Luke 14:12-24

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 must 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.’”

Explanation:

As is often the case in Luke’s Gospel, we see Jesus’s teaching worked out in the description of a meal.  While it may seem odd to modern hearers, the ancients attached a special significance to the act of eating and sharing meals. In the Greco-Roman context of the Gospels, it was common for communal meals to be publicly funded, and as such play a significant role in the life of the community. One’s social status could very well depend on whether they were included or excluded from these events. Jesus’s teaching on hospitality accounts for these well-known social norms and adds another dimension, namely, connecting the importance of communal eating and bonding to the kingdom of God. The banquet in this parable undoubtedly represents the wedding feast of the lamb, reminding us that Jesus’s banquet is not given on the basis of one’s prestige, or ability to “return the invitation.” Rather, it is those in need of compassion who recognize their own need for nourishment who will be invited to dine with him in the world to come.

 

Connection:

Have you ever been invited to a party where you felt like you didn’t belong? Perhaps you felt like an outsider. You may not have shared the interests or known all the inside jokes that you kept hearing and you likely felt very unwanted, awkward, and out of place. Not so with the kingdom of God. Jesus makes it clear to us that the social stigmas, rules, and regulations of this world are artificial. They will have no place in the world to come. Because we are members of his body, we too should practice the same kind of compassion set us for us in the parable, not limiting who we invite to dine with us, forming bonds with those whom we have been called to serve, as Christ has done for us.

 

Action:

  • Show compassion just as Jesus showed it to us:

    • Jesus was often “moved deeply” when he saw others who were burdened. When you pray, ask God to soften your heart so that you too may be moved in the same way.

  • Invite others to share in what you have:

    • Make it a point to reach out to those in need. Do not judge the worldly status of your neighbor, but rather recognize them as fellow image-bearers of God.

  • Create a bond through your hospitality:

    • Jesus uses the parable of the banquet to describe his kingdom because of the deep cultural association that meals had with bonding. In our modern context, we have largely undervalued the idea of bonding over life’s most basic activities. Make it a priority to form new bonds with others and re-kindle those connections that have fallen away.