Luke 14:1-24 - Too Full for the Feast

Let's pray.

Lord, we just thank you for this morning and we thank you for your word.

Just pray that you would speak from your word this morning, Lord.

Pray that we would learn from Luke 14 that you would speak to our hearts, Lord.

And you'd be with us the rest of this day.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

If you've ever read the book of Esther, you'll be familiar with a man named Haman.

He's essentially the main villain of the story of Esther, and he's behind a plot to kill all the Jews in Persia.

And the Lord uses Esther, the queen at the time, who was a Jew, and her cousin Mordecai to save her people.

But near the end of the story, something unexpected happens to Haman.

The king asks him, What should be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?

Haman is sure the king is talking about himself.

So he designs the most extravagant honor he can think of.

And then the king grants it to Mordecai instead.

And Haman has to execute the whole plan that he thought was for himself on his worst enemy.

Haman was very self-assured.

He was confident that he was the most important man in the kingdom besides the king, and there was no one else the king could have honored in this way.

Yet he was stunned that in fact it was Mordecai.

Today's text in Luke has the Pharisees also learning something unexpected.

They are going to hear from Jesus how God's table is not for the full, but for the hungry.

This has been a big theme that we've seen in Luke so far.

Just last week, Adam preached about the unexpected kingdom.

People who were sure they had earned the kingdom were turned away.

Back in Luke 6, in Luke's version of the Beatitudes, Jesus said, Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

He pronounced woe on the rich and the full, saying they weren't a part of the kingdom, but had already gotten their reward.

So this is something that Luke thinks is important because he keeps hitting on this theme in his book.

And you might say, Well, what do you mean, the full?

Someone who just ate a meal?

Well, that's part of it.

But as this scene plays out today in our passage in Luke 14, we're going to see this idea fleshed out and applied to the Pharisees in three ways.

They are full of rules, they are full of themselves, and they are full of good things.

So these are my three points today, if you have the sermon sheet in front of you.

Full of rules, full of themselves, and full of good things.

So with those in mind, let's read the passage today.

We're going to be in Luke 14, the first twenty-four verses.

One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully.

And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy.

And Jesus responded to the liars and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?

But they remained silent.

Then he took him and healed him, and sent him away.

And he said to them, Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?

And they could not reply to these things.

Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come to say both will come and say to you, Give your place to this person, and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.

But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, Friend, move up higher.

Then you will be honored in the presence of all who will sit at table with you.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

He also said to the man who had invited him, When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers, or your relatives, or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid.

But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.

When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, Blessed is every one who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.

But he said to him, A man once gave a great banquet and invited many, and at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to those who had been invited.

Come, for everything is now ready.

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 have me excused.

And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them.

Please have me excused.

And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.

So the servant came and reported these things to his master.

Then the master of the house became angry, and said to his servant, Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.

And the servant said, Sir, what you have commanded has been done, and still there is room.

And the master said to the servant, Go out to the highways and hedges, and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.

For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.

So, our text today describes a dinner party.

One of the Pharisees had invited many guests and Jesus to a huge dinner party on the Sabbath.

And Luke is going to show us three scenes from this dinner party that happen progressively.

Our first scene is the arrival.

It's the Sabbath.

One of the Pharisees is throwing a feast.

Jesus has come.

But there's a nefarious plan here.

This isn't just a feast, it's a trap.

The Pharisees are there, they've invited the lawyers too, the experts in the law, and they're trying to catch Jesus out.

They were watching him carefully, we see.

They had also invited a man with dropsy.

Now, what does this mean, dropsy?

The word here is only used in this one place in the whole New Testament, but it's used in other writings around this time to describe symptoms of a person who has fluid swelling in their body, which could have been caused by heart or kidney failure or liver disease or something like that.

So this man's in intense pain, fluid has spread throughout his whole body.

And we aren't told exactly why this man is here, but it could be that the Pharisees have arranged for him to be here as part of how they want to trap him.

