[Read Luke 14:15-24]

For my communion meditation, I want to give a brief overview of this whole chapter. And I have deliberately not read the whole chapter, but it will make more sense if you follow along in your Bibles. Luke 14 is often treated as a chapter about the cost of discipleship. And wow! Verses 25-33 shows that there is an enormous cost. Verse 33 says, “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.” Jesus certainly does not soften the cost. We must prefer Him above father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even our own lives. We must bear the cross and forsake all that we have.

So that brings up a question in some minds - what kind of Christ calls us to make this radical surrender? Is He a bully demanding our lunch money, or is He a gracious Host freeing us from everything that keeps us from enjoying fellowship with Him at His feast? We will see that it is the latter.

But the world, the flesh, and the devil are the real bullies. In his book Fuzzy Memories, Jack Handey recalls being a young boy who was constantly picked on by a bully at public school. I can relate. When I was in ninth grade on one of my parents’ furloughs from the missionfield, I was the smallest boy in my class, and a group of three boys constantly picked on me. Every evening I would take a different route home, hoping they would not catch me. I daydreamed about ways I could take the bullies down and make them cry, “Uncle.” None of those dreams ever materialized.

Jack discovered that his bully would leave him alone if he surrendered his lunch money. So he often went without lunch and paid off the bully. Finally, he decided to fight back and went to a karate school. But when the teacher asked five dollars for the lesson, Jack decided it would be easier to pay the bully than to pay the teacher.

Many people approach discipleship that way. They come to Christ (the Karate teacher) because they are tired of the bondage and pain of life. Then they read Luke 14 and think, “Wow! The price of following Jesus sounds worse than what I am currently facing.”

But here’s the thing - Jesus is not the bully. Sin is the bully. Fear of man is the bully. Selfishness, idolatry, and the flesh take not only our proverbial lunch money; they take everything and leave us feeling empty and hungry. Christ is the generous Host who gave His all so that we could fellowship with Him in His kingdom for all eternity. He says, “Come to the table. I’ve purchased everything for you, and the meal is now ready.” He paid the enormous cost of the feast, and by grace He frees us to come.

That is why Luke 14 prepares us for the Lord’s Table. The chapter begins with Jesus eating bread in a Pharisee’s house. At its center is a parable about a great supper. Throughout the chapter Jesus exposes rival loyalties and offers grace. At this Table He does the same thing for us. He calls us to examine ourselves, not so that worthy people may eat, but so that needy sinners may come honestly, forsake their idols, and covenant afresh with the Lord who gave Himself for them. That’s the broad picture. Let’s look at each section.

Grace Frees Us to Come

At the Pharisee’s house, the text says that “they watched Him closely.” That sentence captures the atmosphere of legalistic religion. It makes us constantly feel the scrutiny of people. The controlling question is no longer, “What pleases God?” but, “What will people criticize?” They were there to criticize Jesus, and He knew it.

They had placed a man with dropsy before Jesus to see if Jesus would violate their man-made traditions about the Sabbath and heal him on the Sabbath. Then they would have something they could criticize Him over. Jesus didn't care about their man-made rules. He healed the man and let him go. He was perfectly obedient to His Father and perfectly free from man-made rules. Grace does not free us from obedience; it frees us up for true obedience. It releases us from human bondage into the perfect law of liberty.

And by way of contrast with the feast in verses 1-24, the Lord’s Table is not another Pharisaical inspection station. We do not come because we have made ourselves presentable before others. We come because Christ has taken our uncleanness upon Himself. The bread declares that His body was given for His people. The cup declares that His blood cleanses us from everything that would separate us and establishes the new covenant.

But there is a sense in which grace does examine us. It asks whether we care more about the Pharisees approval than we do about God’s approval. Are our consciences ruled by God’s Word or by human scrutiny? Have we used religious performance to hide from Christ? Have we cared more about appearing holy than about receiving mercy and showing mercy?

At the Table, covenanting with God means renouncing empty religion. We say, “Lord, my standing is in Christ alone. Bind my conscience to Your Word. Make me holy by Your grace and merciful as I have received mercy.”

In verse 7, Jesus then watched the guests choose the best places. In verse 11 He told them to take the lowest place: “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” There really is a bondage in needing to be first. Human praise satisfies us today and leaves us empty tomorrow.

Grace gives us a totally different focus. In Christ we receive the verdict that matters: we are accepted in the Beloved. We may take the lower place because Jesus took the lowest place for us. And we gladly identify with Him. The eternal Son humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.

And my application is that no seat at this Table is a seat of superiority. We all stretch out empty hands -ever one of us. The mature and the struggling receive the same Christ. The respected and the unnoticed eat the same bread. This means that we can lay down resentment over not being noticed by others.

Jesus told His host to invite those who could not repay him. At this Table, we are those guests. We receive a feast we could never purchase or return. Grace therefore frees us to welcome the lonely, serve the inconvenient, and bless those who cannot improve our status.

The Host Still Says, “Come”

When someone at the feast said in verse 15, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God,” Jesus told a story of man who prepared a great supper. At supper time he sent his servant to say, “Come, for all things are now ready.”

