WWUTT 2422 A Lesson of Humility on the Sabbath (Luke 14:1-11)

Jesus came to the house of a Pharisee on the Sabbath and healed a man. And when he saw people there at the Pharisee's house exalting themselves, he taught them a lesson on being humble, as we should be when we understand the text.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Luke 14:1-11 and the Sabbath Healing at a Pharisee’s House

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Luke, we're on to chapter 14, where Jesus dines at the house of a Pharisee on the Sabbath. And then we're also gonna read the first of two parables that he is going to share.

So let me read here chapter 14, verses one through 11. Hear the word of the Lord. One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy.

And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not? But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. 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?

And they could not reply to these things. Now, we told a parable to those who were invited when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, 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.

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. 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. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. And he who humbles himself will be exalted. There's another parable that comes right after this.

It's the parable we'll look at tomorrow. The parable of the great banquet. This exchange that Jesus has at this Pharisee's house, it starts here at the beginning of chapter 14, and it goes through verse 24.

So you have the healing of this man with dropsy, then the parable of the wedding feast, and then the parable of the great banquet. That's how this narrative in particular, this scene is divided up into these three parts.

Three Sabbath Healings in Luke

Now, Jesus has performed three Sabbath healings over the course of Luke's gospel. And this is the third of the three. The first one was back in chapter six when Jesus was teaching in the synagogue and he healed a man with a withered hand.

Did that on the Sabbath day. The second Sabbath miracle is in chapter 13, just the previous chapter where there was a woman who was hunched over due to an evil spirit that was upon her. And Jesus cast out the spirit and she was straightened up again.

Now, in this instance, Jesus is not in the synagogue. He is in a Pharisee's house, but there in the presence of the Pharisees and the lawyers who had been indignant with him in the past when he had healed on the Sabbath.

Now, that's not to say that these Pharisees and lawyers are the same guys, but it's the same class of people. Same group of people that would get mad at Jesus when he healed on the Sabbath. Here he is in a Pharisee's house and he heals this man with dropsy.

But one thing that you don't see here is them raise any kind of argument about Jesus healing on the Sabbath. So it's a different reaction from the crowd even than what we've seen before. Let's look first at this miracle Jesus performs and then considering the parable that follows.

So one Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. Now, again, after Jesus performs this miracle, they don't argue with him. And it's interesting as it says in verse two, behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy.

So was this man invited there? Was he a member of the Pharisees' household? We don't know. But there's a man that comes in with dropsy, not with leprosy. Dropsy is like when the body retains water in, it could be some unflattering places.

Sometimes it may gather in the gut and then the person looks overweight, or it may gather in the legs and then they just have swelling and deformity in the legs as a result of this water retention. So it's not an unclean disease like leprosy is.

When somebody had leprosy, they had to even be outside the city. They couldn't go in the temple. They couldn't come into the city even. So in this particular instance, you've got a man that has a debilitating condition, but it's not something that makes him completely unable to move around on his own.

It says there was a man before him who had dropsy. So he wasn't carried in and placed there, though he may have needed some help, but he was obviously sick in some way. You could have looked at him and you would have been able to tell that he had this disease.

And as this man is sitting there before Jesus, maybe it's before they're sitting down to eat, maybe it's as they're eating, we're not really told. But Jesus says to the lawyers and the Pharisees, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?

He's got them thinking about this before he heals this man. Now, if they were going to protest his healing, like how far do these Sabbath laws go? Because we're sitting at table in the house of a Pharisee, somebody had to make food.

Who was it that worked to labor for this food? The meal that was prepared. Was that not work on the Sabbath? So are you going to try to tell Jesus it's unlawful for him to heal somebody on the Sabbath?

That's the argument that's been raised before, but Jesus kind of cuts them off at the pass at the beginning of this, before they even make an argument about it. Now, the fact that Luke includes that they were watching him carefully, this could be a setup, or it could even be that maybe they wanted Jesus to heal this man.

