Exegesis of Luke 14:14-21
Luke 14:14-21 is situated within the larger context of the Messiah's time teaching the Pharisees and attempting to get them to understand why He would "eat with sinners" (Luke 15:2) and spend time in their company. It is connected to His overall Divine Mission, and MacArthur notes that this mission can be found in Scripture, where one sees the whole of the Will of God.[footnoteRef:1] The main idea of the Parable of the Great Dinner in Luke 14, however, is that the Pharisees are the original invitees -- they are of the chosen people; yet they do not wish to accept Christ's invitation. Their reason is rooted in pride, which is why Christ emphasizes the need for humility (Luke 14:11). [1: John MacArthur, How to Study the Bible (IL: Moody), 62.]
This exegesis will show why those who reject Christ are like those invited to the Great Dinner who make various excuses for why they cannot attend: they do not want to follow Christ and partake of the celebration that will be His in Heaven. Christ implies, in this parable, that if they do not accept His invitation, then He will turn to the less fortunate -- those in the streets (meaning the Gentiles). As Luke is said to have had a special relationship with the Gentiles, being depicted as a Syrian Gentile himself by the early historian Eusebius, these verses carry special weight.[footnoteRef:2] They signify that the Gentiles to whom Luke is writing have a special place in Christ's plan: they are the invitees to the Great Dinner in Heaven and should accept the request that Christ sends them. [2: Cornelius Aherne. "Gospel of Saint Luke." New Advent. Web. 22 Nov 2015.]
Background
The genre of these verses is Gospel and the sub-group is Parable. Thus, these verses may be read as a lesson or teaching story. In this sense, they are like a spiritual prescription that can be taken to help heal the soul. According to Christian tradition, Luke was a Syrian Gentile with a special gift in medicine. Morris asserts that Luke's purpose in writing correlates with the ultimate objective of God, which is spread the "love and mercy" of the Redeemer; this is a point that plays heavily in both Christ's appeal to the Gentiles as well as to His interactions with the Jews, especially the Pharisees to whom He repeatedly emphasized the need for humility, as in the parable of the Great Banquet.[footnoteRef:3] Morris's study is helpful in elucidating the concept that faith is linked to sacrifice which is linked to love of God and the withholding of judgment of others. [3: Leon Morris, Jesus is Christ: Studies in the Theology of John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), 16]
The gospel of Luke itself provides an understanding why many early Christian writers refer to Luke as a doctor: there are numerous points in the gospel where it appears as though he were a doctor of the soul, offering up spiritual remedies for the reader: Luke 14:14-21 is one such example (the solution to the Pharisees' pride being humility and the special attention paid to the less fortunate). Incidentally, Paul in the letter to the Colossians (4:14) observes that Luke was skilled in the practice of medicine and it should be considered as an important point, in terms of the spiritual medicine that Christ brings.[footnoteRef:4] [4: Rev. Joseph B. Frey, Introduction to the New Testament (NY: Ave Maria, 1948), 442.]
Acts gives a depiction of Luke's travels with Paul, around the year 51 AD in the Mediterranean. The two traveled extensively, visiting various places, such as Philippi and Samothrace, founding parishes along the way. As Paul says in a letter to Timothy, the companionship is clear: "Only Luke is with me" (2 Timothy 4:11). This constant presence with Paul is indicative of a man who has great fidelity not only to the Word of God but also to his friends in Christ.
Context
Kaiser observes that a solid basis for providing a valid exegesis is to pose the question: "Could the interpretation of a particular passage be supported even if we did not have the theory?"[footnoteRef:5] The question underscores the relevance of the whole of Scripture in interpreting the individual verses, which should not be divorced from the overall picture that the Bible presents. The whole is substantially more valuable and important any theory, which only serves to provide an approach to the work as a whole and is not meant to replace it. Kaiser emphasizes...
Carpe Diem" by Robert Frost Personification of Age Chiming church bells symbolize time Children passing symbolize time passing "Drinking Song" by John Fletcher Merry, boisterous tone Caution to the wind Quick, punchy rhyme scheme Entertaining but less sincere than Frost The term "carpe diem," meaning "seize the day" in Italian, encourages a person to make the most of his time while he has it. A carpe diem poem typically emphasizes the elusive or fleeting nature of time, with
Hopefully, regardless of what happens in the rest of the communication world and media, such magazines either in print, electronic or digital form will continue to amaze children. Unfortunately, most young adult books have hit rock bottom, dealing with death, abuse, divorce, sexuality and all the other topics that these youth are bombarded with day after day. It is recognized that youths need to deal with the problems that are
During this penultimate period of violence under Rojas, the violence that wracked Colombia assumed a number of different characteristics that included an economic quality as well as a political one with numerous assassinations taking place. These were literally contract killings there were sponsored by opposition forms. There were also horrendous genocidal acts that were carried out by gangs combined with authentic revolutionary fighting in some regions of the country. The fourth
Nathaniel Hawthorne The objective of this work is to examine Nathaniel Hawthorne's works and to conduct a comparison of the life of Hawthorne to his short stories and to examine how his life and his works paralleled one another. The life of Nathaniel Hawthorne many times was played out in his stories as his life events and experiences bled forth into his works demonstrating the struggles that the writer faced within himself
He then utters the story's baffling last line, "It's no real pleasure in life" (O'Connor 1955b, 456). Thus, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" can be read as something of the inverse, or parallel, parable to "Good Country People": In the former, nihilism, or the absence of belief, wins out over faith, despite the Misfit's ugly admonition that his anti-programmatic perception of the world is ultimately not firm
Give me that which I want, and you shall have this which you want, is the meaning of every such offer" (Smith, 1776, p. 118-119). The unintentional consequence is thee same as it was before: an increasingly respectable and thriving nation, one so much so that it is as if shaped by what Smith deems the "invisible hand," from which Smith thus concludes that "it is the necessary, certain propensity
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now