“A CERTAIN man made a great supper, and bade many: and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.”
Let me begin with a story. Jesus has been invited to a feast of a wealthy religious leader. You probably remember the scene: Jesus stands back and watches the guests hustle into the room and silently jostle for the best seats. They have all settled, when Jesus boldly instructs them to do the opposite. He tells them to seek the lowest seat so that when the master comes with an honored guest, he does not have to invite you to move. You can imagine how tense the room felt after that. But then Jesus turns to the master himself (!) and gives him instructions on how to hold a dinner/banquet: “But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” In response to these accusations, one of the Pharisee’s, perhaps in agreement with Jesus or to urge him to keep talking says, “Blessed are they who will eat bread in the kingdom of heaven” (14:15). The kingdom of heaven, therefore, is the immediate context for the Gospel. Listen for it. This is the text for the sermon:
“A CERTAIN man made a great supper, and bade many: and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, that none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.”
Jesus uses the image of a feast for the kingdom of heaven, a common image used in Jewish thought. When the master in the parable says, “Come; for all things are now ready,” Jesus is referring to the day of fulfillment when God completes his plan to renew creation once for all. Jesus and the Pharisees both shared this image, but as one commentator notes, the parable challenges the “feelings of privilege and security held by the tiny minority of the well-to-do in Israel, including the religious and political elite” (Blomberg, 305). The first three men who are invited to the feast, offer seemingly ridiculous excuses for not coming to the master’s house. It is important to note, however, that when Jesus told this parable Jesus had in mind Deut. 20, which lists the excuses one could use to not fight in war. Men were allowed to not go to battle if they had built a new house, planted a vineyard, or had just been married. Rabbinic interpretation of these verses had widened the stipulations so that buying a field or even oxen for ploughing could have been considered legitimate excuses for not fighting. But why would Jesus be suggesting the passage of going to war in connection to a feast? This is Jesus’ clear connection between his parable and the establishment of the heavenly kingdom: after victory the army would enjoy the spoils and feast. Therefore, the excuses of these three men, which link to Deut 20, connect the victor’s feast to the kingdom.
These three men represent the righteous Jews, such as the Pharisees with whom he is dining. All three offer legitimate excuses according to the law, but here Jesus is using a bit of humor to show the inadequacy of such excuses, and the abuse of the law. The first man claims the need to go see his field, but who does not see a property before buying it? The second man claims the need to go try out the five oxen he just bought, but who would spend that much money on oxen without even proving their worth first? Would you buy a used car sight unseen or a timeshare for beachfront property in Iowa? Furthermore, during this time, the day of a feast would have been announced well in advance. After all the preparations had been completed on that day, servants would go seek out those on the invite list and invite them (Barclay Commentary). Weddings were also set well in advance–therefore, the third man should never have accepted an invitation to the feast in the first place. All three of these excuses, while valid under the law, are found to be silly, even humorous in this parable. Jesus’ point: no excuse to avoid the feast of the kingdom of heaven is reasonable or legitimate.
But the parable does not end on this note. The master of the house must fill the tables for this feast. Therefore, he orders the servant to go into the city, and then the hedges, to invite the poor and outcast. These people represent the Jews whose status/occupation in life kept them from following ritual law. For example, a lame person could not physically get to the temple in order to attend regular prayers and sacrifices. Therefore, they were considered unclean and outcasts. By the strictest Pharisee groups, perhaps with whom Jesus is eating, this class of people would never have been invited to a feast, because their presence would make the whole feast unclean.
Take a step back: look at how Luke arranges the parable. At the dinner Jesus is sitting, he orders the people to humbly enter the feast because others of higher position will come in later. He then orders the master to invite the poor, sick, etc. The example of the kingdom of heaven in the parable is exactly what Jesus has just ordered the people and master of the feast to do in the present moment! What does this mean? Jesus has just claimed that the kingdom of heaven is not just a future reality: the fullness of time has already come in Him. The Pharisees did not know this, but the man who spoke the parable was the master himself. Through the parable, Jesus is declaring that the day of fulfillment is present in Him–it is he who understands heavenly living. This is exactly what he says out-rightly in chapter 17: “For behold the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” That is, the kingdom is embodied in Me–to join the kingdom is to join Me, to become one with Me by faith and baptism.
How does this apply to us today? First, be humble: the responses of the three religious Jews should be a warning to us. We are now invited by the power of the Holy Spirit to partake in the feast of Christ’s own body and blood. Do I, like the three deniers, refuse the invitation due to silly excuses? Did you notice how all three excuses used by these Jewish men were good things in and of themselves? Jesus is not criticizing those who farm or tend animals; he is not suggesting that we abandon marriage. These are good things, but they should not prevent us from our Christian duty. How often do we let our own preoccupations, even though they are not sinful, hold us back from attending church, saying our prayers, or receiving the Eucharist
Second, our humbleness should be the fertile ground from which our duty arises. This parable teaches us that our commitment to God requires religious duty. The three men refuse to accept their duty to come to the feast and used excuses to refuse their duty. Use your imagination with me–instead of only seeking profit from his field, the first man should have first sought after that true field, the one Jesus says: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Matt 13:44). The second man was so preoccupied with his new oxen that he missed his duty to keep his hand to the gospel plow. Jesus says, “No one having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Finally, the third man missed the feast because of his new marriage. He missed that there is a greater marriage to be considered. Paul reminds the Corinthians: “I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” As members of Holy Mother Church, we are presented as a bride to Christ. Therefore, putting all excuses aside, go to the feast in humility to love and to serve the Lord your God.
“A CERTAIN man made a great supper, and bade many: and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.”