Luke 14:15-24 - Pastor Jon Meenk

Summary

Pastor Jon Meenk preaches on the parable of the great banquet found in Luke 14:15-24. In this passage, we learn that God's kingdom is open to those who humbly accept His invitation, particularly the outcasts and marginalized, rather than those who are preoccupied with status and self-interest. This message challenges us to reject transactional relationships and to embrace others with genuine love, reflecting the heart of God.

Transcription

Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this day and we ask that by the power of your spirit you would equip me for the preaching, you would equip us all for the hearing of your word, that it would impact our lives. We would see the heart of our God and in turn we would let that form and shape our lives for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. Have a seat. All right, everybody, let's have fun today. It's Super Bowl Sunday. All right, so we had a week off, so let me do a quick review to set the scene, remind us of the scene that we're currently in right now and also to give us the context around the passage that we are gonna be unpacking today. Back in the beginning of chapter 14 verse one, it says, "One Sabbath, when he went to dine "at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, "they were watching him carefully." So Jesus is on his way to go dine with the Pharisees at the house of the ruler of the Pharisees. If you remember right after this, he comes into contact with the guy with Dropsy and Jesus asked the Pharisees the question of, "Is it lawful to heal a man on the Sabbath?" And the Pharisees have nothing to say at all, very quiet, no answer for Jesus. And so Jesus heals the man, sends him on his way and tells the Pharisees once again of their hypocrisy. And then right after that, Jesus launches into this parable of the wedding feast and it's in direct contrast to what we just saw. Now that they're at the ruler of the Pharisees house, now these quiet Pharisees who didn't have any energy to speak about anything regarding this hurting and broken man now are clamoring and crawling over each other to try to see who can sit at the most honorable seat, who can have the highest place at the table. And so Jesus gives a parable of a wedding feast and the theme is simple, if you remember Pastor Jeremy preached through this, it was just don't promote yourself. When someone's throwing an event, when someone's throwing a party, when there's a wedding, don't go sit in the highest place, don't promote yourself, don't try to network yourself up, but be humble. Be humble and go sit in the lowest seat and let the person who's in charge, let the person who threw the party, let them exalt you, but don't exalt yourself. And he ends this teaching in verse 11 very clearly. He says, "For anyone who exalts himself will be humble and he who humbles himself will be exalted." And then right after that, we enter into the parable of the great banquet. And I don't know if you know this, but Pastor Jeremy has been pushing my buttons a lot lately. He's not texting me back. He slammed a door in my face, noises my witness, he saw. And Jeremy was supposed to stop at verse 11 and he just kept preaching through 12 and 13 and 14, just stepping all over my toes. So I thought this was an appropriate time to talk about this. You can all pray for him in his repentance. So Jesus launches into this parable of the great banquet. And he says to the man who had invited him, he says, "When you give a dinner or banquet, don't invite your friends, your brothers, your relatives or your rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just." And that brings us right to verse 15, which is what we're gonna start unpacking with today. And right here, Luke inserts an anonymous person in the room, one of the Pharisees, we presume, we don't know who this is, we don't know their motives behind saying this, but this anonymous person adds a B attitude for us. And it says, "Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God." And this anonymous person then sets the stage for our focus to stay on Jesus, and for Jesus to use this as a launching point. And though this statement from this anonymous person isn't a question, it should prompt a question in all of us. When this person says, "Blessed is all who will eat bread in the kingdom of God," our question should then be, well, who are these people? Who are the blessed ones? Who will eat bread in the kingdom of God? Typically this parable is translated in that, and maybe your minds have gone here already, is that Jesus is the master in the story. And the preoccupied people, the people with excuses are the religious leaders, the Jewish people who have rejected Jesus. And so Jesus is angry at their rejection, and so because of that, he has then extended this out to the Gentiles. However, there's a few difficulties in translating this passage this way. One of them is this undermines the lesson that we just learned 12 through 14. If Jesus is only inviting the influential, if he's leaving out the outcasts, then why is he teaching us to do something opposite? But secondly, viewing this passage this way teaches us that you and I, as Gentiles, are an afterthought, and that we were only invited in because the guests that Jesus really wanted at his table didn't show up. And we know this isn't the case because of the promise to Abraham in Genesis 22,18. I'm gonna read it for you. I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. You see, the original intent was that through the seed of Abraham, all the nations of