Luke 14
Jesus goes to eat in the house of one of the chief Pharisees… on the sabbath day, and Luke tells us at once that they watched him (v. 1). A man with the dropsy - a painful swelling caused by fluid the body cannot release - stands before Him. Into the watching silence Jesus puts a question the experts dare not answer: Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? (v. 3). They hold their peace. He heals the man and lets him go, then exposes the inconsistency they are hiding: which of them, if an ox fell into a pit on the sabbath, would not pull it straight out? (v. 5). They cannot answer Him again.3
Still at the table, Jesus turns the meal itself into a lesson. He has watched the guests choose the chief rooms, the seats of honour, and He tells them to do the opposite - take the lowest place, and let the host call you higher: For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted (v. 11). Then He turns to the host and rewrites his guest list. Do not invite friends, family, rich neighbours who will only invite you back; invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind - the very people who cannot recompense thee. The blessing lies precisely there: thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just (v. 14).2
When a fellow guest hears this and exclaims, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God (v. 15), Jesus answers with the parable that gives the chapter its heart: a great supper, an invitation spurned by the comfortable, and a master who refuses to let his table stand empty - Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled (v. 23). The crowds following Him then hear the other half of the truth: the feast is free, but discipleship is costly. To come after Him a person must love Him above family and life itself, bear the cross, count the cost like a builder or a king, and forsake all. Salt that loses its savour is fit for nothing. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Tap any highlighted phrase to jump to the commentary that unpacks it.
Luke 14:1-6Is It Lawful to Heal on the Sabbath Day?
1And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him. 2And, behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy. 3And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? 4And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go; 5And answered them, saying, 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? 6And they could not answer him again to these things.
Luke sets the scene with two details that hang in the air. Jesus is a guest in the house of one of the chief Pharisees, and they watched him (v. 1) - the verb suggests a close, hostile surveillance, watching for a misstep. And behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy (v. 2). Dropsy is the old name for a painful swelling, the body retaining fluid it cannot release; the man is plainly suffering, and plainly placed where Jesus cannot miss him. Whether he was set there as a trap or came on his own, the watching crowd is waiting to see what Jesus will do on the sabbath. Jesus does not wait to be accused; He puts the question to the experts first: Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? (v. 3). It is a fair question, asked openly of the lawyers and Pharisees, the very men trained to answer it. And they will not. They held their peace (v. 4). Their silence is itself an answer - they cannot say no, because mercy is not unlawful; and they will not say yes, because they have already decided to be offended. Into that silence Jesus simply acts.3
Having healed the man and let him go, Jesus exposes the contradiction the silence was hiding: 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? (v. 5). The argument is unanswerable because it is drawn from their own behaviour. Every one of them would rescue an animal in distress on the sabbath without a second thought - the loss would be too great, the need too plain. They have already decided that compassion toward a trapped ox overrides the letter of sabbath rest. Jesus only asks them to extend the same mercy to a suffering human being. If you would pull out an ox, how can you object to the healing of a man? The sabbath was given as a gift, a day of rest and release; to use it as a reason to leave a man in his suffering is to turn the gift on its head. And they could not answer him again to these things (v. 6). For the second time in the scene they fall silent - not persuaded, but cornered, with no honest objection left to make. The day made for human flourishing has been reclaimed for exactly that.
Luke 14:7-14The Lowest Room · Call the Poor Who Cannot Repay
7And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them, 8When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; 9And 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. 10But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. 11For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. 12Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee. 13But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: 14And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.
Jesus has been watching, and what He marked was how the guests chose out the chief rooms (v. 7) - the places of honour nearest the host. So He tells a parable that sounds, at first, like simple social advice: at a wedding feast, do not seat yourself in the highest room, lest a more distinguished guest arrive and the host has to move you down, and you take the lowest room in front of everyone, shamed (vv. 8-9). Better to take the lowest place yourself, so the host may come and say, Friend, go up higher (v. 10). On the surface this is the wisdom of an older proverb - Put not forth thyself in the presence of the king… for better it is that it be said unto thee, Come up hither (Prov. 25:6-7).2 But Jesus is not coaching social climbers in a subtler way to win honour. The parable is a window onto the heart. The person forever angling for the best seat is governed by the hunger to be seen and ranked above others; that hunger is exactly what makes a person unfit for the kingdom. To choose the low place is not a clever tactic for being promoted - it is a different way of being a person altogether, one that has stopped competing for status and is free.
