READ | SERMON NOTES
SUMMARY l As we reflect on the fifth sermon in this series we see how Jesus turns meals into opportunities for Enacted Mission through presence, humility and hospitality.
There are three key movements shown here for how we can reflect Jesus’s presence at our meal tables.
1. Moving from heartless professions to healing practices (Luke 14:1-6)
Jesus highlights our rules and perfectionistic fixation on being right.
Jesus was invited to dine in the house of a prominent Pharisee but he was being carefully watched. He was associating with dangerous people who were seeking to entrap him. We may wonder why Jesus, knowing full well their motives, agreed to accept this invitation.
Would we share a meal with others from outside our community? Jesus demonstrates how such a situation can be transformed into a mission field.
Sharing food can be an opportunity to open the doors for the gospel to reach those around us. We create a space for people to feel accepted and give the Holy Spirit a chance to move. We may lament that we have no time for mission trips but eating meals together gives us plenty of chances to join Jesus mission at the meal table.
We must go beyond making heartless professions to healing practices. In this account suddenly a man suffering from abnormal swelling of the body shows up. It’s likely this was staged. Will Jesus choose to act with indifference or will he heal and risk offending his host? We too feel the subtle pressure to adjust our convictions depending on the company around us. Jesus has a heart of compassion towards the suffering man but the pharisees were only concerned with a rule that was perceived to broken. Bishop of Caesarea, Basil (329-379AD) said. “Annunciations are frequent but incarnations are rare”. He meant that its easy to talk grandly about God but harder to love like Jesus. We need to practice love in action as advocated by John Wesley. Jesus stepped into people’s lives, remained steadfast to who He was and chose the way of love.
2. Moving from seeking recognition to humbly recognising those often overlooked (Luke 14:7-11)
Jesus reveals our seats and narcissistic fixation on being recognised.
Jesus observes how people were picking places at the table, wanting to take seats of honour closer to the host. We love to be recognised. We can choose to be humble or be prepared to be humbled if the host should choose to move us to a less prestigious place. Who do I choose to invite to eat with me? Am I comfortable to eat with the lost, last and the least? Often I might prepare to provide food for them or serve them in ways that reinforce my superiority rather than build genuine relationships. Let us be careful not to disempower one another by making people feel incompetent. Tim Chester says “We cloak our superiority in compassion but superiority cloaked in compassion is patronising.“.
People do not wish to be treated as a project but want to be genuinely viewed as friends.
We can create natural meal opportunities (public holidays, celebrations etc.) to make time to meet up with people who need to know Jesus
3. Moving from selective hospitality to reaching those who cannot repay (Luke 14:12-24)
Jesus challenges our guest list and our consumeristic fixation on being repaid.
True hospitality welcomes those who cannot reciprocate our generosity. Miroslav Volf cautions that we should not interpret that God is the person hosting this banquet, lest it seems that God invites the rich first and then only opens His doors to the poor as a last resort. The purpose of this parable was to reinforce that we should not use our meals to increase our social capital. Here the original guest list was rich people who could afford land and livestock. We all prefer to eat with people we view as similar to us. But Jesus advocates for selfless hospitality. Let us consider who we could invite to our table? Who would God want us to invite? When we open our tables, we offer dignity, connection and a place to belong.
Let us move from our perfectionistic fixation with being right to being more compassionate; from our narcissistic fixation with being recognised to be more humble and from our consumeristic fixation with being repaid to hosting those who cannot repay us.
Who will I invite to a meal this week?
PONDER | REFLECTION QUESTIONS
- Study Scripture: Luke 14:1-24
a. Based on Luke 14:1-6,
i. What details in the scene show us the tension in the room?
ii. What contrasts do you see between what the Pharisees are watching for and what Jesus is watching for?
iii. How does Jesus’ question (“Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”) expose the heart of the religious leaders and reveal about God?
b. Based on Luke 14:12-14, why is inviting those who cannot repay so central to our practice as Christians?
c. Based on Luke 14:15-24, what stands out to you about the excuses given? - Recall Sermon
a. What new insight did you gain about the connection between meals and mission?
b. How did the sermon reshape your understanding of who belongs at our tables?
c. What part of Jesus’ example and teaching challenged you the most – welcoming the wounded, the overlooked, or those who cannot repay? - Relate Personally
a. Who are the people you naturally welcome into your life, and who are the people you naturally overlook?
b. What fears, insecurities, or habits make it difficult for you to welcome people who cannot repay you? - Commit to Action
a. Who is one person God is inviting you to notice, welcome, or sit with this week?
b. What is one fear or barrier you need to surrender in order to eat with others?
c. What is one small, practical change you can make to create space for welcoming the wounded or the overlooked?
