The poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind

Luke 14:1-14

Key Verse 14:13-14

“But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." 

In this passage we see Jesus helping the groups of religious leaders of his day called “the Pharisees” and “the teachers of law.” Of all the religious groups, the Pharisees were by far the finest. Their doctrines were sounder than the doctrines maintained by any other groups like the Essenes or the Sadducees. But still they largely departed from the original intent God had in mind in establishing them as spiritual leaders. Then using the brief moments of having an eating fellowship with them Jesus gave them quick corrections so they would know how to serve people correctly.

There are three points for us to consider. And these points are applicable to all Christians. In our generation like the different sects among the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, we too have many different denominations. But in God’s eyes, denominational distinctions do not mean anything, because regardless of which denomination one belongs to, the bottom line for every Christian is that he or she is a Christian, and God called each Christian to serve people. So let everyone called to be in service of others (parents or school teachers) consider the points Jesus is making.   

First, if one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day…

Look at verse 1. “One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched.” We do not know exactly why the Pharisee invited Jesus to an eating fellowship at his house. But the good thing is that he invited Jesus the author of the universe to his house. The indications show that his motive was not 100% pure. But still because he invited Jesus, Jesus was able to teach him and his audience what they needed to learn. Maybe the cost of inviting Jesus such as the grocery bill was only a few dollars. But the words Jesus taught them are pricelessly valuable. Most importantly Jesus is the source of salvation. By inviting Jesus to his house, then, the host and his guests came to have a golden opportunity to see God in Jesus and make their way into the kingdom of God for free. 

Verse 2 says that there in front of Jesus was a man suffering from dropsy. We do not know how this man ended up being seated right in front of Jesus. Was it because someone (possibly the host) “planted” him to see whether or not Jesus would heal the man and thereby break the Sabbath law? Or was he there without the host’s prior knowledge of his medical condition? The indications are that he was “planted”. For example verse 4 says that after healing the man Jesus “sent him away”. The expression “sent him away” suggests that this man did not need to be there; he was there only because someone “planted” him to trap Jesus. If this is indeed the case we can see Jesus’ true greatness, because although Jesus must have known the ill motives of the people, still Jesus responded to the invitation. To Jesus, every challenge serves as the opportunity to reveal God’s glory to men.  

Now Jesus took the challenge and made a move. Look at verse 3. “Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?" Here by the word “law” (in the word “lawful”) Jesus was referring to Moses’ Ten Commandments, the fourth commandment in particular, Exodus 20:10 to be precise, for it reads, “[T]he seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.” Jesus knew what they knew. All the information stuffed up inside of all the brains of all the people in the room was fully known to Jesus. When Jesus asked “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” most likely Jesus was referring to their knowledge on the categories of forbidden Sabbath work. In fact according to the Mishnah (Jewish Oral Law) there are 39 categories of work that are forbidden on the Sabbath day: “planting, plowing, reaping, harvesting, threshing, winnowing, selecting, grinding, sifting, kneading, baking, shearing wool, whitening it, carding it, dyeing it, spinning, warping, making two slips, weaving two threads, unraveling two threads, knotting, untying, sewing two stitches, tearing in order to sew two stitches, trapping a deer, slaughtering it, skinning it, salting it, tanning its skin, scraping it, cutting it, writing two letters, erasing in order to write two letters, building, demolishing, extinguishing, igniting, striking with a hammer, carrying out from one domain to another.” 

I do not know how Jesus planned to heal the man with dropsy. Was Jesus going to heal the man by simply speaking to him? Or is he going to use the conventional method? Certainly if Jesus was to use the conventional method such as that of a medical doctor, performing surgery his healing would involve works like opening up wounds, giving him stitches, and/or writing prescriptions on a piece of paper etc. If he was going to heal that way, certainly he would necessarily do the works that are forbidden like sewing more than two stitches, or writing two or more letters, etc. If Jesus did that, Jesus was going to be condemned as a law breaker. He is going to become “a sinner”. If this happens, then Jesus’ career as the Savior would be finished. 

"Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?" What is the right answer to the question? The answer is obvious. As Jesus already taught, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27). So the answer to Jesus’ question was “Yes. It was lawful to heal on the Sabbath.” But they remained silent. 

Jesus took their silence as “We don’t know.” So to further enlighten them, taking hold of the man, Jesus healed him and sent him away. Then he asked them, "If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?" And they had nothing to say. They had no choice but to admit that it was lawful to heal the Sabbath. 

Let us stop for a moment and think about the point Jesus was making: “If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?” Let us pay attention to three words, “son”, “ox” and “immediately.” To every parent, a son or a daughter is more valuable than the whole universe. Of course an “ox” is also valuable. In contemporary terms, its value is comparable to that of a Honda Civic or a small business such as Seven Eleven. The word “immediately” indicates how sensitive and absolute we are in protecting our own children or personal property. And these words reveal our “love” for them: we love our own children; we love our own this or our own that. 