I think this text implies that because of several things.

One, the Pharisees were watching him, as we saw, and two, that Jesus responds to them, even though they never actually said anything first.

So there seems to be something that they initiated here.

And we've also seen Jesus heal before on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees did not like that.

So this is a recurring theme we've seen.

They want to catch him out breaking their law.

So we just talked about Sabbath in our recent sermon series, and we saw how seriously God takes it.

He gave Israel many laws and rules about how to keep it.

Yet the Pharisees have taken it much farther than the law did.

They were full of rules, ways to avoid even getting close to violating the laws about the Sabbath.

But they had missed the point of the Sabbath in focusing on their rules.

So we don't know for sure, but I think the Pharisees could have arranged for this man with dropsy to be here so they could catch Jesus, breaking the rules, and have a reason to accuse him.

And yet instead, Jesus turns the table on them.

With two simple questions, Jesus evades their trap and actually catches them out.

He first asks them, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?

They don't answer.

Because their rules did not allow for healing on the Sabbath, but they knew that they would look heartless in front of everyone if they said that.

Then Jesus simply heals the man.

We don't know how he did it, but we know he showed mercy to this man who was in intense pain.

And then he immediately asked his second question to the Pharisees Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?

He was referencing rules that they had added to the Sabbath that forbade ploughing, building, or using oxen for anything.

But they had exceptions for certain things, including to pull an ox or a person out of a well if they fell in.

So Jesus was challenging them on a rule that they had made, implying that if they allowed someone to pull an ox out of a well, how much more should healing a man be allowed as well?

And again, they cannot respond.

They just stand there in silence.

And I think this first scene sets up the whole passage so well.

So to paint this picture in our day, because I think it's hard to it was hard for me to kind of imagine this scene.

Imagine the important politicians of Denver throwing a huge banquet.

And they're all standing together at the front, waiting for people to arrive.

They're looking good in their tuxedos, they're enjoying their high social standing, they're kind of lording it over others who are coming, and they're chuckling to themselves because they have a bit of an inside joke.

They've laid a trap for Jesus.

They're gonna trick him into doing something that's gonna embarrass him.

They brought a homeless man from the streets of Denver to the front of the banquet, and they're gonna see how Jesus reacts, and they're trying to trick him.

And Jesus speaks up and loudly addresses them.

He asks them a direct question on the very laws that they are experts in.

And a hush falls over.

They say nothing.

Jesus shakes his head in disgust, disgust.

He heals the homeless man, showing him compassion.

And then he turns and asks them another question.

And they still stand in stunned silence, saying nothing.

Suddenly the bell rings for the banquet to begin, and everyone shuffles in.

Can you imagine the tension in that scene?

It's starting to get a little bit awkward.

And it's starting to get awkward at this dinner party as well.

And so in this first scene, Jesus makes his first statement about who God's table is for.

It's not for the folk, but for the hungry.

The Pharisees were full of rules.

They were so caught up in the law and obeying it that they were trying to earn their way to God's table.

And Jesus is dismantling that way of thinking.

Being full of rules is not the way.

The man with dropsy was a perfect example of exactly who God's table was for: someone needy, someone poor and disabled.

Jesus is giving us a tangible example of what he's going to talk about later.

So, that was the end of scene one.

Q scene two.

Everyone invited goes into the house.

They all sit down, they begin to get ready for the meal.

And after everyone finds their seat, Jesus speaks up.

He starts to tell a parable.

Let me read again verses seven through fourteen.

Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him.

And he who invited you both will come and say to you, Give your place to this person, and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.

But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, Friend, move up higher.

Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you, for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

He said also to the man who had invited him, When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers, or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid.

But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.

So, if it wasn't awkward enough before, outside the house, Jesus turns up the heat inside the house.

Before the food is even on the table, he's speaking up and he's calling out all the guests, and then the hosts in turn.

Some context here on these kinds of dinner parties in Jesus' time.

