everything and you nothing—conscious of a weakness which can only stand by leaning, and an ignorance which needs constant teaching—to be always emptying, because God is always filling.

II. How are we to take the lowest room towards man? It is quite useless to attempt to be humble with a fellow-creature, unless you are really humble with God. Do not put yourself up into the chair of judgment upon any man; but rather see yourself as you are; everybody is inferior in something—far worse than that man in some things. So your words will not grow censorious; and if you sit low enough, you will be sure to speak charitably. Sympathy is power, but there is no sympathy where there is self. Self must be destroyed to make sympathy. Do not mistake patronising for love. When you comfort sorrow, look well to it that you touch another’s grief with a reverential hand. And sin—whatever you do, never treat sin with roughness or contempt. The Pure and Holy One never did that. He dealt with the worst sinner delicately. If you ask, "How am I to go lower?" among the thousand rules I select one—exalt Christ. If Christ do but occupy His right place in your heart, you will be sure in the presence of that majesty and of that beauty to go and sit down in the lowest room.

J. Vaughan, Sermons, 1867, p. 37.

References: Luk 14:10.—T. Birkett Dover, A Lent Manual, p. 11; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 251; G. Matheson, Moments on the Mount, p. 270; G. H. Wilkinson, Church of England Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 310.

Luk 14:11

This is one of the sayings which we gather from the Gospels to have been frequently in our Lord’s mouth, and this means that it had some variety of application—now graver, now lighter. In the passage which we just read, it was His comment on an exhibition of what we should call vanity. On the surface He seemed to point not so much to the spiritual fault which was at the root of the pushing for the first seats, as to its futility, to the punishment which certainly and speedily overtook. The first seat, so claimed, could only be held for a moment, till the host came. Then the guests would be sorted; to have placed himself too low would bring credit, and to have placed himself too high humiliation.

I. What our Lord said was typical. It was a parable in the sense that it was of a character He spoke. This was only a trait of it. Those who chose the chief places at the feast were the same class of persons as in other and more serious ways thrust themselves forward—"trusted in themselves and despised others." And it was a parable, in the sense that while speaking of an outward act and of an immediate and visible reward, He was thinking of the whole view of human life, and of the objects and rewards of human endeavour of which those were a type. It was a parable of the false and of the true estimate of greatness, of the reversal of human judgments, of the blindness and littleness of human ambitions.

II. Humility is the necessary and inevitable attitude of a Christian soul—of a soul which keeps in sight the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, which knows itself a child of God, fallen, lost, yet restored and pardoned in Him. This attitude is never lost. It affects all relations. As between themselves men vary of course greatly. God has ordered human life, and all its natural motives and situations are part of His providence. He does not wish us to blind our reason, and to say that that is good which conscience and common sense tell us to be mean and bad. He makes the desire to excel, the pleasure of success, to be the springs of energy which are generally necessary to a manly and useful life. We may sometimes puzzle ourselves if we try in theory to make it clear how such judgments on others and such natural ambitions can harmonise with the spirit of perfect humility. But the honest heart solves the difficulty in action.

E. C. Wickham, Wellington College Sermons, p. 188.

Luk 14:12-14

Christ’s Counsel to His Host.

Are ordinary dinner-parties wrong, then, in the eye of Christ, our Law-giver? Does He really condemn the custom of having our friends and social equals to dine with us, and really demand that we entertain instead, if we entertain at all, only those who are conventionally below us—only the poor and destitute, the most melancholy objects, the most miserable creatures we can find?

I. With respect to the passage before us, the veiled message, the enfolded spirit of which I should like to penetrate and seize, there are those, doubtless, who will maintain that it needs no explanation, that what our Lord taught at the Pharisee’s table was just this: that His host should give up entertaining his well-to-do relatives and friends, who were able to return the compliment, and should devote himself instead to the entertainment of the "poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind," by which he would secure a greater recompense. This, they would affirm, is what He called upon the man to do, as the best and blessedest thing; but it is not for us to do nowadays. With some other of His counsels and admonitions, it cannot be carried out by us; is not suitable or applicable to the present time. In reply to which I say, that it never was suitable or applicable, and hence could not have been intended by Christ. He never defied or contravened human nature: how could He? God created human nature, in all lands and ages, to go out after intercourse with kindred spirits, with persons of our own tastes and habits, of our own rank or order; and hence I know, and am sure, that Christ the Son of man never meant what, on a superficial glance, He seems to be meaning here. The question is one not at all of social fellowship, but of expenditure; and of the objects to which our great expenditure should be devoted. When you would lavish trouble and money, says Christ, let the lavishing be not for your own personal gratification, but for the blessing of others.

