In the parable of the great supper the Lord speaks of three representative refusals to attend, each one picturing our refusal to the call of the Gospel. Why do we not respond to Christ? Here is what we miss, boxed in by the material realm.

And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many.

And our subject this evening is ‘Escaping The Limited Life’. This is a remarkable parable that we should be looking at briefly, uttered by the Lord. The context, well, just a reference to chapter 14 and verse 1:.’And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him.’ The Lord had been invited and he had gone to a meal at one of the chief Pharisees’ members of the Sanhedrin Council of the Jews. They were against him, set against him, and they watched him. They were looking for trouble. They were waiting for him to say something which would give them grounds to accuse him. Perhaps a blasphemy or some other charge, and to move against him.

But the narrative goes on and this is just a little context in verse 2 ‘and behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy’ there in that house. In other words, he had a problem of water retention in his limbs, legs and arms. Perhaps elsewhere, perhaps a failing heart, but he was obviously in a bad way, and it was very noticeable, and he suffered from this and maybe didn’t have all that long to live, who knows.

Note it was the Sabbath day ‘and Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees saying: is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? And they held their peace. And he took him and healed him.’ So there was a compassionate healing miracle in that vast room owned by this wealthy chief of the Pharisees. Then he proceeds to speak to them and to say humbling words to them, but it’s in that place, at that meal, that he later gives this parable that we’re looking at.