The first 24 verses of this chapter all revolve around a meal.  There are four vignettes in this passage, but all take place during a dinner at the house of a prominent Pharisee.  Jesus uses the setting to point to a truth that’s repeated throughout Luke and all the gospels: self-righteousness and its associated spiritual arrogance are more dangerous than outward sins and moral failings because of the spiritual blindness and complacency they cause.  It’s the repentant sinner willing to humble himself who will enjoy life in the kingdom of God.  The spiritually blind who exalt themselves will not enter the kingdom at all.

1-6
The chapter opens with Jesus eating at a leading Pharisee’s house (one of the leaders of the Pharisees likely means the man is a member of the Sanhedrin) on the Sabbath.  Sabbath, Jesus, Pharisees – the mix means we should prepare for a confrontation. 

During the meal there’s suddenly (behold) a man in front of Jesus who has dropsy (a disease that causes swelling – could be edema or congestive heart failure).  The fact that this man suddenly appears could mean that he’s a plant.  Perhaps the Pharisees have brought him to Jesus hoping to bait Jesus into healing him.  Note the end of verse 1 – the Pharisees are watching Him closely to see if they can trip Him up or find something to use to discredit Him before the people (which means the invitation to the Pharisee’s house is likely insincere – Jesus obviously knows this but accepts anyway because He knows He can use it to make a point about their self-righteousness as well as compassionately heal a man – and because it keeps His streak alive of never having turned down a dinner invitation in the gospel accounts). 

Verse 3 says that Jesus answers them (responds).  Note that they haven’t said anything, but Jesus knows their thoughts and motives and why He’s been invited to dinner.  And He certainly knows if the sick man’s been brought to Him intentionally.  Thus He answers the situation and their thoughts, not their words.  This is one of the maddening things about trying to trick the Son of God.

Since He knows the issue He gets right to it – “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?”  This is likely not the script the religious leaders hope for.  They want Jesus to simply heal the man so they can then accuse Him of being a lawbreaker.  By asking the question, however, Jesus forces a response and makes them either look heartless by forbidding Him to heal or acquiesce to behavior they don’t want to condone.  Since they’re essentially in a no-win situation, they don’t respond at all (it also could be that they’ve debated Him in the past and it hasn’t gone well – better to keep silent than run the risk of looking bad in front of the assembled dinner guests).

Jesus doesn’t wait for an answer (and it’s probably not a stretch to assume He looks at the Pharisees with anger and sadness because of their hardness of heart – see Mark 3:1-5) and heals the man.  He then sends him away (he’s not actually a guest at the dinner) and asks the Pharisees if they were to have an animal fall into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn’t they immediately pull it out?  It’s a rhetorical question and the Pharisees have no response (they’re now oh for two on answers to questions), but Jesus clearly takes the wind out of their sails.  Not only did He heal the man on the Sabbath, but He did it and explained it in such a way that they have no ammunition to use against Him.

The silence of the Pharisees shows their cynicism and blindness.  They don’t care at all about a man who’s healed of a debilitating disease.  They see this strictly in terms of who looks good and who looks bad and who has the upper hand.  The man was supposed to serve a purpose; what happened to him and his ultimate wellbeing are completely unimportant.  Think about what this means.  They’re HOPING that Jesus performs a healing miracle because they think it will allow them to label Him a lawbreaker.  He performs a MIRACLE – something no other human can do – and they see it merely as a step in their strategy to discredit Him.  They are so lost in their self-absorption that His ability to do things only GOD can do is simply a problem to overcome or a weakness to exploit.

7-14
Since He’s already at the Pharisee’s house and there are multiple guests at the meal, Jesus decides to give His listeners advice about how to both attend and host a dinner gathering.  In so doing, He also teaches them about the kingdom of God.  It’s interesting (and a little amusing) that He apparently doesn’t feel awkward at all after the interaction with the religious leaders over the man’s healing.  He doesn’t leave or decide to be quiet.  It’s more like He knows He has everyone’s attention, so He might as well take advantage of it to do some teaching.  This must make the Pharisee who’s hosting the gathering really happy…

Jesus notices people maneuvering to get the places of honor at the table (cultural norm of the time – seats closest to the host are considered the most honored – nobody wants to sit in the seats farthest from the host – the host assigns seats based on the social standing of each guest) so He addresses the seat wranglers with what at first seems like a handy tip: don’t pick an honored seat because you run the risk of someone more distinguished coming in after you and making you move down.  Instead, pick a seat far from the host and then you might be asked to move up.  If you’re asked to move up, you’ll receive greater honor from the guests than if you would’ve tried to pick an honored place to start with.

What keeps this first illustration from being simply a good piece of advice is verse 11.  This shows why Jesus talks about how to attend a meal.  In the kingdom of God, he who exalts himself shall be humbled and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.  He addresses the people at the meal but His main target is likely the religious leaders who invited Him (once again making them so glad they invited Jesus to this meal).  They are the guests at the great banquet who will be asked to move down after they exalt themselves by assuming they’re the most honored.  This goes along with the point He made in 13:25-30 (especially verse 30); Jews who think they’re in the kingdom of God by virtue of their heritage alone are set to be horribly disappointed.  It’s belief in Jesus that counts – nothing else.  And because the elites have scorned belief, the last shall be first and the first shall be last and the guests at the banquet who think they’ll be honored will be moved down (or out).