the earth would be blessed, and everyone that God had given to Christ would come to know him. I think this lesson that we're talking about that our minds, or at least my mind, immediately went to as I was studying this of Jesus being the master, I think that lesson is actually better served in chapter 13, the passage that David taught, of striving to enter through the narrow gate, striving to enter through the narrow door. In that passage, the insiders were trusting in their familial ties. They were trusting in their lineage from Abraham. And they were finding themselves now as outsiders, but the outsiders, the people from the north, the south, the east, and the west are now being brought in as insiders. And so if you guys are willing to have a little fun with me and experiment, I'd like to look at this passage today from a different perspective. I'd like to look at this passage today from the perspective of the people who are hearing it directly from Jesus. I'd like to look at it today from the perspective of those in the room. And that means we're all gonna pretend to be Pharisees today. And we're all gonna hear these words of Jesus and how they would have heard them, and how we would impact them. And let's see today, if any of these challenges that are levied against the Pharisees, let's see if any of those stick to us and see if we can learn from them. And if they do, let's walk away not beating ourselves up over it. But let's understand that this passage is there to show us a little more clearly the heart of Jesus, the heart of God. And in turn, in knowing the heart of God inform us what our lives should look like living a life in Christ. Sound good? That's our goal. That's where we're going. Let's jump in. The Great Banquet. Verse 16, "A man once gave a great banquet and invited many." Now this first line, I think this first line sets us up. Remember, you're spending the next 20 minutes, 30 minutes in the sandals of a Pharisee hearing this. These men thought highly of themselves. These men thought of themselves quite often. And so when they hear the words, "A man once gave a great banquet and invited many," they don't immediately jump to thinking, well, that must be Jesus. Like maybe our minds do. You know what their minds do? When Jesus says, "A man once gave a great banquet and invited many," I can see the ruler of the Pharisees going, "Yes, I did." Jesus, Jesus, tell us more about this great man who gave this great banquet. Tell us more, I must be this man. I am the great guy who's putting on this great banquet right now. Jesus, tell us more about him. They would see themselves as the master in that story. Verse 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.'" It was customary back then, and it's really customary now. This isn't hard for us to understand that there was two invitations. So the first invitation would go out, the guest list would go out, the servant would go out into the street, and he would invite all the people that were in this networking group of this master. And we can see from this passage that this master was well off, and so he ran in very well off circles. And so the people who are being invited are people of means, people of status. And so this first invitation would go out, and these servants would say, "Hey, the master wants you there, save the date. Don't schedule anything on this date. Can I count you in? Yes, I can." Okay, and they go through and they figure out how much food they need to make, how many chairs they're gonna put out, how much room they need, and then they start the preparation, and the preparation happens, and they make all the food, and everything's happening. And once the food's ready and it's out on the table, the second invitation goes out. And the second invitation is the servant going out to those who had RSVP'd and says, "Hey, it's that day. Chairs are out, the disco ball's up, food's hot and ready, the music is blasting. Let's party, it's that time." But something unexpected happens. Something tragic happens. Verse 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.' And another said, 'I have bought five Yoke of Oxen and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.' And another said, 'I have married a wife, therefore I cannot come.'" Now to be clear, more than three people were invited to this feast. Jesus is using these three excuses, these three examples to summarize the excuses of all. Do you guys see that? Fun fact. These excuses, we might see these, we might see this as we experience in life as just unfortunate timing, right? So say you invite people over to your house and there's a bug going around and everybody gets sick and then everybody has to cancel and it's just like, oh man, what a bummer. That's not what's happening here. The Pharisees, as they hear Jesus say that every one of these people offered an excuse, the Pharisees would hear this as these excuses are ridiculous and absurd. And the fun fact here is these excuses mirror the situations that we find in Deuteronomy 20 that would allow you to not go to war 'cause you're probably gonna die and they would let you go back home. Let me read this for you. Deuteronomy 20, five through seven. Then the officer shall speak to the people saying, is there any man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it, the man who bought land? Let him go back to his house, let's see die in the battle and another man dedicated. And is there any man who planted a vineyard and has not enjoyed it, enjoyed its fruit? The man who bought oxen to plow a vineyard. Let him go back to his house, let's see