Chapter Fourteen

1–14. Christ at the dinner of a Pharisee. – 15–24. Parable of the great supper. – 25–35. About following Christ.

Luke 14:1. It happened that on the Sabbath He went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread, and they were watching Him. The account of the Lord’s stay at a Pharisee’s is found only in the evangelist Luke. “One of the rulers of the Pharisees”, that is, one of the representatives of Pharisaism, such as, for example, Hillel, Gamaliel. “To eat bread” (see Matt 15:2). “And they” (καὶ αὐτο...), that is, they, the Pharisees, on their part. “Were watching Him”, that is, waiting for an opportunity to accuse Him of violating the Sabbath (cf. Mark 3:2).

Luke 14:2. And behold, there was a man before Him who was suffering from dropsy. In the Pharisee’s house there unexpectedly met Christ a man who was suffering from dropsy. He was a guest of the Pharisee (cf. verse 4) and was waiting for Christ, probably at the entrance to the house. Not daring to address Him directly for healing on the Sabbath, he only pleaded with his eyes for Christ to turn His merciful attention to him (Euthymius Zigabenus).

Luke 14:3. By reason of this Jesus asked the lawyers and Pharisees: Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? “By reason of this” – more correctly: answering (ἀποκριθείς), that is, answering the unspoken but clearly heard request of the sick man.

Luke 14:4. They remained silent. And, taking hold of him, He healed him and sent him away. To the question clearly posed by Christ the Pharisees were silent, because they were so wise that they could not answer negatively, but they did not want to agree with Christ either. Then the Lord, taking the sick man to Himself or embracing him (ἐπιλαβόμενος – has precisely such a meaning; in the Russian text this is imprecise – “touched”), healed him and sent him home.

Luke 14:5. And He said to them: If any of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well, will he not immediately pull it out even on the Sabbath? Luke 14:6. And they could not answer Him concerning this. The Lord, just as He had previously explained the necessity of healing the bent woman on the Sabbath (Luke 13:15), now explains the necessity of the help He had just given to the man with dropsy. If people do not hesitate to pull out even on the Sabbath a donkey (according to Tischendorf – “a son”, υἱός) or an ox that has fallen into a well, then – this conclusion is implied – one had to help a man whom “water was overwhelming”. And the Pharisees again could not find what to answer to such a statement.

Luke 14:7. And noticing how the invited guests were choosing the first places, He spoke to them in a parable: The healing of the man with dropsy evidently took place before the guests sat at the table. Now, when all was settled, the guests began to sit at the table, choosing for themselves the first or nearest to the host places (cf. Matt 23:6), the Lord observed this carefully (ἐπέχων) and spoke a parable about it. This, however, is not a parable in the general sense of the word (cf. Matt 13:3), because here the Lord directly addresses the listeners with instruction (“when you...”), and it is a simple moral teaching which did not even require special explanation – it was so clear to everyone.

Luke 14:8. When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the first place, so that it may not happen that someone more honorable than you has been invited, “At a wedding”, that is, at a wedding feast, where there could be found many very important and honored people, who had come from other places and were unknown to the local inhabitants, whom Christ has in mind here.

Luke 14:9. and the one who invited you and him would come and say to you: “Give this man your place”; and then you would begin with shame to take the lowest place. Luke 14:10. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when the one who invited you comes, he may say to you: “Friend, go up higher”; then you will be honored in the sight of all those who sit at table with you, The meaning of the instruction is very simple: it is better to move from a bad place to a good one than to have to sit down from a good place, with shame, amid the mocking looks of the guests, in the last place. I. Weiss considers this instruction too practical, not in accord with the sublimity of Christ’s teaching. In his opinion, there is an impression, as if Christ were viewing the matter from the point of view of personal advantage, that He is not teaching humility and modesty here, but rather introducing some spirit of calculation, which devalues even humility. But there is no doubt that Christ does not have in mind here a simple phenomenon of ordinary life, but, as is clear from His subsequent sayings (verses 14, 24), the participation of people in the Kingdom of God. The Pharisees already were, so to speak, choosing places for themselves in this Kingdom, but Christ impresses upon them the thought that their calculations for such places may prove to be wrong. Consequently, the theme and thought of the instruction are anything but unimportant.

Luke 14:11. for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. (See Matt 23:12). Again it is undoubtedly true that this general law was stated by Christ here with regard to the hope of the Pharisees for participation in the Kingdom of God.