II. But the admonition of the text reaches beyond dining; it applies generally to the habit of laying out freely, profusely, unstintedly, in order to any comfort, profit, or enlargement for ourselves, and exhorts us instead to confine such laying out to generous and benevolent projects—to the work of giving pleasure, of rendering service, of communicating good, which is the very principle and Spirit of Him who, when He poured out His soul unto death, did it to bring us to God. Now this has its own peculiar and very grand recompense, says Christ, from which they who are mainly intent on expending for themselves are shut out, in the blessedness of which they can have no share. It finds its recompense in the "resurrection of the just." Yes, in every resurrection out of evil into good condition, out of disorder and wrong into righteousness and order that is accomplished on earth, it is reward. But there is something besides, most present and near; for there is always a resurrection of the just within us, as often as we do anything with outlay, for love and goodness. It begets infallibly a revival, a fresh quickening and expansion of the spirit of love and goodness; and herein is the constantly-abiding, ever-returning recompense of those whose gracious habit it is to look not upon their own things, but upon the things of others. Their truest and best reward lies in the heavenly quality and capacity that is being daily fostered and deepened within them.

S. A. Tipple, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xii., p. 280.

References: Luk 14:12-24.—T. T. Lynch, Three Months’ Ministry, p. 145. Luk 14:14.—Parker, Wednesday Evenings at Cavendish Chapel, p. 64. Luk 14:15-24.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxviii., p. 387. Luk 14:16.—H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Waterside Mission Sermons, p. 21. Luk 14:16, Luk 14:17.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iv., p. 225; T. Birkett Dover, A Lent Manual, p. 16.

Luk 14:16-24

The Great Supper.

Note:—

I. The feast. This is the Gospel which God has provided for mankind, sinners. It is a feast (1) in respect of the excellence of the provision which it sets before us; (2) in respect of abundance, for the supply is inexhaustible; (3) in respect of fellowship; (4) in respect of joy.

II. The invited guests. We have received the invitation. This, therefore, is not a mere matter of antiquarian interest, or of curious exegetical importance. It concerns our own spiritual and immortal welfare; for, though the invitation is given through the instrumentality of a servant,—the preacher,—it comes from the great God Himself, and on that account it is not to be trifled with or despised.

III. Look at the reception given by those first invited to the call which had been addressed to them: "They all with one consent began to make excuse." These excuses were all pretexts. Perhaps they deluded themselves into the belief that they were acting in good faith; but if they had gone deeper down into their hearts, they would have found that they were deceiving themselves, and putting forth as excuses things which, if they had been earnestly determined to go to the feast, would not have kept them for a moment.

IV. Those who persistently decline to come to the feast shall be for ever excluded from its enjoyment. The rejecters of Christ are themselves eternally rejected of Christ.

V. Finally, this parable reveals to us the fact, that, notwithstanding the rejection of this invitation by multitudes, God’s house shall be filled at last. Heaven shall be fully occupied with God’s redeemed people, and the saved shall not be few.

W. M. Taylor, The Parables of Our Saviour, p. 290.

References: Luk 14:16-24.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol i., p. 201; Ibid., vol. ix., p. 270; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ii., p. 341; H. Calderwood, The Parables, p. 98; A. B. Bruce, Parabolic Teaching of Christ, p. 325.

Luk 14:17

Reasons for Embracing the Gospel.

I. You believe that the Gospel is true; perhaps upon no one point are your convictions so full and clear and decided. It matters not whence this conviction has been derived; we have the fact, and here we take our stand and make our appeal. Why not embrace it? "Come; for all things are now ready."

II. While you admit the Gospel record to be true, you at the same time approve of the entire subject-matter of its testimony. The human mind, unclouded by prejudice and unperverted by sophistry, is always in favour of the Gospel. If the Gospel is not only true, but if in all its principles and claims it is precisely what you feel it ought to be; nay, if you mean—certainly expect, sooner or later—to come upon the ground where it would put you, and be what it requires you to be,—why, we ask, in view of all that is intelligible in your convictions of the truth and reasonableness, why not embrace it?

III. Conscience, enlightened by the truth, requires you to embrace the Gospel, reproves you for not doing it, and heralds a painful retribution for refusing or neglecting to do it. Conscience may be stupid sometimes and not speak; but its voice, whenever heard, is clearly, decidedly, uniformly in favour of practical spiritual religion.

IV. You feel that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the very thing for need; that is, as you look at it carefully, study it in its different aspects, and examine closely its provisions, it is precisely adapted to all those wants which, as unsatisfied, are the causes of your disquietude and pain. You see and feel that it is the very hope your troubled spirit needs. You have no doubt that it is a good hope, a well-founded hope; why not embrace it and let your emancipated spirit go free?

E. Mason, A Pastor’s Legacy, p. 58.

Reference: Luk 14:17.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii., No. 1354.

Luk 14:18

That God’s call is often disobeyed is a matter of fact, of which our consciences cannot pretend to be ignorant. But the nature of the excuses given is well worthy of our consideration.

I. One of these excuses arises from a feeling that our common work is not a matter of religion; and that therefore it is not sinful to neglect it. Idleness and vice are considered as two distinct things; and it is very common to say, and to hear it said, of such a one that he is idle, but that he is perfectly free from vice. Idleness is not vicious, perhaps, but it is certainly sinful; and to strive against it is a religious duty, because it is highly offensive to God. This is so clearly shown in the Parable of the Ten Talents, in that of the Sower and the Seed, and even in the account of the Day of Judgment, given by our Lord in the twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew, that it cannot require a very long proof. In the description of the Day of Judgment, the sin for which the wicked are represented as turned into hell is only that they have done no good. It is not mentioned that they were vicious, in the common sense of the word; but they were sinful, inasmuch as they had not done what God commanded them to do.