They revolved around social hierarchy.

So the most important and prestigious people would be seated at the head of the table, closer to the host, and those who were least important would be at the bottom, far from the host.

And those who were invited were those who could repay the favor by throwing their own dinner party in the future and inviting the host back, thus doing each other a favor and also hopefully raising their social standing.

And Jesus observed this jostling.

He sat down and watched everyone fight to sit near the top, the competition to sit at the best seat, and in his advice to the guests, he gets practical first.

Try to avoid embarrassment by sitting too high, and then your host has to move you down.

Imagine the public shame of that.

Instead, place yourself at the bottom of the table and allow your host to move you up.

This advice would have been known to them, as it comes from Proverbs 25.

But even more than practical advice, Jesus roots his the parable in the way the kingdom works.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

The people at the party were full of themselves, and Jesus is clearly setting a different ethic for God's table.

Those who are full of themselves will lose their seat.

And after Jesus eviscerates the guest, the guests, he turns to the host, and he has something to say to him as well.

He calls out who he invited, criticizing the desire to get repaid by earning an invite to other dinners thrown by his guests.

And after emphasizing in multiple ways how the Pharisees don't have a seat at the table, Jesus goes into who should have a seat: the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.

This fits with Luke's theme of the unexpected kingdom that we've seen.

But more than that, it speaks to the hearts of the people at this dinner with Jesus.

They were all full of themselves and their own importance, but they were also scandalized at the idea of inviting those people to their dinners.

The poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind.

You see, in Jesus' day, the crippled and the disabled were on the fringe of society, often not allowed to participate in worship, even.

And to invite them into your house was to identify yourself with them, lowering yourself to their social status.

But Jesus identifies another radical truth of his kingdom.

It is blessed to invite and serve those who cannot repay you, but desperately need it, even if it means associating yourself with them.

For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.

That's how he says it.

Taking care of the poor and needy in society is a huge theme throughout the Bible.

It's something God talks about a lot.

But even today, we can too easily slip into the same kind of mindset that the Pharisees had about the people on the fringe in our society.

I go downtown every week for work and I walk along 16th Street Mall, and multiple times I've seen people walking on 16th cross over the street to completely avoid a homeless person standing up or sitting on their side.

Not wanting to be associated with them or even maybe get a whiff of them.

This last week, one day after work, I was walking back to my car and I had a few extra minutes to myself.

And this doesn't really happen to me after work, and so I kind of sat down.

I said, I'll take a few minutes to myself, but I kind of found myself thinking, I'm not sure why I'm sitting here exactly.

This isn't really something I do after work.

And almost immediately came to mind, maybe the Lord has a purpose in this.

And right after that, a man walked up to me and he asked for a cigarette.

And I said, No, he asked for money.

I said, I don't have any cash.

So then I told him, Well, I have no cigarettes or cash, but um, if you're hungry, I'd love to buy you a sandwich.

And he said, Yeah, that'd be great, actually.

I haven't eaten in two weeks, or two days, he said.

And I was thinking, man, you haven't eaten in two days, and you're asking me for a cigarette?

Like, let's get you a sandwich, bro.

So we walked down the street, we found a sandwich spot, and I'm kind of thinking to myself, okay, Lord, what do you want me to say to this guy?

You want me to share the gospel?

What is it you want?

And it didn't really matter because the guy was just talking nonstop, just saying all sorts of things about where he'd come from, thoughts on his head, all sorts of crazy things.

And so I basically couldn't get a word in edgewise, and so we got to the sandwich shop, I ordered him a sandwich, um, sat down with him, he continued to talk, and then the sandwich came and I gave it to him and I asked him if I could pray for him.

He said, Sure.

And so I prayed for him, I prayed for the Lord to just bless him and to be with him.

And then at the end, he had talked a couple times about the fact that he didn't have anything to read.

He said, I don't have anything to read.

And so I said, Well, would you be interested in a Bible if I gave you one?

