I split this passage into 2 parts:
- Preaching in the Pharisee’s house
- Preaching to the multitudes
Part 1: Preaching in the Pharisee’s house
This passage begins with Jesus eating in a Pharisee’s house.
And this is one tense meal.
The Pharisees didn’t like Jesus healing on a Sabbath.
But He did it anyway.
He healed the man with dropsy in their house.
Right in front of them.
Then, He rebuked them when He earlier “noticed how they chose the places of honor.” (verse 7)
Imagine this: Jesus arrives early at the feast, before the doors open.
The Pharisees are already pressing against the door.
The moment the doors open, the Pharisees push and shove each other and fight for the best seats.
So He rebukes them with the parable of the wedding feast.
But Jesus is not done.
12 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. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
Then He looks around and sees other Pharisees, scribes, and the rich.
So He rebukes them and says, “Don’t just invite your rich friends. Invite the poor and disabled also.”
By the way, Jesus is not asking you not to invite your rich friends to your party.
But if you want to be rewarded in heaven, invite the poor and needy also.
Application 1: Treat people from different social backgrounds to a meal.
Think about all the people you’ve eaten with over the last year.
Your colleagues, family, boyfriend or girlfriend, badminton friends, or church friends.
How many are of a different social background?
If you’re like me, your answer is probably not much.
You’ve probably mostly eat with people of the same social background.
But this passage convicted me to maybe invite some of my Indian neighbors for a meal.
Or to eat lunch with a more diverse group of people at work. People who are more junior or people of a different race.
And if you want rewards in heaven, treat them.
15 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!” 16 But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. 17 And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ 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 have me excused.’ 19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ 20 And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ 21 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.’ 22 And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23 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. 24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’”
By now, the dinner is very tense.
Jesus already did 1 thing they didn’t like and rebuked them twice.
Then, someone, probably to break the tension, says, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”
Jesus adds to the tension with the parable of the great banquet.
At that time, the host will send a pre-invitation.
And right before the feast, they’ll send another invitation.
But everyone made excuses.
You know they’re excuses because they’re so ridiculous.
The 1st said, “I bought a field, I must see it.”
Who buys a field without 1st seeing it?
The 2nd said, “I bought oxen, I must examine them.”
Who buys oxen without 1st examining them?
The 3rd said, “I just got married. So I cannot come.”
Who said you cannot bring your wife along?
They all made excuses.
But what does this parable mean?
The man in this parable is God.
Those pre-invited are the Jews.
God pre-invited the Jews to His banquet.
But Jesus is the actual invitation.
And many Jews, including those at that feast, were rejecting Him.
The person who said, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God,” assumed he and everyone in the Pharisee’s house would enter heaven.
But Jesus said, “No. You guys are rejecting the invitation into heaven by rejecting Me.”
Meanwhile, the poor, crippled, blind, and lame are the tax collectors, prostitutes, and outcasts.
And the people on the highways and hedges are the Gentiles.
They are now invited into heaven.
Part 2: Preaching to the multitudes
25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
34 “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? 35 It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
The dinner ended, and Jesus is now preaching to the multitudes.
He said, “Whoever does not hate his family and himself cannot be my disciple.”
Jesus is using hyperbole here.
He’s not asking us to hate our family.
But our love for them must pale in comparison to our love for Him.
And if we have to choose between our family, our lives, and Him, we will choose Him.
That’s what Jesus meant when He asked you to hate your family and your life.
Then, Jesus gives 2 examples of counting the cost:
- Before you build a tower, count the cost
- Before you go to war, count the cost.
He didn’t say, “Whoever recites the sinner’s prayer or becomes a church member can be my disciple.”
He says, “Whoever hates his family and his life can be my disciple. So count the cost.”
Application 2: Continue counting the cost
I’m a disciple of Jesus.
And I have counted the cost before I was born again in 2016.
But I find myself forgetting what I’ve counted.
So my application is to continue counting the cost.
But what does this mean?
Here are a few questions I want to go through regularly to see if I’m counting the cost:
- Family: Am I willing to leave my spouse, children, parents, and friends to serve Him?
- Am I willing to be rejected by: 1) my parents, 2) my spouse, 3) my children, 4) my friends, 5) my bosses, 6) my colleagues, 7) my peers, and 8) strangers for Him? Am I willing to risk looking foolish and evangelize to them right now? Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household” (Matthew 10:34-36).
- If you’re not yet married, are you willing to remain single for the rest of your life for Him?
- Career: Am I willing to quit my job and take a pay cut or have an unstable salary for Him?
- Significance: Am I willing to give up my position and accomplishments (or my desire for them) and be insignificant to this world for Him?
- Money: Am I willing to give away all my money, investments, house, car, and collections (i.e., watches, shoes, guitars) for Him and live a life on this earth without much?
- Needs: Am I willing to sacrifice: 1) my sleep, 2) my meals, and 3) sexual pleasure with my spouse for Him?
- Comfort: Am I willing to give up my lifestyle and migrate to a rural place with no modern amenities (proper bed, toilet, aircon, etc.)?
- Time: Am I willing to completely give up: 1) my electronic devices, 2) social media, 3) all other forms of entertainment, 4) time with friends, and 5) my hobbies to spend time in His presence?
- Behavior: Am I willing to stop every sin in my life? Even “small” ones like gossip, jealousy, and impatience? Am I willing to allow the Bible and other people to point them out?
- Speech: Am I willing to change the way I speak, even if I do not think that it is wrong, and say only what He wants me to say?
- Physical suffering: Am I willing to be tortured and jailed for Him? Am I willing to lose my health or body parts for Him?
- Life: Am I willing to die for Him? Jesus says, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:35).
Go through these questions regularly to see if you’re still counting the cost.
And if not, work on your heart urgently.
Because you cannot be discipled by Jesus without a surrendered heart.