But the invited guests made excuses. One had purchased land. Another had bought five yoke of oxen. Another had married a wife. Property, work, and marriage are good gifts, but a good gift becomes an idol when it becomes an excuse.

Busyness has kept many unbelievers from considering Christ and has kept many Christians from living in communion with Him. We can always come up with a persuasive reason why prayer can wait, why worship can be neglected, why forgiveness and reconciliation can be postponed, or why obedience to the Holy Spirit’s promptings is impractical just now.

Grace does not necessarily make us less busy. (That’s not what I am saying.) It brings our busyness under Christ’s lordship. It turns work into service, family life into stewardship, and ordinary moments into communion with God.

Jesus still says, “Come, for all things are now ready.” Do not wait until life becomes less demanding. Come now. Name the distractions that have become rival masters and lay those things down at the cross of Christ.

The master sent his servant into the streets to bring in the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind. There was still room, so he sent him to the highways and hedges where the homeless were. The feast is grace from beginning to end. Those who could not repay were welcomed, while those confident in themselves are excluded - or really, have excluded themselves. Come as the spiritually poor and marvel that there is room at His Table.

The Host Claims Our Highest Loyalty

After the supper, Jesus turned to the crowds and said in verse 26:

“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”

Why does Jesus use the word “hate”? Some people have stumbled over that word and have changed the definition of hate to mean “love less.” But Scripture commands husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church, not to love our wives less than Christ loved the church. So the definition of “love less” does not work. TJesus is not authorizing coldness, neglect, or hostility toward our families. Cults have used this verse to isolate people from their families and to abandon legitimate responsibilities, but Scripture says that anyone who refuses to provide for his own household has denied the faith. So what does it mean?

The solution to this apparent contradiction is that the Bible also uses the word “hate” for actions that appear hateful to others because one loyalty has been chosen over another. Samson’s wife accused him of hating her because he would not disclose his riddle. And he couldn’t convince her otherwise.

Or let me use a better illustration. Imagine Roman soldiers at the door of a Christian home. A father has an option - burn idolatrous incense to Caesar and he can go free, or confess Christ and he will be taken to death. His wife clings to him. His children are terrified. His parents plead, “God would never make you do this to your family.” The man loves them dearly, but he refuses to declare by his actions that he hates Christ. His obedience may look like hate to those he loves.

Most choices are less dramatic. Making more money may require that we violate God’s law. Are we going to do it? A spouse may ask us to compromise a command. A child may manipulate us into approving what Christ forbids. Will we obey Christ and risk upsetting someone we love, or appease the person that we love and in the process grieve Christ? Those are the kinds of choices that verses 25-33 are talking about.

And by the way, choosing Christ is ultimately the most loving choice for our families because Christ commands us to love, provide, protect, teach, forgive, and bless them. Family idolatry does not produce better families; it destroys families. In contrast, grace enables us to love our families under Christ rather than in the place of Christ. Where does your loyalty lie?

The cup is the new covenant in Christ’s blood. To drink it while knowingly reserving a higher loyalty for family, comfort, reputation, money, or self is a contradiction. But the answer is not to stay away from this table so that we can keep our idol. Bring your idols and lay them down at the cross of Christ and be willing to identify with Him. Confess where you have compromised. Ask for grace to make the hard and loving choice. Eat and drink as one who belongs, body and soul, to Jesus Christ. And that brings me to the last point.

The Host Bore the Cost

Jesus says that a disciple must bear his cross. That’s hard. No, I should say, “That’s impossible in ourselves.” Who can say no to the powerful urges of the flesh? Paul cried, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Paul then gave the answer: “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Well, that’s what the Lord’s Supper points you to: Jesus. Jesus said, “This is My body, which is given for you.” “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.” We do not trust the strength of our repentance. We trust the strength of our Savior. Yet the grace that justifies also sanctifies. Christ forgives our fleshly living and gives us power to crucify it. And that is what we are committing ourselves to in this meal - growth in sanctification.

Jesus closes this chapter with a builder counting the cost of a tower and a king considering the terms of peace. In verse 33 He says, “Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.” Jesus will not hide His claim upon everything in our lives. That’s what loyalty to Him is all about. But we must count more than the cost. We must count the grace. What is everything we surrender compared with the value of Christ and the eternal kingdom He has purchased for us? What is the cost of discipleship compared with remaining enslaved to sin, fear, and self?

The Christian treats everything as a stewardship trust. Our possessions, relationships, bodies, and years do not ultimately belong to us. At this covenant meal God declares, “I will be your God, and you shall be My people.” In Christ He has pledged Himself to us with an oath sealed in blood. Our answer is not to negotiate exceptions but to say, “I am Yours. Unreservedly Yours.”

Come and Covenant with Christ

I do not know about you, but I want my life to count for eternity. I do not want to start well and finish poorly. I long to be utterly abandoned to the Lord because my worth is in Him. Finding worth apart from Christ is, ironically, to lose your worth. There is freedom in Him. There is power in Him. There is life in Him. There is joy and satisfaction in Him. So lay down your idols, pick up your cross, and follow Christ. When you do, He promises all the grace that you will need in this meal.