He said, Yeah.

So I said, Well, tomorrow morning I'll be back walking down the street to work at 8 a.m.

If you want to come, I'll give you a Bible.

You'll have something to read.

And he said, Sure, that'd be great.

And so I went back to my car, he went on his way, and I felt a vague sense of inadequacy after I walked away, a little bit like, did I miss my chance to do something the Lord wanted me to do there?

Was I supposed to like speak over him and say the gospel and like get him to stop talking?

What was I supposed to do?

Um, but even just in preparing this sermon, I realized that the Lord had simply given me an opportunity to provide a meal for a poor man who needed it.

There's nothing more than that.

I didn't see him the next morning when I brought a Bible, he wasn't there.

I've prayed for him a couple times since then.

But just that simple act of talking to him, treating him like a human being, giving him a sandwich, that's what Jesus calls us to do.

That's what he calls the host at the dinner party to do here.

To invite the poor and needy to his table, just simply not expecting anything in return.

And this is one of those things where the behavior can reinforce the motivation we have for this, right?

And vice versa.

When you are convicted with compassion about towards someone in need, it's easy to step out and do something.

But when we don't feel like it, it's hard.

But I think it's important to build in ways that we can still do something, do the action, and the act of doing it often drives our motivation to do it more because of the way it represents Christ.

So one way our life group has done this recently, we we have gotten together and made homeless bags that have food, water, socks, some other necessities in the bags, and then we put them in our cars.

And the goal is that as we're driving around town, we see someone stand on the side of the road, standing on the median, and we offer them the bag.

This is something you'd like.

And our kids have started to help us with this, noticing people who are standing on the side of the road, reminding us to offer them a homeless bag.

And so the other night as we drove home, um, Ashley pointed out someone as we were stopped at a red light.

She said, Dad, look, there's a man, let's give him a homeless bag.

I said, Okay.

So I rolled down the window, asked the guy if he wanted one, he said yes.

We drove away.

And Ashley said, Daddy, does that man have a car?

And I said, No, he probably doesn't.

And she said, We should give him our car.

Actually, she said, Dad, you should give him your car.

That's what she said.

And I said, Well, how will I get to work then?

And she said, You can just use the van.

We'll just drive you to work every day.

You don't need your car.

Now, it may be less difficult to be easy with other people's things than our own.

But I was grateful to see that my daughter had internalized the behavior of giving to others who are in need.

He didn't have food and water, we gave him water.

He didn't have a car, let's give him a car.

That was the jump in her mind.

So I challenge you to think through what this means for you, how you can serve the needy in your city, expecting nothing in return.

So Jesus has been showing that God's table is not for the full, it's for the hungry.

It's not for the Pharisees who are full of rules, and it's not for the guests and the hosts who are full of themselves.

So, what happens in the third scene?

Well, if you thought the awkwardness was over, you're wrong, because it's about to get worse.

So read with me verses 15 through 24 again.

When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.

But he said to him, A man once gave a great banquet, and invited many.

And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, Come, for everyone.

Everything is now ready.

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 have me excused.

And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them.

Please have me excused.

And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.

So the servant came and reported these things to his master.

Then the master of the house became angry, and said to his servant, Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.

And the servant said, Sir, what you have commanded has been done, and still there is room.

And the master said to the servant, Go out to the highways and hedges, and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.

For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.

Now we don't really know who said this statement at the beginning that prompted the parable, or why he said it.

But I like to imagine that near Jesus is sitting a certain man.

He showed up a bit late, so he missed the confrontation at the beginning, and he missed the healing.

And he sat down, and he's really hungry, and he's been anxiously awaiting the food to start arriving.

So he's kind of been tuning out Jesus up till now.

And then right near the end of Jesus' parable, he picks up on a bit of the awkward silence around the room, like, what's going on?

Why is everyone so tense?

And he starts listening just in time to hear Jesus say, And you will be blessed, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.

