Guess Who’s Not Coming To Dinner? Series

Luke 14: 12-24

Guess Who’s Not Coming To Dinner?

12 Then He also said to him who invited Him, “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” 15 Now when one of those who sat at the table with Him heard these things, he said to Him, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!” 16 Then He said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, 17 and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ 18 But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ 19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ 20 Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ 21 So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’ 22 And the servant said, ‘Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.’ 23 Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.’”

In the previous parable our Lord Jesus had hinted at the danger of not partaking in the future life because the people were too proud. Now He makes clear that most of those present will not be there in the everlasting kingdom because they have refused the King’s invitation to join His family.

12 Then He also said to him who invited Him, “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

The passage begins with Jesus suggesting to His host, the ruler who was a Pharisee (verse 1), that when next time he makes a supper or dinner he should not invite those who will return his invitation and thus recompense him for what he has done - For there is no goodness in that. It is simply a part of the social round. It may earn him a reputation as being a good host, but it will earn no plaudits from God.

We all need to be concerned for the poor and needy. Here the injunction is to invite the poor and needy to his table. I see some good things that people do in reaching out and inviting to their homes individuals that might not have anyone or any place to go to. Perhaps, you can think about doing similar especially during the holidays.

1. If you live near a military base perhaps you can invite a few of the soldiers to come to your house for a dinner.

2. Look around the church and see if you can spot some senior citizens or people who are loners and invite them over to dinner.

3. Go and feed some of the homeless on the streets.

4. Check on a women’s shelter and invite a mother and her children over to dinner.

5. Check with your church on some single people or mom’s with kids and invite them over to your house.

6. Take some food over to your local police department or fire company.

You can see that there are a lot of possible candidates.

We see in these verses also a deeper message and that is that many of those first invited, the religious Jews, who thought complacently that their place in God’s kingdom was secure, will not enter under either the present or the future Kingly Rule of God, because they have refused His invitation, while many from among the outcasts and the Gentiles will.