Chap 14_Luke

OOOOOOO Luke 14:1–6 (HCSB)

A Sabbath Controversy

14 One Sabbath, when He went to eat at the house of one of the leading Pharisees, they were watching Him closely. 2 There in front of Him was a man whose body was swollen with fluid. 3 In response, Jesus asked the law experts and the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” 4 But they kept silent. He took the man, healed him, and sent him away. 5 And to them, He said, “Which of you whose son or ox falls into a well, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” 6 To this they could find no answer.

The day=Sabbath. No fasting on the Sabbath was meant to celebrate honor God. Jesus invited to a ruler or local leading Pharisees’s banquedt. Sanhedrin, also spelled sanhedrim, any of several official Jewish councils in Palestine under Roman rule, to which various political, religious, and judicial functions have been attributed. .. the term was apparently applied to various bodies but became especially the designation for the supreme Jewish legislative and judicial court—the Great Sanhedrin, or simply the Sanhedrin, in Jerusalem. There were also local or provincial sanhedrins of lesser jurisdiction and authority. The Pharisees were more poular with the common people. They were practitioners of the law. The Sadducees were the lawyers [didn’t believe in resurrection] more worldly - more closely connected politically with the Romans.

Jesus is the invited speaker, but he is not there for adulation or his popularity as can be seen by the other attendees who are scrutinizing Jesus. The stage is set with a man in front of Jesus. His physical placement was intentional and he was invited. He was not sitting far away. He has excess fluid [edema] in his tissues may be caused by kidney or liver problems or cancer, some heart problems. It is a symptom of some systemic problem in the body. No small localized issue.

Jesus cowers before this intimidating group. NOT! Jesus addresses these other attendees [could be Pharisees, local leaders, officials, leaders of synagogues, etc]. Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath. Jesus in Luke there were 7 incidences that pertained to the Sabbath, including 4 miracles [healing and deliverance]. John and Mark mention additional incidents on the Sabbath.

God is setting the stage and it seems tagetting like the lighting strike the Sabbath worship that was being practised and had become a near idol for many. Jesus continued to address the Sabbath was made for man’s benefit[ not his enslavement.

Why is the Sabbath so important.

1. It is one of the 10 commandments Deuteronomy 5:12–15 (HCSB)12 Be careful to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy as the Lord your God has commanded you. 13 You are to labor six days and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. .......... 15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

2. It binds the Jews together as a peoople with a common practise. The practise of observing the Sabbath eis praacticed around the world in every culture.

3. The Jews are marked as different and this one act distinguishes them from all other poeples.

4. In a complex, demanding world it physically disrupts that world and pulls back in remembrance who the Jew is and who God is.

6. The sabbath is to give a sense of peace, spiritual rest from all demands of the world. It is meant ot be good for His chosen people; not an ordeal.

So what happened. Why did Jesus intentionally deny the Pharasee practise of sabbath and the teaching [sadducees] of their sabbath?

Now what has happened- the Sabbath became a work of man with all the added requirments . See the examples

There are two groupings of Sabbath laws = one for the tabernacle and one for man.

These groups then relate to 39 categories of activities. These activy type are:

5.1The Order of Bread

5.1.1Planting

5.1.2Plowing Plowing[Definition: Promotion of substrate in readiness for plant growth, be it soil, water for hydroponics, etc.Included in this prohibition is any preparation or improvement of land for agricultural use. This includes dragging chair legs in soft soil thereby unintentionally making furrows, or pouring water on arable land that is not saturated. Making a hole in the soil would also provide protection for a seed placed there from rain and runoff; even if no seed is ever placed there, the soil is now enhanced for the process of planting.

5.1.3Reaping

5.1.4Gathering Definition: Initial gathering of earth-borne/organic material in its original place. E.g. After picking strawberries, forming a pile or collecting them into one's pockets, or a basket. Collecting rock salt or any mineral (from a mine or from the Earth) and making a pile of the produce. This can only occur in the place where the gathering should take place. So, a bowl of apples that falls in a house can be gathered as 1) they do not grow in that environment and 2) they were already initially gathered in the orchard.

However, subsequent gathering, which improves the object(s) affected is included in this law. For example, stringing diamonds together to form a necklace is a significant improvement of their gathered status. This may well extend to pearls as well.

5.1.5Threshing/extraction

5.1.6Winnowing

5.1.7Sorting/purification Definition: Removal of undesirable from desirable from a mixture of types.

In the Talmudic sense usually refers exclusively to the separation of debris from grain – i.e. to any separation of intermixed materials which renders edible that which was inedible. Thus, filtering undrinkable water to make it drinkable falls under this category, as does picking small bones from fish. (Gefilte fish is one solution to this problem.)

Sorting/purification differs from threshing/extraction as here there is a mixture of types, and sorting a mixture via the removal of undesirable elements leaves a purified, refined component. In contrast, threshing/extraction does not entail sorting or purification, just extraction of the inner from the unwanted housing or outer component, such as squeezing a grape for its juice. The juice and the pulp have not undergone sorting, the juice has been extracted from the pulp.

