Today's podcast for 'Reading Luke in Lent' looks at Luke, Chapter 14: 1-34.
Inviting Jesus to your house for a banquet is a risky business. In this section Luke mirrors the last chapter. There's a further healing on the Sabbath and then two parables which play out what it means for the last to be first. When Jesus asks, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath’ it as though Luke knows that not only do the Pharisees know the true answer but so do we his audience.
There follows a parable, an address to the host, an interruption and a further parable. At least one of the guests, who interrupts, recognises that Jesus is not talking about local social etiquette but about the banquet in the kingdom of heaven. A word which recurs throughout this section is ‘invite’. As Jesus continues his journey he gives three examples of what it means to respond to his invitation to follow and be a disciple: a commitment beyond family, self-sacrifice and detachment from possessions.
'Reading Luke in Lent' is a series of simple podcasts for the Lenten season offering a daily reading from St Luke - covering the Gospel from start to finish - from Ash Wednesday to the first week of Easter.