And he thinks, great, I'll pitch in something.

Blessing sounds good to me.

So he blurts out, Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.

Well, the guest might have been inwardly groaning, because this predictably launches Jesus into another parable.

So, whatever the motivation of the man who said this, one thing is clear.

What is meant by this statement is, Blessed are us who will eat the bread in the kingdom of God.

After all, we're Jews.

We've been following the law and worshiping God as He commanded us for hundreds of years.

We have our seat booked at God's table.

And this mindset honestly describes the entire room.

Pharisees, lawyers, high-ranking Jews, they're all here.

And they're convinced that the kingdom is for them.

They know the kingdom is for them.

They're guaranteed to be there when the day comes.

And yet Jesus tells a parable that pours cold water on that idea.

Let's go through this parable from the beginning and examine it, because this is really the culmination of everything that Jesus is saying.

A man once gave a great banquet and invited many.

Now, this statement would have immediately been understood by the Jews in the room.

The man is God, and the banquet is the heavenly feast.

This is common imagery in the Old Testament.

One of the places we see it is in Isaiah 25, with almost these exact words.

So it's important to understand the customs of banquets at this time.

One historian during this time he wrote, A man of Jerusalem would not attend a banquet unless he was invited twice.

So when a banquet was planned, invitations were first sent out, announcing the day and time, and then the guests would indicate their acceptance.

And then on the day of the banquet, a servant was sent out to reinvite the invited guests, who were already known to be coming.

The second invitation was essentially a mere formality.

To accept that first invitation, but decline the second was an unconscionable insult.

So, in light of that, let's look at the excuses given by these three invitees.

The first man had bought a field but needed to go and inspect it.

There's maybe a weak social obligation there, but common sense would ask, so why'd you buy the field without seeing it first?

The second man had bought five pairs of oxen and needed to go examine them.

But the obvious question, again, would be how would a man wealthy enough to buy ten oxen not have checked to make sure they were healthy first?

And if even if he hadn't, couldn't it wait till tomorrow?

And the last man is the most brazen of them all.

He does not even say he's going somewhere, but he simply excuses himself because he's recently been married.

There actually were rules in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy that allowed men to be freed from military service or public duty for a time after they were married.

But this is a party, and it's not included in those categories at all.

So if he's trying to apply the law, it doesn't it doesn't really hit.

So all these excuses were pretty flimsy.

But the most important thing about all of them is that these guests had been invited before, and they had accepted the invitation.

They were the expected guests at the party, and they're now bailing at the very last minute.

So the closest thing to this for us, I think, would be someone you something you have to RSVP for, like a wedding.

So imagine you get an invitation to a wedding six months ago, and you RSVP, yes, you check the box for salmon, that's what you want for your dinner.

And then ten minutes before the wedding, the bride gets three texts.

First, hey, I just closed on the house, I have to go to the inspection.

Sorry, can't make it.

Second text, hey, I've decided, for whatever reason, to go into mechanized farming.

And I just bought five tractors.

So I need to go see if they work.

Can't be there.

Third one, hey, I just got engaged earlier this week, can't make it.

That's it.

That's the whole text.

Not even an attempt at a reason for why that would stop them from coming, you from coming to the wedding.

I guarantee you, the bride reads those texts and she is confused at best and furious at worst.

She might even be asking herself if these people actually hate her.

So hopefully this helps you see how weak these excuses are.

And they seem weak to us, but the truth is, these excuses are all based on good things.

These guests were too full of good things to bother coming to this exquisite banquet.

A commentary I read summed it up with this great line.

Possessions and affections cover virtually every reason by which men and women give their regrets to the kingdom.

Possessions and affections.

So which one of those do you tend towards?

Is it possessions, the things of this world that you can accumulate, that our culture promises will bring you happiness?

Or is it affections?

Your desires, wanting what you want, no matter what?

Remember, these things are good.

A house, working, getting married, these are all good things.