For example, if there is a bowl of mixed peanuts and raisins, and one desires the raisins and dislikes the peanuts: Removing (effectively sorting) the peanuts from the bowl, leaving a 'purified' pile of raisins free from unwanted peanuts, would be Sorting/purification as the peanuts are removed. However, removing the desirable raisins from the peanuts does not purify the mixture, as one is left with undesirable peanuts (hence unrefined) not a refined component as before, and is thus permissible. Note that in this case there has not been any extraction of material from either the peanuts or raisins (threshing/extraction), just the sorting of undesirable from desirable (sorting/purification).

General Introduction:

After threshing, a mixed collection of waste matter remained on the threshing floor together with the grain kernels. Included in this combination would be small pebbles and similar debris.These pebbles could not be separated by winnowing because they were too heavy to be carried by the wind. The pebbles and debris were therefore sorted and removed by hand. This process is sorting/purification.Any form of selecting from (or sorting of) an assorted mixture or combination can be borer. This includes removing undesired objects, or matter from a mixture or combination.

Borer with mixed foods: Even though the classic form of borer as performed in the Mishkan involved the removal of pebbles and similar waste matter from the grain produce, sorting/purification is by no means limited to the removal of “useless” matter from food. In fact, any selective removal from a mixture can, indeed, be Sorting/purification, even if the mixture contains an assortment of foods. The criteria are types and desire, not intrinsic value. Therefore, removing any food or item from a mix of different types of foods simply because he does not desire the item at that time is considered Sorting/purification.

The three conditions of sorting/purification:

Sorting/purification is permitted when three conditions are fulfilled simultaneously. It is absolutely imperative that all three conditions be present while sorting/purifying

B’yad (By hand): The selection must be done by hand and not a utensil that aids in the selection.Oḥel Mitoḥ Psolet (Good from the bad): The desired objects must be selected from the undesired, and not the reverse.Miyad (Immediate use): The selection must be done immediately before the time of use and not for later use. There is no precise amount of time indicated by the concept of "immediate use" (miyad). The criteria used to define "immediate use" relate to the circumstances. For instance if a particular individual prepares food for a meal rather slowly, that individual may allow a more liberal amount of time in which to do so without having transgressed "borer."

Examples of Permissible and Prohibited Types of sorting/purification:

Peeling fruits: Peeling fruits is permissible with the understanding that the fruit will be eaten right away.Sorting silverware: Sorting silverware is permitted when the sorter intends to eat the Sabbath meal immediately. Alternatively, if the sorter intends to set up the meal for a later point, it is prohibited.Removing items from a mixture: If the desired item is being removed from the mix then this is permissible. If the non-desired item is being removed, the person removing is committing a serious transgression according to the laws of the Sabbath.

5.1.8Grinding

5.1.9Sifting

5.1.10Kneading/amalgamation

5.1.11Cooking/baking - numerous approaches to keep warm or reheat food prepared before the Sabbath day.

5.2The Order of Garments

5.2.1Shearing

5.2.2Scouring/laundering

5.2.3Carding/combing woo

l5.2.4Dyeing

5.2.5Spinning

5.2.6Warping

5.2.7Making two loops/threading heddles

5.2.8Weaving

5.2.9Separating two threads

5.2.10Tying

5.2.11Untying

5.2.12Sewing

5.2.13Tearing

5.3The Order of Hides

5.4.1Writing

5.4.2Erasing

5.4.3Construction

5.4.4Demolition

5.4.5Extinguishing a fire

5. 4.6Ignition

5.4.7Final Completion/Fine-tuning/Perfection

5.4.8Transferring between domains

6 Exception: Saving of human life - you could rescue an animal that has fallen into a pit [Essenes The Essenes were a Jewish sect during the Second Temple period that flourished from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE. The Jewish historian Josephus records that Essenes existed in large numbers, and thousands lived throughout Roman Judaea, but they were fewer in number than the Pharisees and the Sadducees] said the animal could not be rescued. Now to save a life can be done or for instance if a woman went into delivery a person could do the work of driving to the hospital.

Think of the amount of intellectual effort this took to define, then the effort by others to understand, and teach. The amount of obediance and practise. Think of thousands of rabbis generating and councils and committees debating and refining all thiese laws of a thousand years.

All of the people at his banquet were invested in this - following the law was the life purpose of the pharisee. Jesus is threatening their very being and the nature of their relationship with God. They thought that utlimate, exteme obediance would be rewarded. And now this one man is seeking to tear down what has defined the Jew as well as their personal state. Can’t let this happen!

Today the world still has a powerful, almost gravitational pull on us. It is hard for us and to be still with the Lord and remember HIm . We are not under the law including the Sabbath, but the reason for the Sabbath is still with us.

.... 6 To this they could find no answer. The approach of the common dialogues or debates which went back and forth often ended with one party remaining silent. Their arguments had lost or there were no other defences that could be made.