Luke 14:12. He also said to the one who had invited Him: “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not invite your friends, nor your brothers, nor your relatives, nor wealthy neighbors, so that they may also invite you in return, and you will receive repayment. Luke 14:13. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, Luke 14:14. and blessed will you be, because they cannot repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. Turning now, after the instruction given to those invited, to the host himself who had invited the guests, Christ advises him to invite to the dinner not friends, relatives, and the wealthy, but the poor and the crippled. Only in this case can the host hope to receive a reward in the resurrection of the righteous. I. Weiss finds such instruction also not fitting for Christ’s teaching. What is the misfortune in the fact that a wealthy man will repay you with hospitality for your hospitality? This is not so terrible at all and cannot deprive us of the right to receive heavenly reward. But Weiss does not wish to understand that here also Christ is developing the same thought about the conditions for entering the glorious Kingdom of God that He had already expressed many times. This thought consists in the fact that, pursuing earthly appreciation for their actions, even if good, people lose the right to receive heavenly reward (cf. Matt 5:46). From this point of view it is indeed dangerous when we receive a reward on earth for every good deed we do and we accept these rewards: we, so to speak, receive what is ours and for something else, higher, we cannot count. However, one cannot think that with these words Christ forbade in general to invite wealthy people and friends to feasts; here there is obviously a hyperbole... “In the resurrection of the righteous.” Christ taught that there would be not just one resurrection of the righteous, but a resurrection of all – both righteous and unrighteous (cf. Luke 20:35; John 5:25). If He speaks here only of the resurrection of the righteous, He does this with regard to the Pharisees, who believed that only the righteous would be worthy of resurrection, so that to the words “in the resurrection of the righteous” Christ mentally adds: “which you alone allow”.

Luke 14:15. When one of those at table with Him heard this, he said to Him: “Blessed is the one who will eat bread in the Kingdom of God! Having heard the discourse on the resurrection of the righteous, one of the fellow guests, evidently in the conviction of being a participant in this resurrection, exclaimed: “Blessed”, that is, happy is “the one who will eat bread”, that is, will be a participant in the great feast, “in the Kingdom of God”, that is, in the Messianic Kingdom.

Luke 14:16. But He said to him: “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, Luke 14:17. and at the time for the supper he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited: ‘Come; for everything is now ready.’ Luke 14:18. But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him: ‘I have bought a field and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.’ Luke 14:19. And another said: ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.’ Luke 14:20. And another said: ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ Luke 14:21. So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the angry master of the house said to his slave: ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ Luke 14:22. And the slave said: ‘Master, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’ Luke 14:23. The master said to the slave: ‘Go out into the roads and lanes and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. Luke 14:24. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper; for many are called, but few are chosen.’ Christ answers this exclamation with the parable of those invited to the supper, in which He shows that none of the prominent members of the theocratic Jewish society, who considered themselves fully entitled to participate in the Kingdom of the Messiah – here the Pharisees are primarily meant – will be admitted to this Kingdom because of their own fault. This parable is the same as that given by the evangelist Matthew (Matt 22:1-14). The differences between them are inessential. There a king is brought forward, who arranged “a marriage feast for his son”, but here – simply “a man” who “gave a great supper and invited many”, that is, of course, first of all the faithful followers of the Law of Moses, such as the Pharisees and scribes were. There the king sends “slaves” – the prophets of the Old Testament – but here a single slave is sent, which, according to the sense of the discourse, represents Christ Himself, to announce to those invited that the supper is ready (cf. Matt 4:17). Furthermore, what in the evangelist Matthew is indicated rather vaguely, namely, the motives why the invited did not come to the supper, Luke reveals in detail. The reasons given by those invited are not at all completely absurd: it was indeed possible that the one who bought land needed to see what work needed to be done on it (he might miss, for example, the time for sowing). The excuse of the one who bought oxen is less well-founded, but he too could have in mind that, having tried them immediately and found them unfit for work, he would have the opportunity to return them to the cattle dealer, whose herd was going elsewhere and whom he could no longer find after that. The excuse of the third seems even more well-founded, because the law itself freed the newlywed from the performance of civic duties (Deut 24:5). But, in any case, all these reasons, from Christ’s point of view, prove to be insufficient; clearly, Christ means by “the man” who gave the feast God Himself, and for God, of course, a person must sacrifice everything in life. The evangelist Luke then adds that the new guests were called in two stages (in Matthew – once): first the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind were gathered from the streets and lanes, that is – in all likelihood, according to Luke’s thought – the tax collectors and sinners, and then from the roads and from under the hedges (from under the fences) – even lower-standing people, that is, according to the evangelist’s thought, the Gentiles (cf. Rom 2:17 and following). They were commanded to “compel” (ἀνάγκασον; the Russian translation is inaccurate – “persuade”) to come to the feast. Some commentators thought they found in this expression grounds for violence in the realm of freedom of conscience, and Roman inquisitors based on this text their right to persecute heretics. But here, undoubtedly, the discourse is about moral compulsion and nothing else. Indeed, could one slave, had he wished to do so, forcibly bring guests with him? No, this compulsion rather had the character of urgent persuasion. After all, those invited to the feast now were people of the very lowest strata of the people, and they might have been too shy to go to a feast at a rich man’s house: they needed to be told that they were really being invited to a feast (Trench, p. 308–309). “For I tell you” (verse 24). These are the words of the master, not of Christ: Christ in the parable is depicted in the form of a slave. “You” – here is meant both the slave and the guests who have already entered.

