Knowing The Word in Luke 14:1-11, A Healing and a Wedding Feast

The ruler of the Pharisees below is probably a member of the Sanhedrin, the group of 70 men who governed the Temple and the religious and political life of Jerusalem. In his house are enemies of Jesus waiting for him to make a mistake. Jesus disarms his critics by asking a question about the appropriateness of healing on the Sabbath before he heals a man. There is nothing in Scripture to make healing unlawful. Deeds of mercy are always appropriate on the Sabbath.

In the Parable of the Wedding Feast, Jesus tells people that if you want to be high, start low. This parable is ultimately about Jesus and the cross. He is the “highest” human being ever to live and yet he put himself in the lowest position while others fought over being in the highest. God ultimately exalted him to his right hand, the highest place.

1 One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. 2 And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. 3 And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4 But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. 5 And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” 6 And they could not reply to these things.

7 Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, 9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Prayer: O Thou who in almighty power wast weak, and in perfect excellency wast lowly, grant unto us the same mind. All that we have which is our own is naught; if we have any good in us it is wholly thy gift. O Savior, since thou, the Lord of heaven and earth, didst humble thyself, grant unto us true humility, and make us like thyself; and then, of thine infinite goodness, raise us to thine everlasting glory; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost for ever and ever.

Thomas Camner (Archbishop of Canterbury), 1489-1556