The Banquet

Introduction

Excuses abound. These are actual excuses used to excuse students from school. “Please excuse Harriet from school yesterday. We forgot to get the Sunday paper off the porch, and when we found it on Monday, we thought it was Sunday.” “Please excuse Mary for being absent. She was sick and I had her shot.” “Dear School: Please excuse John for being absent on Jan. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, and 33.” “John has been absent because he had 2 teeth taken off his face.” “Chris will not be in school because he has an acre in his side.” “Please excuse John for being. It was his father’s fault.” “Please excuse my son’s tardiness. I forgot to wake him up and I didn’t find him until I started making the beds.” “My son is under the doctor’s care and should not take P.E. today. Please execute him.”

There is a website that gives hundreds of excuses for all kinds of situations. Don’t want to go to work—this website provides an excuse. Want to break up with someone—there are lots of excuses. Get stopped by a policeman for speeding—try one of the hundreds of excuses. Excuses for weight gain, for jury duty, for school, taxes, behavior. Seems like we have lots of excuses to explain. We make our excuses for a variety of reasons, but the real purpose of an excuse is to gain some level of understanding so that we do not have to be responsible for our actions.

Jesus knew something about excuses. He heard many as he walked this earth. Standing before Pilate as he waited for his crucifixion, he heard the excuse that truth was elusive. He heard the excuse that Caesar was really calling the shots. He heard that people wanted him dead, leaving the impression that he was listening to the voice of the people. All the excuses shirked responsibility. Jesus took full responsibility for his actions. He could have escaped, but he took responsibility for fulfilling the plan. He could have called down fire from heaven, but he went to the cross. No excuses. Let’s praise our Jesus.

Luke 14 begins with Jesus being invited to a Pharisee’s house for a meal. There is a man there with dropsy or edema. Jesus engages those who are experts in the law about what the law requires on the Sabbath, and there is no discussion. Jesus heals the man and, sending the man on his way, notices that those who have been invited to dinner rush to get the places of honor at the meal—kind of like those who rush over to the fellowship meal in order to go through line first. Jesus reminds the diners that humility is the mark of God.

He goes further to suggest that inviting the outcasts to a dinner is the best thing to do. Inviting those who are rich only increases the likelihood of getting something in return. Instead, invite those who cannot repay. In this way, you have shown real humility and real service. God will repay at the resurrection. It is the mentioning of the resurrection that brings an outburst from someone at the meal about the resurrection banquet.

The outburst assumes that all those who are eating with the Pharisees will be a part of this resurrection feast. The image of God preparing a great banquet for his people has been a part of Jewish thought for some time. There is mention of this great feast in the Psalms and in Isaiah. Jesus’ response to this outburst is to tell a story. A man is preparing a great banquet. There are no surprises. He extends invitations in advance. Many welcome the invitation. On the day of the banquet, the man’s servant is sent out to tell everyone to come. The meal is ready. And one by one, those who had previously accepted now reject the invitation.

The master is angered by the excuses. No matter. The party will go on. New invitations will be extended to a different audience. The poor, the lame, and the blind are brought in. There is still room. So the servant is sent outside the city to find even more. The summation is found in verse 24: those who had been previously invited and who rejected me will not sit at the banquet. This is a reference to the Jewish nation as a whole. While there were those who accepted Jesus, the point is that many rejected Jesus. God has spent centuries getting his people to come in, and when Jesus is sent among them, God’s people reject him. There is no banquet for those who reject Jesus.

Application

Turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 25:1-8. Listen to the words of this text. Isaiah tells about a time when the disgrace of Israel will be lifted. A day is coming when, in Jerusalem, a great banquet will take place. It will be a time for the outcasts to be brought together. Israel heard Isaiah’s words and considered his words as a promise that God would provide for his people in abundance. It was a promise of one who had been taken advantage of but now would reign with God.

Turn to Psalm 22. This is the psalm that Jesus quotes on the cross. Listen to the words. Verse 26 reminds us that it is the poor who feast at the banquet—not just the financially poor, but those who are poor spiritually, those who know that they need God. The story that Jesus told makes the same point. There are those who reject Jesus because there is always something more important: the pursuit of happiness, the pursuit of greater financial gain, or the desire to have their own banquet where they can pick the foods they want and make sure that they are comfortable in their own home.

God offers a banquet to those who will admit that they are poor, to those who will humble themselves, to those who will serve without expecting anything in return, to the oppressed and the blind and the lame.

There is no surprise in the invitation. God continually seeks you. He wants you as his child. But as Luke notes in verses 25-34, Jesus wants you to count the cost. God is looking for those who are willing to carry a cross, for those who sacrifice and are sacrificed, for those who are willing to be stretched out so that God can be seen. Those who seek their comfort, pleasure, happiness, and any other excuse will be allowed to pursue their own direction, but God’s banquet is not open to them. The invitation stands.

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