Luke 14:25. Now great crowds were traveling with Him; and He turned and said to them, Luke 14:26. “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple; Luke 14:27. and whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. Great crowds were following the Lord, and to an outside observer all these people seemed to be His disciples. Now the Lord wants, so to speak, to make a selection of those persons who truly stand in relation to Him as disciples. He points out further in the harshest terms the obligations that rest upon His true followers (a similar saying exists also in the evangelist Matthew, but in a more softened form – Matt 10:37-39). “If anyone comes to Me.” Many came to Christ, but were attracted to this only by His miracles and did nothing to become true disciples of Christ; they merely followed Him. “And does not hate...” To hate means not “to love less” (cf. Matt 6:24), but to feel genuine hatred, the opposite of love. Father, mother, and others appear here as obstacles to communion with Christ (cf. Luke 12:53), so that, loving the one, it is necessary to hate the others (cf. Luke 16:13). “Life” (verse 26) is taken here in its proper sense as “existence” – it is understood insofar as it is an obstacle to love of Christ (“I torment the one who torments me!” – said the Venerable Seraphim of Sarov about his ascetic labors, which he wanted to weaken his body). “My disciple.” The force of the thought here is on the word “My”, which is therefore placed before the noun which it modifies. “Whoever does not carry his cross...” (see Matt 10:38).

Luke 14:28. “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, to see if he has enough resources to complete it, Luke 14:29. otherwise, when he has laid the foundation and is unable to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, Luke 14:30. saying: ‘This man began to build and was unable to finish.’ Luke 14:31. “Or what king, setting out to encounter another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Luke 14:32. If he cannot prevail, while the other is still far away, he will send a delegation and ask for peace. Luke 14:33. So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be My disciple. Why the Lord recognizes as His disciples only those capable of complete self-sacrifice, which following Christ demands – this the Lord explains by the example of a man who, wishing to build a tower, calculates, of course, his resources, to see if they will suffice for this undertaking, so as not to be left in a ridiculous position when, having laid the foundation of the tower, he finds no further means for its construction. Another instructive example Christ gives in the person of a king who, if he has already decided to begin war with another king, does so only after considering his forces. If he sees that his forces are insufficient, he will hasten to make a covenant with the stronger rival king. These two parable examples are found only in the evangelist Luke. From these examples Christ Himself draws a conclusion (verse 33): in entering into the number of Christ’s disciples a person must seriously consider whether he is capable of the self-sacrifice that Christ demands of His disciples. If he does not find in himself sufficient strength for this, then it is clear that he can be a disciple of Christ only in name, but not in reality. “What he has” (verse 33). Here is meant not only property, money, or family, but also all cherished thoughts, views, convictions (cf. Matt 5:29-30). It was very timely now to speak of the necessity of sacrificing everything personal for the cause of serving Christ, because Christ was going to Jerusalem to offer the highest sacrifice for all mankind, and His disciples needed to absorb such willingness for self-sacrifice as was pervading the heart of their Lord and Teacher (Luke 12:49-50).

Luke 14:34. “Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? Luke 14:35. It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; people throw it away. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear! The meaning of this parable saying is this: as salt is needed only so long as it preserves its saltiness, so also a disciple remains a disciple of Christ so long as he has not lost the main quality that characterizes a disciple of Christ, namely, the capacity for self-sacrifice. What will be possible to use to kindle in the disciples the determination for self-sacrifice if they have lost it? Nothing, just as there is no way to restore salt’s lost saltiness. “But if salt...” More exactly: but if even salt (ἐὰν δὲ τὸ ἅλας) loses its saltiness, but this – such is the thought of the expression given – however, cannot be expected in virtue of its own nature (cf. Matt 5:13; Mark 9:50).