Highways and Hedges

HIGHWAYS AND HEDGES…

One aspect of today’s reading is following who Jesus is talking with…so let’s outline the flow of the discussion…and how Jesus moves his teaching point along.

Jesus is at dinner (vv. 1-6). He notes how people are choosing their seats and comments (vv. 7-11). He then turns his attention to the person who has organized the party and his invitation list, followed by a story to all who are at the table (vv. 12-24). Then the audience shifts, the text notes that great crowds are following him…and his words shift dramatically, because he is speaking in a different setting.

When you look at verses 1-24 you can see Jesus peeling back the layers of the story, teaching at each step. He begins at table on the Sabbath. It is a meal, no doubt with all the amenities. Jesus changes it up…he gets about kingdom business, by healing...challenging the thoughts in their minds.

Next he begins to talk about how, when we enter and are a part of the kingdom, we are people of humility. He turns his attention to his host, and who he should invite. But not only the host, he turns and tells everyone at table a parable that ends with the banquet invitation being extended “to the highway and hedges…that my house may be filled.” Such is the kingdom…healing is not hindered by rules and all are invited…and yet to accept the invitation…well his explanation to accept his invitation is to accept him…and it has everything to do with how his audience changes.

Because all are invited the audience now shifts to the “great crowds” described in verse 25…these are they who are at the highways and hedges. Jesus begins to describe what it means to accept the invitation. The language is hard and I will share some thoughts about it, but first take a read through the text and see what you make of it.  

Healing of a Man on the Sabbath

14 One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. ² And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. ³ And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” ⁴ But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. ⁵ And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” ⁶ And they could not reply to these things.

The Parable of the Wedding Feast

⁷ Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, ⁸ “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, ⁹ and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.10 But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. ¹¹ For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

The Parable of the Great Banquet

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 brother 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.”

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.’”

The Cost of Discipleship

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.

Salt Without Taste Is Worthless

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.”

“Does not hate his own father and mother…” Haven’t we read that somewhere before in Luke? The answer is mostly yes, we have read words about family. In Luke 8:19-21 we read that Jesus considers those who hear the Word of God and do it, his family. We read in 9:62, as crowds were cheering that they would follow him, that they needed to be serious…don’t just pay him lip service. In 12:49-53 we read how his coming will actually divide households.

Today we read about counting the cost of discipleship. In each instance there was a crowd, an enthusiastic crowd. My sense is Jesus was aware of how a crowd can get carried away…and Jesus…well Jesus is bringing them back to earth…letting them know what you probably know…following Jesus is a bit of work. Yes the Grace is free…but once received you want so much to follow that it needs to be a real priority in your life…please don’t freak out about Jesus’ strong language…consider the setting…consider what you know about following him…and then appreciate he wants the crowd to “be real” about following.