In Luke 14, Yeshua teaches the virtue of taking the lowly place at a wedding feast, and the priority that should be given to the outcasts and rejects of society (verses 7–14).

Then in the Parable of the Great Supper (verses 15–24), Yeshua shows how the rejected and outcasts make it into the great supper over those who are attached to their materialistic pursuits.

Perhaps these passages are best summed up by the following statement:

YHVH acknowledges as guests in his kingdom only those who acknowledge their own poverty.

Selah. Please pause and reflect on this.

In our modern world (including in much of the church world as well!) where riches, material possessions, physical beauty, outward appearance, sex appeal, head knowledge, power, influence and physical talent are idolized, do you find it hard to focus on, much less embrace, the iconoclastic values that Yeshua promotes in his teachings? For him less is more, you have to die to live, give everything away to become rich, go low in order to be elevated to a position of status, and serve in order to lead.

I see Yeshua’s teachings as revolutionary and against societal currents in every way. Aren’t they as radical now as they were then?

How are we as disciples of our Master Yeshua to swim upstream successfully against the swift current of secular society whose values are so antithetical to those of Yeshua?