Jesus had just healed a man of dropsy on the Sabbath and the religious leaders disapproved.
Perhaps an OT allusion to Proverbs 25:6-7 6 Do not exalt yourself in the king’s presence, and do not claim a place among great men; 7 it is better for him to say to you, “Come up here,” than for him to humiliate you before a nobleman. What you have seen with your eyes (NIV)
The Question: What is the proper attitude and response to a gracious invitation?
The Attitude: Pride
Ideological: The wrong and right response to grace.
If you don’t want to be humbled by someone else, then humble yourself.
We see the wrong and right response to grace. The wrong response is to think you are special and deserve to sit in the best place. The right response is to recognize that you are not special and not sit in the place of honor. Let the host move you up if he sees fit.
The attitude: The desire for reciprocal relationships. Come over to our house - your kids can run through our sprinkler....
The question: Who should they invite? The Poor, Crippled, Lame, Blind, etc. This will tie in with the next section.
Friends, Brothers, Relatives, Rich neighbors
The temptation for reciprocal relationships. Come over to our house - your kids can run through our sprinkler....
The Poor, Crippled, Lame, Blind
Blessing will come at the resurrection of the righteous
The First Point: If we try to promote ourselves, God will demote us. Wouldn’t you rather humble yourself and let God raise you up, than be put in your proper place?
The Second Point: Believers should act without thoughts of reciprocity being confident that God will reward such grace and humility at the judgment of the righteousness.
The attitudes which will merit reward in the resurrection are the Kingdom attitudes of humility and generosity.
Banquet customs
The statement by one of the attendees of the dinner following the parable will also connect this parable with the following parable in the context.
Also there is a contrast implied with other passages where the teachers of the Law were notorious for taking the best seats in the synagogues (Matt. 23:6; par. in Mk. 12:39; Lk. 20:46)
“Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted” (14:11).
One should be humble and gracious knowing that God will exalt or reward such a believer at the proper time.
Matt. 5:46; 18:4; 23:12; Rom. 12:16; I Pet. 5:6
One of the primary things that sets us up for shame is being proud.