Applying the Bible Krystal Craven Christian Music

When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ (Luke 14:15-20)


Just to keep things in context here, we’re still in at the party – Jesus is a guest at a dinner party with the guest list primarily being Pharisees and lawyers. Jesus has been speaking to some pretty hard topics like pride and partiality and now someone at the table seemingly decides to break the huge amount of awkwardness in the room by saying, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”

The Invitation
What the man said isn’t wrong, he’s looking forward to the great feast in heaven with our Messiah one day, just as it says in Revelation 19:9, And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” BUT Jesus answers him with a parable that will challenge whether he is ready to completely accept the invitation to that eventual feast.

The truth is that every single person is invited to come into the kingdom of God, but not every single person will accept that invitation and come when God calls.

When Jesus died on that cross and rose again all those thousands of years ago, His blood paid the price for every single person to be redeemed. Sin affected all of humanity through one man, Adam, and redemption comes through one man, Jesus. The invitation of salvation is freely given, but unless it’s received and accepted by the invitee, they don’t become a guest of the party in the house of the master.

Some Added Context
A side note here that gives great insight not only to the culture and context, but also to how it relates to salvation, is that back in that day when someone threw a great banquet they would send out invitations with an approximate time frame of the party date. It took time to plan and put together such a banquet so the guests would accept or decline the invitation and then wait for the master’s servant to tell them it was time for the party to start and then they’d go attend. It was considered extremely rude to accept an invitation and then not show up at the event.

In a similar way, the invitation of salvation is given in sharing the gospel with someone. One either accepts or rejects the initial invitation, but just because someone accepts it right away doesn’t mean they are attending the banquet. We see this concept in places like earlier in Luke 8 when Jesus told the Parable of the Sower and how seed falls on different grounds and it’s only the good soil in which that seed will actually grow and produce fruit – of which James tells us that faith without works is dead (James 2:14-26); as well as in places like Matthew 7:21 where it says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

The Excuses
We see three men giving three excuses here. Keep in mind, these are men who have already accepted the invitation to the banquet who are now being told to come because the banquet is ready and are making excuses not to come.

Two of them are along the same lines – materialistic reasons, and the other makes his wife the excuse. But all in all, all their excuses come down to not actually wanting to come. In the first two excuses they both say they have bought things a

[Jesus] said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” (Luke 14:12-14)


This turned out to be quite the dinner party in which Jesus has kindly confronted a lot of heart issues. In the previous sections, Jesus had addressed some heart issues of those invited to the party. In this section, Jesus ended up directing His words to the man who had invited Him, but His words are for more than just that one man at that one specific time.

When You Give
It was expected that people would host dinners or banquets and host people. In the Jewish culture, this was a regular thing. In our culture now, it’s kind of a thing, right? But let’s be honest, even without COVID restrictions, people don’t seem to get together at one another’s houses like they used to.

Having dinner with others is an intimate setting where conversation is had, where food and stories are shared, and where relationships can grow deeper among friends, at least when done among true friends. We saw this practice in the early church and it’s great.

So why does Jesus say not to invite your friends, brothers, relatives, or rich neighbors? And does this mean you should never invite them over? Nope, not at all. Once again, Jesus is speaking to a heart issue here, not a practical one.

Repaid by Others
When Jesus said not to invite friends, brothers, relatives, or rich neighbors, it came with a caveat – lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid.

This does not mean you shouldn’t share meals with friends, brothers, relatives, or rich neighbors; this means you shouldn’t invite those people and host them with the expectation of being invited in return. If an invitation to dinner has any motive beyond blessing them with a meal and enjoying a time of fellowship with them, then it’s a wrong motive.

We see evidence of this in situations such as politics or business. One party invites another over for dinner, may even lavish the guests with some gifts – all with the goal of getting something in return. This is the type of heart issue Jesus is addressing. If you’re giving anything with an expectation of selfishly getting something in return, then you’re not truly giving.

Repaid by God
Jesus gave instruction on how not to invite or give, then He contrasted it by giving instruction on how to invite and give.

Jesus said to invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind – BECAUSE they cannot repay you. Jesus really goaded the Pharisees and lawyers here who tended to view everything from how it appeared on the outside and directed them to look inward at their motives by giving an outward example.

But at the root of that motive to get something in return is pride. Who are we to expect anything?

And yet Jesus tells us that by inviting the poor, crippled, lame, and blind we’ll be blessed and repaid at the resurrection of the just. Some might wonder, isn’t that getting repaid too? What’s the difference in the two scenarios when both get repaid?

The difference is in the heart and how people are viewed. In the first situation, the host invites with an expectation to get repaid by those invited. The first type of host views people as a means to an end. In the second situation, the host invites knowing their guests cannot repay them. The second type of host views people as worth something simply because they’re people created in the image of God. And yet God in His goodness says He will repay them in heaven.