II. Another excuse more nearly resembles the excuses made by the men in the parable: you do not attend to the call of God, because there is some other call which you like better. You complain, or rather you say to yourselves, that the work is very irksome to you, and you cannot see the use of it. It is likely enough that the work is irksome; for so corrupt is our nature that God’s will is generally irksome to us, because He is good and we are evil. But is this such an excuse as God will allow for not doing what He has commanded us? Is it not here rather that we should learn to practise our Saviour’s command, "Let a man deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me"? What is denying ourselves, but doing what we do not like, because it is the will of our Master? What is to take up our cross daily, but to find and to bear daily some hindrance in ourselves or others, which besets and would close up our path of duty? Against idleness, no less than against other sins, the Christian has the only sure means of victory. The natural evil inclination, the weak and corrupt flesh, still finds duty painful; but the regenerate spirit, born again of the Spirit of God, and sharing in its Father’s likeness, finds the will of its Father more pleasant than the flesh finds it painful; and so the will of God is done, and the man is redeemed from the bondage of sin and misery.

T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. ii., p. 93.

References: Luk 14:18.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. x., No. 578; E. Blencowe, Sermons to a Country Congregation, vol. ix., p. 198; R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 2nd series, p. 154. Luk 14:22.—J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874, p. 263; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., p. 129.

Luk 14:23

Acceptance of Religious Privileges Compulsory.

I. Consider what first of all presents itself to our thoughts—our birth into the world. Allow that this is a world of enjoyment, yet unquestionably it is a world of care and pain. Also, most men will judge that the pain on the whole exceeds the enjoyment on the whole. But whether this be so or not with most men, even if there be one man in the whole world who thinks so, that is enough for my purpose. It is enough if only there be one person to be found, who thinks sickness, disappointment, anxiety, affliction, suffering, fear, to be such grievous ills, that he had rather not have been born. If this be the sentiment only of one man, that man, it is plain, is, as regards his very existence, what the Christian is relatively to his new birth—an unwilling recipient of a gift. We are not asked whether we will choose this world, before we are born into it. We are brought under the yoke of it, whether we will or no; since we plainly cannot choose or not choose, before the power of choice is bestowed on us, this gift of a mortal nature.

II. Such is our condition as men; it is the same as Christians. For instance, we are not allowed to grow up before choosing our religion. We are baptized in infancy. Our sponsors promise for us. We find ourselves Christians; and our duty is, not to consider what we should do if we were not Christians, not to go about disputing, sifting the evidence for Christianity, weighing this side or that, but to act upon the rules given us, till we have reason to think them wrong, and to bring home to ourselves the truth of them, as we go on, by acting upon them—by their fruits on ourselves.

III. We have the remarkable facts (1) that whole households were baptized by the Apostles, which must include slaves as well as children. (2) The usage existed in the Early Church of bringing such as had the necessary gifts to ordination, without asking their consent. (3) Consider the conduct of the Church from the very first time any civil countenance was extended towards it, and you will have a fresh instance of the constraining principle of which I speak. What are national conversions, when kings submitted to the Gospel and their people followed, but going out into the highways and hedges, and compelling men to come in? And though we can conceive cases in which this urgency was unwisely, over-strongly, unseasonably, or too extensively applied, yet the principle of it is no other than that of the baptism of households mentioned in the Acts.

J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. iv., p. 52.

References: Luk 14:23.—J. Fraser, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 1; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v., No. 227.

Luk 14:24

God’s Call to the Young.

I. God’s call, addressed to the soul of every man, is a call to him to be happy for ever; and this is the same thing as calling upon him to be holy, for holiness and happiness are one in God, and they are one also in the children of God. Holiness in God’s creatures consists in their drawing near to God and becoming like unto Him. No man hath seen God, however, at any time; but the brightness of His glory and the express image of His Person man has seen; and although we now see Him no longer with our bodily eyes, yet with the story of His life and character handed down to us from those who did see and hear Him—with His Spirit ever dwelling amongst us, revealing Him to all those who desire Him—we do, for all practical purposes, see and know Him still.

II. As, then, Christ laboured all His life, beginning in His boyhood, to obey God’s special call to Him, so we can best imitate Christ by labouring all our lives to obey God’s special call to us. Now, this call is made known to us, not by a miracle, nor by a voice from heaven; but partly by the circumstances of our age and outward condition, and partly by the different faculties and dispositions of our minds. Generally, to all young persons God’s call is to improve themselves; but what particular sort of improvement He calls you to, that you may learn from the station in life in which He has placed you.

T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. ii., p. 86.

