(reference Luke 14:1-6)
I would imagine that if I saw Jesus walking down the streets of my 1st century village without hearing news about him that he would not have caught my attention. He probably wasn't significantly taller than others that would make him an imposing figure. He probably didn't have leading man looks that made heads turn or a deep, resonant voice that made people want to listen to him.
In every way, he probably looked- I don't know- average. That seems to be the way God works: takes the lowly, the average, and the unnoticed to do powerful things that could never be credited to shallow attributes.
So when he came to sit down for dinner among religious rulers, I would guess they they felt a sense of relief when he came in the room. The relief of sizing up an opponent and seeing that your adversary isn't "all that." Maybe they thought: "This should be a quick win... It isn't even a fair fight."
But, Jesus didn't come to fight like they expected. He came to bring rest. It didn't matter if it was a "fair fight" because they weren't even playing the same game.
They wanted to expose the "lies" Jesus was telling to lead people astray. They wanted to tame Jesus or shame Jesus and blame Jesus so that they could keep their position of moral authority in people's eyes (especially their own).
Jesus didn't come to dinner to play that game. He didn't come to quarrel with their theology, but restore their heart. But, as is always the case, he had to start with what would disrupt the way they thought about themselves and expose their motives.
None of us wants to see what is really inside us. That's dangerous and uncomfortable. We are often satisfied (though scared) at the way we perceive ourselves...the way we hope we are. But, Jesus is too loving to let us deceive ourselves about our hearts and who we really are. He is willing to shine a light on what we might hide from others (and ourselves) in order to deal with the selfish unrest inside of us.
Jesus will lovingly expose what we want to hide so that we can find rest rest from our soul-wearying work of treasuring our sin. It is this type of love that either draws people to him in love or causes people to double-down on their unrest and work to rid their lives of him. The Pharisees in the story could have found rest and freedom in trusting Jesus, but chose a different way. The way that exposed what was really in their hearts: they wanted Jesus to die...and would work towards it.