Luke 14:15-24 – The Parable of the Great Supper
Immanuel, Alexandria
My beloved brothers and sisters, last Sunday we heard about a Rich Man who hosted great banquets every day, gorging himself and drinking with his friends—but the beggar Lazarus was left to starve in plain view of the Rich Man’s table. That parable was from Luke’s Gospel, and today we have another recorded in Luke, but this time the rich man is generous beyond measure, while people refuse to come to his banquet.
If you’ve ever hosted a large meal, for example a wedding reception, you know how much planning is involved. Sending invitations, tracking responses, and making sure you have enough food and drink for everyone. You may need music, servers, and someone coordinating everything. I’ve forgotten to RSVP a few times to weddings, which is very rude; fortunately, forgiving brides have usually assumed that the pastor is going to show up. Very troublesome is when people who have RSVP’d affirmatively end up not showing up. We can forgive it if the reason is a death in the family or some other major crisis. But what happens in the story Jesus tells is that when the big day arrives, everyone invited refuses to come to the meal, on some very flimsy excuses:
“But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ ”
“Each invited guest is occupied with something else dearer to him.” (Luther) Now keep in mind the immediate context of this parable, what provokes Jesus to tell it: Jesus is having dinner at the home of a Pharisee, and one of the guests gives a toast: “Blessed is he who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” The story Jesus tells is about being in God’s kingdom, often pictured as a great feast, an everlasting banquet, where there is joy and gladness. What is the point Jesus is trying to make here? These people have been invited by God, they’ve been offered the greatest gift they could possibly receive, and they reject it. And for what?! Their excuses demonstrate that just about everything in ordinary life is being put before God. Paying lip service to God, they demonstrate that there are many other things that they fear, love, and trust in most.
We should not make the mistake of thinking that owning property or getting married are evil; it is a matter of priorities. Think about the Lord’s Prayer: before we ever pray for daily bread, i.e., the things we need to support this body and life, we first pray for God’s name to be kept holy, for God’s kingdom to come, for His will to be done. Only then, when our priorities are in the correct order, do we pray for our daily bread.
So when the master, who represents God the Father, learns that all those invited to his banquet have rejected it, he orders that the outcasts be brought in: the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. Remember what we heard last week? How Lazarus the beggar was not invited to Rich Man’s table? The table of this rich man, the Lord’s table, is surrounded by beggars. Here is the number one thing for us to take away today: the Lord’s table is for beggars, and so if we would be at that table, we must see ourselves as beggars.
The three excuses made by the people originally invited show that they do not at all regard themselves as beggars. Instead, they are wrapped up in and overwhelmed by the things of this world. The first man’s excuse is that he has bought land, and the idea here is of a large estate, a big farming operation, or ranch. He will have workers, men under him, and he will have dominion. This was the first sin: man, who was given dominion of the earth by God, instead sought to grasp that dominion apart from God. St. Augustine described this as “[taking] pleasure in one’s own power.” Delighting in his own power, he could not bring himself to submit to the greater power; for this is at the heart of Lucifer’s fall as well: the desire to be the power, to become as God.
The next man has bought five pairs of oxen. This would be very expensive, and a typical family farm would only need one pair, not five. So we can see excess here. The number five is often used also of the senses, seeing, tasting, touching, hearing, smelling; and many of the senses come in pairs: two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, two hands. Now what do oxen do on a farm? They turn up the earth; so we can see in this man a devotion to earthly things, a devotion to what his hands can touch and what his eyes can see; God who is spirit, and beyond being apprehended by man’s senses, is to be disregarded and ignored.
Thus the first man is overwhelmed by pride and a spirit of domination, and the second man is overwhelmed by earthly things, whatever he can get his mitts on and sink his teeth into.
The last man, pleading marriage, puts the lust of his flesh first. We can sum up the three men then as being overwhelmed by pride and a spirit of domination, a love of earthly things, a devotion to fleshly lusts.
Now look in the mirror. Do you not see pride and a desire to control in your actions? Do you have a love of earthly things above all? Are you devoted to the lusts of your flesh?
Repent. Give up your obsessive need to control others and get your way. Renounce your spirit of domination. Look beyond what your eyes can see and what your fingers can touch. And what about your lusts? That great philosopher, Lady Gaga, rightly said, “Baby, you were born this way,” but there’s that pesky detail of original sin. You were born in sin and conceived in iniquity, but in your baptism and in confession and holy absolution we disciples of Jesus are devoted to becoming new and different from the sinful lusts we inherited from birth.
Jesus told this parable to the Pharisees, but Luke recorded it for you and me. Through that Holy Evangelist the Holy Spirit wishes for us to turn from our pride and the spirit of domination, our devotion to earthly things, our sensual lusts, and come as beggars. You do not deserve what the Lord offers, but He gives it freely, without money and without price.
Christ Himself is the meal, and therefore you have the promise He has attached to Himself in His meal: “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” That is His promise to you beggars, a promise He will certainly fulfill when we eat bread now and ever in the kingdom of God.