Luke 14

This chapter is part of the journey to Jerusalem that begins at Luke 9:51. Following the Sabbath healing and the lament over Jerusalem in Luke 13, it is again set at a Sabbath meal.

Outline

• Verses 1–6: When Jesus goes to eat on the Sabbath at the house of one of the chief Pharisees, the people watch him closely. Jesus heals a man with dropsy, a condition that causes the body to swell (the New Korean Revised Version renders it as "edema"). He then asks whether they would not pull out a son or an ox that had fallen into a well, even on the Sabbath.
• Verses 7–11: Noticing how the guests choose the chief seats, he teaches that a person invited to a wedding feast should take the lowest place.
• Verses 12–14: He tells his host to invite not friends or rich neighbors who can repay him, but the poor and those with disabilities, saying that the host will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.
• Verses 15–24: In response to a remark by one of the guests, he tells the parable of the great supper. When those invited excuse themselves on account of a field, five yoke of oxen, and a marriage, the master has the poor brought in from the streets and lanes of the city and has people compelled to come in from the highways and hedges so that his house may be filled.
• Verses 25–33: He tells the great multitudes the conditions of discipleship. A disciple must hate his family and even his own life and must bear his cross; like a man intending to build a tower, or a king preparing to meet an army of twenty thousand with ten thousand, he must first count the cost; and he must forsake all that he has.
• Verses 34–35: He says that salt that has lost its savor is good for nothing and is cast out.

Key Verses

• Luke 14:11 "For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." This principle concludes the teaching about places at the table and is repeated in Luke 18:14.
• Luke 14:23 "Compel them to come in, that my house may be filled." This verse is frequently cited as showing the widening circle of those invited to the feast.
• Luke 14:27 "And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple." This verse is central to the teaching on discipleship (the life of a disciple) in the latter part of the chapter.

People and Places

• Jesus Christ: A guest at the table and the teacher.
• Pharisees: A Jewish group that sought to keep the Law strictly. The host of the meal was one of their leaders.
• Lawyers: Experts who studied and taught the Law, a group similar to the scribes of the other Gospels.
• The man with dropsy: An unnamed man healed at the meal.
• The house of the chief Pharisee: The text does not identify the village.

Points for Reflection

• The parable of the great supper has a plot similar to that of the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22. Some view the two as different accounts of the same parable, while others regard them as separate parables told on different occasions.
• A widely accepted interpretation reads "hate" in verse 26 as a Hebrew idiom of comparison that expresses what one puts first. Matthew 10:37 expresses the same idea with the words "He that loveth father or mother more than me."
• The phrase "compel them" in verse 23 has been controversial historically. Augustine is known to have cited this verse in defense of coercive measures against the Donatists, whereas many Protestant denominations today generally read it as an urgent, earnest invitation.
• The Sabbath healing controversy is linked to Luke 6:6–11 and 13:10–17, and the saying about salt parallels Matthew 5:13 and Mark 9:50. The next chapter, Luke 15, likewise continues with parables.
• The "resurrection of the just" in verse 14 and the feast in the kingdom of God in verse 15 relate to the hope of the resurrection and the kingdom of God.

In the Korean Church

Verse 23, "Compel them to come in, that my house may be filled," is often used as a sermon text urging evangelism. Verses 7–11 are frequently cited in sermons on humility, and verses 25–33 in sermons on the disciple's life of bearing the cross.