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Luke 14 is the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records one miracle performed by Jesus Christ on a Sabbath day, followed by His teachings and parables. The book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that Luke composed this Gospel as well as Acts.
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Structure
This chapter can be grouped (with cross references to other parts of the Bible):
Take the Lowly Place
This pericope (verses 7 to 14), also known as the Parable of the Wedding Feast, is one of the parables of Jesus that is only found in the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament and directly precedes the Parable of the Great Banquet in Luke 14:15-24. In Matthew's Gospel, the parallel passage to Luke's Parable of the Great Banquet is also set as a wedding feast (Matthew 22:1-14).
Jesus always made his parables relatable to the layman. A wedding, in the days of the Jews, was a very sacred and joyous thing. Some even lasted up to or more than a week. When Jesus told this parable, many people were able to understand the picture he was trying to create because he used a Jewish wedding as the setting of the story.
Luke 14:11 says, "Every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled; but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted" is also found in Luke 18:14 and Matthew 23:12. It is similar to Matthew 18:4.
Parable of the Great Supper
The Parable of the Great Banquet or the Wedding Feast or the Marriage of the King's Son is a parable told by Jesus in the New Testament, found in Matthew Matthew 22:1-14 and Luke Luke 14:15-24. The eschatological image of a wedding also occurs in the parable of the Faithful Servant and the parable of the Ten Virgins. Here, it includes the extension of the original invitation (to Jews) to also include Gentiles. In Luke, the invitation is extended particularly to the "poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame" (Luke 14:21), evidencing explicit concern for the "poor and the outcasts."
A variant of the parable also appears in the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas (Saying 64).
Leaving All to Follow Christ
Counting the Cost, or in the NIV: The Cost of Being a Disciple or in the NRSV: The Cost of Discipleship or in the NKJV: Leaving All to Follow Christ, are titles given to this part of the chapter which includes a pair of parables told by Jesus. The first title comes from the phrase "count the cost", which occurs in the King James Version of the passage, as well as some other versions.
Joel B. Green suggests that it is unclear what kind of tower is being referred to in the first parable, but notes that the message is that a "thoroughgoing fidelity to God's salvific aim" is required, "manifest in one's identity as a disciple of Jesus." This involves putting family and possessions second, as in Matthew 8:18-22 and Luke 9:57-62.