References: Luk 14:25, Luk 14:26.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xix., p. 251; Ibid., vol. xxiv., p. 196; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 230. Luk 14:25-30.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxix., p. 90. Luk 14:26.—G. Dawson, The Authentic Gospel, p. 160. Luk 14:26, Luk 14:27.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 331. Luk 14:27—W. C. E. Newbolt, Counsels of Faith and Practice, p. 200. Luk 14:28-30.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii., p. 40; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xx., No. 1159. Luk 14:31, Luk 14:32.—Ibid. vol. xi., No. 632.

Luk 14:34

I. What is it in the spiritual life which answers to the influence of salt in the natural life? I answer: A certain deep, secret power of the Spirit of God, acting generally through the word, in the conscience, upon the intellect, the affections, the will of a man, whereby he is made and kept in a state of inward life and purity; and whereby, again, he is, among his fellowmen, with whomsoever he comes in contact a means and channel of good, of truth, of a sound state of holiness and happiness. The salt in man is the Divine part that is in him; a presence imbuing all his thoughts with God; and the salt which such men carry, the salt of the Church, is that expansive propagating power with which the truth is entrusted for God, that it may cleanse, change, save the whole earth.

II. For this holy property we are all responsible. For it is a thing greatly depending upon our use and cultivation of it. It can easily be diminished, and it can continually be increased. A very little sin, a very little carelessness, a very little worldly contact, a very little self-indulgence, a very little grieving of the Spirit of God, will impoverish it, vitiate it, neutralise it. It will lose its virtue, it will grow vapid, it will cease to be. But one true prayer, one act pleasing to God, one honouring of the Holy Ghost, will immediately quicken it, and give it a keener power. For it is very sensitive and very susceptible to all influence. The soul’s atmosphere is always affected, moment by moment.

III. It is God’s common law, that that which is best in its use, is also that which is worst in its abuse. The brine which does not cure, destroys. The same salt which fertilises the field can turn a garden into a desert. Just so it is with that mystic, hallowing, self-diffusing principle in heavenly life which is in the soul. Trifle with it, and it will go; and if it go, the emptiness will be greater than if it had never been. Shut it up, and do not use it; and by stagnation it will grow corrupt. Turn it away from the purpose for which it was implanted, and by retribution it will become your misery and your sin. Lose it, and it will be, at the last day, your heaviest condemnation. "Salt is good: but if the salt once lose his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned?"

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 5th series, p. 245.

These words bring us at once, as Christian citizens, into contact with the most fearful and difficult problem of our times.

I. If there ever was a people since the first promulgation of the Gospel, who from their position, their political advantages, their commercial influence, ought to be able practically to fulfil the noble office of being the salt of the earth, it is our own nation: and in some measure I do trust we are answering to this character. Let us not conceal either side of the picture. We need encouragement as well as exhortation. To some extent we have held forth the word of truth, and are doing the work of evangelising the world. Some grains of the salt yet possess and exert their conserving and quickening power. But very many have lost their savour. In the midst of this Christian people there are large portions of the social body which are utterly without power for good, and not only so, but in themselves the subjects of moral and spiritual decay. These are the salt that has lost its savour.

II. With such salt in the physical world, the case, as our Saviour’s words go on to state, is hopeless. The mere material, once endued by God’s creative hand with vivid and salutary qualities, and having lost these qualities, no man may requicken or restore. And thus, too, it would be with mere animal life. The loss of vital power no human means can remedy. Of both of these we can say only, "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away." In neither case is there bestowed the gift of self-guidance, of conscious reflection and determinate action. In neither of them is there responsible free-will, able of itself to fall—able to seek His help from whom is every good gift, again to rise. But with man’s spirit; thank God, it is not so. Here, the salt may lose its savour, and be again seasoned. Here we are in a higher region of being altogether. Here God acts, according indeed to the same analogies, and consistently with the same unchangeable attributes, but by different and higher laws, belonging to the spiritual kingdom. And here it is not as in creation, where He carries on His mysterious agencies in secret alone. In the far nobler work of recreation and regeneration He condescends to accept His people as His fellow-workers. By persuasion, by preaching, by the ordinances of grace, all administered by human means, He is pleased to carry on the conversion of the souls of men, and the restoration to life and vigour of the dead and withered members of the Church.

H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. iii., p. 203.

Three times, and in three different connections, this memorable proverb is recorded in our Lord’s teaching—in each case in reference to the failure of that which was excellent and hopeful. In St. Matthew it is applied generally to the influence of His new people on the world; in St. Mark, to the danger to ourselves of the careless or selfish use of our personal influence; in St. Luke, to the conditions of sincere discipleship. But in all cases it contemplates the possible failure of religion to do its perfect work. There are temptations and mischiefs arising not of our religion itself, out of the position in which it places us and the things which it encourages in us. Let us take two or three examples.