They just didn't want to ask because it would require them to humble themselves before Jesus. They didn't want to do that. They hated him. They were looking for a reason to accuse him. And again, maybe that was the reason why this man was brought before Jesus.

They're watching him. They're going to see what Jesus does on the Sabbath. So maybe they can bring some kind of cause against him. Or again, maybe the reason was because they wanted him to heal this man if he was like somebody who was a member of the household of the Pharisees.

So Jesus says again to the Pharisees, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not? But they remain silent. They don't say anything. Are we really going to get into an argument about this? I mean, we could be arguing about should we have made food today or something like that.

They feel caught in this scenario in which they can't raise an argument against Jesus. Maybe they even want Jesus to heal this man. So let him do it because then the man will be healed. And so Jesus took him and healed him and sent him away.

He goes out from the table. Whether he was there to catch Jesus in a trap or because they wanted Jesus to heal the man, the purpose of him being there was fulfilled. So Jesus sent him on and then says to the Pharisees, 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?

Now, previously in chapter 13, when he had healed the woman who was bent over by the evil spirit, he had said, which of you on the Sabbath day, will you not untie your ox or your donkey and take him away to water him?

You'll water your animal. So how much more valuable is this daughter of Abraham? And Jesus was using an argument from the lesser to the greater. Yeah, you'll water your animal on the Sabbath and that's not work.

You're not breaking God's law by doing that. So why would you be breaking God's law, caring for another human being on the Sabbath day? So again, there was an argument from the lesser to the greater. In this particular instance, it sounds like Jesus goes from the greater to the lesser, but still making a point.

So which of you having a son, if a son falls into a well, won't you pull him out? How about an ox? So he still goes to the lesser example to point out the care that Jesus had for this man who had dropsy and why it was right, why it was good and honoring of God to heal this man on the Sabbath day.

If even your ox falls into a well on the Sabbath, will you not immediately pull him out? And they could not reply to these things. Even if their motivation was to catch Jesus in a trap, the way that Jesus has asked these questions and presented this comparison, they're stuck.

They can't make an argument at all. And I have to wonder too, was this Pharisee's wife right there, are you really gonna argue with Jesus about healing this man, healing this relative of ours, this friend of ours?

What kind of monster are you? Would that have come from his wife? He didn't wanna face the backlash of his wife. So I'm just gonna keep my mouth shut. Smart guy in this particular circumstance. But as Jesus is there eating at this Pharisee's house on the Sabbath, he's watching and seeing those who were invited sitting at the places of honor.

Humility at a Wedding Feast and the Places of Honor

And so Jesus says this parable. And this parable even ties in with the miracle that Jesus just did, because he's telling them they need to humble themselves. So humble yourself, even on a day such as this, don't hold to your piety, thinking that you're somehow being holier than thou because you wouldn't heal a man on the Sabbath.

No, the right thing to do would be to humble yourself and heal this man. You wouldn't be breaking the law anyway. It's their own traditions. They've added to the law, these traditions of man to say something like you can't heal someone on the Sabbath.

Which by the way, that's a really funny question for Jesus to ask the Pharisees. Is it unlawful to heal the man on the Sabbath? They've surely gotta be sitting there going, can you heal? Can you heal anybody at all?

Let alone the Sabbath. So they're really stuck in a spot here. I can't even heal anybody anyway. So what kind of question is this? When would I ever heal somebody? They are having to humble themselves before the Lord.

This is the Lord that's in the house. The son of God is right here at our table. I wonder if that was going through anybody's mind.

No, no, no, no, no.

We can't acknowledge that this guy is who the prophets were talking about because we hate him, remember? Yeah, we need to put him to death. So nobody have this attitude of honoring this man who is here who just healed this friend of ours.

