Big Idea: The kingdom of God reverses our conventional ideas of who really matters.

Understanding the Text

This is the third time Luke has depicted Jesus as an invited guest at a Pharisee’s table (see also 7:36–50; 11:37–54), and on each occasion Jesus makes things uncomfortable, challenging the social conventions and the moral values of his hosts and fellow guests. In this case, the meal setting continues into 14:15–24, in which Jesus will use the motif of a special meal as the basis for a parable about the kingdom of God that picks up the theme of 14:12–14. But Jesus was equally at home in less respectable company, and the great parables of chapter 15 will be prompted by the objections that Pharisees raised to his eating with “sinners.” So the Pharisees, despite their occasional hospit…