Today, I am reading and commenting on  Luke 14-16.

It struck me that we often miss part of the point of the parable of the banquet which Jesus tells here.  Everyone I have seen or heard comment on it says that the banquet in this parable is the kingdom of heaven, and that those who were initially invited were too busy to enter when the time came.  That is not wrong, just incomplete.  In light of what I wrote yesterday, it strikes me that they too busy to do what God asked of them.  They passed up on their opportunities to serve God and thus missed the blessings of doing so, the “banquet”.  All too often we miss Jesus’ point that the blessing of serving God is serving God.  Or, to put that another way, the joy we get out of doing God’s will is greater, and more fulfilling, than anything else we could do with our time and energy.

When I first read today’s passage my first thought was about the final line of Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus: “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”  This is another one of those things that we tend to overlook.  We get caught up in the main point of the parable and miss this point.  I really think that what Jesus is saying here ties in with what Paul wrote in Romans 1:18-20.  Specifically, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”  In the case of this parable which Jesus told, Jesus is speaking particularly about the lessons to offer care for those in need out of our resources, while Paul is talking more generally about belief in God and what how He commands us to act.  I wrote that last sentence and realized those two points are not as far apart as I thought the were when I began writing it.  Both Jesus and Paul are telling us that there are no arguments we can use to convince those who choose not to believe in God.  If they have chosen to reject the words God has spoken through His prophets, and the evidence He has made plain in the very nature of the universe, they will also reject any evidence we can provide them.  That does not mean that we do not try anyway.  We just need to remember that only the power of the Holy Spirit will change their minds.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Luke 14-16.

My thoughts are all over the place on today’s passage, just like they were last year.  Today’s passage starts with Jesus performing another healing on the Sabbath.  He uses this opportunity to teach us that it is never the wrong time to relieve someone else’s suffering.  He goes from there to teach that we should not assume positions of honor for ourselves.  Rather we should place ourselves into the positions of low honor, allowing others to lift us up to places of honor.  Then Jesus tells us that when we throw parties and fancy events we should not invite those who can repay us by returning the invitation.  Instead we should invite those who otherwise do not have the opportunity to attend such events.  We will be blessed by such things, and God will repay us for the expense (and probably with things which cannot be bought for any price).  Jesus then tells a story about another banquet.  One where the invited guests all made excuses for why they could not come, so the one throwing the banquet brought in guests who would otherwise have been unable to attend.

Later, Jesus tells us that we must understand the cost of following Him, that we may have to give up our family, our wealth, and even our lives in order to be faithful to Him.  Luke then tells us about Pharisees and teachers of the law complaining because Jesus welcomed sinners to be His followers and was willing to hang out with them (even when they had not yet changed their ways).  Jesus replies to this by telling us that we should have more enthusiasm for bringing the good news to those who have wondered away from God and become lost than in debating His teachings with other followers of Christ.  The final point I want to make concerns Jesus teaching about how we should relate to material wealth once more.  We cannot serve God if we care more about material goods than we do about the needs of others.

I hope you see the thread which runs through all of these tying them together.  I was hoping I could find a phrase which would sum it all up once I had written down each of the parts, but that never happened.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Luke 14-16.

OK, I have some disconnected thoughts about today’s passage.  Perhaps I will manage to tie them together as I write.  Jesus tells us that we should never honor ourselves, nor assume that places of honor belong to us.  Instead of seeking the place of greatest desirability at a gathering or event, let us instead leave such places for others.  Instead wait for others to invite us to such a place, wait for others to hold us up for honor.  Instead of seeking honor for ourselves, let us seek to honor others.  Next I want to write about Jesus’ discussion about the excitement in heaven over finding the lost.  In His parables we normally think of God as being the one who found that which was lost.  While that is certainly the face value of what Jesus is saying, we should think a little deeper.  We should be the ones who energetically, and excitedly, seek out those who are lost and bring them back to God.  Which brings me to the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  We often think, speak, and write negatively about the elder son, because of the jealousy he felt over the feast his father gave his younger brother.  However, when we do that we are overlooking that his father offered him comfort, not condemnation.  The father pointed out that everything he had was the older brother’s and invited him to join the celebration of his brother’s return.  In the same way, God invites us to celebrate the return to Him of those who turned their backs on Him.  We get to decide by how we react whether the older son was ultimately a good brother or a bad brother, because we are the elder son in Jesus’ story.  We may have been, in fact, probably were, the younger son who turned his back on the Father, on God, but now we have been brought back and need to join God in celebrating the return of those who return after us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Luke 14-16.

There is more to the parable of the banquet in this passage than we normally notice.  Jesus tells the story of a man who when he started preparing a feast invited a bunch of people.  They all readily accepted his invitation despite the fact that he was not sure when he would hold the feast.  However, once the feast was ready and he sent out notices to come to the feast, they were all too busy to attend.  We normally interpret the “feast” as being heaven.  While there is nothing wrong with that interpretation, it misses an important part of the message which Jesus preached repeatedly.  By the way, today is the first time I noticed this about this passage.  In this case, the “feast” is to do God’s will (primarily, helping those in need).  Are we too busy to help those in need when the opportunity presents itself to us?  More importantly, do we recognize the opportunity to help those in need as a “feast”, as something not to be missed?  Doing God’s will, helping others, should be something we view as a treat, as a special occasion, like going to a feast/banquet.  Heaven will only be heaven for those who take joy out of serving others.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 14-16

As I was reading this I considered writing about various elements of this passage: Jesus’ teaching about humility, His parables about seeking the lost, His parable about the fired manager, and such.  However, when I got to the end, to the end of His story about Lazarus and the rich man, I was truly struck by what He said Abraham told the rich man.  Jesus said that when the rich man asked Abraham to send someone back from the dead, Abraham responded by telling him that if they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t listen if someone comes back from the dead.  That concluding statement reminds me of something I heard a Christian apologist say once.  When someone asks for proof of God’s existence, before trying to offer them proof, ask them what would constitute proof for them.  Jesus made the point that God has revealed Himself.  Those insisting that they need more proof do not want to believe that God exists; they want to believe that He does not exist.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 14-16

There is more to Jesus’ teaching about honoring ourselves than is obvious.  Jesus gives the example of taking the seat of honor and being forced to give it up because someone of greater significance arrives.  Instead, He says that we should take the seat of least honor, then our honor will be even greater when the host moves us to the seat of honor.  However, there is more to it than that.  There are all sorts of social dynamics revealed here, but Jesus goes on to tell us that when we throw a party we should invite those who are unable themselves to throw a party.  So, while there is greater honor in being elevated to a position of honor from the humble position we chose for ourselves, we should not seek to be honored at all.  Or, perhaps a better way of putting it, we should seek the good opinion of those whose opinion society does not value.

Luke recounts five of Jesus’ parables here (well, actually six, but the first one is part of completely different theme).  Three of them illustrate the importance of befriending and loving the “lost”.  The parable of the lost sheep and the one of the lost coin illustrate how much joy and pleasure God takes over sinners repenting of their sin and returning to Him.  They also illustrate how that repentance does not happen by chance.  It is the result of great effort on God’s part, and perhaps on the part of those who serve Him.  I realized today that the parable of the prodigal son is actually more about the older son.  The older brother was angry that his father threw such a feast for his brat of a brother.  From our human perspective we tend to sympathize with the older brother.  He had done everything he was supposed to do, yet his younger brother who rebelled and ran away was given a celebration.  However, the parable points out that the older brother experienced all of the good things which come from being faithful.  He was not loved any less because his father was overjoyed that his rebellious brother had returned.