Making Room for People (Make Room): When Jesus was invited to dinner at a prominent religious leader’s house, he encountered pride, selfishness, and a lack of concern for those in need. Instead, making room for people requires humility, generosity, and welcoming hospitality. Recorded on Aug 30, 2026, on Luke 14:1-14 by Pastor David Parks.
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Make Room is a three-part sermon series considering the need to make room 1) for more of God in our lives, 2) for more people in our lives, and 3) for more people in our church. Why? Because more people need good news! More people need the life and love, the freedom and forgiveness, and so much more that is only found in Christ. Our prayer is that in the coming years, many more people will experience the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Sermon Transcript
Today, we’re continuing a quick, three-week series called Make Room to revisit some of the Biblical foundations of our 2030 Ministry Vision. Back in 2024, the elder board spent months praying/talking about who we are as a church, where God was bearing fruit in our ministry, and where we believed God was leading us over the next 5-7 years. The phrase that kept coming up was “make room.” We needed to make room. We needed to make room in response to the growth we had experienced and to prepare for what God might do in and through our church in the future. And in many ways, that’s exactly what we’ve been trying to do for the past two years. But as we tried to make more room, God continued to bring more growth. By God’s grace, we’ve come a long way in the last two years, and we’ve seen an incredible spirit of unity, joy, and gratitude even with so many changes that might make things uncomfortable. As I said last week, way to go. But we’re not done yet. We still need to make room. Now, this whole Make Room initiative was founded on three big ideas: We need to make room 1) for more of God in our lives, 2) for more people in our lives, and 3) for more people in our church. This is what our 2030 Vision and all these plans and changes are all about. As we start phase 2 of this plan, we want to revisit these three big ideas. Last week, we focused on the most important of the three, making room for more of God in our lives. Today, we’ll focus on making room for more people in our lives. So today, how can we make room for more people in our lives? So if you have your Bible/app, please open it to Luke 14:1. As you head there, just a little context: Luke was a physician who came to faith in Jesus through the ministry of the Apostle Paul. Luke didn’t know Jesus personally, but he did a careful investigation into the life and ministry of Jesus by interviewing eyewitnesses. Let’s jump in.
Luke 14:1–6 (NIV), “1 One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. 2 There in front of him was a man suffering from abnormal swelling of his body. 3 Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” 4 But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him on his way. 5 Then he asked them, “If one of you has a child or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull it out?” 6 And they had nothing to say.” Ok, so what’s going on here? Two things to explain: First, the Pharisees, and second, the Sabbath. First, who were the Pharisees? The Pharisees were conservative religious leaders, like the pastors of their day. They taught and led in local Jewish synagogues; they opposed Rome (they didn’t like Roman rule of Judea), and they were generally respected as among the most outwardly moral people in their communities. I once heard someone say that you’d want your daughter to marry a Pharisee. But did you get the sense here that they weren’t crazy about Jesus? Luke says that at this point in Jesus’ public ministry, the Pharisees were carefully watching him. And then, when Jesus forced this confrontation about healing on the Sabbath, they had nothing to say. But this doesn’t feel like they were all silently cheering him on, right? So far in Luke’s gospel, Jesus has had several confrontations with the Pharisees, and at different turns he has humiliated them and made them furious. So here, they weren’t watching him to see whether what he said was true or whether they might want to become his disciples; they were watching him to see whether they could discredit or undermine his ministry. But, to be fair, Jesus had some of the harshest and most critical things to say to religious leaders who looked good on the outside, but on the inside, their hearts were far from God, and who were leading God’s people astray. Now, Jesus wasn’t a liberal who was only against conservatives. He had equally critical things to say about the Sadducees and the experts of the Law, who were politically liberal. Jesus had a problem with religious leaders who were not leading the people according to God’s word and his ways. They were shepherds who were using and abusing the sheep. So this confrontation here is about religious hypocrisy. Second, we see this in the reference to the Sabbath. And what was the Sabbath again? The word “Sabbath” means to stop or cease, and it refers to a weekly day of rest. The fifth of the Ten Commandments is to “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work…” (Ex 20:8-10). This command was based on God’s pattern of work and rest in creation and was meant to be a blessing to everyone in his kingdom from the greatest to the least. In their day, the Sabbath went from Friday evening to Saturday evening. And Jesus didn’t have a problem with people who were trying to keep the Sabbath day holy. As you might guess from our passage, he had a problem with all the rules that people like the Pharisees added to the Scriptures about what constituted work on the Sabbath. Could you heal someone like this poor man, who was suffering for an unknown period of time with an affliction that caused edema, or abnormal swelling in his body? The spirit of the Sabbath law was to be a blessing to God’s people, not to be an excuse to stop caring for people or serving people who were hurting or in great need. As Jesus says, “If one of you has a child or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull it out?” One of the things Jesus seems to imply here is that if they had a child or an animal that was theirs, wouldn’t they help them if they were in need? The implication is that they were not seeing this poor man as their own responsibility, as someone they were expected to love and to help. They didn’t want to be interrupted by this man or his needs and used the Sabbath as an excuse. No wonder they had no comeback. But to make this more awkward, Jesus confronts the Pharisees on the way to be a guest at the house of a prominent Pharisee! How do you think dinner is going to go? Let’s see.
