Luke 14:7-24
I think we
all have some fear that we will go through life unnoticed. It starts at an early age. I see it in my children. I remember it from my own childhood. What are the two favorite words of a little
child? “Look daddy!” or “Look
mommy!” “Whoa, that’s amazing!” a parent
exclaims while trying to hide to hide the fact that they’ve seen it a million
times. “Did you see me?” a child will ask. And believe me, you’d better be looking or
you might have to see it another ten times to make up for the one time you
missed it.
Fast forward
to the teenage years. A girl finally
gets the boy of her dreams. She’s felt
insecure and things aren’t going well at home for her parents. She’s looking for love, for someone to notice
her. She’s looking for someone to make
her feel worthy.
A teenage
boy will give in to peer-pressure. He’ll
give in to alcohol, drugs or some other illegal activity because he feels
respected by other guys for doing those things.
Later in
life there’s jockeying for position and all kinds of politics while moving up
the corporate latter. “The only way I
can move up,” the desperate employee thinks, “is to make myself look better
than anyone else. Then I can finally be
respected. I’ve got to look out for me
first or I’ll be out of a job.”
Maybe one of
these is your story. Or maybe you have a
totally different story. Whatever the
case, each of us has dealt with the fear that we will go unnoticed or
unrewarded. But here’s the good
news. If you treat God’s children with
honor then God will honor you. If you
want to get on a parent’s good side then treat their children well. This is a story that Jesus shared about this
topic:
When
he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them
this parable: “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the
place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited.
If so, the host who invited
both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ Then,
humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the
lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move
up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your
fellow guests. For everyone
who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be
exalted.” –Luke 14:7-11
Paul said
something similar to this in Philippians 2:3-4, “Do
nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider
others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own
interests, but also to the interests of others.” I think the main idea Jesus
was sharing is to treat other people with honor. Eugene Peterson paraphrases Philippians 2:3-4
this way, “Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the
top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with
getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping
hand.”
So, how do you “take the lowest place” like Jesus talked
about or “consider others better than yourselves” like Paul said? Think of it this way…when do you feel
respected by someone? Is it when they’re
being critical of you or anything that belongs to you? Or is it when they try to build you up? Is it when they gossip about you? Or is it when they tell someone else what a
good job you did? Is it when someone
makes you feel like you’re less of a person because you have certain weaknesses
you can’t help? Or is it someone who
shows compassion to you? Is it someone
who ignores you and doesn’t invite you to something they’re doing with their
friends? Or is it someone who is
thoughtful and asks if you would be interested in coming along?
One of the commands in Philippians 2:3-4 is “consider.” Miriam is a very considerate person. I’ve had to learn how to become
considerate. It hasn’t come easy. The word considerate is defined in Webster
dictionary as “thinking
about the rights and feelings of other people.”
God says
that he will honor or “exalt” those who treat other people in a respectful and
considerate way. We are deferring (or
putting off or delaying) the honor we could get from other people in order to
receive honor from God at a later time.
Luke goes on
to say,
“Then
Jesus said to his host, ‘When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your
friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they
may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet,
invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed.
Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the
righteous.’”—Luke 14:12-14
If I buy a
piece of equipment for my business but it doesn’t bring my any income then I
would consider that a bad investment.
I’m not getting anything back from what I put into it. But God’s kingdom is not that way. You don’t focus on how the person can repay
you. You focus on the reward that God
will give in heaven. You can look around
the room. There are people here who are
totally different than you. A mature
Christian doesn’t love people just because they’re exactly like them, or that
they have something to offer. They love
people because they know that they have the same heavenly father. They’re your sibling. Just don’t treat your sibling like I treated
my sister. My step-brother reminds me of
the time that while my sister was sitting in the front seat of the car I pulled
her into the backseat of the car by pulling her hair. Don’t do that with your siblings.
Let’s move
on to the rest of the story in Luke 14.
When
one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is
the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”
Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great
banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he
sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is
now ready.’
“But they all alike began to make excuses. The first
said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’
“Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen,
and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’
“Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t
come.’
“The servant came back and reported this to his
master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go
out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the
crippled, the blind and the lame.’
“‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been
done, but there is still room.’
“Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the
roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those men who
were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’ ” –Luke 14:15-24
The people who
made excuses had already made up their mind that they were not coming. These are the people who are going to reject
the offer of eternal life through the gospel no matter what kind of invitation
they’re given. These excuses are
ridiculous. Here is what J. Vernon
McGee said about it:
“This is not an
excuse, it is an alibi. Someone has
said, ‘An alibi is a lie stuffed in the skin of an excuse.’ No one who was ever invited said, “I will not
come to the dinner.’ They were simply
making excuses to cover up the fact that they did not want to come.
“The first man
to give an excuse was either a liar or a fool.
Can you imagine buying property without first looking at it?’
“The first man
let possessions keep him away. The
second man let business keep him away. Again
I have to say of this second man that he is either a liar or a fool. How could this man plow at night? In those days they did not have flood
lights. This man was making excuses. ‘I must make a living,’ is a phrase I hear
often. People are so busy with their
business they have no time for God. One
day you are going to die, and you will discover that business will go on as
usual without you.
“There was a
law in Israel that excused a man from going to war if he had taken a new
wife. This man had the weakest excuse of
all. Why did he bring his wife with him
and come to the dinner? His natural
affection kept him from the dinner…
“These things
keep more people from God than anything else: possessions, business, and
natural affection. How many people today
are kept from God because of these things?
Well, God has an engraved invitation for you. It is written in the blood of Jesus Christ
and invites you to the great table of salvation.”-- Thru the Bible with J. Vernon McGee
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