Luke 14:15-24
The Parable of the Great Banquet
15When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”
16Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’
This is a continuation of the conversation in verses 1-14. Jesus was invited to a Sabbath meal at the home of a prominent Pharisee. He had just healed a man with dropsy, and after reprimanding them for their preoccupation with social status, someone is moved to make this statement regarding what was referred to in Judaism as the Messiah’s Banquet. According to the beliefs at the time, when the Messiah came and rescued Israel, there would be a great banquet and celebration. If we keep in mind what Jesus had just said to them regarding their own social practices, that they shouldn’t be so concerned about taking the places of honor at the table, and that they should invite those who could not repay them, this seems like an attempt to steer the conversation away from those uncomfortable topics.
So Jesus replies with this parable of a great banquet, as if to say, “So you want to talk about the great banquet in the kingdom of God? OK, let’s talk about it.” He then proceeds to give them an illustration of how the great banquet in the kingdom of God will be just like he had just told them their banquets should be. In that culture, banquets were large celebrations that were planned well in advance. Invitations were sent out in two stages. the first weeks ahead of time, and the last the day of the event, when everything was ready. After the first round of invitations had been responded to, the food would be prepared for the amount of people who had agreed to come. To turn down an invitation that you had previously agreed to on the day of the banquet was a great insult to the host. The food that had been prepared would not keep in a world without refrigeration. It would go to waste.
18“But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’
19“Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’
20“Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’
All of these invitees had previously agreed to come to the banquet, and food had been prepared for them, at great cost to the host. Have you ever thrown a party and had a bunch of people who had RSVP’d call at the last minute to say they couldn’t come? Or worse, just not show up? Throwing a party or a banquet requires a lot of work and costs a lot of money. Though this parable has a much deeper spiritual meaning than this, it can also be taken to mean that if you’re invited to something, and you agree to come, show up!
The excuses given here are all lame, as excuses usually are. The first two are ridiculous. No one would buy a field without looking at it first, and no one would buy oxen without trying them out first. As one commentary I read today said, this is like saying you can’t come to a banquet because you have to try out five cars you just bought sight unseen. The third excuse is worse, because it uses a scriptural principle to make the excuse (Deut. 24:5). Also, this man would have known what his marriage status would be when he accepted the invitation the first time. Plus, the man who invited him would have just attended his wedding, according to the principle Jesus outlined in verse 12. The host of the banquet had shown up for his wedding, but he would not show up for the host’s banquet when he had said he would.
Of course, the spiritual parallel is obvious. God has invited us to his great banquet, and though many of us say we will come, when it comes down to it, we make excuses. We tell God that we’ll come to him after A or B happens. But like the men in this parable, the excuses we make are lame or worse. The real reason the men in the parable turned down the invitation is that they didn’t really want to come. We make excuses to God for the same reason.
21“The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’
22” ‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’
23“Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. 24I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’ “
Anyone who has thrown a party and had a bunch of people who had agreed to come not show up understands the anger of the host. Do I sound like this has happened to us? It has, but I’m not mad anymore
. I wonder if the Pharisees at this table got the message. The original invitees in the parable represented Israel. God’s invitation to his banquet was Jesus himself. He came to the Jews first, but most rejected him. Only after he was rejected by Israel was the invitation extended to the rest of us, the Gentiles. This is where Jesus shows how God invites the undesirables they way he had just told them they should. He invites those who can’t repay him. When we receive an invitation to a party, often we are asked to RSVP by a certain date. This is sort of like the second invitation in the parable. The point is, there is a time limit on our invitation from God. One day, it will be too late to respond, either because we died before accepting God’s invitation, or because we ignored him for so long we became unable to respond. The invitation to attend the Marriage Supper of the Lamb is the greatest honor we can ever receive. Why would we be so crazy or stupid to miss it because of our lame excuses?