The Poor, the Crippled, the Lame, and the Blind

Luke 14:1-14

Key Verse 14:13

1. Read verses 1-6.  Consider Jesus’ conversation with the Pharisees and experts in the law. What can we learn from Jesus’ question in verse 5?

** Jesus wants the leaders of a church to consider the flock coming to their church as their own children. Jesus teaches us that God is love, and love looks to the interest of others.  The problem of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day was that they did not know the kind of love God has for all people on earth. Jesus also wants them to overcome legalism and materialism (legalism in the sense that one uses law to destroy men’s life, rather than to protect and nurture man’s life, and materialism in the sense that one loves materials such as animal more than he loves fellow human beings.) 

 

2. Think about the problem Jesus noticed in verse 7 and the parable he gave in verses 8-11. Jesus says in verse 11, “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.” Why do you think God designed things to work this way?

** God does not support those who are proud because the proud tend not to learn from others including God, so that they end up not growing to the level of God’s greatness. Unlike animals man alone was designed to grow without a limit. But the proud cannot grow. Jesus wanted the so called spiritual (religious) leaders to grow up. In love, Jesus rebuked them to grow up. Most importantly they were to grow up by learning from Jesus Christ for anyone who does not know Jesus and anyone who does not learn of him continually is bound to go down, becoming worse than even animals. 

3. Consider the words Jesus gave to his host in verses 12-14. The expression “at the resurrection of the righteous” indicates the existence of a resurrection of “the righteous.” What about “the unrighteous”? Who are “the righteous”? 

** The unrighteous will also come back to life, but not to the presence of God but to the absence of God, which is what hell and then the fiery lake of burning sulfur are all about. Read Rev. 20:11-15

** The righteous is the one who puts trust in the gospel, as Paul says in Romans 1:16-17. According to Jewish concept, the righteous is the same as the one who is giving to others generously. And in the true sense of the word “giving”, it is only in Jesus that one can truly give to others without expecting anything back from the one to whom one gives.  

4. Read verse 13. Who are “the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind”? 

** They refer to those who are this way not just physically but also spiritually. Categorically then they refers to those who cannot pay you back for what you do for them.  

5. In verse 14 Jesus says, “you will be ‘repaid’ at the resurrection of the righteous.” What does this promise [especially the word ‘repaid’] indicate about the life that is to come for the righteous? What does this passage tell us about the real desire Jesus has for his host? 

** Every little thing that one does for others while in the body will never go unrewarded in the day to come. Otherwise, the Christian life here on earth and beyond is a totally losing business for good. 

** Jesus’ real desire is for the good of the host, so that the host would have treasures in heaven, by doing what Jesus asked him to do.

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