The Great Banquet
Luke 14:12-24
January 26, 2014
We’ve started this year looking at worship. And we will look at worship through one of Jesus’ parables today, and we next week we will try to answer the question, ‘what do we do when we’re not in the mood to worship.’ After all, we’ve all been there at one time or another.
One of the interesting thoughts about God is that He loves us so much, with such a fierce passion that He would send His Son to leave the joy of heaven. Jesus would leave the place of total perfection to come to the place of imperfection. God is so passionate about us that He does not want any of us to miss out on the feasting with Him. Yet, I wonder how many of us are all that excited about feasting with God.
You know how it is when you meet someone you like someone? You know how your goes pitter - patter! We get all excited and our heart starts beating a little quicker. Well, I believe that’s how God is when He thinks about us. He loves us so much, that when we pray to Him, when we call out to Him, when we embrace a relationship with Him, when we serve Him — — His heart goes pitter - patter! After all, we are the object of God’s supreme love.
With that in mind I want to look at a parable called the Great Banquet. It can be found in Luke 14. Hear the word of our Lord ~
16 Jesus said, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many.
17 And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’
18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’
19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’
20 And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’
21 So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant,
‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’
22 And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’
23 And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.
24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’”
The Great Banquet symbolizes a few things.
First, the great banquet symbolizes God's desire to bring us into an intimate relationship with Him. God is not content with being someone we've simply heard about, talked about, or considered from a distance. He wants to be our intimate God — who sits with us at the table of life, as He shares Himself with us.
Secondly, the great banquet symbolizes God's desire to fill us with His life-renewing power. God longs to be the living water, the very bread of life, from which we derive a supernatural strength for living. John said, He is the vine and we are the branches. And we draw our power and life sustenance from the vine, who pours Himself out for us. God wants to give you His power so that you are able to rise above all of life which seeks to defeat you.
Lastly, the great banquet symbolizes God's desire to transform our hearts so we would receive the life He desires us to have. Friends, we were made for an infinitely more powerful and beautiful life than this world sells us.
We were created by God to shape a planet where hard work is balanced with rest, where justice is tempered with mercy, where personal freedom is balanced with communal responsibility, because this is how the King lives. We were made to build families and businesses, communities and societies that show compassion and forgiveness to one another, and which call forth the best in each other, because this is what the King does.
The great banquet is a metaphor for our hearts to engage with God so we could reach our full potential. The great banquet is the life that disciples of Jesus enter into so we can know the Master. As we learn and experience life from and through Him. It is a sign of the ultimate relationship, power, and kingdom for which our hearts were made. Do you understand that you and your heart have been invited to this banquet?
"At the time of the banquet [the man] sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.'" Now just hit pause for a moment and let's take in what's going on in this story so far. God the Father is the man in this story. He prepares a great banquet at which the ultimate relationship, power, and kingdom will be given to any heart that comes to Him. He doesn't just invite the "'A' List." He invites many guests, He wants this banquet to be huge — a blessing to everyone. He sends Jesus, who is the servant, to go tell all the invitees that the banquet is ready. All you have to do is come.
What to do with the invitation?
You know what happens, right? Everybody lays down what they're doing. They text and Twitter and telephone their neighbors, saying, "C U @ the banquet!" I mean, who would want to miss the chance to feed and heal the heart? But that's not what happens. Everyone's response to the invitation is quite different. The people begin to make excuses. How do you explain this? Why would anybody turn down an invitation like this? Well, for several reasons.
One had to check out a business transaction. He bought a field, in other words, he was building his own kingdom, do he couldn’t attend the King’s banquet.
Another bought 5 yoke of oxen, and he needed to check them out. He had to check out his source of income.
A 3rd said he just got married, so he couldn’t attend. In other words, he had a more gratifying relationship than the Master’s.
Nobody was rude about their declining the offer. But understand that there were 2 invitations. One was sent out long ago, like we do with weddings, 6-8 weeks in advance. We need a head count. Then on the day of the event, the servant would go and personally tell everyone that the meal was ready and it was time for the party to begin.
Can you imagine the hurt and heart-break and hearing all of the No’s. If you’ve ever had a party, you know what it’s like to have people tell you they cannot attend your big event. Imagine God’s heart breaking at all the people who found something better to do, than meet the King of kings.
Do you wonder how often we do that to God. How often has He called you to His great banquet and you’ve told God, ‘sorry, but I’m really busy. I’m really stressed at work, or I’ve got a party to go to, or I’m just too tired God, I need a night off.’
So, the servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, to quickly go into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. In other words, ‘If these people are too self-sufficient to accept my invitation, then let’s find people broken-hearted enough to the gifts I have to give.’
So, the servant goes out and returns again, telling the Master, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ The message is that the Master has more grace to give than people who want it. So, the master tells the servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.’ The master concludes with a tone of sadness ~ ‘I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’
Respond to God with all your heart.
This parable seems to speak to the heart of America today. Studies indicate Americans like the idea of God. We like the idea that a spiritual relationship with God is possible. We genuinely like the idea that God has invited us to eat with Him at His banquet. The idea is enticing for so many. Maybe even you. But then comes the question, “would you like to attend?”
Would you like to sit at the table in a Bible Study? Would you like to come to Sunday School? Want to help out in the nursery? Want to help the youth? Want to work in the kitchen? Want to be a regular at worship? There's a seat for you there — a place where God can meet you and transform you and renew your heart.
The reply ~~ "Wow, let me think about that," or, "You know, I'd like to do that one of these days," or, "Gosh, I'd love to attend . . . ooh, I’m already booked for sure on those days. Maybe some time I’ll try it out."
The problem is not that we don't have a heart to enter into the banquet of God. The chief problem is that we are only halfhearted about it. Author Wilbur Rees puts it this way:
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don't want enough of him to make me love a [person of a different color] or pick beets with a migrant worker. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of a womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy just $3 worth of God, please.
Is that you and I? If we were to simply want just a little piece of God, how does that impact the way we worship Him? We need more than just a little piece of God. We need all of God. We need all that He offers us. So, friends, as we consider the offer of the banquet ~
God offered the banquet to the original guests. To the leaders of Israel. The offer then went out to the poor and lame. Those were the outcasts within the house of Israel. Then the offer went to the guests from the highways and hedges. And this offer was to the gentiles.
The gate is open, will you enter? Will you choose to worship the King? Will you eat with Him? Oh friends, when we consider this offer from God — if we reject it, we are rejecting God and our worship will always be less than. But if we say YES God! I love you and I want to serve you, then we will always find reason and joy to worship God.
God’s heart throbs to have you come to His great banquet. His heart is what your heart needs. That is why we always offer an invitation at the end of the message. It’s an offer of the greatest invitation you will ever receive — — "Come, for everything is now ready." Don't let the excuses that have kept you from coming up to now stop you anymore. Take a further step toward the seat at his table that he has been saving for you. For this is the good news: "But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul." (Deuteronomy 4:29).
