Kingdom Come Week 5, The Great Feast, Luke14:15-24
Nothing takes more planning than a wedding. It’s easier to land on Mars – and probably costs less. All the decisions and details drive you crazy. And the only thing worse than guests who RSVP at the last minute are the ones who cancel at the last minute, sometimes with some pretty lame excuses.
Jesus’ favorite image of heaven is a feast. His parables often picture the kingdom of heaven as a party. He invites us to His celebration. He longs to fill us with joy. Why would anyone make lame excuses and refuse to attend? That’s what happens in the parable of the Great Feast.
Once again Jesus is being carefully watched at a dinner in the home of a Pharisee. Will He do something unorthodox? Jesus doesn’t disappoint them. He heals a man on the Sabbath, criticizes them for fighting over the best seats at the banquet and suggests the guest list for the next feast should include poor and handicapped neighbors. The conversation gets so heated, one guest tries to break the tension with a pious cliché: “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the Kingdom of God.” Many Jews in the first century, including Jesus, believe the Messiah will kick off God’s Kingdom with a great feast. Where they differ is over the guest list. The Prophet Isaiah predicted God will welcome people from all nations. Jews and Gentiles will sit together at the feast. Yet the guest list gets severely slashed between the Old and New Testaments. First they cut out the Gentiles. Then they uninvite Jews who are not rigorously righteous. Finally they exclude anyone with a handicap or physical deformity. By the time of Jesus, the Messiah’s feast is an exclusive dinner party for perfect people.
Jesus turns the tables. In this parable He says the problem is not the guest list but the guests.
A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. Luke 14:16-18
This is a big banquet with many invited guests. The invitations go out and the guests accept. Yet when the table is set and the dishes are ready, all the guests who RSVP’d Yes suddenly cancel.
At first their reasons seem reasonable until you look closely. One person just bought a piece of real estate sight unseen. Another purchases five pairs of oxen without trying them out. Then as now, the sensible practice is to check out land and livestock before you buy them. A third uses his spouse as the excuse for not showing up. He blames his absence on his wife. Jesus’ listeners know these are lame excuses designed to inflame the host. And they work. The excuses make him angry. So he issues new invitations. First he sends his servants to the streets to invite the poor, crippled, blind and lame. Since there’s still room in the hall he dispatches his servants in a wider circle to bring in those far away. The host wants a full house for his celebration. The very people cut from the Pharisees’ guest list: the physically impaired, the spiritually imperfect, the racially impure are the ones who get to enjoy the great feast. The only ones who miss are the excuse makers who feel they are too perfect, pure or pious to join Jesus’ party. The parable starts with a group of Pharisees wishing they can dine someday with the Messiah. The irony is they are currently having dinner with the Messiah and they are pushing him away.
The joy of heaven starts now. The invitation is open to all. We are the ones who miss the party by our busyness, our excuses, our avoidance of those we feel are unworthy. As you go to your discussion of this parable, ask yourself these questions:
Do I make excuses for not spending time with God in prayer, worship, Scripture and study? Do I consider certain people unworthy of an invitation to God’s feast? Are there some I would not want to see or sit next to at God’s table in heaven? Do I hesitate inviting people to God’s banquet?
The door is open. Dinner is ready. Are you coming to the party?