I. "Who loved me," says St. Paul, "and gave Himself for me." There are hardly more affecting words in the New Testament, and they describe what must thrill through every man’s mind who believes in the Cross of Christ, just in proportion as he grasps its meaning. But it is not without reason that we are told that what should kindle his boundless devotion may be full of peril. It may touch the subtle springs of selfishness. Religious autobiography is not without warnings that the true and awful words, "What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" may be perverted into a narrow and timid care for it, worried with petty fears and scruples, or cares ignoble and degrading, because without interest in God’s great purposes without a generous trust in His wisdom and mercy, without sympathy for others.

II. Again, religion must be active; and towards the evils which are in the world it is bound to be hostile and aggressive. And yet this necessity shows us too often a religion, a very sincere and honest religion, which cannot avoid the dangers which come with activity and conflict. It sometimes seems to lose itself and its end in the energy with which it pursues its end.

III. Again, religion is a matter of the affections; and men may be led astray by their affections in religion as in other things. We must carry the remembrance of the awful saying of the text with us, not only in our hours of relaxation and enjoyment, but when we believe ourselves to be most intent and most sincere in doing our Master’s service.

Dean Church, Oxford University Herald, Dec. 16th, 1882.

References: Luk 14:34-35; D. Fraser, Metaphors of the Gospels, p. 1; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. x., p. 29. Luke 14—F. D. Maurice, The Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven, p. 219.

The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Several particulars are here worthy of our observation and imitation.

Note, 1. The freedom of our Lord’s conversation with men: he delighted in human society, and was of a sociable temper; we do not find, that whenever he was invited to a dinner, he disdained to go, not so much for the pleasure of eating, as for the opportunity of conversing and doing good.

Note, 2. The house he goes into, and is entertained in, one of the chief Pharisees’, who were some of his chiefest enemies; a great instance of our Lord’s humanity, humility, and self-denial, in that he refused not the conversation of those whom he knew did not affect him; teaching us to love our enemies, and not to shun conversing with them, that thereby we may gain an opportunity of being reconciled to them.

Note, 3. The day when our Saviour dined publicly at the Pharisee’s house, among the lawyers and Pharisees; it was on the sabbath day.

Learn hence, that it is not simply unlawful for us to entertain our friends and neighbors with a plentiful meal on the Lord’s day; it must be acknowledged, that feasting upon any day is one of those lawful things which is difficulty managed without sin, but more especially upon that day, that it does not unfit us for the duties of the sabbath. However, our Lord’s example in going to a public dinner amongst lawyers and Pharisees evidently shows the lawfulness of feasting on that day, provided we use the same moderation in eating and drinking that he did, and improve the opportunity as a season for doing good, as he has taught us by his example.

Note, 4. How, contrary to all the laws of behavior, the decency of conversation, and the rules of hospitality, the Pharisees watched him, making their table a snare to catch him, hoping they might hear something from him, or see something in him for which they might accuse him: He entered into the house of the Pharisees to eat bread, and they watched him.

Note, 5. Our Saviour chose the sabbath day as the fittest season to work his miraculous cures in; in the Pharisee’s house he heals a man who had the dropsy, on the sabbath day. Christ would not forbear doing good, nor omit any opportunity of helping and healing the distressed though he knew his enemies the Pharisees would carp and cavil at it, calumniate and reproach him for it; it being the constant guise of hypocrites, to prefer ceremonial and ritual observation, before necessary and moral duties.

Note, 6. How our Saviour defends the lawfulness of his act in healing the diseased man, from their own act in helping a beast out of the pit on the sabbath day: as if Christ had said, "Is it lawful for you on the sabbath day to help a beast? And is it sinful for me to heal a man?"

Note, lastly, how the reason and force of our Saviour’s argument silenced the Pharisees; convincing them, no doubt, but we read nothing of their conversion: the obstinate and malicious are much harder to be wrought upon than the ignorant and scandalous; it is easier to silence such men than to satisfy them; to stop their mouths than to remove their prejudices; for obstinacy will hold the conclusion, though reason cannot maintain the premises: They could not answer him again to those things.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [XC. Dining with a Pharisee].

