I guess I live in an affluent area in California. Those words seem strange to me because I really don’t think of myself as being affluent. To be sure God has blessed me abundantly as He has promised, but I’m not rich by any measure of that word. Yet if you look at the average price of housing in my city, we are talking a definite upper, middle class here. Living in such an area, it is easy for me to live under the illusion that there are no poor people in our city. I certainly can’t see them as I gaze out of the windows of my home. The people who live in my neighborhood must have some level of wealth to even be here. I guess I am too much like the Pharisees in our story today. Please take a moment and read Luke 14: 1-6.

It is always interesting to notice the reasons why Jesus was invited in to dine in the various cities and villages in which He traveled. To be sure, it was common courtesy for the leading person in each village to invite Jesus in and to share a meal with such an honored and famous guest. I suppose if Billy Graham came to town, he probably wouldn’t be eating at my house, but you get the idea. On this occasion the purpose for inviting Jesus to dine was not one of simple courtesy. The Greek word that Luke uses gives us the idea that the intent of these Pharisees was a sinister one. The word means to search for the incorrect or to wait in order to point out something wrong.

Suddenly in their midst there is a man that is described as having dropsy. Now dropsy is a symptom and not a disease. In fact, it could be caused by a number of diseases. What this man suffered from was a collection of fluids in his body cavities, in his limbs or just under his skin. The question of the day would be did this man just show up because he knew Jesus was going to be there and needed help, or was he invited by this group of Pharisees? In other words, is this event happening because of God’s influence or Satan’s scheming? It’s an interesting question because it changes the lesson to be drawn from Jesus’ words.

Let’s say the man was an invited guest. The Pharisees knew Jesus couldn’t resist healing on the Sabbath and this man appears to be such an inviting target. After all, his illness is so visible. Jesus can’t possible miss it. If that is the case, then these Pharisees would have used this man for their own gain. How often are the poor and powerless taken advantage of by those who should know better? It’s just like the politician whose only visit to the poor section of town is right near Election Day. It’s like the thief who steals from people who don’t have much of anything. These people don’t have the power or influence to defend themselves, so they are easy targets.

On the other hand, perhaps the man just showed up at the Pharisees house. Do you notice that these Pharisees are so intent on watching Jesus; they don’t even see the need. Their agenda of trapping and discrediting Jesus is so all consuming that they turn a blind eye to the needs of this man. He is not that important to them. Actually even if these Pharisees didn’t have their alternate agenda, this man would have been seen by them as a reject, obviously steeped in sin which they believed had been the cause of his calamity. It was a classic case of being so caught up in the form and ritual of religion that you forget what your faith is all about.

As you can probably tell, this section of the Bible is loaded with personal application. Perhaps the Holy Spirit has begun the process of convicting you in this area. I know He has convicted me. The question that I have been asking today involves my turning a blind eye to the needs of others within my own community. It’s too easy for me to go about my own life and just assume that everyone’s needs are taken care of. I need to stop and ask God what changes He wants to make in my life today. How about you?

Day 2 – Humility

I used to think that humility was that one trait that when you’ve attained it, you have lost it. To me it was a character trait to be admired but only temporarily captured. That was because I had a misunderstanding of exactly what humility was. It took a once proud Pharisee to finally teach me about what humility is and what it isn’t. Unfortunately the Pharisees that are gathered around this table didn’t teach me about humility. We are still in the 14^th chapter of Luke. Today we will be taking a look at verses 7-14.

If you had lived in the first century, you would understand that when you are invited to dine with an important person, you sat at table in order of your standing with your host. He, of course, sat at the head of the table with the most important person sitting on his immediate right. The second most important person present sat at his left. Then the pecking order went down through the ranks alternating between the right and left sides until the least important person in the room sat at the opposite end of the table. Back then there was no such thing as name tags so what happened would be a form of the old child’s game, musical chairs, where each guest scrambled to sit at the highest place possible. So the position of most important person present could go to the fastest rather than the most important.

Positions in life occur almost naturally. I remember learning in Sociology class how even on the playground, children will automatically rank themselves with the leader down to the lowliest without any help from teachers or their parents. It just seems to be as natural as breathing to the human experience. We all seem to seek to be thought of as an important person and the opinion of our peers’ matters a lot no matter how old we get. Jesus noticed that fact when he sat down at this Pharisees table and to teach a valuable lesson about behavior in the Kingdom of God, He told the story that you just read.