Remember when Jesus told us in Matthew 6, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”? If our hearts keep eternity in mind, we’ll be doing things down

Now he 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.” (Luke 14:7-11)


Jesus is on a role here at this dinner party, wouldn’t you agree? He has just asked some heart challenging questions on selfish judgements when He healed a man who had dropsy and now He’s challenging their pride as He teaches them how they should act instead of how they were currently acting.

He Noticed How They Chose
The guests at this dinner party, which we saw from last week’s section was made up of at least Pharisees and lawyers, had chosen places of honor for themselves. In ancient Jewish culture, the places nearest the head of the table where the host sat were considered the places of honor. This is similar in current American culture, at least among politicians or corporate heads. If there’s an event, say a campaign fundraiser for example, the people of importance are the ones seated with the politician at the head table.

However, when you think of those types of situations in modern culture, people often seek to gain power or influence with or through said politician. So in those instances, they seek a place of honor for themselves for selfish reasons and it’s because of their pride that they feel entitled to it.

We all as human beings are capable of such pride and selfishness and in fact, it is more natural to us because of our sin nature. But we must fight our sinful flesh desires and strengthen our spirits in which we put on humility just as Jesus our Savior did.

When You are Invited
As Jesus tells this parable, He gives instructions to not honor yourself in your seat choice, but to place yourself in the lowest seat and let the host honor you. This may seem like just a rational idea or even a dummies guide to humility, but Paul also touched on this when he told the churches in Philippi to, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:3-4) as well as to the church in Rome to “not to think of [yourself] more highly than [you] ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” (Romans 12:3)

One could simply follow what Jesus said on the outside and look humble, but in reality this is a matter that starts in the heart.

Exalted and Humbled
James gave clear insight to this when he said, “But [God] gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded…Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” (James 4:6-8,10)

The outside manifestation of this looks like exaltation of the humble and humbling of the self-exalted; however, the inside reality is that the humble who are being exalted have submitted themselves to God, resisted the devil, drawn near to God, cleansed their hands, and purified their hearts, humbling themselves before the Lord in which they receive grace from God.

A common Proverb, in which the context aligns with what Jesus and James said is, “Pride goes before

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. (Luke 14:1-6)


This section has three interesting tid-bits that we’ll dive into. One being that Jesus chose to dine at a Pharisee’s house, two is that He healed someone in the Pharisee’s home, and three is that He asked questions of the Pharisees and lawyers present.

1) Dining With Pharisees
First thing we notice is that Jesus was dining at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees among a party of lawyers and other Pharisees. We know Jesus dined with blatant sinners, but here we have a ruler of the Pharisees, which up to this point we have mainly seen Pharisees opposing Jesus, not inviting Him over for dinner at their house. This is noteworthy though because it proves that Jesus didn’t just give up on people who initially opposed Him. Jesus gave opportunities for people to have softer hearts and ears to hear and came to the invitation of that Pharisee.

2) Healing The Man
Before we dig into this one, dropsy isn’t likely something many people have heard of, and it’s only mentioned this one time in the New Testament. That’s because it is an old term for swelling due to water retention. Nowadays, the medical term for it is edema, and while it isn’t a disease in and of itself, it’s a symptom of a serious underlying issue in the body. We don’t know exactly what this man was suffering from, but swelling was a major symptom of it.

What’s really interesting is that this man ends up in the Pharisees house where Jesus was. We don’t have any other information about how he got there, maybe he was a servant in the household, or maybe he just walked in from the street when he saw Jesus sitting there so he came for healing? We really don’t know, but we know he was there before Jesus in that moment. And we know that the Pharisees and lawyers were watching Jesus carefully on that Sabbath day, and yet Jesus would heal the man regardless of the circumstances.

3) Asking the Pharisees
From an outside perspective, it would appear Jesus was kind of a in a tough situation. He was a guest in a ruler’s house on the Sabbath where they were already watching Him carefully, and a man in need of healing is now standing before Him. Notice though that Jesus didn’t take a break from His mission. The Father told Jesus to heal this man, and in His wisdom, He also took it as an opportunity to gently teach the Pharisees and lawyers.

This was a gracious thing to do because the tendency of the Pharisees and lawyers up to this point is to get all judgmental, throw a hissy fit over something that’s not actually wrong in God’s eyes, and then their wall of anger would blind them to godly explanations and teachings. Jesus frontloaded His actions here as He asked them a question to get their minds in the right perspective to what they would soon witness – a healing on the Sabbath.

Even after Jesus healed the man and sent him away, He followed up with another question that would help them check their own hearts on the matter. They were silent to both questions as they likely pondered it in their own thoughts and possibly later discussed amongst themselves when Jesus was no longer around.

