The last chapter had closed with the setting aside of the Jew and the judgment of Jerusalem. We have now the moral principles involved set forth in chapter 14. The Lord was asked to “the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day.” One might have expected, if there was anything holy or any appreciation of grace, now was the time for it. But not so. They watched Him. They, ignorant of God, looked for evil desired evil. God was in none of their thoughts, nor His grace. Yet these were the men who most of all piqued themselves upon their nice observance of the sabbath day.
But grace will not stay its work or withhold the truth to please men: Jesus was there to make known God and do His will. “And, behold there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy.” No religious forms can shut out the ruin that is in the world through sin, and our Lord, filled with the good that was in His heart, answers their thoughts before they uttered them, speaking to the lawyers and Pharisees with the question, “Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath?” His question was an answer to their evil judgments. It was impossible to deny it. Hardened as man was and habituated to evil, he could not say that it was unlawful to heal on the sabbath day. Yet they really wished that it should be so, and, as we know, made it repeatedly a ground of the most serious accusation against the Lord. However here He challenges those that were ostensibly the wisest and most righteous in Israel, the lawyers and Pharisees; but “they held their peace.” The Lord then takes the dropsical man, heals him, and lets him go. Then he answers them further by the question: “Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day?” This is a little different from his reply to the ruler of the synagogue in the chapter before. There it was more the need of the animal, the ordinary supply of his wants. But here it is a more urgent case. It was not simply that the animal needed watering and must be led to it, but “which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day?” It was lawful therefore to look after the good of an animal on that day. They proved it when their own interests were concerned. God had His interests and love: therefore was Jesus in this world, therefore was He in the Pharisee's house. He had meat to eat that they knew not of. It was not the Pharisee's bread, but to do the will of His Father. In healing the dropsical man He was glorifying His Father. He was boldly acting upon that which even they durst not deny—the right of healing on the sabbath day. If they could relieve on that day their animals from their pain or danger, what title had they to dispute God's right to heal the miserable among men, among Israel?
“And they could not answer him again to these things.” How unanswerably good is the grace and truth of God!
But it is plain that the heart of Israel was sick and that this very scene showed how much they needed to be healed. But they knew it not. They were hardened against the Holy One that could do them good. They were maliciously watching Him, instead of presenting themselves in their misery that He might heal them.
But the Lord in the next scene puts forth “a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms.” (Ver. 7.) It is not only that there is a hindrance of good to others, on the part of those who have no sense of need themselves, but there is a universal desire of self-exaltation. The law did not hinder this: it can only condemn, and that too for the most part, what the natural conscience condemns. But Christ here brings in the light of God's grace, of divine love in an evil world as contrasted with human selfishness. He marked how those that were guests chose out the chief rooms. They sought for themselves, they sought the best. But “when thou art bidden,” says He who was Himself the perfect pattern of love and humility— “when thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room, lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden of him. And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room.” (Ver. 8, 9.) Assuredly it would be so with Israel themselves. They had had the outward call of God, they had chosen the chief seats and now they were going to lose all place and nation. Jesus was in the fullest contrast with them. He went down to the lowest room, He took it in love for God's glory; and certainly there is One that will say for Him, Give this man place. Clearly, however, it is an exhortation for every heart and more particularly for those who heed the call of God.
Then comes a more positive word. “When thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room” —He had done so Himself— “that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher.” He must take the form of a servant, was found in fashion as a man, humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name.” As He says here, “Then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased: and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” (Ver. 10, 11.) They are universal principles of God: the one true of Christ and of all that are Christ's; as the other is of the spirit of man. The first Adam sought to exalt himself, but only fell through the deceit of Satan. The Second man humbled Himself and is set above all principality, and power, and might.
Then we find, further, it is not a question only of guests but of a host: He has a word for every man. God looks for love in this world, and this too apart from nature. His love is not for one's friends or family alone; it is not on this principle at all. “When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors; lest they also bid thee again and a recompense be made thee.” (Ver. 12.) A witness for Christ is marked by that which is supernatural. There is no testimony to His name in merely natural kindness or family affection, but where there is love without a human motive or any hope of recompense, there is a testimony to Him. It is exactly so that God is doing now in the gospel, and we are called to be imitators of God. It is not meant to be merely in making a feast or a supper; but that grace should stamp its character on all our Christian life. The whole time of the gospel call, as we shall see farther on, is compared to a feast to which the activity of love is gathering in from the miserable of this world.
Hence, the Lord adds, “When thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee.” How divinely fine, yet how different from the world and its social order out of which the Christian is called! If we thus act in unselfish self-sacrificing love, God will surely recompense according to all His resources and His nature. This will be at the resurrection of the just, the great and final scene when all that are severed from the world will be seen apart from it, when human selfishness will have disappeared forever, when they that are Christ's will reign in life by one, Christ Jesus. Anything short of this is not the exercise of the life of Christ, but of our nature in this world; and this is precisely what has no place at the resurrection of the just. (Ver. 13, 14.)
The Lord speaks here of a special resurrection, in which the unjust have no part. Not that these too do not come forth from their graves; for indeed they must rise for judgment. But our text speaks of the resurrection of life in which none can be but those who are just by the grace of God—justified no doubt, but also just—those that practiced the good things, in contrast with those that did the evil. Other scriptures prove that these two resurrections differ in time as decidedly as in character; and the great New Testament prophecy determines that more than a thousand years separate the one from the other, though the effects for each never pass away. It is manifest also that only the resurrection of the just admits of recompense. For the unjust there can be but righteous retribution.