XC. DINING WITH A PHARISEE. SABBATH HEALING AND THREE LESSONS SUGGESTED BY THE EVENT. (Probably Peræa.) cLUKE XIV. 1-24.

c1 And it came to pass, when he went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees on a sabbath to eat bread, that they were watching him. [The Pharisees were an unorganized party, hence their rulers were such not by office, but by influence. Those who were members of the Sanhedrin, or who were distinguished among the rabbis, might fitly be spoken of as rulers among them. The context favors the idea that Jesus was invited for the purpose of being watched--a carrying out of the Pharisaic purpose declared at Luk_11:53, Luk_11:54. Bountiful feasts on the Sabbath day were common among the Jews; the food, however, was cooked the previous day in obedience to the precept at Exo_16:23.] 2 And behold, there was before him a certain man that had the dropsy. [The phrase "let him go" of Luk_14:4 shows that the man was not a guest, but [492] rather one who seems to have taken advantage of the freedom of an Oriental house to stand among the lookers-on. He may have been there purely from his own choice, but the evil intention with which Jesus was invited makes it highly probable that the man's presence was no accident, but part of a deep-laid plot to entrap Jesus.] 3 And Jesus answering [replying to their unspoken thoughts, in which they were assuming that he would heal the sick man] spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath, or not? 4 And they held their peace. [They evidently expected Jesus to act on the impulse, and were confused by his calm, deliberate question. If they declared it lawful, they defeated their plot, and if they said otherwise, they involved themselves in an argument with him in which, as experience taught them, they would be humiliated before the people. Hence, they kept silence, but their silence only justified him, since it was the duty of every lawyer to pronounce this act unlawful if it had been so.] And he took him, and healed him, and let him go. 5 And he said unto them, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a well, and will not straightway draw him up on a sabbath day? 6 And they could not answer again unto these things. [Here Jesus again asserts that the Sabbath law did not forbid acts of mercy. See Phi_2:3] than thou be bidden of him, 9 and he that bade thee and him shall come and say to thee, Give this man place; and then thou shalt begin with shame to take the lowest place. [Because when ousted from the top he would find every place full except the bottom.] 10 But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest place; that when he that hath bidden thee cometh, he may say to thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have glory in the presence of all that sit at meat with thee. [The words here used by our Lord teach how to avoid earthly shame and to obtain worldly honor. But they form a parable which is intended to teach the great spiritual truth that true humility leads to exaltation.] 11 For everyone that exalteth himself shall be humbled; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. [This is one of our Lord's favorite maxims ( Luk_18:14, Mat_23:12). Both man and God look upon humiliation as the just punishment of pride; but it is a pleasure to every right-minded spirit to give joy to the humble by showing him respect and honor.] 12 And he said to him also that had bidden him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, nor thy kinsmen, nor rich neighbors; lest haply they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. 13 But when thou makest a feast, bid the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: 14 and thou shalt be blessed; for they have not i wherewith to recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed in the resurrection of the just. [According to the Oriental mode of speech Jesus here emphatically commands one course of action by prohibiting a contrary course. But his prohibition is not to be construed strictly. He does not forbid the exercise of social hospitality, but [494] discountenances that interested form of it which seeks a return. His teaching is positive rather than negative, and should constrain us to live more for charity and less for sociability. Some think that this verse teaches that there shall be two resurrections, but the contrast is not between two times, but rather between two parties or divisions of one resurrection. If one has part in the resurrection of the just, he may expect recompense for his most trivial act. But if he be resurrected among the unjust, he need expect no reward, even for the most meritorious deeds of his whole life.] 15 And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. [The language of Christ implied that God himself would feast those who feasted the poor, and this implication accorded with the Jewish notion that the kingdom of God would be ushered in with a great festival. Inspired by this thought, and feeling confident that he should have been part of the festivities, this guest exclaimed upon the anticipated blessedness.] 16 But he said unto him, A certain man made a great supper; and he bade many: 17 And he sent forth his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for i all things are now ready. [The custom of sending a second invitation at the supper hour is a very old one ( Est_5:8, Est_6:14), and is still observed.] 18 And they all with one i consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a field, and I must needs go out and see it; I pray thee have me excused. 19 And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them; I pray thee have me excused. 20 And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. [These three excuses show: 1. That the guests had made their engagements, either for business or pleasure, without the least regard for the hour of the banquet; 2. That they set little value upon either the friendship or the feast of the one who had invited them. Moreover, the excuses progress in disrespect, for the first excuse is on [495] the ground of necessity, the second simply offers a reason, and the third is almost impudent in its bluntness. Viewing the excuses spiritually, we note that each one contains an element of newness--new field, new oxen, new wife. Thus the things of the earth seem new and sweet in comparison with the gospel invitation. Again, all the excuses are trifling, for the parable is intended to teach that men forego their rights to heaven for trifles. Again, the "sacred hate" of Luk_14:25, Luk_14:26 would have eliminated all these excuses. Possibly Paul had this parable in mind when he wrote 1Co_7:29-33. The three excuses warn us not to be hindered by 1. the love of possessions; 2. the affairs of business; 3. Our social ties.] 21 And the servant came, and told his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor and maimed and blind and lame. 22 And the servant said, Lord, what thou didst command is done, and yet there is room. 23 And the lord said to the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and constrain i them to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I say unto you, that none of those men that were bidden shall taste of my supper. [We have a preliminary or general invitation followed by three special invitations. We may regard the general invitation as given by Moses and the prophets in the ages before the feast was prepared. Then the first special one would be given by John the Baptist and Christ to the Jewish nation in the first stages of Christ's ministry. The second special invitation was given by Christ, the twelve and the seventy, and came more especially to the poor and outcast, the publicans and sinners, because the leading men of the nation spurned the invitation. The third invitation was begun by the apostles after the Lord's ascension and is still borne forward by those who have come after them and includes all nations. The three conditions of Jew, outcast and Gentiles are indicated by the three orders of guests: 1. The honorable citizens of the city; 2. Those who [496] frequent the streets and lanes, but are still in and out of the city; 3. Those who live without the city and are found upon the highways and in the hedgepaths of the vineyards and gardens. The second and third classes are depicted as needing to be constrained. This would be so, because they would hold themselves unworthy of the invitation. But they were to be constrained by moral and not by physical means ( Mat_14:22, 2Co_12:11, Gal_2:14). Physical constraint would have been contrary to all custom, as well as impossible to one servant. Incidentally the parable shows the roominess of heaven and the largeness of divine hospitality, so that Bengel aptly observes, "Grace, no less than nature, abhors a vacuum."]

