The Man with Dropsy, and the Second Banquet with the Pharisees

Chapter IX: Jesus’ Last Sojourn in Perea

I: The Man with Dropsy, and the Second Banquet with the Pharisees

Luke xiv. 1-35

Just about this time one of the foremost Pharisees of Perea gave a greater dinner to certain of his friends, and, in accordance with Jewish customs, shows a Sabbath-day for this social gathering.  After He had been invited to the festivities Jesus found that He was again hemmed about by a circle of hostile guests.  From the outset they watched His bearing with malignant inquisitiveness, for they had all noted the fact that in the crowd of onlookers stood a man afflicted with dropsy,1 upon whom the Lord had fixed His compassionate gaze.  The poor invalid, intimidated by the presence of all these doctors, dared not so much as asked to be cured.

Judea, showing Pérée (Perea)

"Would Jesus venture to take the initiative and violate the Sabbath before their eyes?"

Reading a rights the evil workings of their minds, the Saviour unmasked them.

"Is it lawful," He demanded brusquely, to heal on a Sabbath-day?"

Divided between the prejudices of their sect and the fear of appearing devoid of pity, the Pharisees looked at one another and found no one ready to reply.  Their silence left the Saviour full liberty of action.  "Taking the sick man, He healed him and sent him away." Then, addressing the Pharisees, He declared (as once before, in the case of the crippled woman) that He was justified by their own conduct.  For, in fact, there was no-one among them who, if he saw his ass or his ox fall into a pit on a Sabbath-day, would not draw the creature out.  So, then, if they spared neither trouble nor labour for the poor beast, what reason could they possibly allege for teaching that to heal their fellow man was a violation of the Sacred Rest?  The argument did not admit of any replies; neither the Scribes nor the Pharisees broke the silence, but, as if to conceal their vexation, with greater bustle and confusion by talk themselves to the festal board.

Following the fashion of the times, the table was ranged in the central space and surrounded by couches which accommodated at least three persons at a time; on each the place of honour was in the middle and the guests rushed eagerly to secure this position.  Jesus could not witness such puerile vanity displayed by these Doctors of the Law without showing them to what humiliations they laid themselves liable.  Should any important personage enter during the feast someone must needs step down and give him place, to his own great mortification.  Wiser by far is the humble man, who can only be bidden to go up higher than the low station which he has chosen for himself; for on earth, as in Heaven, "he who exults himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted."

Meanwhile the repast was being set out,— the object of longing glances from the poor folk who were crowding about the portals of the hall, or passing back and forth at a respectful distance from the diners; left there was every store of human wretchedness collected there,—cripples in rags, maimed men, blind beggars, all attracted the either by the sounds of feasting, or perhaps by the hope that the Master would somehow lighten their load of misery.

Jesus called His host’s attention to this sorrowful throng, telling him that he would have done better had he bidden these unfortunates to his feast rather than his friends, his brethren, his kindred, and his wealthy neighbours.  Truly, the latter would invite him in their turn; but, however sumptuous their entertainments might be, they could never afford him that which God has given into the hands of the poor, to be a recompense to their benefactors,—the gladness of the heavenly Banqueting.

To the Scribes there was nothing that savoured more of intolerable assurance than such statements as this,— that these miserable people, whom they disdain, should ever acquire any preeminence or any power of bestowing eternal benefits.

Now one of these scholars, interrupting the Christ, asserted that in the coming Kingdom of the Messiah his place had been marked out for him beforehand, and he loudly congratulated himself on that account:—

"Happy man, who shall sit at the banquet in the Kingdom of Heaven!"

Jesus replied to this boast by describing the heavenly Festival by means of a comparison.

"A certain man," He began, "made a great feast and invited a goodly company; at the hour for dining he sent out a servant to apprise those who were bidden that they should come, for now everything was ready; thus they all with one consent began to excuse themselves.  The first said to him:—

"’I have bought a parcel of ground, I must needs go out and see it; I beg for that you will have be excused.’

"’I have bought five yoke of oxen and am just about going to try them, another said; ‘I beg the that you will have me excuse.’

"’I have taken a wife,’ said another, ‘and therefore I cannot come.’

"But when the servant returned he gave this report to his master.  Then the goodman of the household, being all wrath, said to his servant:—

"’Go into the square's and to the street corners and bring hither the poor and maimed, without delay.’

"’Lord, it has been done as you ordered,’ the servant said, and yet there is room.’

"Then the master said to the servant:—

"’Go out into the highways and alongside the hedges; and compel them to enter here, in order that my house may be filled.’"

In this Parable there was nothing lacking for the feast that could be laid to the master’s doors; the table was decked with all magnificence, the guests were goodly company.  Not content with a mere formal invitation, but faithfully following the cordial custom of Eastern countries, he had dispatched his servant to acquaint them of the hour when the banquet was ready to be set forth.  So, for now three years, the Princes of the House of Israel had likewise heard the pleading accents of the Divine Master, but, one and all, they had still refused to listen to Him.The wrath of the heavenly father was kindled at such contemptuous tokens; and therefore, disowning these great folks of Judaea, He had commanded that the poor and the cripples, the blind and the maimed be brought unto Him.

Round about the very board at which He uttered this Parable, Jesus could point to these outcasts of Israel, who were eagerly hastening to hear His voice and to take their place at the celestial banquet.  Nor would they be the only ones to find their way thither; for the master, seeing there was still empty spaces, gives orders to his servants to go outside the town, and bring any strangers into his house.  By these words Jesus proclaimed the Calling of their Gentiles.  And though these Pharisees, so puffed up with their earthly ancestry, did not comprehend Him fully, they at least could not fail to know that the Saviour had disinherited them; for, putting aside all obscurities, He declared to these guests seated around Him "that not one of those men who were invited should taste of His Banquet."

This sentence is the last which Saint Luke reports as spoken at this meal.  Immediately afterwards he tells how Jesus departed from the festal hall, followed by great throngs, while doubtless the poorer and infirm were with Him, drawn to His side by the promises which they had just heard from His lips.  But to their simple minds, the new rule of the Messiah, His throne and His feast making could not but resemble those for which the world is so greedy.  Jesus undeceived them; turning towards them He warned them that, in desiring to be His disciples they were aspiring to a life of sacrifice.  They must needs set His love high above all things else, must forgo their own tenderest ties of affection as soon as ever they should become an obstacle to salvation, breaking with all things else, hating all things else, "father, mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, everything, —even their own soul."

"Mad, indeed, is that man who would begin to build a tower without having wherewithal to complete it!  The King who would engage his scanty armament in war with a formidable foe would be a madman indeed!  The discomfiture of each would be equally certain.  So is it with the man who desires to be the disciple of Jesus without renouncing all that he possesses." Very soon he shall become but a traitor and an apostate.  Thereupon the Lord concluded with those words which, in His preaching, always denoted that the lesson just uttered contains a truth of paramount importance:—

"They that have ears to hear let them hear!"

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam