Dr. Bradford Reaves
CrossWay Christian Fellowship
Hagerstown, MD
www.mycrossway.org
12 He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” 15 When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” 16 But he said to him, “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.’ ” (Luke 14:12–24)
In an agricultural world to receive an invitation to a great banquet or feast was of the highest honor. And the most important people were always expected to be invited to the most prominent of events. At these feasts you would find the who's who of society. Going was not only a feast but also a time of honor, fancy music, and fellowship that went along with the great festivities.
For various reasons, including weddings and other kinds of celebrations, we go to great lengths to ensure that these feasts are held to the extreme. So, to receive an invitation for a great feast and to make an excuse not to come simply would not happen. And for a rich man to fill a banquet table with the lowest of society was absolutely absurd. Yet this is the parable that Jesus teaches to prove an important point.
The context of this parable centers around Jesus himself at a feast. This is a lunch that a very prominent pharisee provided. They had invited Jesus to attempt to trap him by healing a man on the Sabbath who had a case of dropsy. Well, as it goes, Jesus heals the man and confronts their hypocrisy. If they had an ox fall into a ditch on the Sabbath, they would have pulled the ox out, I don't, to avoid the loss of money.
This leads to a lecture from Jesus about humility. It is the humble, not the self-righteous, that will inherit the Kingdom of God. As they are reclining around, verse 15 says, “When one of those who reclined at the table with him heard these things, he said to him, bless it is everyone who will eat in the Kingdom of God!”
The resurrection of the righteous was the central focus of the Jewish religious system that departed from faith in God. At the heart of this is the self-achievement to be resurrected and glory at the end of the day. The elite righteous under the Jewish system of that day was a legalistic religious tradition to achieve eternal resurrection.
In reality, this is where every false religious system functions. Why do people strive for religion? Why do priests and nuns engage in all kinds of depriving behaviors? It is escapism. Under their religious structures, they use works to justify themselves for eternity. It is the same with Mormons, who strive to be highly moral. They are looking towards their resurrection through moral living. Likewise, Islam follows the five pillars. Likewise, with Hinduism and karma. All religion demands devotion based on works for eternal reward.
Faith in God and Christianity is none of that. It is all about the gift of grace through Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ, righteousness is turned on its head because it's not good works that lead to righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ within us that brings about good works.
And so in verse 15, when someone said, “Blessed is everyone who will eat in the Kingdom of God!” He is not referring to the blessing of God bestowed upon people who receive his blessings and faith. Rather, he is referring to how great one is to be invited by God to eternity because of his self-achievement and notoriety. a
That is how the religious system of Jesus’ day saw God: a wealthy man who desired to surround himself with other wealthy, well-to-do people. And so Jesus tells this parable to set them straight. The religious Jews of Jesus' day were looking forward to the resurrection of the righteous, but they saw it as a lavish celebration in the presence of God for the religious elite.
Jesus speaks up, and it is to shatter their assumptions and false religious hope. He never put his arm around the pharisee and said, “Well, we worship the same God, so we'll be up there together one way or another.” He never went into a synagogue and said your religious good works were all needed. In fact, he reviled at the religious chains that the religious leaders imposed on people, And he wanted to shatter those false religious hopes. He does that here with the parable of the great banquet.
But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. (Luke 14:16)
This is a man of obvious prominence. He has the ability to hold a great banquet. It is a feast being held on a grand scale. Similar to the feast that is described in Matthew 22. However, these are two separate parables. The wedding feast would be a banquet of all banquets and could last for days. This could be something similar, but it's not specified to be a wedding banquet but just some kind of grand feast, Which could likewise last for many days. And he has invited as many people as he possibly could find.
When you receive an invitation for a banquet, it would be a very formal kind of invitation. But unlike today, where we specify exactly when the banquet will be held, the actual day and time were left open. It was a different pace in this world where you had to gather the animals and, kill the animals, and clean the animals. You had to make all the preparations. And so, the specific date and time would not be stated on the first invitation. The first invitation is intended to identify and invite you as an honored guest.
After receiving the first invitation, you waited to get the second invitation, which is what verse 17 is about. Luke 14:17 “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.’” The Pharisees hearing this would have loved this. They would have, in their haughty minds, imagined themselves being recipients of such an invitation.
and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues (Matthew 23:6)
But when the second invitation comes verse 18 brings us a twist: Luke 14:18 “18 But they all alike began to make excuses.”
Upon receiving the second invitation, the well-to-do guests explain why they can't come. In the Pharisee's mind, this would have been something unheard of and even laughable. This would be rude, uncivilized, And a level of politeness on the grandest of scales. In fact, some traditions in that day would equate such a response as a declaration of war. To refuse that kind of hospitality was to proclaim contempt and malice toward the host.