[FFG 492-497]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Luke Chapter 14

Some moral details are unfolded in the next chapter (14). [37] The Lord, being invited to eat with a Pharisee, vindicates the rights of grace over that which was the seal of the old covenant, judging the hypocrisy which at any rate broke the sabbath when their own interest was in question. He then shews the spirit of humility and lowliness that became man in the presence of God, and the union of this spirit with love when there was the possession of worldly advantages. By such a walk, which was indeed His own, in opposition to the spirit of the world, one’s place there would be lost; the reciprocations of society would not exist: but another hour was beginning to dawn through His rejection, and which in fact was its necessary consequence-the resurrection of the just. Cast out by the world from its bosom, they should have their place apart in that which the power of God should effect. There would be a resurrection of the just. Then should they have the reward of all that they had done through love to the Lord and for His name’s sake. We see the force with which this allusion applies to the Lord’s position at that moment, ready to be put to death in this world.

And the kingdom, what would then become of it? With reference to it at that moment, the Lord gives its picture in the parable of the great supper of grace (Luk 14:16-24). Despised by the chief part of the Jews, when God invited them to come in, He then sought out the poor of the flock. But there was room in His house, and He sends out to seek the Gentiles, and bring them in by His call that went forth in efficacious power when they sought Him not. It was the activity of His grace. The Jews, as such, should have no part in it. But those who entered in must count the cost (Luk 14:25-33). All must be forsaken in this world; every link with this world must be broken. The nearer anything was to the heart, the more dangerous, the more it must be abhorred. Not that the affections are evil things; but, Christ being rejected by this world, everything that binds us to earth must be sacrificed for Him. Cost what it may, He must be followed; and one must know how to hate one’s own life, and even to lose it, rather than grow lax in following the Lord. All was lost here in this life of nature. Salvation, the Saviour, eternal life, were in question. To take up one’s cross, therefore, and follow Him, was the only way to be His disciples. Without this faith, it were better not to begin building; and, being conscious that the enemy is outwardly much stronger than we are, it must be ascertained whether, come what may, we dare, with settled purpose, go out to meet him by faith in Christ. Everything connected with the flesh as such must be broken with.

Moreover (Luk 14:34-35), they were called to bear a peculiar testimony, to witness to the character of God Himself, as He was rejected in Christ, of which the cross was the true measure. If the disciples were not this, they were nothing worth. They were disciples in this world for no other purpose. Has the church maintained this character? A solemn question for us all!

Footnotes for Luke Chapter 14

37: Chapters 15 and 16 present the sovereign energy of grace, its fruits, and its consequences, in contrast with all apparent earthly blessing, and God’s government on earth in Israel, and the old covenant. The fourteenth, before entering on that full revelation, shews us the place to be taken in such a world as this, in view of the distributive justice of God, of the judgment He will execute when He comes. Self-exaltation in this world leads to humiliation. Self-humiliation-taking the lowest place according to what we are, on the one side, and, on the other, to act in love-leads to exaltation on the part of Him who judges morally. After this we have set before us, the responsibility that flows from the presentation of grace; and that which it costs in a world like this. In a word, sin existing there, to exalt oneself is ministering to it; it is selfishness, and the love of the world in which it unfolds itself. One sinks morally. It is being far from God morally. When love acts, It is representing God to the men of this world. Nevertheless it is at the cost of all things that we become His disciples.

John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1. One of the rulers of the Pharisees on a sabbath to eat bread. In despite of the rigid ideas of the Pharisees concerning work on the Sabbath, it was made a day of feasting. “Meet the Sabbath with a lively hunger; let thy table be covered with fish, flesh, and generous wine,” is a rabbinical precept. They were watching. Though pretending hospitality, on the watch for grounds of accusation.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

General Information:

It is the Sabbath, and Jesus is at Pharisee's house. Verse 1 gives background information for the event that follows. (See: Background Information)

It happened one Sabbath

This indicates a new event. (See: Introduction of a New Event)

to eat bread

"to eat" or "for a meal." Bread was an important part of a meal and is used in this sentence to refer to a meal. (See: Synecdoche)

watching him closely

They wanted to see if they could accuse him of doing anything wrong.