If you were nimble of foot in those days, you could scramble and find a seat higher than your social standing in that village. The problem with that activity is that when the host arrives, several undesirable things may happen. You will be asked to move to the only seat in the room not taken, that of the lowest and farthest away from your host. Imagine your embarrassment as all eyes fix upon you as you retire to the opposite end of the table. Jesus counsels those present to sit at the lowest seat so that when the host comes, he will exalt you by moving you to a higher place.

The Pharisee who taught me the most about humility was the Apostle Paul. In the second chapter of his letter to the Philippian church he said, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” He then went on to describe the greatest example of humility the world has ever known, that of Jesus Christ. We can’t even begin to imagine what it must have been like for Jesus to leave the splendor of heaven for the manger and life on this planet. We can’t even imagine what it was like to leave a place where you were in absolute and total control to a place where you washed men’s feet. Yet Jesus did exactly that as an example to us as to how we need to treat each other.

Go back and read Paul’s statement once again and let his words seep into the deep recesses of your mind. Humility is nothing more than treating the people around you as if their needs were more important that your own. You have a lot of choices in this life as to how you will live. That is the beauty of the free will that God has given all of us. This example will make a striking difference in your relationships. Imagine a marriage where each person looks out for the others interests before their own. Imagine what a co-worker would think if you promoted them before yourself. You want to make a difference in life. Start putting others first and you will be amazed at how others treat you.

Day 3 – Reciprocity

Today’s section of the Bible means something different to me than most people. For a good part of my life, I was in the business of credit management. It was my job to see that a company’s cash flow was such that it would not only be able to pay its bills but also to pay its owners a reward for their hard work and investment. The idea of reciprocity lies at the very core of credit management. You obtain the goods and services you need and in return you pay at a later date for those products or services. One follows the other in a logical sequence. Of course the reason I was paid a great deal of money for what I did was that the logical sequence did not always take place as designed in the agreement between the buyer and the seller. Jesus is not talking about the exchange of goods and services when He sat at the table of this Pharisee, but He is speaking about the whole idea of reciprocity just the same. Today finds us in Luke 14: 12-14, so let’s start by reading this section of the Bible.

It was the habit of the rich and famous of Jesus’ day to invite into your home for dinner only those of equal or higher rank. That way one could assure themselves of a multitude of invitations to some really great parties. Jesus, however, speaks out against such reciprocity in that He states that such behavior has its own rewards. If you invite people with the sole intent of gaining their favor and a future invitation into their homes, then the reward you gain is when you are invited over to their parties. He then gives another option for you to consider the next time you give a dinner party. Jesus suggests that you invite over only those people who cannot repay you. Then the reward you gain will come from God when the righteous are resurrected.

So what are we to do with what Jesus is teaching here? Is He saying that we need to start inviting the homeless into our homes for dinner? I can tell you there are some puzzled looks and furrowed brows among you at this point. You are truly hoping that I am not going to suggest such a strategy. As I have prayed and pondered over this passage, I’m not sure you can limit the application of this passage to a mere dinner invitation. The whole issue that Jesus addresses here is who is a righteous person? We all like to think of ourselves as righteous in God’s eyes, but what does that really look like? Here we see God’s son giving us a glimpse of how He looks at this idea of righteousness.

In God’s eyes, the righteous person does the things that God would do if He were here on earth. The righteous person tends to look at life the same way that God looks at it. They also view people with the same love and tenderness as the God they serve. Did Jesus ever pass someone in need without ministering to that person with the gifts that God had given Him? While we do not have a record of every act that Jesus did while He was on earth, we do see a general pattern in that He spent a great deal of time helping those who could not help themselves. His life was lived out in stark contrast to the Pharisees who reclined with Him at this table. It would be a safe guess to say that each person at that table looked at the poor in a different way. Even the disciples of Jesus didn’t look at people the same way as their Master. These twelve men were still in a period of transition that would last for the rest of their lives.

So where does all of this find you today? If you look at your life over the last ten years, do you see a pattern of increased generosity towards the downtrodden of society? Are you able to look upon the poor with greater or lesser love than ever? Do you work to build a better life for yourself or to share with the less fortunate? The answer to these questions I will leave between you and the God whom you serve.