To add to the ludicrous speed of the response, Jesus begins to identify the excuses they're providing. In verse 18, the first one says that he has to look at a piece of land. I could almost hear the Pharisees begin to snicker as they think to themselves, “Be excused? To go look at a piece of dirt? Nobody would do that! What a ridiculous excuse!”
In verse 19, another one says, “I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I have to go examine them.” Again, it's ridiculous. How could purchasing oxen be more important than rubbing elbows with the most wealthy people in your area?
The last one in verse 20 is the only one that really gets close to reality. “I married a wife, and for that reason, I can't come.” But no one would make that a kind of excuse. Especially in Jesus's day, when the Pharisees and scribes considered women more to be property than partners. A woman wouldn't dictate to a man what he could and could not do.
All of these excuses lead to a tremendous problem. This great man has made the first invitation to a great and mighty banquet, and with the second banquet when everything has been prepared, there is nobody that is going to come. So the slave comes back in verse 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.’ (Luke 14:21)
The anger of the master of the house is justified. He has put in tremendous effort, work, and expense and acts out of generosity and kindness. The response is indifference and insults with excuses that are moronic and ridiculous. Now, the story goes from comical to absolutely preposterous.
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. (Luke 14:21–23)
No decent man of any kind of influence would invite the lowly of society to come and make peace with him at a table. This is not the reality in the social circles of the Jews. Those receiving the first invitation would never turn down the second. Moreover, a man of good stature would never break ranks with the elite to be so desperate to have people over for dinner that he would invite the lower class.
The command to go out into the highways and byways was the equivalent of the master telling the servant to go into the brothels and the bars and the outside streets of the city To invite tax collectors, sinners, prostitutes, and the lowliest of society. You must compel these people to come into town because they know they're not wanted there. They are harder to reach and further away, so you must compel them.
This is where we come to the application, found in verse four.
For I tell you, none of those invited men shall taste my banquet.’ (Luke 14:24)
Up until this point the story has been told in the third person. A man, a dinner, his slave, people with excuses. But suddenly in verse 24, you move into the second and first person. It is no longer the story. It is the application with Jesus transitioning using the words “for I tell you,.” This is the whole point of what we must know. Jesus is now transitioning from telling a story to pointing into the hearts of those who hear it. We're not talking any longer about a man having a great dinner, we are talking about the great banquet that will be had in heaven.
The bottom line is you will be excluded from heaven's banquet And apart from the resurrection of the righteous. That takes us back to the parable to see the application. All of a sudden the Pharisees stop looking at this with hyperbole and understand that Jesus is talking about them. Salvation, the Kingdom of heaven, the resurrection of the righteous, the wedding feast in heaven, Jesus invited through the prophets and the authors of the Old Testament to Israel as the pre-invited guests. Israel, the chosen people of God who were given the scriptures and the covenants and the promises of the Messiah. Will reject the invitation.
They all said yes to the first invitation, but now that the Messiah has come and he offers them eternal life on his conditions (the second invitation), they refuse it.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! (Luke 13:34)
And now, through the parable, we see the excuses. It always begins with excuses. Man is great at offering excuses to God. Two of them have to do with possessions. One of them has to do with relationships. And that is all you have in this world, possessions or relationships. People are not interested in the message of Christ. When the true gospel of salvation comes, the Jews want to stone him, throw him off a precipice and Nazareth, or, at the end of it all, crucify him. They have no interest in the banquet of God if it is Jesus Christ inviting them. And as we will see in a few weeks, the cost of discipleship is high
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26)
And this is nothing new, and it is an invitation to Jesus. Following Jesus requires abandonment of both possessions and relationships—anything that we put above him.
God will not be dishonored, scorned, or excused. He is not looking for people who consider themselves self-righteous to include in the banquet. He is looking for his house to be filled for those who will call upon his name and dwell in his house.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. (John 3:36)
God is after the spiritually destitute people. God is looking for those who are broken, hungry, and thirsty. God is looking to find the sinners who know they are unworthy. God is looking to redeem the tax collectors, the wretched, the useless, the hopeless, and the unworthy. The banquet of God will not include Pharisees nor the religious elite. The banquet will be full of people who are outcasts.
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” (1 Corinthians 1:18–19)
It is our job, church, to compel them. The word Jesus is used as a strong persuasion. We are going to have to compel people because of their unworthiness. They are the people in the highways and the byways living outside the Kingdom. The first invitation came in the Old Testament and was reiterated by the prophets. The second invitation came when Jesus himself arrived. The religious elite of his day were those with lame excuses of why they would not want to ever come to the grandest feast ever known.
Here is the marvelous thing. The celebration will occur around God's table. And that feast will be the culmination of the Jewish nation and the Gentile church. But the reality is, whether Jew or Gentile, anyone who rejects the invitation of Jesus Christ will never experience the celebration that God has prepared for everyone in heaven. My friend, if there is one thing I want to see, it is each one of you there. Will you come to him today?
