WEEKLY SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
An international Sunday school lesson commentary
For Sunday March 3, 2019
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CALLED TO SERVE
(Disciples of JESUS must serve with humility)
(Luke 14:7-14)
William
Barclay once wrote, “Many a preacher has
been humbled almost to despair when he has heard a real saint of GOD speak. And
if we set our lives beside the life of the LORD of all good life, if we see our
unworthiness in comparison with the radiance of HIS stainless purity, pride
will die and self-satisfaction will be shriveled up”.
In the Jewish
community of the first century, seating arrangements at gatherings were made
according to the community status of the individuals who were attending. Occasionally
someone would have to be re-seated if a person of a higher status than them
showed up. This could leave the person of lower status feeling embarrassed and
debased in front of everyone who was attending the event.
In Luke 14,
verses 7-14, after JESUS had noticed how all the quests were jockeying to be
seated in a place of honor at the head of the table, HE began to advise them
with a parable aimed at teaching them some of the advantages of “being humble”.
Here HE gives them an illustration of how pride can set a person up to be
humiliated, or knocked down and embarrassed.
In verses 8-9
JESUS advises the dinner quests not to always head for the best seat in the
house at the head of the table. Here JESUS poses this thought to those who were
attending the dinner; “What if someone,
more respected than you, has also been invited”, HE asks. “Then, the host will have to come and tell
you to let that person sit there instead, and you might be embarrassed and have
to move to whatever seat is left at the foot of the table” (NLT).
Instead, JESUS
suggests that they find them a place at the foot of the table, and that way, HE
says, you put yourself in a position where you can only be “moved up” to a more
honored seat, closer to the head of the table. Here JESUS is showing how, “the
proud person sets himself up to be humbled”, and how “the humble person can set
himself up to be honored”.
After JESUS
voiced this bit of wisdom to the guests, HE turned HIS attention to the host of
the gathering and offered up to him, a similar object lesson. In verse 12, JESUS advises him not to always
invite only people who can afford to return the favor, to his events. Instead, HE
advises him to try inviting those who are poor, cripple, lame, or blind. Then,
at the resurrection of the righteous, JESUS says, GOD will reward you for
inviting those who could not repay you.
Giving or extending opportunities to others purely
with motives of self-interest is nothing more than “rationalized selfishness”, and
that is not the way, or reason, why GOD commands that we do things for others,
especially those who are in need of help in the Christian community.
We should never give for “self-interest”, “self-promotion”,
or “because we feel superior to those whom we are helping”. We should give only
if we truly are concerned about the person, or “cause” that we are giving to. And
if we give also with a mind-set that we are putting others, or even GOD (some
do) into our debt, we are giving only so that we may satisfy our own over-blown,
distorted vanity, or egos, and to do so is purely narcissistic behavior.
In these two
parables JESUS shows HIS opposition to the pride and self-interest of the
Church leadership, the Pharisees. At one and the same time, HE is showing those
who are called to be HIS followers, how to do “good works” without needing to
have public acknowledgements and awards, or “pats on the back” for their help, time
spent, or largesse.
Followers of
CHRIST must be able to serve humbly in both, the foreground, and, in the
background, as GOD may call us to work in both situations. And, as dedicated Christians,
we must always be able to see those who are “lost”, and, those who are
considered to be “the least of our society”, equal to ourselves. And remember,
a “lost” or “wrinkled” dollar has the same value as those that “neatly folded”
and “saved” in our pockets, or, in our bank accounts.
A Sunday school lesson by,
Larry D. Alexander
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