Then Jesus turns from the guests to the host who invited Him and rewrites the whole logic of the table: When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee (v. 12). He is not forbidding hospitality among friends; He is exposing a kind of generosity that is really an investment. To invite only those who can invite you back is to keep the ledger balanced - a gift given in the expectation of a gift returned, which is no gift at all but a transaction. Instead He says: when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind (v. 13) - and the reason is breathtaking: for they cannot recompense thee (v. 14). The very thing that makes them undesirable guests by the world's accounting - that they can give nothing back, settle no social debt, raise no one's standing - is precisely what makes the act pure. This is a different economy entirely: not exchange, but grace. And the blessing is not lost but deferred and magnified: thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. What is given to those who cannot repay is repaid by God Himself.
Luke 14:15-24The Great Supper · Compel Them to Come In
15And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. 16Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: 17And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. 18And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. 19And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. 20And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. 21So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. 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. 22And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. 23And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. 24For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.
A fellow guest, moved by Jesus' talk of the resurrection feast, lets out a pious exclamation: Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God (v. 15). It is easy to say - everyone at the table assumes they will be among the blessed at that great supper. Jesus answers with a parable that quietly takes the comfortable assumption apart. A certain man made a great supper, and bade many (v. 16). In that culture an invitation went out in two stages: first the invitation accepted in advance, then the summons when the food was ready - Come; for all things are now ready (v. 17). These guests had already said yes. Now, at the last moment, they all with one consent began to make excuse (v. 18). The excuses are revealing precisely because they are so ordinary - not crimes, just business and life. One has bought a piece of ground and must go see it; one has bought five yoke of oxen and must go prove them; one has married a wife and simply will not come (vv. 18-20). Land, work, family - all good things in themselves. That is the sharpness of the parable: it is not gross sin that keeps people from the feast, but good things allowed to crowd out the best, ordinary preoccupations treated as more pressing than the call of God.3
The servant reports back, and the master of the house being angry issues new orders (v. 21). The anger is worth pausing over - it is the anger of a host whose generous invitation has been treated with contempt, a real moral response to people who have spurned a gift. But notice what the anger produces: not the cancelling of the feast, but its widening. 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 (v. 21) - the very people Jesus had just told the host to invite (v. 13), the ones with no claim and no means. They come, and still the servant reports, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room (v. 22). The table is large and the master is determined that it shall not stand half-empty. So the reach extends further still, past the city itself: Go out into the highways and hedges… that my house may be filled (v. 23). The picture moves outward in widening rings - first the originally invited, then the overlooked of the city, then the stragglers and outsiders along the country roads. The supper will be full; the only question is who. And the closing line falls with weight: none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper (v. 24). The seats refused are not held forever.
Luke 14:25-35The Cost of Discipleship · Count the Cost
25And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, 26If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. 27And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. 28For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? 29Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, 30Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. 31Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? 32Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. 33So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. 34Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? 35It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
The crowds are growing - great multitudes are following Him (v. 25) - and Jesus turns to face them with words that seem designed to thin the crowd rather than swell it: If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple (v. 26). The word hate stops the modern reader cold, and it is meant to arrest the ancient hearer too - but it must be read as His listeners would have heard it. In the Hebrew way of speaking, to love one thing and hate another was a common idiom for decisive preference: when Scripture says Jacob was loved and Esau hated, or that a man with two wives loved one and hated the other, it means one was chosen over the other, set first. Jesus is not commanding contempt for parents or children - the same Lord upheld the command to honour father and mother and rebuked those who evaded it. The parallel saying makes the sense plain: He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me (Matt. 10:37). The point is a reordering of loves so radical that, set beside one's devotion to Christ, even the dearest natural bond looks, by comparison, like its opposite. He is not asking us to love family less than we ought; He is asking us to love Him more than anyone - first, supreme, above even our own life.3
Having named the cost, Jesus tells two short parables urging the would-be disciple to face it honestly before starting. Which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? (v. 28). A builder who lays a foundation he cannot complete becomes a public joke - This man began to build, and was not able to finish (vv. 29-30). And then a sharper image: what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? (v. 31). A king outnumbered two to one had better reckon the odds before the armies meet, or send for terms of peace while there is still time (v. 32). The two pictures press the same point from different angles: discipleship is not an impulse to indulge in a moment of enthusiasm and abandon when it grows hard. It is a whole-life commitment that should be entered with eyes open. Jesus is not trying to lower the cost to make following Him easier; He is naming the cost in full so that those who come will come knowing what it asks - and will not turn back. He would rather have a hundred who have counted the cost than a thousand who have not.