OOOOOOO Luke 14:7–14 (HCSB)

Teachings on Humility

7 He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noticed how they would choose the best places for themselves: 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, don’t recline at the best place, because a more distinguished person than you may have been invited by your host. 9 The one who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then in humiliation, you will proceed to take the lowest place.

10 “But when you are invited, go and recline in the lowest place, so that when the one who invited you comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ You will then be honored in the presence of all the other guests. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

12 He also said to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, don’t invite your friends, your brothers, your relatives, or your rich neighbors, because they might invite you back, and you would be repaid. 13 On the contrary, when you host a banquet, invite those who are poor, maimed, lame, or blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” Jesus was observing their seating process. There may even have been a scramble to get the closest seats the the leader and the speaker. The guests of honor would be seated according to their honor or status and sit next to or close to the host. Humble yourself. It means that you regard the needs of others above yourself. You recognize the honoring of others so that you may honor God. In this life give of yourself, your rewards in this life, your prestige in this life, in the honors of this life= then you will be rewarded in the next, life, the eternal life. Humbling yourself is akin to agape love. You love yourself less because you are focus on giving love, beneficence towards others and God. By humbling yourself in regard to others you are following all the law.

Even then perhaps it was a practise to be”fashionably late”.

The point if this section is about humility ....11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” All throughout the bible humility is stressed. Because before God we are all of humble status. The mark of a great saint is almost always their humility. To agape means to love others before yourself. There is always someone smarter, more handsome, winsome of capable than yourself. This has been a common approved ways of behaviour in this country. We don’t like kings and the pompousness of class. Remember how shocking it was when a young boxer named Cassius Clay said that “i am the greatest”. Before other boxers that may have been true, but before God he wasn’t.

.....12 He also said to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, don’t invite your friends, your brothers, your relatives, or your rich neighbors, because they might invite you back, and you would be repaid. 13 On the contrary, when you host a banquet, invite those who are poor, maimed, lame, or blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. While lecturing the attendees, he now specifically talks to the host and says don’t invite to incur an obligation nor just to interface with peers. Invite the poor and oppressed, the lamed, etc. These people were excluded. They included Gentils. This were people not favored by God with health and prosperity. But be gracious to those who need grace. This was never done. You didn’t want the rabble sitting at your prepared table.

Don’t give to others so that you can feel superior. According to Chuck Colson, the desire to be part of the “inner circle” is strong. Many don’t want to bear the responsibility of leading and sacrificing, but just be close to those who are in those positions. The Christian groupies who have the ear of the pastor can insulate him and endanger him Tempting - women drawn to power or wealth and gain influence.

We are not to try and buy our way into the kingdom. Giving is not supposed to be paying upfront to get more later. This is like a business giving to a politician with the understanding or expectation that he recipient will pay more back to him in the form of favors and laws. This is also the basis for the prosperity gospel. lIf I f I give now then according to God’s word, God will give me a greater payback later in this life. So I’m paying for a service that God is obligated to provide for my benefit.

A Christian works , gives because he lovers God and wants the earthly ministries of God to succeed’ not give to God to get more fro myself.

OOOOOOO Luke 14:15–24 (HCSB)

The Parable of the Large Banquet

15 When one of those who reclined at the table with Him heard these things, he said to Him, “The one who will eat bread in the kingdom of God is blessed!”

16 Then He told him: “A man was giving a large banquet and invited many. 17 At the time of the banquet, he sent his slave to tell those who were invited, ‘Come, because everything is now ready.’

18 “But without exception they all began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. I ask you to excuse me.’

19 “Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m going to try them out. I ask you to excuse me.’

20 “And another said, ‘I just got married, and therefore I’m unable to come.’

21 “So the slave came back and reported these things to his master. Then in anger, the master of the house told his slave, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city, and bring in here the poor, maimed, blind, and lame!’

22 “ ‘Master,’ the slave said, ‘what you ordered has been done, and there’s still room.’

23 “Then the master told the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and lanes and make them come in, so that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will enjoy my banquet!’ ”

The wedding banquet or feast was a familiar picture to the Jews as the feast at the 2ncd coming.

OOOOOOO Luke 14:25–35 (HCSB)

The Cost of Following Jesus

25 Now great crowds were traveling with Him. So He turned and said to them: 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, 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, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, after he has laid the foundation and cannot finish it, all the onlookers will begin to make fun of him, 30 saying, ‘This man started to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

31 “Or what king, going to war against another king, will not first sit down and decide if he is able with 10,000 to oppose the one who comes against him with 20,000? 32 If not, while the other is still far off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, therefore, every one of you who does not say good-bye to all his possessions cannot be My disciple.

34 “Now, salt is good, but if salt should lose its taste, how will it be made salty? 35 It isn’t fit for the soil or for the manure pile; they throw it out. Anyone who has ears to hear should listen!”

OOOOOOO