But here is the problem: when it comes down to the children or properties that belong to someone else, the story becomes different: our love grows thin and cold, and degenerates into the sheer “indifference”. And when someone else’s car is smashed, we “love” to come around and say “what’s going on”, but not with the same sense of pain as the owner has.  Here then Jesus is pointing the religious leaders to the spirit of love built into the Law of Moses. And Jesus wants his people to love God and one’s neighbor with the kind of love God has for all people on earth. And love is not “self-centered”: it serves first the needs of the one it chooses to love.  In the passage then Jesus wants the Pharisees and the teachers of the law to love the man with a medical condition just as they love their own kids or animals.  

The mandate to love others is based on the way God made man, that is, in the image of God. God’s children carry God’s image, and one of the attributes of God’s image is to love all people on earth with a sacrificial love. To God, all peoples on earth are like ten fingers. I have ten fingers. And you do too. And to you and I, each finger is as valuable as all the rest. And I love my fingers equally. The same is true with God in relating himself to all people on earth. God loves Asians. God loves North Americans. God loves South Americans. God loves Africans. God loves people inside of the church. God loves people outside of the church. God loves the saved ones and God loves the ones that are yet to be saved. God loves all people on earth. And he loves each of them equally. This is the kind of love God has for mankind. 

Likewise, God wants his people to love others as much as one loves one’s own. Practically however practicing this kind of love is more easily said than done. In fact living in this “I, my, me, mine” generation, it is very possible that Christians can become very selfish. They may think about and show concern for their own children, their own ministry, their own fellowship, their own sheep, but not so much for others. And Jesus does not like this kind of partiality. 

Yet, every once in a while we see beautiful examples of people practicing God’s love. One Caucasian couple I know has 21 children. Of the 21, 8 are naturally born, and the rest were adopted from orphanages. The man who is the head of the household works as an engineer in a small company. His income is moderate. His wife is a homemaker. Yet, by faith the couple adopted 13 orphans. And they love all of them equally. And the mother educates them through home-schooling.  

In our ministry as well, I see good examples of shepherds and shepherdesses struggling to love their Bible students as much as they love their own children. Some of them are not married. But like parents, they love their sheep as if they are their own sons or daughters. And we need to pray that the Lord would bless us to know the kind of love God has for us. And it is my prayer that for those who do not have any sheep yet, they should go out, find one or two sheep and adopt them as their own children.  

At this moment, I am compelled to share a truly beautiful story of love: Mother Barry. The latest news is that we invited her to the Spring Conference. She agreed to come. We all bought tickets. But at the last minute she changed her mind. I was wondering what was going on. Then the true story came out. A mentally sick woman checked in to the guest room in her apartment. Her condition became worse. During Easter break, everyone is going to be in the conference, so that no one could possibly take care of her. So she decided to take care of her fully.  And she has been doing this kind of service for 77 long years. Touched by God’s love, at the age of 25 she went to the war-stricken Korea. Then in order to serve the Lord, she even sacrificed her own marriage. And until this very moment, she is serving all kinds of people coming to her apartment. Because she does not have her own children, she takes care of the children belonging to other parents, and she loves them more than their parents do!! 

Second, he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Again inviting Jesus Christ to one’s own house is like a man hitting the jackpot again and again. And this was what the prominent Pharisee was experiencing, for Jesus was ready to deliver another valuable lesson. Look at verse 7. “When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable:” We cannot tell for sure when Jesus gave the parable: Was it before the meal, during the meal, or after the meal? Most likely it was before the meal, because in verse 7 Jesus noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table. And it is very likely that Jesus took notice of it before the meal, so that as soon as Jesus saw the problem, Jesus seized the moment and began to teach them a lesson. 

So Jesus noticed how “the guests” picked the places of honor at the table. Who picked the places of honor? It was the “guests”.  That was the problem. It was not the host who urged this person or that person to be seated here or there. Rather, it was the guests who made the pick. Let us assume hypothetically that there were 12 chairs around the table. And seat no. 1 was meant for Mr.  More Honorable, and seat no. 2 was for Mr. Less Honorable. Then there are seats no. 3, 4, 5, etc. all according to the levels of honor. But Mr. Less Honorable thought that he is more honorable than Mr. More Honorable, so even before Mr. More Honorable was able to grab the seat no. 1, Mr. Less Honorable occupied the seat no. 1. Upon seeing this happening, Mr. More Honorable became angry, so he began to gnash his teeth, but he suppressed his anger, and reluctantly picked seat no. 2.  And Jesus knew what was going on. 

Jesus came to mend a broken relationship among men.  So, in order to diffuse the tension between the two, Jesus said, “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, 'Give this man your seat.' Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, 'Friend, move up to a better place.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests.”

Notice the expression “both of you” – Mr. More Honorable and Mr. Less Honorable. In this passage Jesus uses the word “honor” or “honored”. He also uses the expression “more distinguished”. Jesus believes in and recognizes the honors system. And Jesus wants each of them to be honored (rather than humiliated), not in one’s own eyes but in the eyes of others.

