Sunday August 29, 2010 Luke 14:1, 7-14

Welcome, what a nice day, no humidity and cool. A hint of fall is starting with these cool days. Our text for Sunday is still in Luke. Last week we were in chapter 13 and now we skip to chapter 14.

V1 Jesus is eating at the house of a Pharisee and they are watching him closely. It is the Sabbath and he has been breaking the Sabbaths so they watch him to see what he will do. Apparently the Pharisee had invited a sick person to the meal also in the following verses. It was a set up. They wanted to trap Jesus again breaking a Sabbath by healing him. Of course Jesus does heal the man which adds fuel to the Pharisee fire. How they can keep focusing on rules and not be amazed by the healing is beyond me.

V7 Jesus took note of how the invited guests would grab the best places at the table first. This was typical behavior at meals. Each person felt they were very important and others needed to notice this so they would sit in the most honorable seats first.

V8-9 He teaches them about humbleness. When invited to a meal do not assume that you are the most important guest and take the most honored seat. You may be asked to move to a lesser seat because you have assumed too much importance for yourself and the host has others he wants to honor more than you. It would be shaming to be asked to give up the seat of honor you took for yourself and move to a lesser one.

V10 Instead of assuming you are important and want everyone to notice you, take a lesser seat and if the host sees you and wants you to be in a more honorable position he will move you up in front of the other guests and everyone else will notice how the host has honored you.

V11 All who exalt themselves (blow their own horns-brag about themselves) will be humbled but those who humble themselves (give others the credit-deflect attention from themselves) will be exalted.

V12-13 Jesus now talks to the Pharisee who had invited him. He says instead of giving a party and inviting your friends who will return the favor, give a party and invite those who have no means of returning the favor.

V14 You will be blessed because you have done this out of the kindness of your heart and not for repayment. Your payment will be at the resurrection of the righteous. In other words don’t neglect those in need while you feast with those who will reciprocate by doing something for us. Provide for more people than just your circle of friends.

In effect, Jesus is teaching them that if they want God to notice them because of their deeds of honor; forget it. God knows already ones good deeds; we don’t need to advertise it. If we insist on getting the attention of people for what we do then God will not take note of our deeds because we have gotten what we wanted-mans approval. If we go quietly about our business doing good for others and not plying for notice, God will take notice and reward our actions in heaven. This is all about a person’s goal-to be noticed by men and bragged about or to work quietly and be noticed by God. Who do we want to notice us?