BibleProject | One Story That Leads to JesusSample

At a fancy dinner party, Jesus refuses to join in the customary competition for social status. At banquets in Jesus’ day, the most “important” attendees enjoyed seats of honor and the best portions of food. The lowest-status guests got crummy seats and table scraps. Everyone else ranked somewhere in between. As the attendees assert their own importance and jockey for good seats, Jesus offers wisdom: It’s better to sit in the humble seat, always. That status stuff isn’t real.

Mutuality in community is a key kingdom principle. Love for God and others, not self-importance, compels true humanity. Jesus then describes another kind of banquet, where the “honorable” elites decline the host’s invitation, but the social “lessers”—the poor, the sick, the disabled, and people idling in the streets—accept the invite and enjoy the feast.

God’s Kingdom, like this banquet, belongs to everyone who says yes to the invitation. Social status means nothing.

Later, Jesus tells an odd parable about a dishonest manager. The manager, realizing he’s about to be fired, cooks the books to use ill-gotten wealth in a positively good way. He spends the money to build relationships. Those relationships become far more valuable than any sum of money.

As you’ll learn in today’s video, mammon—our money and stuff—can pull us into darkness. Jesus calls us to steward our mammon wisely and never be controlled by it. There’s no way to serve mammon and God at the same time. Even a dishonest manager who’s pursuing his own advancement can learn to value relationships over money. How much more should Jesus followers pursuing the kingdom use their money to strengthen right relationships with others?

Reflection Questions

• In today’s video, we learn that mammon—money, wealth, stuff—has a strange power that traps and hurts humans. Where in your experience of life have you seen the love of money lead to corruption and harm? Why do you suppose Jesus suggests the way of generosity as an antidote to this threat?
• Meditate on the parables in Luke 15. What collective themes are they communicating? What might this reveal about God’s willingness to pursue people, and how do you see God’s pursuit of his people throughout the Scriptures?