die in battle and another man enjoys its fruit. And is there any man who has betrothed the wife and has not taken her, the man who married a wife? Let him go back to his house, let's see die in battle and another man take her. These excuses were all excuses that could keep you out of battle where you were probably going to die and they're using these excuses. Jesus is using these excuses to summarize all the excuses of not going to a banquet, a really nice, awesome party banquet. These excuses are intentionally over the top, ridiculous and absurd. And these excuses would have been greatly offensive. And we may think, going back to us inviting friends over, we may think the core of the offense would be in the wasted effort, the wasted money and the wasted time. So say we invite friends over, you guys invite friends over and you spend time cleaning up the entire house and instead of going and getting a rotisserie chicken for dinner at the store, you go get steaks, you spend a little bit more money, you pour a lot of love into the food and then they have to cancel for some reason and that offense or you would be bummed because of, oh man, I spent so much time. You would be bummed by the time, effort and money that seems like it's wasted. That's not the core of the offense here. The core of the offense here is the social rejection. You see, each of these men were men of stature, men of status and men of success. You have the first one who's buying a field sight unseen. You are not living paycheck to paycheck grinding to survive and buying plots of land sight unseen. This man has money to play with, he has money to invest. Our second man is buying enough oxen to plow a hundred acres of field. You don't have a hundred acres to plant a vineyard when you're barely scraping by. And thirdly, ladies, this speaks very well of you. The third man gets a wife. And let nobody tell you otherwise. A man who finds a wife finds a good thing. Their rejection is a calculated move to close ranks and publicly shame this man. You see, meals were really important. Meals were where you climb the social ladder. You would hang out with certain people that you feel like, you could all network together and you could increase your influence. You could climb the social ladder. You could promote yourself and you could find success in life by the people you hung out with. You wouldn't hang out with people, have dinner with people who couldn't do anything for you. Meals were a defining marker of who's on the inside and who is on the outside. I think of this, this isn't good or bad. It was just the example that was popping in my head as I was studying through this. Our modern day YouTubers, podcasters and influencers, right? We see this where everybody wants more subscribers, more likes, more follows, whatever it is. And so say there's somebody who breaks through and goes viral or gets really popular, right? What does everybody wanna do? They wanna have that person on or they wanna be on their show. And the goal is maybe some of their success can run off on me. Maybe some of their people will like me too and switch over and we can promote together and we can network together and we can climb this social ladder. Well, what is happening here is this master who's been in this circle, he's been on the inside, has now, the whole circle has cut him off. He is now pushed to the outside. Verse 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 the crippled, "the blind and the lame." You see, remember we're Pharisees here. We're hearing this how they would have heard it. The Pharisees would have understood very well the anger that this master had in realizing he was just cut off. He was just pushed out of the circle. They would know that because each one of these people who is sitting around this table right now would be really angry if they weren't invited to that table that they're currently sitting at, hearing this very parable. And the master could have maybe licked his wounds for a second. And it would have been understood if he said, "Oh, I must have said the wrong thing, "the wrong person. "I must have done the wrong thing. "I don't know what I did. "Okay, how can I salvage this? "All right, who can I get back in with "that can maybe get me back into the circle "or into another circle where I can start my way back "up, maybe I'm all the way back down at the bottom rung. "But how do I start working my way back up?" That's what the master could have done. What he does is scandalous. He doesn't try to work his way back into these circles. He blows the entire thing up. He says, "Hey, forget conforming to these social norms. "Forget keeping up with the Joneses. "Forget the rat race, I'm over it." And he opens his house and he fills his house and he fills his table with those who will never be able to do anything for him. Those who will never be able to repay him. Those people who would drag his name even lower than it currently is. Having them walk through the city streets into his home at his table, pushing his name even lower and lower and lower in the social circles. And this is revealed in his description of those who the servant is sent out to get, the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. And then verse 22 through 23 says, "And the servant said, 'Sir, "'what you've commanded has been done.' "'They went, the servant went and grabbed the poor. "'The guy sitting on the corner begging.' "'And he walked him through the city streets "'to the master's house and walked him into the table. "'And then he went and grabbed the crippled "'and he threw his arm