The first illustration leads directly into the second.  Starting in verse 12, He moves from advising the attendees of the meal to advising the host (who by this time must be vowing to himself to never, ever invite Jesus to another meal).  Jesus directs him to no longer invite only people who can repay him in kind.  Instead, he should invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind.  He should open his home to those who most need food and shelter and who have no way of reciprocating.  The payback will come at the resurrection of the righteous. 

In this instruction Jesus points to a godly life.  God is merciful and generous, so when we are those things we act as He does (see 6:32-36).  And the one who serves the disadvantaged and the forgotten will be richly rewarded at judgment.

Ultimately Jesus instructs His followers to live for eternal rewards and to impress their Creator rather than trying to earn the favor of the beautiful people of this world.

This second piece of advice leads directly into the parable He’s about to tell.  Just as the Pharisee should invite the poor and the disabled, so God will open his kingdom to those who are scorned and excluded.

15-24
After Jesus talks about who to invite to dinner, someone at the table cries out, “Blessed is everyone who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!”  This is likely a common proverb and the man probably calls it out with the understanding that it’s the Jews who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.  Jesus ended His admonition to the host by referring to the resurrection of the righteous (vs 14), so this man decides to remind everyone just who the resurrected righteous will be.  He’s essentially saying, “We all know who will be at the feast in the kingdom!  It’s good to be one of the chosen people of God!”

Jesus’ response to the man is probably not what the man expects.  Jesus tells a parable about rejecting God’s offer of salvation.  This is commonly called the parable of the Great Banquet.

The story is of a wealthy man who gives a big dinner and invites numerous guests (to understand the story it’s important to know that in this age the guests are invited beforehand but the exact time is unknown until the preparations are ready – on the day of the meal the host sends word to the guests that it’s time to come – it reflects an age where time is not nearly as exact and schedules not as sacred).  On the day of the feast, he sends word to the invited guests and every one of them makes a weak excuse as to why he can’t come (again, to understand the excuses it helps to understand the culture, but in all cases it’s obvious that the guests aren’t sincere, they’re rejecting the summons to come).  As a result, the host angrily opens his home to the poor and crippled and blind and lame (note similarity with verse 13) and has them attend the banquet he originally intended for the invited guests. When he notices that he still has room in his house, he tells his servants to broaden their search and go to the highways and hedges and convince people to come for the feast.

The message of the parable returns to the truth of the last being first and the humble being exalted.  The invited guests are the Jewish elites.  They reject Jesus and so the Father turns to the non-elites and the Gentiles.  The poor and crippled and blind and lame refer to the forgotten and unlearned of society – those not trained and educated as the religious leaders are – as well as sinners who the Pharisees would never associate with.  And the guests from the highways and hedges likely refer to the Gentiles.

The parable ends with the master telling his servants that none of the original invitees will taste of my dinner.   This is clearly a warning to the Jewish religious leaders sitting at the table and listening.

Two things about the parable stand out.  One is the anger of the man giving the dinner when he hears the guests aren’t coming.  Since he represents God, it’s sobering that this is His reaction to having His invitation – and His Son – rejected.  Note that if the original invitees represent the Jews, it means they were the first to be invited into the kingdom of God.  Jesus is a Jew and came to the Jews first.  That they’ve rejected Jesus subjects them to God’s wrath.  Second, Jesus tells this parable in response to the man who called out the blessing on those who eat bread in the kingdom of God (vs 15).  Jesus wants to make it clear to the Jews that their religious heritage doesn’t guarantee they’ll get to eat bread in the kingdom.  He returns to the message of 13:28-30 – Jews who reject Jesus are not in, while Gentiles who accept Him are.

And on that happy little note the meal apparently ends, and the Jewish elites at the table look at one another and try to decide whose idea this whole thing was and what happened to making Jesus look bad and why is it that Jesus leaves with His reputation intact while they’ve been humiliated and publicly told they’re damned?  It has not been a good day for scheming Pharisees.

Thoughts
By healing the man on the Sabbath (choosing compassion over legalism) and then by what He teaches through illustration and parable, Jesus repeatedly highlights the importance of humble belief weighed against the danger of self-righteousness.  There is only ONE key that allows entrance into the kingdom of God – belief in Jesus.  Nothing else matters – not ancestry, not adherence to the Law, not status in society.  But the Pharisees, the religious elite and the very ones who instruct others in the ways of God, look at Jesus only as a blasphemer who needs to be eliminated.  They look directly at the way of salvation and see instead an obstacle to their way of life.  They are a walking illustration of the blindness of sin. 

Ultimately, those who humble themselves – realize their sin and trust only in Jesus – will be exalted – allowed entrance into the kingdom of God and its attendant glories.  Those who exalt themselves – assume they need nothing because they are righteous and have the right ancestry – will be humbled – shut out of the kingdom and away from the presence of God.