Then the requirement is stated as plainly as it can be: So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple (v. 33). To forsake all is not necessarily to give every possession away; it is to hold everything with an open hand, to surrender one's grip so completely that nothing - not family, not goods, not life itself - outranks the claim of Christ. And Jesus seals the teaching with a warning drawn from the most ordinary thing on the table: Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? (v. 34). Salt that has gone flat is good for nothing - neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out (v. 35). A disciple is meant to be like salt: distinct, preserving, full of flavour, making a difference wherever placed. But a disciple who has lost the very thing that made him a disciple - who has kept the name while surrendering the wholehearted devotion behind it - is like salt that no longer tastes of anything. It cannot be re-salted; there is nothing left to work with. So Jesus ends with the call that runs all through His teaching: He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. The words are not for admiring; they are for obeying.
Further study
- The Greek text of Luke 14 word by word, with parsing and Strong's numbers - useful for the verb behind “compel” in verse 23 (anagkazo, to urge earnestly), for the strong word rendered “hate” in verse 26 (miseo), and for the “chief rooms” and “lowest room” of the seating in verses 7-10.
- Luke 14 ↔ Proverbs 25 · Philippians 2 · Revelation 19 & 22Intertextual BibleTraces the threads tying Luke 14 to the rest of Scripture - the seating wisdom of verses 7-10 read beside Put not forth thyself in the presence of the king (Prov. 25:6-7), the reversal of verse 11 beside he that humbleth himself shall be exalted, and the great supper of verses 16-24 read alongside the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:9) and the open invitation of Revelation 22:17.
- Luke 14 - Translators' NotesNET BibleThe NET Bible's detailed footnotes on Luke 14 - the legal question about sabbath healing in verses 3-5, the social customs of honour and seating behind verses 7-11, the excuses of the invited guests in verses 18-20, and the force of the “hate” language in verse 26 as a Semitic idiom of comparison.
Where this echoes in Scripture
Is It Lawful to Heal on the Sabbath Day?
- Luke 6:9Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?The same challenge as verse 3 - the sabbath as the right day for doing good, not withholding it.
- Mark 2:27-28The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.The principle behind verses 3-5 - the day was made to serve human good, and its Lord is present at this table.
- Luke 13:15-16Doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox... and ought not this woman... be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?The identical argument from the ox, made one chapter earlier - mercy on the sabbath answered with silence.
- Matthew 11:28Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.The deeper rest behind the sabbath sign of verses 1-6 - release offered by the Lord of the day.
- Hebrews 4:9-10There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works.The rest the healed man tastes in small - the larger ceasing-from-striving the gospel holds out.
The Lowest Room · Call the Poor Who Cannot Repay
- Proverbs 25:6-7Put not forth thyself in the presence of the king... for better it is that it be said unto thee, Come up hither.The seating wisdom Jesus draws on in verses 8-10 - better to be called up than sent down.
- Philippians 2:8-9He humbled himself... wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name.The reversal of verse 11 embodied in Christ - the lowest place taken, the highest given.
- James 4:10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.The same promise as verse 11 - God Himself the one who exalts the one who goes low.
- Romans 5:6When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.The guest list of verses 13-14 - grace given to those who could give nothing back.
- Luke 18:14Every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.The very words of verse 11 repeated - the publican justified over the self-exalting Pharisee.
The Great Supper · Compel Them to Come In
- Revelation 19:9Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.The feast of verses 16-24 named in full - the supper of the kingdom the guest spoke of in verse 15.
- Revelation 22:17The Spirit and the bride say, Come... And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.The open invitation behind verse 23 - the call to come carried to whosoever will.
- Isaiah 25:6In this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things... a feast of wines on the lees.The great supper of verse 16 foreseen - the LORD’s feast spread for all peoples.
- Matthew 22:9-10Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage... and the wedding was furnished with guests.The parallel parable - the invitation refused, then carried to the highways until the hall is full (vv. 21-23).
- Luke 13:29They shall come from the east, and from the west... and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.The filling of the house in verse 23 - guests gathered from everywhere to the kingdom’s table.
The Cost of Discipleship · Count the Cost
- Matthew 10:37He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.The plain sense of verse 26 - not hatred of family, but Christ loved above all.
- Luke 9:23-24If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me... whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.The cross-bearing of verse 27 - the life surrendered for His sake is the life truly saved.
- Philippians 3:7-8What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ... I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.The forsaking of all in verse 33 lived out - everything reckoned loss beside the worth of Christ.
- Matthew 13:45-46The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls... sold all that he had, and bought it.The arithmetic of the tower and the king (vv. 28-32) answered - the one treasure worth selling all to gain.
- Matthew 5:13Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted?The salt warning of verses 34-35 - the disciple meant to keep his savour and not be cast out.