around him. "'And he walks him through the city streets "'and he walks him into the master's house. "'And then he goes to the blind "'and he goes and takes the blind by the hand "'and he walks him through the city into the master's house. "'But there's still room.' "'And so the master says to the servant, "'Go out to the highways and hedges "'and compel people to come in "'that my house may be filled.' "'You see, the first invitation "'were the rejects, outsiders, and outcasts "'that were inside the city walls. "'That was scandalous enough. "'That would've tanked the reputation of this master, "'no coming back from it. "'And if that wasn't enough, "'the second invitation goes even further, "'even more scandalous. "'It goes outside the city walls "'and it goes to the unclean. "'It goes to those who aren't allowed inside the city. "'It goes to the completely rejected, "'alone, broken people out in the wilderness "'that have been completely shunned by society. "'These are the lowest of low, "'the outcasts, the rejects, the outsiders "'that are now brought into the city, "'into the master's house and are sitting at his table, "'and now are friends of the master.' "'And the master says to the servant, "'compel them to come.' "'You know why he told them to compel them to come?' "'Exactly. "'These outcasts know how the social circles work "'and they know that they would not be invited. "'And if you are invited, "'they're obligated to reject that invitation. "'I do not belong there. "'That is not for me. "'I am not that person. "'I am broken. "'I'm an outsider. "'I'm not even allowed inside these city walls, man. "'Let alone into somebody's house, "'let alone sitting at a banquet table.' "'And the master says, 'compel them. "'Don't take no for an answer, man. "'Compel them to come.' "'And then it's after this, verse 24, "'which is the hard statement. "'For I tell you, none of those men who are invited "'shall taste my banquet.'" And so in unpacking this passage, I think we have the answer to our question that we started out with. So who are the blessed ones who will eat bread in the kingdom of God? Here's what I think we've learned today. The kingdom of God is gonna be full of those who do not view the relationships with the other human beings around them as simply transactional. The kingdom of God will be full of people who are willing to reject the social norms, who are willing to forget their own self-promotion and are willing to treat others with dignity, with respect, with love, when there's nothing that they can get in return. The kingdom of God will be filled with those who reach out to outsiders and bring them in. But sadly, likewise, when we hear the strong words of the Master at the end, it also tells us that those who view other human beings around us as simply transactional, those who view people around them and their worth is simply what you can do for me, those who only stick to their social circles, those who can promote themselves, those who strive so hard and put it as their greatest priority to say inside the circle, inside the social club, will in the end find themselves outside. And if you don't believe me, now having heard this parable of Jesus, let's go back and again read 12 through 14 and let's just let scripture interpret scripture. 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 your rich neighbors. This is the reason why. Lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Why? Because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just." You see, this parable is simply Jesus reinforcing the simple and I would say straightforward lesson that he just gave. So having spent 30 minutes in the sandals of a Pharisee, what have we learned today? What can we take away from this? I think it just at a high level, we've seen the heart of God. Jesus as the God man is revealing to us through his words, through these parables and through his teachings, what the heart of God is, what the heart of God loves, what is in the center of his heart, what he pursues. And that is one, pursuing those who can never repay, loving the outcast, loving those who can't do anything for us and secondly, bringing outsiders in, getting outside of ourselves, getting outside of our own self promotion, looking outwardly and looking to find and seek out who's on the fringes, who's not in a club, who's not in a clique, who's by themselves, and we scan for them and we bring them in. 'Cause you see, the heart of God informs us how we ought to live as Christians. And so today, I think we simply have seen the heart of God, what matters to him. I think he's very clearly stated what matters to him. Christian, all who are in Christ, declare Christ. Not all who declare Christ are in Christ. Let me say it again so you can think about it or make sure we're clear. All who are in Christ, declare Christ. Not all who declare Christ are in Christ. I don't know if you guys find the show the office funny and if you don't, I'm sorry, I think it's funny. But as I was, my very spiritual example of this is an episode of The Office. When Michael Scott is having financial trouble and he's in the break room and Creed says, "Hey, have you heard about declaring bankruptcy?" And so Michael, not being very smart, asks a few questions and then he walks, he discovers like, "Oh, all my financial problems "can go away if I just declare bankruptcy." So he walks back out into the office and he stands up real straight and he says, "I declare bankruptcy." And then somebody has to explain to him that there's more than just declaring bankruptcy. What I'm about to say, I know