Luke 14:7-11 (NIV), “7 When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: 8 “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. 9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. 10 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 the other guests. 11 For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” From this interaction, you might think, “Would I want to invite Jesus to a dinner party?” But Jesus must have normally been great to have at a party because he was constantly being invited. And people from all walks of life, including children, wanted to be around him. So he must’ve normally been a fun person. But he was coming in hot here. He goes from the confrontation over using the Sabbath as an excuse to ignore the needs of others to speaking against what he saw the people doing at the Pharisees’ house. And what were they doing? The guests (lit. those who were called) were not humbly enjoying the company of others at the party; they were jostling for positions of honor for themselves. Jesus often taught in parables, that is, stories with a point (often a point that lands as a punch) that teach something about the kingdom of God. And here, Jesus uses the very party he was at as the basis for his parable. A point I’m sure the guests of the party would’ve understood, albeit uncomfortably. (“I think he’s talking about us.”) But what was the point? v.11 “For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Humility is a big deal in the kingdom of God; it’s one of the highest virtues for a Christian. 1 Peter 5:5–6 (NIV), “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” In the book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis describes a genuinely humble person as someone you might find cheerful and intelligent who takes a real interest in what you have to say. “He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.” (Lewis, C. S.. Mere Christianity (C.S. Lewis Signature Classics) (p. 128). (Function). Kindle Edition.) Rick Warren famously defined humility as not thinking less of ourselves, but thinking of ourselves less. (The Purpose Driven Life, p. 265). But why is humility such a big deal? Because when you are focused on what you can get out of life, even at a dinner party, do you know what you’ll miss? You miss out on many opportunities to love other people. When you’re jostling for the best seat, you’ll miss out on what’s going on with the people around you. If you’re only focused on your needs, will you even notice the needs of your neighbor? Probably not. People are not pawns in some game of status. They are men and women created in the image of God, whom we are commanded to love as God has loved us first. But Jesus isn’t done. He has one more thing to say to the host.
Luke 14:12–14 (NIV), “12 Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” This is God’s word. And this last part makes me wonder if the man Jesus healed had been sitting, possibly begging, just outside the house, but was never invited in. Just as the guests had missed an opportunity to be humble and care for others’ needs, so had the host. It appears that the guest list was determined by how the guests might repay the host; in other words, how they might benefit the host. The party wasn’t an act of generosity to be a blessing to the guests. It was an act of selfishness. How do you think God might feel about this at the resurrection, when we will have to give an account of our lives to him? Thank goodness this isn’t the calculation he does with us! If God based his desire to save us on what we could do for him, no one would be saved. God is entirely self-sufficient; he doesn’t need anything from any of us. But in addressing this self-centeredness, Jesus focuses on people who are poor or disabled in some way. And this is consistent with God’s heart from cover to cover in the Bible. The Proverbs are full of passages like Proverbs 14:31 (NIV): “Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.” God personally identifies with the poor and those in need. When we are kind to them, we honor God. God doesn’t care about these games of status or how you might be repaid in the future. If you honor God, he will repay you for all eternity! I love what commentator Darrell Bock says about this. He writes, “The best hospitality is that which is given, not exchanged…[it’s] generosity when no motive exists besides giving.” (Bock, Darrell L. Luke: 9:51–24:53. Baker Academic, 1996, p. 1266.) So Jesus probably wasn’t invited back to this Pharisee’s house, but who knows! Jesus wasn’t confrontational to be mean. He was offering a rebuke to spiritual leaders who should’ve known better. Maybe after reflecting on Jesus’ teaching, the Pharisee repented. It wouldn’t be the first time that happened, or the last. But what do we do with this teaching today? Well, as we think about making room for more people in our lives, we all need to carefully think through our heart attitudes and motivations to be sure we are honoring God in how we think, speak, and act. To be clear, I don’t think you need a rebuke. I see the fruit of genuine humility, generosity, and love around this church all the time. So many of you are connected to others in your community groups, men’s and women’s bible studies, and kids’ ministry groups. Many of you sacrifice time and energy in hosting or helping to organize these groups in your homes. On Sundays, I see many of you act as if you’re on the hospitality team (even when you’re not) by initiating conversations with others, introducing yourselves, inviting someone out to lunch after worship, and just generally being very welcoming and loving. One of the most consistent things I hear in our Discovering Membership class is how welcome people felt when they started attending. Of course, we’re not perfect. And sometimes people do not feel welcome, for whatever reason. But last week, we talked about how Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches. And how God works in our lives to prune us so that we will be even more fruitful as disciples of Jesus. And everything I just mentioned is the kind of fruit that God wants us to produce. But just as God is at work among us to make us even more fruitful, so even people who already welcome people into their lives can grow in this as well. So today, how can we make room for more people in our lives? I’ll give you three thoughts from this passage. 1) By being willing to be interrupted by people (and their needs). Even when it’s inconvenient at times, choosing instead to work for their good. 2) By resisting the destructive pull of pride. Even when we might be able to get ahead or raise our status, choosing instead to be humble. 3) By welcoming in all kinds of people. Not just the ones who would obviously benefit you. Not just the ones who might repay you in the future. If we were to put these principles into practice, it would make room in our schedules, our hearts, and our homes. Finally, let’s come back to the word that Luke uses for guest. The root word translated as “guest,” or the ones who were “invited,” is the Greek word kaleo, or “called.” And being called is one of the most common ways the NT describes Christians. Acts 2:39, “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” Ro 1:6, “And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.” 1Co 1:9, “God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” 2Ti 1:9, “He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.” And on and on. So if we have been called, called into a relationship with God, called to the great wedding banquet of the Lamb, called to be a beloved son or daughter in the family of God through faith in Jesus, then we ought to be people who see the need for others to be called. Called into relationship, invited in, welcomed into our hearts, homes, and lives. We need to make room for more of God in our lives. But as we do this, we need to make room for more people in our lives as well. May it be, Lord. May we be people who are humble, generous, and loving to all kinds of people. And so provide a picture to a watching world of what the kingdom of God is really like. Let us pray.
