The point of it all is this:
The Jews believed their Messiah would be a political figure who'd save them from Godless Romans. Because of this they did not recognize the true Messiah when He came to them.
Too many Christians these days are looking for a political figure who'll save them from Godless liberals. Because of this, they will miss their Christ when He comes for them.
History is repeating itself, to the detriment of believers.
Luke 14:1-14 -- "Jesus Freak", the worst seat at the feast.
14 And it came to pass, when he went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees on a sabbath to eat bread, that they were watching him. 2 And behold, there was before him a certain man that had the dropsy. 3 And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath, or not? 4 But they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go.
(Dropsy refers to congestive heart failure). In the last chapter we saw the response of the ruler of the synagogue, in this chapter we see the response of the “silent majority”. In the last chapter we learned that the Lord’s goal includes exposing the hypocrisy of a corrupt counterfeit bill to the kingdom of the heavens. In this chapter we learn about the silent majority, those who hold their peace.
5 And he said unto them, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a well, and will not straightway draw him up on a sabbath day? 6 And they could not answer again unto these things.
According to the rabbinical law you were not supposed to pull an ox out of a well on the Sabbath. You were allowed to lower food and water down to the ox, but you had to wait till the next day to pull the ox out. They knew this, but then they also knew that this was a stupid rule. The ox doesn’t know it is the Sabbath. In the wild an ox falls into a well and can’t get out, that ox is going to die. So this ox is going to panic and may break a leg trying to get out. Imagine you were the ox, your owner sees you in the well, but just leaves you there! How cruel is that? You do all that work for him and he is just going to leave you to die? One person can’t pull an ox out, so they would need help. This is why they are all keeping quiet, they don’t want to admit that they do this in public, but they can’t deny it because everyone knows they do it. It is a stupid, cruel rule, no one obeys it, but they are afraid to say that. That is hypocrisy, that is the leaven of the Pharisees. They keep people in line with fear but no one believes them, they don’t obey them, they just don’t want to make waves. Recently we discovered that a number of very high profile NFL stars were fabricating vaccine passports, pretending they had complied with the mandate while ignoring the rule. Meanwhile we have seen an extraordinary number of athletes drop dead this last year from "causes unknown".
7 And he spake a parable unto those that were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief seats; saying unto them, 8 When thou art bidden of any man to a marriage feast, sit not down in the chief seat; lest haply a more honorable man than thou be bidden of him, 9 and he that bade thee and him shall come and say to thee, Give this man place; and then thou shalt begin with shame to take the lowest place. 10 But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest place; that when he that hath bidden thee cometh, he may say to thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have glory in the presence of all that sit at meat with thee. 11 For every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
This is what people are really afraid of, public humiliation. What did the Lord say, don’t fear those that can just humiliate you and after that there is nothing more they can do, rather fear Him who after you have died has the power to humiliate you for eternity. Why is it that people deny the Lord before men? They are afraid to be shunned and humiliated. The Lord is not teaching us how to be social climbers. You need to connect this account with the earlier point Jesus made(Luke 12:8-9). If you confess Jesus before men you will be shunned, you will be given the worst seats at their feasts. But if you confess Jesus before men then He will confess you before the angels, at the feast that He is going to give at the end of the age He will say “friend go up higher”. If you choose to start the feast in the most despised seat, the “Jesus freak” seat, then there is nothing they can do to you, but you give the Lord an opportunity to honor you. When I tell people that Jesus is the only savior they interpret that to mean that I am telling them to sit on their hands and do nothing. They are worked up over the vaccine mandate or over climate change or concerned with election fraud. We are supposed to be the salt and the light, I am all for being the salt and the light. But let's be realistic, the Republican party is not "the savior", AOC and her $10 trillion dollar green new deal is not the savior, and Mike Lindell is not the savior. By all means expose election fraud, promote the use of cleaner energy and reject them illegally mandating an experimental vaccine. But if you are serious about real solutions you will realize that as long as our government is corrupt giving them $10 trillion will not make things better, only worse.
12 And he said to him also that had bidden him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, nor thy kinsmen, nor rich neighbors; lest haply they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. 13 But when thou makest a feast, bid the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: 14 and thou shalt be blessed; because they have not wherewith to recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed in the resurrection of the just.
This is how you lay up treasure for yourself (Luke 12:16-21). Man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things he possesses. If the US dollar is about to become worthless then you are in the exact same position of that rich man who died. Once he died the grain in the barn was worthless to him. He could have used it to give a feast to the poor and then when the Lord took him he would have had treasure stored up in heaven. During the tribulation our money will become worthless. But right now there are people who can’t pay their rent, can’t buy food. One minute you could have used that money to store up treasure in heaven, the next minute it will be gone. Give to those who cannot recompense you and then you will be recompensed in the resurrection. This is a tremendous investment opportunity for you, where thieves don’t break in, moths don’t destroy, a purse in heaven that faileth not.