It’s almost harvest time; we can all see it as we drive down our highways on short trips or long, and farmers are preparing to combine soybeans or shell corn, preparing crops for market.

The substance of this Sunday’s Gospel reading is an instruction on humility, but the reading does not begin that way. Luke writes, “One Sabbath Jesus went to dine at the house of a ruler who was a member of the Pharisees.”

In his ongoing catechesis under the framework “Journey to Jerusalem,” Luke continues to astound readers with difficult material for instruction. In this Sunday’s Gospel reading he seems to have reached the limits of problematic sayings attributed to Jesus.