Day 4 – Parable of the Great Banquet

This parable was told while Jesus was still reclining at the table of the leading Pharisee in an unknown Perean town. In order to familiarize yourself with Jesus’ teaching, it would be a good idea for you to read Luke 14: 15-24. At first glance, it would almost appear that Jesus is bringing home the point that these Pharisees need to be inviting the poor and disabled to their banquets instead of only their friends, but that interpretation would not be the correct one. This parable is spoken by Jesus in response to the statement given to us in verse 15. It is all about the Kingdom of God and who gets to eat in that great banquet. What we have here is just some pious table talk like the often repeated “God bless you” automatically said when someone sneezes. The words sound holy and they are correct, but there is absolutely no thought put into the words spoken.

Now let’s take a deeper look into the actual facts of the story. You can see Jesus using the rule of three in the parable to allow His listeners to better retain its meaning. There are three classes of guests invited to this party. Each class represents a different class of people living around Israel at the time. The first class is obviously represented by most of the men gathered at that table. They had been invited to dine and had initially given a positive response, agreeing to come. Yet when it came right down to the final word that it was time to attend, they all came up with some really lame excuses as to why they weren’t coming. When the time comes we see the true color of their pious words. These people saw nothing attractive in the banquet and had no reverence or respect for its host. Their own interests take precedence. So they get left out and are rejected by the Master of the banquet.

The second class of people is then brought in to the feast. They are described to us as the poor, the blind and the lame in town. These people, who lived in town, would be representative of the common Jewish people. They lived where the first group lived, but were not of the same social strata. The servants were sent not only to invite, but to bring them in. Otherwise they might shrink from coming as they would not feel worthy of an invitation. Still the hall is not filled to its capacity.

The final group is seen occupying those who do not live in the City of God, but in its surrounding countryside. These people would be Gentiles as they didn’t live within the city. They lived outside the theocracy. Notice how the invitation becomes more ardent. One cannot assume that these people were forced to come, but it must be an earnest and more pressing invitation in order to convince them of the reality of the banquet and that they are welcome at it.

As in a lot of parables, Jesus gives us the interpretation in verse 24. Now compare Jesus’ words with those spoken by the Pharisee in verse 15. Do you notice the contrast? The intent of Jesus’ words seems to be to jar these men out of their complacency and their empty piousness and show them how easily they will be left out of the Kingdom if they didn’t alter their thinking dramatically.

As for the application that we can draw from Jesus parable, we have to take Jesus’ words at face value and believe Him when He says that the only thing that we have to do to gain entrance into His Kingdom is to accept His open invitation. It doesn’t matter which social strata we currently occupy. Our family lineage is not at issue. There are some who come when word first arrives that they are invited. Still others must be coaxed and convinced that attendance will be all right and that the roof will not cave in if they walk into the building. No one is forced to attend, but those who accept this gracious invitation will be treated to one of the great parties of all time. So the only answer that remains is what did you do with your invitation?

Day 5 – Count the Cost

After reading Luke 14: 25-35, I have to believe that Jesus would have made a really lousy recruiter. Can you imagine a recruiter for the military using this tactic? “Before you sign up you need to think about all of the early morning hikes and crawling through mud you will have to do.” I can’t think that such an approach would bring many enlistees. It would be the same thing as a salesman telling you all of the things his product can’t do and wondering why you didn’t buy. So why is Jesus telling the crowd to count the cost before becoming one of His disciples? He knows that it will be those disciples who will forever alter the world. If you are to be tasked with making such an impact, you had better be fully committed to what you are doing. There is no such thing as a half-disciple. This is not a part time job we are talking about.

Most people that I have run into have a really hard time with Jesus’ idea that to be His disciple you have to hate those people closest to you. That’s because they get caught up in the English and forget that Jesus wasn’t speaking in English. The Greek words Jesus used here mean to express a relative preference of one thing over another. Everything that Jesus said and did says that our relationship with people needs to be one of love. That would also include our relatives. What Jesus says here is that when it comes to a comparison between God and our relatives, there is no contest. For the disciple, God is always at the forefront.

The second requirement for being a disciple is that we carry our cross and follow Jesus. As we have said previously in these devotions, that word picture carries the idea of obedience. We obey God just as Jesus did when He carried His cross to Golgotha. Disciples have to be more than just learners; they are to be doers of that which they learn. It is absolutely essential that a disciple not spend all of his time in Bible study without ever applying any of it to actual living.

To illustrate His point, Jesus gives us two illustrations. The first one has always had an impact on me. For those of you would have been reading these devotions for a time, you know that for most of my professional career, I was a Credit Manager in the construction industry. As such, I have watched a lot of people run out of money before a project was completed. When contractors and material suppliers aren’t paid, they tend to walk off the job and the building stands there unable to do the task for which it was intended. The owner does not have the cash flow that the completed building was to provide, and therefore, cannot repay his lender. The lender then forecloses and the building becomes a monument to the owner’s lack of foresight.

