Read Luke 14:1–24
Questions from the Scripture text: Where did Jesus go in Luke 14:1? To do what? When? What did the Pharisees do? Who else was there (Luke 14:2)? To whom does Jesus speak in Luke 14:3? What does Jesus ask them? What do they do (Luke 14:4a)? What does Jesus do (verse 4b)? Now what does He ask them (Luke 14:5)? What were they unable to do (Luke 14:6)? What did He tell them now (Luke 14:7)? What prompted it? What situation was the parable about (Luke 14:8)? What did He tell them not to do? Why not (Luke 14:8-9)? What did He tell them to do instead (Luke 14:10a)? Why (verse 10b)? What principle did this teach (Luke 14:11)? To whom does He now speak (Luke 14:12)? What does He tell him not to do? Why not? What does He tell him to do instead (Luke 14:13)? Why (Luke 14:14a)? When will such deeds be repaid (verse 14b)? How does one of the table guests respond to this idea (Luke 14:15)? What is the parable about, with which Jesus responds (Luke 14:16)? Whom does the host send to whom to say what (Luke 14:17)? What did they begin to make (Luke 14:18)? What were their excuses (Luke 14:18-20)? How did the master respond (Luke 14:21)? Whom did he say to go bring instead? What was the servant’s report (Luke 14:22)? What did the master say to do to whom where (Luke 14:23)? Why? What about those who were originally invited (Luke 14:24)?
When we’re consumed with earthly things, we won’t know how to keep the earthly Sabbath. The ruler of the Pharisees (Luke 14:1) had no problem having Jesus over for dinner on the Sabbath, and truly Jesus’s efforts to evangelize the Pharisees were not less than the effort expended to heal the man with dropsy.
But they could not see what they had in front of them: the Lord of the Sabbath Himself. The One for Whom they were made. The only One by Whom they could be redeemed. The One Whose glory defines the purpose of our redemption and Whose fellowship defines the pleasure of our redemption.
But the spiritually dull religionists around the table couldn’t see Him. They could only see their self-over-estimated expertise in the law and self-over-estimated goodness at keeping what they thought it said. But those who do not love the Lord with all their heart cannot know truly what it is to love their neighbor as themselves. How easily Jesus bursts the balloon of their self-impressed-ness so easily. They cannot answer the simple question, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
Once they are not able to answer Him, He tells them two parables. The first (Luke 14:7-14) teaches that their self-impressed-ness sets them up for humiliation. They are exalting themselves (Luke 14:11a) by inviting whoever seems important (Luke 14:12), which leads to humiliation. They invited Jesus because they thought it exalted them. But they should have been focused on doing good to people like the man with dropsy, because their repayment is already guaranteed in the resurrection.
The second parable (Luke 14:15-24) teaches that they need to be more concerned with whether they are going to be at the Lord’s dinner on His climactic Day than they are with what He does at their dinner on His weekly day. Earthly-mindedness (Luke 14:18-20) gets in the way of valuing fellowship with Christ above all pleasures and will keep people out of the kingdom altogether.
When we live to glorify Christ instead of self, we know the purpose of the Sabbath, of this life, and of our eternal blessedness. And when we live to enjoy Christ in all earthly things and above all earthly things, we know the pleasure of the Sabbath, and of this life, and of our eternal blessedness.
What do your Lord’s Day habits say about how much Jesus’s glory really is your purpose and Jesus’s fellowship really is your pleasure? How might you improve keeping the day?
Suggested Songs: ARP73C “Yet Constantly, I Am with You” or TPH152 “Lord of the Sabbath, Hear Us Pray”
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