How then can one be honored as God wants him to be? In verses 11 Jesus answers the question: “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Here Jesus points out that when one humbles himself, naturally he will be exalted. And the practical way to humble oneself is to take the lowest place. 

Practically however “taking” the lowest place in any society is not easy. When one missionary came to the U.S. he started out making a living by taking humble positions in the job market such as the position of a newspaper delivery boy, a busboy at a Taco Bell, a cashier at the AM/PM market, a handyman at a rundown apartment complex. But he did not like any of these positions. While working at the bottom of the society, he always dreamed of climbing up the social ladder, as quickly as possible. But things did not work this way. While he was working at a Taco Bell, for example, he started out at the bottom, and he hated his manager continuously asking him to attend to all the menial duties such as cleaning the bathrooms or going into the dining hall and emptying the trash cans. But still he swallowed up the humiliation because the manager kept saying to him, “Oh, you are doing a good job; I will give you a good review next month.” At first he believed in his manager. One month went by, but there was no review. Another month passed but still no review. Three months past, and then the manager gave him a review: the hourly wage went up 25 cents per hour, so that the hourly rate went up from $3.35 to $3.60.  

“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." What is important here is “to humble oneself ‘voluntarily’”. No one wants to humble oneself willingly. No one likes to fill the lowest place in any society. But still the truth of the matter is that if anyone desires to be promoted to a position of true honor, one must first be willing to take the lowest place, and he must do it not out of compulsion but out of volition. 

In the passage, Jesus set a perfect example of one who humbles himself and voluntarily takes the lowest place. Literally Jesus took the lowest place. By nature he is God. Yet, he gave up his glory as God. He was born in a manger as a tiny baby. He grew up in a humble village; Nazareth. By the time he became thirty years old he started his public ministry but not with fancy titles but as a poor country rabbi. And he always called himself, “the son of man.” Then he identified himself as the servant of all. In those days a “servant” belonged to the slave class. And he did not hesitate to fill a “slave’s position.” In his humility, he even knelt down, and humbly washed the smelly feet of his disciples. Ultimately he voluntarily went to the cross, which is proverbially “the lowest place” of all the lowest places, for there on a tree he was counted as one of the worst criminals. By voluntarily going to the place of such great humiliation, he took the place where no one wanted to go. Then, what happed to Jesus? The Lord God raised Jesus from the dead, and established him as the Lord of lords, and King of kings. May the Lord bless us to follow Jesus’ example in every sector of human society (at home, at school, at work, at a church fellowship.) 

Third, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind.

Lastly, Jesus addressed a third problem, that is, the religious leaders of Jesus’ day going by the idea of “give and take” or even “take and take.” Jesus came to teach them something different: that is, “give and give.” By definition God is the God of giving. He is the source of all the resources. And God gives to all who are needy through different channels, particularly through people who know Him. Consistent with this purpose, God called Abraham that he would be a source of blessing for all peoples on earth. 

In the passage, Jesus saw that the people who were gathered in the house of the prominent Pharisee did not practice the will of God in calling each of them. Rather, they all became selfish fellows. In their self seeking desires, they built among themselves a “high society”; they put a high “wall” around it, and there they served only their own interests. In many ways then they were no different than a pricey country club where only the rich and famous can get in. 

At first glance living a life like this sounds smart. But it is not smart. In the long run, it will turn out to be the stupidest way to finish one’s life here on earth. In what respect is this so? Look at verses 12-14. “Then Jesus said to his host, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." According to Jesus, if anyone lives a self-seeking life, adopting the philosophy of “give and take” or “take and take”, he has no reward waiting for him at the resurrection of the righteous. 

Then who are the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind? The answer is obvious: they are the ones who cannot pay you back for what you do for them. Categorically they are the ones who do not know Jesus and his love for all of them. Once one truly repents and believes in Jesus Christ, becomes a child of God. And God’s children are as rich as God is (spiritually, financially or otherwise). When one knows Jesus and opens his eyes on Jesus’ love for him, all of sudden he overcomes his crippled condition. He then can get up, take up his mat, and walk, so he no longer operates as a beggar. Plus, as Jesus opens his spiritual eyes he can see everything clearly. So Jesus’ call to invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind is the call for the members of the church to go out to the world, and invite people who are yet to know Jesus Christ. And we must invite them not just to an eating fellowship a couple of times but to the eternal fellowship with God and with his people, all based on the living word. 

In conclusion, using every flying minute he had at the Pharisee’s house, Jesus taught the spiritual leaders of Jesus’ day the way of love, the way of humble service, and the need to get out of one’s comfort zone, and reach out to the people who are yet to be saved into God’s sheep pen. And the teachings Jesus gave to his audience are all applicable to the members of the church. May the Lord bless us to consider all of them, overcome our own self-seeking tendency, and practice a Christ-like love to many, particularly to young folks of our generation.  

One word: invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind

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