Verses 1-6. The Lord exposes the cold, selfish, religious pride of the lawyers and Pharisees in their vain Sabbath-keeping. He sets it aside to bring in grace to the needy, ever delighting to do good. His compassions fail not. It was the Sabbath day, and He went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread, and they watched Him. There was a certain man before Him who had the dropsy. Jesus answered their thoughts with the question, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?” They held their peace. He took him, and healed him, and let him go. He answered them with another 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?” Thus they were confounded and their sabbath day set aside. Sin broke God’s rest, and they had often broken the covenant of which their sabbath was the sign. (Ex. 31:13-1713Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. 14Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 15Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. 16Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. 17It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed. (Exodus 31:13‑17)). Thus He brings before them their sin against Jehovah. They had fallen into a pit, and the Lord came down, by His work to pull man out of it. It was not the time now to keep His Sabbath.
Verses 7-11. In those who were bidden, He sees how love of honor from men is manifested by seeking the chief places for themselves, and from this He enunciates the true place of blessing from God for us all. We are but sinners, deserving of eternal judgment. If we speak well of ourselves, it but shows our want of feeling of our true state before God. If we feel our true state before Him, humbly own it and look to Him for mercy, we are in the place where His forgiving love can bless us. “For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased: and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” To get true blessing from God, we must humble ourselves, that is, take our true place as sinners before Him. It was so when we came to Him as sinners, we found mercy extended to us. It is always true, and the believer learns to progress in the things of God—to be ever self-emptied before Him. How beautifully perfect we see our blessed Lord in this! He who was ever as a man equal with God, yet in grace, and to do the Father’s will, took the servant’s place, emptied Himself, and humbled Himself, became obedient unto death, and that the death of the cross. That was—the lowest place. We cannot go there. He went there for us. “Wherefore God hath highly exalted Him.”
Every mark of dark dishonor
Heaped upon the thorn-crowned brow,
All the depths of Thy heart’s sorrow
Told in answering glory now.
He hid Himself from glory of men, so may we; and it will find its answer in the glory. (Rev. 2:1717He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. (Revelation 2:17)). He is our pattern. “If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be: if any man serve Me, him will My Father honor.” (John 12:25, 2625He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. 26If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honor. (John 12:25‑26)).
Verses 12-14. To the one that invited Him, He said, “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. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.” The reward of service is future. If we serve only those who can serve us in return, it is not true service to Christ. If we serve those who cannot recompense us, that is like the Lord Himself, and it shall be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. The resurrection of the just points out that there are two resurrections, and not a common one for all. Only the just can serve Him. (Rom. 1:1717For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. (Romans 1:17)).
Verses 15-24. When one of them who sat at meat with Him heard these things, he said unto Him, “Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God.” He was thinking of, the glorious time when the Messiah would reign over Israel and the Nations, as prophesied. The answer looks at what takes place before the kingdom is set up in power. It is not seeking fruit now from Israel as a fig tree. It is a man providing a great supper, all at his own cost and inviting many to partake. It is the gospel of the grace of God, bringing salvation without money or without price. But what did it cost Him who made it? (2 Cor. 8:99For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)). “All that He had.” (Matt. 13:4646Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. (Matthew 13:46)). He “gave Himself.” (Eph. 5:2525Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; (Ephesians 5:25)). And in God’s “due time” all was done and ready. (Rom. 5:66For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6)). He sent His servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, “Come; for all things are now ready.”
The gospel went out to the Jew first—the bidden ones. Alas! the heavenly and spiritual things they do not want. So they all with one consent began to make excuse. Earthly possessions and relationship, though mercies given by God, are made the excuse for rejecting His eternal salvation; the carnal mind finds no pleasure in the things of God. It is not what in itself is sin that keeps them away. Their duties of this life are made the excuse. And so it is today. Men turn away from God’s beseechings to receive reconciliation to God, because of present things, but after all there are also the pleasures of sin, made so by their coming between the soul and God.
Reader, are you putting anything between your soul and God? Well, the Master said, “None of those men which were bidden shall taste of My supper.”
The Servant, the Holy Spirit, come down to preach the gospel, came and told His Lord their answers. What has He to tell Him about you? Then the Master of the house being angry, said to His Servant, “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.” This takes in the outcast Jews, as publicans and sinners and the Samaritans. (Acts 8). Such are glad to come, for they are needy, and the supper of grace is a comfort and joy to such, for it meets their need, bringing them, into pardon, peace, and everlasting life. And the Servant said, “Lord, it is done as Thou halt commanded, and yet there is room.” Still wider goes the order “Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, that My house may be filled.” This takes in those “afar, off,” the Gentile dogs, the heathen lands, “every creature.” “And compel them to come in.” This is no mere cold invitation, it is the drawings of the love of God, the power of the Holy Spirit using the Word that tells of man’s need and God’s love to the sinner and hatred to sin, while He loves the sinner. This tells him of the feast prepared, and thus forces him in.
‘Twas the same love that spread the feast,
That sweetly forced me in;
Else I had still refused to taste
And perished in my sin.
The gospel went out to the Jew first as a nation. They rejected it and are now themselves rejected and scattered, but sovereign grace waits on the individual Jew as on, every creature, (Rom. 11:3232For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. (Romans 11:32)). to give them salvation and a place in the church of God, if they will bow and own Jesus as Lord. (Rom. 10:99That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9)).
Christendom, like the Jewish nation of old, is turning a deaf ear to God’s offered mercy, and making excuses. “And yet there is room.” God will have His house filled. Will you be in it, dear reader? Have you come to Christ? The message has gone out to every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and they will be brought in and you, who had such privileges, such opportunities if you neglect this great salvation now, will be shut out forever.
Verses 25-33. Here discipleship is presented which must not be confounded with salvation. We have salvation, the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, given to us freely, without money and without price. “Justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” God starts us off as Christians, happy and eternally secure.
Discipleship gives us Christ as our object to live for, and this gives us true happiness. And the only way to be truly happy is to have Christ as our object before father, mother, wife, children, brethren, sisters and his own life also, yea all that he hath is forsaken for Christ. This is the meaning of the word “hate” here. The truth that we are dead with Christ and risen with Christ, and thus are in a new place in Him before God, His love constraining us, helps us to understand and practice this.
It is not that we actually hate our dear ones, but that we as now risen with Christ, have them in this new way from the Lord. And He tells us how to look after them for Him. (See Eph. 5:2222Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. (Ephesians 5:22) to 6:9; Col. 3:1818Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. (Colossians 3:18) to 4:1). The Lord gives us there to see that they and all our business are to be taken up for Him, and carried by us through His grace and strength, as the man carried his bed in obedience to Jesus. (John 5:8, 98Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. 9And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath. (John 5:8‑9)). We are to count the cost, and if we do we shall be convinced that “without Him we can do nothing.” (John 15:55I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. (John 15:5)). We can only build the tower, or fight the enemy, through grace supplied from Him, but this is promised us as we need it. (2 Cor. 9:88And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: (2 Corinthians 9:8); James 4:66But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. (James 4:6)).
Verses 34:35. If we are not careful to keep the Lord before us, as the salt we will lose our influence for good. Such salt is useless, it is savorless and only to be cast out. Salt upholds what is good. Light bears testimony against evil. (Matt. 5:1313Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. (Matthew 5:13)).