Today I read Luke 14 where Jesus again heals on the Sabbath day and takes the opportunity to teach the Pharisees. It really is incomprehensible that the Pharisees saw nothing wrong with saving their animals that fell into a pit on the Sabbath day but when it comes to healing a person, they were completely against it. Actually, I guess it is not all that difficult to understand, after all there are people in our day and age who place more value on animal life than they do human life, although I doubt the Pharisees in Christ's time would have viewed it in such a fashion. But that is what it boils down to when you get past the pretty words. The Pharisees were perfectly fine with helping an animal on the Sabbath day, but not a person. They certainly had their priorities mixed up.
This chapter also contains the parable of the man who puts on a feast and none of the guests he invites come so he has his servant bring in the people off the streets. There is also another parable, or rather piece of advice, that Jesus gives in this chapter to the Pharisees in particular, but also to all the people. In the advice, Jesus states that if they were to be invited to a wedding they should not go to the higher rooms, or in other words they should not take honor unto themselves. The reason for this is because if they are in the higher room and someone more important than themselves were to come in and they were forced to go to the lower room, it would be very embarrassing for them. Rather when they attend a wedding they should go into the lowest room and then when the host comes and sees them there he can move them a higher room. The moral of Jesus' story which He tells them Himself, is to not raise ourselves up, but rather to be humble.
I thought this was very interesting and good advice. Everyone of us are going to have times where we get egg on our face so to speak. What matters is how we handle those situations. In Alma 5, Alma asks the people of Zarahemla if they are stripped of pride, because if they are not then they are not ready to meet God. Pride is feeling like you are more important than others. I heard a talk once in General Conference that I believe was given by President Uchtdorf that said pride does not take pleasure in having something, it only take pleasure in having more of something than another. Such feelings and thoughts are totally incongruent with God. God does not take pleasure in the fact that He has something we don't. Quite the opposite, His greatest joy is in being able to share what He has with all of us. If we hope to one day be like Him, then we need to make sure we find pleasure in lifting people up as well.
The last part of this chapter that stood out to me is the idea to plan ahead. Jesus talks to the people stating that if you plan to build a tower, first sit down and make sure you have enough money and resources to complete the tower. This struck me as the idea of setting goals and planning ahead. It is hard to get things of importance accomplished in this life without setting goals to help you achieve them. If you don't know what you are working towards, you are just wandering aimlessly in life and that is not a good thing. In order to stay focused, and for most us, happy, we need to have direction and have a clear purpose in life. There are a number of reasons that people commit suicide in this life, but the most common reasons are depression and lack of self-worth. The lack of self-worth, and sometimes even depression, can come from feeling like nothing you do matters because you do not have a clear direction. You can make it through life without having goals, but it makes it a lot easier to know what you are shooting for. Personally, I am trying to be more like Jesus and to return to live with Heavenly Father some day. What are you striving for? Until tomorrow.
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