Jesus could have preached a sermon on the Sabbath and quoted the Law and Prophets and pretty much rebuked the Pharisees and lawyers, putting them in their place, but He didn’t. He chose to engage in communication with the goal of invoking self-reflection and a deeper dive into what Scriptures truly say on that topic.

At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’” (Luke 13:31-35)

Not all Pharisees hated Jesus. Obviously, there were some such as Nicodemus, and even within the Sanhedrin with people like Joseph of Arimathea, who later helped bury Jesus. Here we see that some Pharisees who were upright came to warn Jesus and sought to protect Him. But Jesus’ answer is rather interesting.

Tell That Fox
Jesus referred to Herod as a fox. Now this may seem like a major slight in which we’d wonder, how can Jesus do that while not sinning. William Barclay, a 20th century theologian, explained this well when he said, “To the Jew the fox was a symbol of three things. First it was regarded as the slyest of animals. Second, it was regarded as the most destructive of animals. Third, it was the symbol of a worthless and insignificant man.” (Barclay)

So yes, this address of calling Herod a fox is brutal, but it’s honest and making the people aware that Herod was sly, destructive, and insignificant. However, to call someone insignificant seems again, not like a God thing, right? But what Jesus was stating is that even in all of Herod’s power and desire to kill Jesus, Herod was completely insignificant when it came to Jesus fulfilling His ministry and mission of the cross, which would happen according to the Father’s timing.

This becomes clearer in the rest of what Jesus said – that He casts out demons, cures people, and that in the third day will finish His course. Jesus came to do the work of the Father and He was not only doing it, but nothing Herod could have done could have thwarted it; therefore Herod was insignificant.

Jerusalem’s Prophets
Jesus gets a bit ironic here as He says, “for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem”. We see in the very next sentence that Jerusalem is “the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!” Here Jesus is using irony to emphasize the point. The point isn’t that Jerusalem is just awful because it has killed their prophets though. The point is in Jesus’ next sentence, “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

Under the Wing
Jesus is heartbroken at their unwillingness to let God be the good Father He is over them and the protection and comfort He would have provided them the way a hen gathers her brood under her wings. The prophets sent to them spoke the very words of God and instead of heeding their words, they stoned them. That was a direct reflection of their heart, not towards the prophets themselves, but it was a reflection of their hearts towards God.

The way Jesus states “How often would I have gathered your children” is indicative that God desired to protect and comfort His people often even though the people weren’t responsive to allow it.

Adam Clarke, an 18th century pastor and bible scholar, gave great insight to this as well when he said, “When the hen sees a beast of prey coming, she makes a noise to assemble her chickens, that she may cover them with her wings from the danger. The Roman eagle is about to fall upon the Jewish state — nothing can prevent this but their conversion to God through Christ — Jesus cries throug

He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” (Luke 13:22-30)

Having recognized what Jesus meant as He compared the kingdom of God to a mustard tree and leavened bread, the asked if those who are saved would be few. And Jesus in His typical fashion on not being direct, but speaking in ways that required ears to hear what the Spirit was saying through Him, told everyone to strive to enter through the narrow door. He made it perfectly clear that some would desire to enter heaven, but not all would be able to. And He explained the hard truth, that some will hear God say to them in the end, “I do not know where you come from…Depart from me, all you workers of evil!”

The Narrow Door
This concept of the narrow door is further understood in places like Mathew 7:13-14 where Jesus said, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” Also in John 10:7,9 when Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep… If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” And it’s made perfectly clear when Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

The kingdom of God, while on earth will be corrupted as it flaunts its mustard tree size and rises from the leaven within, but the true kingdom of God as it will be complete in heaven is exclusive to those who accept Jesus’ sacrifice on their behalf, being justified and accepted as perfect in Christ before God the Father.

There is no alternative way to God and an eternal residence in heaven with Him. If one does not want to be with God in heaven, they won’t be forced. Their free will can be exercised to choose to deny salvation, but then they will be turned away in the end and be in a place described by Jesus as a place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Jesus describes the people who will be in the kingdom of God in heaven – among them are Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets. What did these all have in common? Faith in the promises of God. Although they didn’t live to see the earthly coming of Jesus as Messiah, they trusted what God said about His plan of salvation and although they died on earth, they live forever with God in heaven because of their faith.

And we, having come on the earthly timeline after Jesus, have this in common with them – our faith that God’s promise of old, which came to fruition in Jesus’ work on the cross and through His resurrection, is what allows us to enter through that narrow door. We’ve all been given a measure of faith, it all just depends on where we place it. Placing it in Christ Jesus leads to eternal life forever with God, but placing it in anything else leads to a place of weeping and