Behold, there in front of him was a man

The word "behold" alerts us to a new person in the story. Your language may have a way of doing this. English uses "There in front of him was a man" (See: Introduction of New and Old Participants)

was suffering from edema

Edema is swelling caused by water building up in parts of the body. Some languages may have a name for this condition. AT: "was suffering because parts of his body were swollen with water"

Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not

"Does the law permit us to heal on the Sabbath, or does it forbid it"

translationWords

Sabbath

Pharisee

bread

scribe

lawful

cure

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

CHAPS. Luk 9:51 to Luk 18:31

This section forms a great episode in St Luke, which may be called the departure for the final conflict, and is identical with the journey (probably to the Feast of the Dedication, Joh 10:22) which is partially touched upon in Mat 18:1 to Mat 20:16 and Mar 10:1-31. It contains many incidents recorded by this Evangelist alone, and though the recorded identifications of time and place are vague, yet they all point (Luk 9:51, Luk 13:22, Luk 17:11, Luk 10:38) to a slow, solemn, and public progress from Galilee to Jerusalem, of which the events themselves are often grouped by subjective considerations. So little certain is the order of the separate incidents, that one writer (Rev. W. Stewart) has made an ingenious attempt to shew that it is determined by the alphabetic arrangement of the leading Greek verbs (ἀγαπᾶν, Luk 10:25-42; αἰτεῖν, Luk 11:1-5; Luk 11:8-13, &c.). Canon Westcott arranges the order thus: The Rejection of the Jews foreshewn; Preparation, Luk 9:43 to Luk 11:13; Lessons of Warning, Luk 11:14 to Luk 13:9; Lessons of Progress, Luk 13:10 to Luk 14:24; Lessons of Discipleship, Luk 14:25 to Luk 17:10; the Coming End, Luk 17:10 to Luk 18:30.

The order of events after ‘the Galilaean spring’ of our Lord’s ministry on the plain of Gennesareth seems to have been this: After the period of flight among the heathen or in countries which were only semi-Jewish, of which almost the sole recorded incident is the healing of the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman (Mat 15:21-28) He returned to Peraea and fed the four thousand. He then sailed back to Gennesareth, but left it in deep sorrow on being met by the Pharisees with insolent demands for a sign from heaven. Turning His back once more on Galilee, He again travelled northwards; healed a blind man at Bethsaida Julias; received St Peter’s great confession on the way to Caesarea Philippi; was transfigured; healed the demoniac boy; rebuked the ambition of the disciples by the example of the little child; returned for a brief rest in Capernaum, during which occurred the incident of the Temple Tax; then journeyed to the Feast of Tabernacles, in the course of which journey occurred the incidents so fully narrated by St John (Joh 7:1 to Joh 10:21). The events and teachings in this great section of St Luke seem to belong mainly, if not entirely, to the two months between the hasty return of Jesus to Galilee and His arrival in Jerusalem, two months afterwards, at the Feast of Dedication;—a period respecting which St Luke must have had access to special sources of information.

For fuller discussion of the question I must refer to my Life of Christ, II. 89–150.

CH. 14 THE VARIOUS DISCOURSES OF JESUS AT A BANQUET. “THE SON OF MAN EATING AND DRINKING”

1–6. SABBATH HEALING OF A MAN WITH THE DROPSY

1. τινος τῶν ἀρχόντων τῶν Φαρισαίων. ‘Of the Rulers of the Pharisees.’ Vulg[284] Cujusdam principis Pharisaeorum. The rendering of our version gives the general sense but is inadmissible. It is perhaps due to the translators being aware that the Pharisees had (strictly speaking) no Rulers. There were no grades of distinction between Pharisees as such. But obviously the expression might be popularly used of a Pharisee who was an eminent Rabbi like Hillel or Shammai, or of a Pharisee who was also a Sanhedrist.

[284] Vulg. Vulgate.

σαββάτῳ φαγεῖν ἄρτον. Sabbath entertainments of a luxurious and joyous character were the rule among the Jews, and were even regarded as a religious duty (Neh 8:9-12; Tob 2:1; Joh 12:2). All the food was however cooked on the previous day (Exo 16:23). That our Lord accepted the invitation, though He was well aware of the implacable hostility of the Pharisaic party towards Him, was due to His gracious spirit of forgiving friendliness; and to this we owe the beautiful picture of His discourse and bearing throughout the feast which this chapter preserves for us. Every incident and remark of the banquet was turned to good. We have first the scene in the house (1–6); then the manœuvres to secure precedence at the meal (7–11); then the lesson to the host about the choice of guests (12–14); then the Parable of the King’s Feast suggested by the vapid exclamation of one of the company (15–24).

καὶ αὐτοὶ ἦσαν παρατηρούμενοι αὐτόν. ‘And they themselves were carefully watching Him,’ comp. Luk 6:7. The invitation in fact even more than those in Luk 7:36, Luk 11:37 was a mere plot;—part of that elaborate espionage, and malignant heresy-hunting (Luk 11:53-54, Luk 20:20; Mar 12:13), which is the mark of a decadent religion, and which the Pharisees performed with exemplary diligence. The Pharisees regarded it as their great object in life to exalt their sacred books; had they never read so much as this—“the wicked watcheth the righteous and seeketh occasion to slay him” Psa 37:32; or “all that watch for iniquity are cut off, that make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate” Isa 29:20-21?

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Watched [ησαν παρατηρουμενοι] . The participle and finite verb, were engaged in watching. Closely [παρα] . See on Mr 3:2.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.