The Lust for Respectability

Series on Luke

IV The Imperatives of the Kingdom

B Instruction in Rejection

12 Sinners Invited

Text: 14:1-14

Introduction

Considering the conspiracy of the Pharisees and Herodians to trap and murder Jesus which we saw in our last study, we should be surprised to find Jesus at dinner in the home of a prominent Pharisee. However He meant what He said, that he would continue his ministry until He decided it should end. So here He is in the lions’ den. Actually the teaching here is meant to expose to all the folly of the Pharisees’ selfishness and lust for respectability. Today respectability and a contempt for Biblical Christianity go hand in hand. Way back in 1943 George Orwell wrote that to be a man who loved his country made him low class in the eyes of the intellectuals, but he said they would have praised and honored him if he had written a shelf-full of books promoting sodomy. No wonder we are where we are today. The lust for respectability is indulged because of an anemic gospel that says that cheap words can cover all our sins. If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, then the population of hell is made up of respectable people. The attitude here is summed up in John 7 where the leaders of the Jews send officers to arrest Jesus, and when they return empty-handed their excuse is that no man ever spoke like this man, and the disgusted Pharisees said, Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed on him?” In other words Jesus and the truth are to be judged by whether the respectable people believe it or not. Let us look at them today and see their insincerity, their insecurity, their insensitivity which are markers of the lust for respectability.

I Insincerity

We may speak of the Pharisees and their devotion to the law, the incredible hedge of man-made commandments they erected to keep from breaking the law, their profound commitment to justifying themselves, epitomized in the parable of the Pharisee who said to God look at me i am not like other men, I fast, I pray, I give tithes, while the tax-collector beat his breast and said God be merciful to me a sinner. I say we may speak of all this, but if you want to get to the heart of the matter listen to Jesus in the account in this text in verses 1-6, One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. There in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy. Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away. Then he asked them, “If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?” And they had nothing to say. Jesus says they were kinder to their domestic animals than to the sick man, but this is not the crucial point. The crucial point is that it was their son their family, their ox or donkey. The passionate preoccupation with keeping the law was a symptom. the sickness was selfishness. They cared about their own but not about somebody else. At the root of every false religion is insincerity, and hypocrisy. Behind their self-righteousness was their self interest. Respectability really gets in the way of true religion. Whenever I meet somebody who is anxious to tell me about their accomplishments, their honors, their connections, their degrees, or their pedigrees, I already know that they will be legalists. In Philippians 3: 1-7 Paul reveals the inner sanctum of a converted Pharisee’s heart, Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. In the end its either faith in yourself or faith in Christ. if you choose faith in yourself, you must maintain a cloak of respectability. These people didn’t care about the sabbath, they cared about themselves.

II Insecurity

Naturally if you have to maintain a cloak of respectability then you are going to be insecure because you will be dependent upon men’s opinions of you rather than God’s. So Jesus gives them advice based on his observations in verses 7-11, When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” They were vying for the best seats. Even today we sometimes worry about hurting somebody’s feelings because of where they’re seated at a banquet or wedding reception. This was much worse because of their passionate devotion to being somebody. The protocol for seating was much more rigid and complicated than that to which we are accustomed. Respectability can be good. It can be a synonym for uprightness. Paul says in a speech in Acts 23, Men and brethren I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day, but for these people respectability was a stumbling block because it was a way to be somebody. They did not have the assurance God loved them and they did not know who they were. Listen to Paul’s testimony in II Corinthians 13:7, But we make supplication to God that you may practice no wrong; and our purpose is not that our integrity shall be shown, but that you may behave well, even though we be classed as counterfeits. Paul discarded the opinion of the nice people, the leading people, and was willing to be insulted and demeaned, ridiculed and degraded if the end result was the advancement of God’s kingdom. His reputation and respectability was not with men but with God, and so the lust for respectability is an enemy.

III Insensitivity

Perhaps the worst thing about the lust for respectability is the insensitivity it produces because all of the concern is focused on me rather than on others and their needs and thus we gear Jesus advice in verses 12-14, Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” In a fallen world one can gauge his concern with the plight of those around him by how much he seeks the respect of his peers. This Pharisee had invited all the important people and was so preoccupied with their opinions he didn’t care about the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. There is a real clash of lifestyles here. Christians today in their legitimate concern for friendship and fellowship may become guilty of the same thing. They may want approval more than they want justice. If the price of being respected is to ignore the pain around us then we know we’re in trouble.

Conclusion

Many times in the long history of Christianity the lust for respectability has become a substitute for true faith. The Church has become a mutual admiration society and the salt has lost its savor. Selfishness and self-absorption with my standing is the direct result of rejecting a Savior who came, not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. When the life of the Son of God, our Savior is described in Scripture it is a life shorn of respectability, a life shrouded with ridicule and scorn. Listen to Isaiah’s description of Him, Isaiah 53:1-3, Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. In the end His respectability was lost for love. it was the redeeming love that took Him to the cross. It had to be so because in this world nothing else is possible. That which is real to men is counterfeit to God, and what is precious to God is despised by men.