The same thing can be said for the king who tries to do battle without enough of a force to win. This would be the same thing as if I were to go up to a six foot tall rather large man and start to pick a fight. Unless I have a death wish, this is not a wise course of action. I have always found it wiser when dealing with rather large men to develop my negotiating skills.

So what does all this mean to the person who has accepted Jesus’ free gift of salvation? It means that you are faced with a choice in what you do with that gift. There is a lot of difference between believing and being a disciple. It is possible for me to always sit on the fence when it comes to Jesus. That means I believe enough to gain entry into the Kingdom of God, but I refuse to give up control of my life to God. While it is true that my eternity is settled, I will never be what God wants me to be until I surrender and pay the cost of being a disciple. I will never know the ultimate joy that happens when God uses me in a mighty way. My life will never reach its full potential as I sit on my fence and watch others around me experience life in its fullness. Each of us only gets one life. We only get one allotted span of years and there are no “do overs” here. My advice is for you to count the cost and get in the game. Besides, sitting on a fence can get really uncomfortable after a time.

Day 6 – Parable of the Lost Sheep

In Luke 15: 2 we read of the mutterings of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law about the fact that Jesus actually ate and socialized with sinners and other low-life types. In response to their mutterings, Jesus tells a series of three parables to teach all who would hear how God views lost people. Each parable views the same situation from a slightly different angle so that in combining all three parables one gets a much clearer picture of how God views those who have wandered away from His original intent for them.

The teachers and Pharisees in the crowd that day had a much different gospel in mind. The fact is they didn’t have any message to give the lost. They had nothing to say to the sinner. They felt that it was the sinner’s responsibility to get cleaned up first and then they would consider guiding the lost to where they could obtain God’s mercy at some point in the future. Jesus, on the other hand, told of a different kind of forgiveness. To be sure, Jesus’ model of forgiveness involved the fact that one needed to recognize that they had wandered from the life that God wanted for them. The difference was that Jesus and His disciples went out to the lost and spent time with them in order to show them what life with God was all about. All three of these parables speak to the fact that it is God who is constantly reaching out and doing the work of restoration of the lost. It is God who actively longs for their restoration. It is God who throws a party every time someone who is lost comes back to their creator.

In the parable of the Lost Sheep, as found in Luke 15: 3-7, the emphasis is on that which is lost. In this case, it is a single sheep out of a population of a hundred sheep. Now if you stood on a street corner and asked a hundred people if they would leave ninety-nine perfectly healthy sheep unattended in order to spend time looking for a single sheep that was too dumb to stay with the group, most people would say no. If you had asked the Pharisees and teachers of the law present if they would leave the flock, they would have certainly said no. The fact that Jesus’ illustration of God shows that He cares so much for the lost that He will leave the ninety-nine is a testament to the great love God has for us.

So, if the shepherd in this parable is an illustration of God, who are the sheep? They are you and me. Now, I know you were thinking that these sheep are people who don’t know God, and it is true they are also the sheep in this parable, but believing sheep can wander away just as easily as non-believing sheep. This sheep is constantly looking down at the ground. Its only concern is where the next clump of grass is located, so his field of vision is usually less than two feet in front of him. This sheep is so concentrated on the here and now and how his life is going that he fails to notice that the rest of the flock has gone on to a new field. The satisfaction of the immediate has so dominated this sheep’s life that he wasn’t listening when the master called, so he was left behind.

Perhaps as you have read this parable, you have come to realize that it is more about you than you would like it to be. When was the last time you stopped long enough to actually listen for the shepherd? If you’re like most sheep, you don’t even realize you’re lost until it’s too late. The real comfort behind this parable is that we have a heavenly Father who never stops looking for us. He loves us so much that He is willing to leave the other ninety-nine just to look for us. When we feel His touch on our backs and we finally look up and realize we’re lost, He is quick to pick us up and carry us back to where we need to be.

Day 7 – Parable of the Lost Coin

The second of three parables that Jesus taught to those people who tend to write people off was the Parable of the Lost Coin. It can be found in Luke 15: 8-10. It is a short parable if you count the words, but as you read it you will find enormous applications in its few words. The basic facts about the parable are that a woman had ten silver coins of considerable worth in her house. On this occasion she finds that one of the coins has gone missing. She sweeps the entire place until the coin is located. It is at that point that she invites all of her neighbors over to help her celebrate finding the coin.