So they're really stuck in their ways. And this is Jesus now telling this parable to humble those who are so prideful in themselves. He's seeing people come in and taking the seats of honor. And so he gives this parable, but it's not necessarily to rebuke the people who are sitting at the places of honor.

This is just an example that he's drawing out for them to teach them to humble themselves. And so Jesus says, 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.

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. Now at a wedding feast, who's going to have the real seat of honor?

It's going to be the bride and the groom, right? But even at a wedding feast, there would be seats where like the most distinguished people in the family would be able to have those seats, or maybe it would be the host, or somebody that had donated or given the most amount of money to pay for this feast and the wine and everything else, or people's travel in order to get there.

Whoever it is that had fronted the most money for this feast, he'll get the seat of honor. So even though the emphasis is on the bride and groom, mom and dad probably have more honor than the bride and groom do, as far as like reputation goes and things like that.

So they will have higher seats. And again, there may be somebody else, a friend of the family, a long traveler, somebody famous, some ruling authority or something like that. They will be given a seat of honor, even though the focus tends to be on the bride and groom.

This is the reason why we're here. We're celebrating these two people. But if you go and you sit in that place of honor and you have to be told to step down, that's going to be really embarrassing. And it's not just like a social faux pas, like we might think of in our context.

I just sat in somebody's seat and I wasn't supposed to sit there. I'm sorry, guys. I saw a throne there and I wanted to go sit in it. And at least you got bragging points, because hey, I tried, I didn't get it, but I went and sat in the big throne.

You know, it's not like that. This is actually something that comes against your character now, because you sat in a seat that did not belong to you. You were taking the seat of the person of honor. And now you have to be shamed in front of all these guests and everybody else, because that was not the seat that was meant for you.

So this was a little more serious to a Jew in the first century than it is like, again, we might just consider it a social misfire or something like that, but this was a bigger deal. So it's better for you to not take that seat of honor.

Instead, what should you do? When you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place. You don't even take one of the casual seats. Look for the lowest seat in the place and sit there, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, friend, move up higher, and then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you.

And that will even speak something to your character. But for all these guests, they know who you are, and they know this person deserves a place of honor. But when you take the lowest seat, and then you have to be moved up to a higher spot, there are people just going, wow, what a humble guy.

Look at how considerate he is of others. He was not exalting himself. He waited for somebody else to move him up to the seat of honor. Consider what's said in Proverbs 27 to, let another praise you and not your own mouth, a stranger and not your own lips.

And so Jesus goes on, then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. And he who humbles himself will be exalted. Now, there's a practical application to this, of course, the practical application being that we need to live our lives in such a way in which we demonstrate humility.

We are not trying to praise ourselves, to exalt ourselves in front of others. We're not a walking resume and talking about all our great accomplishments. We're not immediately offended when somebody doesn't recognize me or honor me in the way that I think that they should.

I should be the center of attention or something else. And we can do this on social media too. This is not just in-person interactions, but you'll see on social media, this person's channel is more popular than mine.

People should be watching my channel. Oh, if I had done and said the same things that this person was doing, I would have the more popular Facebook account or Instagram account or something like that.

Maybe you're not even trying to gain a whole bunch of followers and monetize your channel or something like that. You just want to be more popular than your friends. Got a friend over here has a thousand followers on Facebook and I still have 230 or something, you know?

And we start to even measure ourselves against others on social media based on likes. That's so arbitrary. It's absolutely ridiculous when you just sit back and think about that for a moment. But these are some of the ways that we get contentious with one another.

We start to covet each other, even coveting one another's likes. You know what scripture says about the prideful and the boastful, right? Pride goes before a fall, as it says in the book of Proverbs, but then it's also said in Psalm 5 .5, the boastful shall not stand before your eyes.

That's a prayer of David to God. You are not a God who delights in wickedness. Evil may not dwell with you. The boastful, those who are proud of themselves, who exalt themselves, who think they don't do anything wrong, they will not stand before God.

