The Story

It was a Sabbath day in the country beyond Jordan. The Lord was eating at the table in a Pharisee's house. A sick man was there. Can we think what the Lord would do, what the Pharisees would say, and how the Lord would answer?

The Lord then spoke three parables. Often His parables were about things close at hand, the farmers in fields, the shepherds with their flocks. So now the parables were about feasts. He spoke first to the guests who were coming and were choosing the chief places at the table. Read verses 7 to 11. Next He spoke a parable to the one who made the feast, and asked the Lord and the other guests to come. When he made a dinner or a supper, who ought to be invited, just people who could ask him in return, or the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind? "Maimed" means disabled by some injury. Read verses 12 to 14.

One of those at the table said, "Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." And the Lord spoke the parable of the Great Supper. Listen to the story, verses 15 to 24. We think of the man making the best supper that he could and inviting beforehand many people so that they could be ready. When the time came he sent again to remind them, but they all began to make excuse. What were their excuses? What did the man do who had made ready the feast? The streets and lanes of the city were near to his house. The highways and hedges were in the borders of the town. So a company was gathered for the supper, but none of the people were there who had been asked and had made excuses. Who makes the great supper? Yes, the Lord. And when you know this, you know the meaning of the whole story.

Someone read us the first six verses of the chapter and compare with verses 11 to 17 in the previous chapter.

Find in our lesson the parables which the Lord spoke to the company with Him at meat in the Pharisee's house. How many parables do you find? They are about feasts, as the parables so often were about things nearby. Someone read us the first parable, verses 7 to 11. The "chief rooms" were the chief places at the table, probably nearest to the one who gave the feast. It seems a selfish reason given, for taking the lowest place, and selfish reasons may often bring about the appearance of good manners. But the Lord wishes us to be polite and kind from a real spirit of kindness, and there is a better happiness in being kind than in taking chief places.

Someone read us the second parable, verses 12 to 14. Should we do things for other people in the hope of return to ourselves, or in the hope of helping them? Should we invite people just because they give us a good time, or should we think rather who can be helped? Again, it seems to be a selfish motive suggested in verse 14, the hope of recompense at the resurrection of the just. The Lord does not wish us to help others for the sake of a reward in heaven, but He wishes us to know that there is an inner happiness in doing good and being kind unselfishly.

The third parable is longer. Someone read it slowly, giving us time to talk about it as we read. Verse 14 seems to suggest the remark in verse 15, and this is the occasion of the parable and gives the key to its meaning. We all think that we wish to come into heaven and to have part in the life of heaven. But we may be making excuses to keep out of heaven. The excuses grow more and more positive. Had the parable an application to the Pharisees and to the poor people and sinners who listened to the Lord?

1. What did the Lord do on the Sabbath in the Pharisee's house? What other things did He do on Sabbath days?

2. What three parables did the Lord speak at the Pharisee's table? What place should one take at a feast? Whom should he ask to come?

3. In the parable of the great supper what excuses were made? What does the great supper mean? .

4. What is meant by counting the cost in following the Lord?

This healing on the Sabbath day we thought of in connection with verses 11 to 17 of the previous chapter. (E. 537)

The Lord's eating with the people and His parables at meat relate spiritually to the receiving of gifts and abilities from the Lord and to the use we make of these endowments. To feel proud and self-sufficient is to choose a chief place. If we have this spirit the Lord may let some trial come to teach us humility. Humility must be learned, if we are to go up higher, if we are to increase in heavenly life.

The parable about inviting guests to the feast contrasts the motive of pleasing ourselves and the motive of helping others in the use of the Lord's gifts, natural and spiritual. Shall we use them to win praise or gain, or to help where help is needed? The spiritual reward mentioned is not a happiness to be sought for, but is found unsought in a life of helping others.

The three excuses in the parable of the great supper represent a successively stronger grip by natural and evil things, which makes it more and more difficult and finally impossible to leave them. "I have bought a piece of ground" well describes a youthful interest in opportunities of the world which may keep one from interest in spiritual things. The oxen represent affections for natural use and pleasure exerting a strong pull away from spiritual life and heaven. (Psalm 106:20; A. 9391; R. 242) The marriage which makes it impossible to come is the union of falsity and evil in a confirmed evil life.

Who are the family who must be left and who must be hated if we would follow the Lord? They are the family of natural evil thoughts and feelings, foes of our own household. (Luke 9:59-62; Matthew 10:35, 36; E. 724) To bear the cross after the Lord is to be faithful in temptations, in giving up our natural way for His sake.

The tower which we build is that of heavenly understanding. (Luke 13:4) We lay the foundation as we gather natural knowledge. Anyone can do this. But it is impossible to rise to intelligent understanding and to real wisdom without doing what we know is right. This is the counting of the cost. (A. 4599) Our warfare is the conflict of what is good and true with what is evil and false. Twenty thousand suggests the apparent power of evil. It is also associated with self-confident strength, while ten thousand represents the strength of childlike innocence and of trust in the Lord. Which is the stronger? Salt here, as in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:13) stands for the necessity for union of truth with good, if it is to have power. Salt that has lost its savor means truth with no desire to put it in practice. It is of no use at all. (A. 9207)

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