As Jesus continues toward Jerusalem, he is invited to the house of a ruler of the Pharisees. It is a Sabbath, and the people are closely watching him, since there is a man present who is suffering from dropsy, an accumulation of water probably in his arms and legs. Jesus addresses the Pharisees and the experts in the Law who are present, asking: “Is it lawful on the sabbath to cure or not?”

Nobody says a word. So Jesus heals the man and sends him away. Then he asks: “Who of you, if his son or bull falls into a well, will not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?” Again, nobody says a word in reply.

Entertained by a Pharisee

JESUS is still in the home of a prominent Pharisee and has just healed a man suffering from dropsy. As he observes fellow guests choosing prominent places at the meal, he teaches a lesson in humility.

“When you are invited by someone to a marriage feast,” Jesus then explains, “do not lie down in the most prominent place. Perhaps someone more distinguished than you may at the time have been invited by him, and he that invited you and him will come and say to you, ‘Let this man have the place.’ And then you will start off with shame to occupy the lowest place.”

So Jesus advises: “When you are invited, go and recline in the lowest place, that when the man that has invited you comes he will say to you, ‘Friend, go on up higher.’ Then you will have honor in front of all your fellow guests.” Concluding, Jesus says: “For everyone that exalts himself will be humbled and he that humbles himself will be exalted.”

Next, Jesus addresses the Pharisee who invited him and describes how to provide a dinner having real merit with God. “When you spread a dinner or evening meal, do not call your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors. Perhaps sometime they might also invite you in return and it would become a repayment to you. But when you spread a feast, invite poor people, crippled, lame, blind; and you will be happy, because they have nothing with which to repay you.”

Providing such a meal for the unfortunate will bring happiness to the provider of it because, as Jesus explains to his host, “You will be repaid in the resurrection of the righteous ones.” Jesus’ description of this meritorious meal calls to the mind of a fellow guest another kind of meal. “Happy is he who eats bread in the kingdom of God,” this guest says. Yet, not all properly prize that happy prospect, as Jesus goes on to show by an illustration.

“A certain man was spreading a grand evening meal, and he invited many. And he sent his slave out . . . to say to the invited ones, ‘Come, because things are now ready.’ But they all in common started to beg off. The first said to him, ‘I bought a field and need to go out and see it; I ask you, Have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I bought five yoke of cattle and am going to examine them; I ask you, Have me excused.’ Still another said, ‘I just married a wife and for this reason I cannot come.’”

What lame excuses! A field or livestock are normally examined before they are bought, so no real urgency exists to look at them afterward. Similarly, a person’s marriage should not prevent him from accepting such an important invitation. So on hearing about these excuses, the master becomes angry and commands his slave:

“‘Go out quickly into the broad ways and the lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ In time the slave said, ‘Master, what you ordered has been done, and yet there is room.’ And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and the fenced-in places, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. . . . None of those men that were invited shall have a taste of my evening meal.’”

What situation is described by the illustration? Well, “the master” providing the meal represents Jehovah God; “the slave” extending the invitation, Jesus Christ; and the “grand evening meal,” the opportunities to be in line for the Kingdom of the heavens.