They will not be able to exalt their own glory before God. And then it goes on to say, last line of verse five, you hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

What a thing to consider even in this month in which this particular lesson is airing. What is this month typically called? We're in the month of June, it's pride month. One of the worst of sins in scripture, if not the chief sin, it was pride itself that caused Adam and Eve to eat the fruit that God told them not to eat.

And all of mankind, all of creation itself was sent into upheaval. And we have been struggling with sin and the wages of sin, which is death ever since because of pride. Every sin that you commit is an act of pride.

It's a boastfulness. It's an exalting of yourself, a glorifying of yourself instead of God. As though to say to God, my way is better than your way. I know what I need better than you know what I need.

And so going your way instead of God's way, you defy the ruler of the universe, the creator of all things. As R .C. Sproul would have said, it is cosmic treason against the high throne of heaven. When we sin, when we break God's law, when we do our own thing, when we glorify ourselves instead of glorifying God, this is the pridefulness that is inherent in every single one of us who by our nature rebel against God.

And so, yeah, there's practical application. The ultimate application that's going on here though is with regards to eternal life. Everybody who threw their lives, exalted themselves, pursued pride, pursued their own way.

I did it my way, as the Frank Sinatra song goes. Everyone who did this will not inherit the kingdom of God. You don't walk into heaven's gates exalting yourself. You get to heaven glorifying Christ. So everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.

The worst kind of being humbled. Cast into a place of eternal torment where the wrath of God pours out on that person forever. But he who humbles himself. This is Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount saying, blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

That's the humble. Blessed are those who are humble. He who humbles himself will be exalted. As Jesus said to the church in Laodicea, I will give you a place to sit with me on my throne. We will be exalted with the son and become fellow heirs of all that the father gives to the son when we enter into eternal life.

For those who humbled themselves before God especially. Confessing their sin, looking to Christ for the forgiveness of sins. We will receive eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, if we humble ourselves before God in this way, acknowledging I can't do anything to save myself.

I am not good by my works. I have broken God's law. I am a sinner worthy of judgment. We come and humble ourselves before Christ. We trust in him for the forgiveness of our sins and he lifts us up and he will seat us at his table at the wedding feast of the lamb, which we'll all sit down and enjoy in the eternal kingdom as revelation talks about.

Jesus will give us a place to sit at his table for all who humble themselves. And so if we do that, if we humble ourselves before God in this way, then that kind of humility should also be seen in our lives.

We're willing to humble ourselves before others, not pursuing and chasing after those exalted places, not looking for fame or recognition or even a wealth that we might be able to gain from any of this.

But what are those things that God has blessed us with that we can use to bless others? We were not in pursuit of ourselves and yet we would gain something anyway because somebody else exalted us instead of us exalting ourselves.

So it should even be seen in our lives. If we humble ourselves before Christ, we will be humble in our character also and people will recognize that. And again, as said in Proverbs chapter 27, let your praise come from other people and not from your own lips.

Prayer for Humility and Closing Exhortation

Heavenly father, we thank you for what we have read here and I pray that we would be considerate of others as Jesus was considerate of this man and healed him on the Sabbath. May we look for ways that we can serve others, especially those who cannot give back to us, those who can't in some way benefit us because we showed kindness to them.

We get nothing in return from that except the recognition from our father who is in heaven. And that is enough reward for us that we would show love and kindness to a son or daughter of God and then have our heavenly father smile upon us because we cared for his children.

Teach us to be humble, to humble ourselves before God and confess our sins to you and humble ourselves before one another that we may consider others needs ahead of our own. Thank you for considering our need for Christ humbled himself.

Christ sitting right there at the table with these Pharisees humbled himself more greatly than they would ever humble themselves. And so following the example of Christ, we walk in humility and meekness, seeking the glory and honor of God in all things.

It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Thank you for listening to When We Understand The Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .wutt .com and click on the Give tab in the top right corner of the page.

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