But Jesus has not come to merely compete with good things.

He has not come to slot himself in your life somewhere in the middle of other good things.

He's come to turn your life upside down.

He has come to offer you a seat at his table, and it's priceless.

Remember the parable of the priceless treasure buried in a field where the man sold everything he had to acquire the field.

That is what Jesus came to do, to offer you an invitation to his father's banquet.

Don't let possessions or affections get in the way of accepting that invitation.

So, back to our scene.

The people who had been invited and planned to come to the feast were offering their excuses in the parable here, and the master of the house, understandably, becomes angry at these snubs.

He sends his servant out to the streets to bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.

This is the exact same list that Jesus used in the first parable that he told that host to invite to his feast.

So don't miss that.

And this group doesn't give any excuses, despite the short notice.

They show up.

And after they come, there's still room.

So the master sends his servants out again.

Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.

Now he's gathering people who don't even live here.

They're literally just passing by on the highway.

Now, a side note, this word compel can almost sound like this servant is dragging people into the banquet against their will.

But that's not the case.

The word here has more of a connotation of convincing someone, trying to convince, compel them.

So if you're a hungry traveler and a guy comes up to you and says, There's a free five-course meal ready for you right now, if you just come with me, you're going to be pretty compelled to come.

And that's the vibe here.

The size and amaziness of this banquet compels people to come as soon as they hear about it.

But why does the second group get mentioned at all?

Why is it two sets of people that are invited after the first initial people say no?

I think this is a pretty clear reference to the Gentiles.

If the guests invited first are the Pharisees and other self-assured Jews, the second group is the poor and downtrodden of society, but still Israelites.

But the third group is the Gentiles.

They're not even part of God's people at all at this point.

And that's who Jesus says is getting a seat at the table.

God's table isn't for the full, but for the hungry.

And if the air hasn't already been sucked out of the room by now, Jesus closes his parable with a real kicker.

Not only are the lowly in society being invited to this heavenly feast, not only are the Gentiles getting invited, which would be scandalous to these Jews, but at the end, Jesus closes with this statement For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.

Jesus is saying explicitly that everyone in that first group, the original invitees, were not going to be admitted to the messianic meal.

That is everyone at this dinner with him.

So that awkward silence in the room that's been growing, at this point it's thick enough that you could cut it with a knife.

And despite this seemingly harsh statement from Jesus, I actually think these three scenes illustrate amazing patience and love from Jesus.

Because he knows how hard the hearts of the Pharisees are.

He knows how full they are, full of rules, full of themselves, full of good things that they love.

And yet he accepts this dinner invitation.

He heals a man in front of them, asking them questions aimed at their hearts.

He calmly points out the selfishness in the room as people sit.

And he gives them a glimpse of his father's banquet, who lovingly wants his house and table filled.

The truth is he is confronting them, and these things are hard to hear, but they are loving.

He is calling them ultimately to repentance.

He wants them to see their own pride, how they have filled themselves up with many things, but are truly lacking the one thing the kingdom requires to come empty-handed, to come hungry.

If you're here today and you aren't a Christian, this is a call to you as well.

Come hungry to God's table and repent.

Trust in Jesus Christ for the payment of your sins, and you will be saved.

Nothing more is required of you.

If you are a Christian, whether it's been for one day or thirty years, this is a reminder to you.

Don't be full of rules.

They can't earn you anything.

Don't be full of yourself.

It can cause you to miss the invitation.

And don't be full of good things.

They will distract you from the kingdom.

Come to God's table hungry, for he has prepared a great banquet for you.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for this passage.

We thank you for this scene that played out 2,000 years ago between Jesus and the Pharisees.

We thank you for this man that he healed, Lord.

I imagine him going on his way, praising Jesus and telling many people about him.

Thank you for the truths in this passage, Lord.

And just pray they would convict.

Convict all of us here.

Convict me this week, Lord.

And enter into our hearts deeply.

In Jesus' name, Amen.