there's nuance to it. And what I'm about to say, I know there's room for growing in our understanding. And you and I could argue or disagree about how many people are in this group or how few people are in this group and it really doesn't matter. But I live in the same world you live in. I see the world around me just the way you do. And if I'm honest, and I will be honest with you right now, I think that there are massive amounts of people who declare the name of Christ, but no part of their life is informed or formed by his words. And it's sad and scary. You're telling me that I can say I'm a Christian, that I can be like culturally moral, which at this point is like, I don't murder or commit adultery. Maybe it's actually only murder. So I can be culturally moral. I can wear a cross necklace and maybe buy like a Jesus t-shirt. And it's gonna let me tap into a whole new demographic. It's gonna let me tap into a whole new audience, a whole new group of followers. And it's gonna cost me nothing. Christian, this isn't what a life in Christ looks like. Now let me be clear. I know we are not saved by our works. And so I'm not levying a bunch of works on you right now, but let's be honest with ourselves. We are saved by putting our faith in Christ and his completed work. And then his promise to us is that he would take our heart of the stone and he would give us then a heart of flesh. But what he doesn't do after that is then say, now follow your heart and do whatever you want. He has given us a new heart, but it's his word that reveals to us what his heart is toward. And so we let his word push us around, push us, push against us, and we let it inform and form our lives. Because as Christians, we would want, people who are living in Christ, I wanna love the things that Jesus loves. I wanna pursue the things that Jesus pursues. I wanna run from the things that Jesus says are dangerous. I wanna run from the things that Jesus says break his heart. And so when he reveals his word, when he reveals his heart through his word to us, we should want to take these words and take them in and say, oh, this is the heart of my Savior. So I should pursue these things and not just live haphazardly pursuing whatever our heart desires. Not trying to live up to a standard, but we would look into his word knowing there's forgiveness 'cause we're gonna do it completely and perfectly. And we're gonna fail all over the place. But that doesn't mean we just throw our hands and give up and do whatever we want and we don't let his word push us around and form our lives. Does that make sense, friends? And he doesn't just, at least at this church, which I thank the Lord for all of you in this church here, he doesn't just show us through his word, but every week, he doesn't just tell us through his word, but every week he shows us because there is a table here today that he welcomes us to. And we know the heart of our Father because we were the ones. At some point, if you are in Christ, at some point, you are outside the city walls, you are unclean, you are not allowed inside. And at great expense to himself, our Savior has brought you and me in. And he has welcomed us to his table and we have seen his heart. And so now having seen his heart, we should then want to go out and do to others the very thing that Christ has done for us. He has set the example for us. This is the Savior we serve that we wanna reflect and he pursued us when we were not pursuable. And so now we should be a people, we should be the most empathetic, the most sympathetic. We should be patient people, long-suffering people, loving people, kind people because this is who the Father has been to us. Let us be known church as people who are secure in him. Like I said, we will live this life imperfectly. Be a people who are secure in him, but also a people who are willing to reject the social norms, reject our self-promotion, reject trying to just chase down individual success in our own lives. And let's be a people who are going out and reaching out to the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, would we be a people who in every room we walk into, in every situation we find ourselves, we wouldn't find and clamor for the highest seat of the table, but we would humble ourselves and sit at the lowest place of the table with every room that we walk in, with every situation that we walk in, whatever sport you're in, boys, everything in every baseball team, every sports team, whatever you walk into, would be the people that are looking, where's the outcast here? Where's the loser here? 'Cause that's my friend. Would be people who are searching for those on the fringes, searching for those, the outcasts, and would be befriend them and draw them in. And then here is our promise, verse 14, and you will be blessed, why? Because they can't repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word, because it's through your word that your heart is revealed to us and your heart then informs us through your word how we ought to live. And so I ask you, Father, these things are hard, because we see a culture around us and it's so easy to just get in the same stream of the culture. And so would you give us the courage and the presence of mind to push against the social norms and to live a life differently, to live a life that's counter-cultural, that we would be people who are pursuing the outsiders and not just thinking of ourselves to survive or to promote ourselves, but we would be a humble people who would allow you to promote us and not be promoting ourselves. And that in doing so more and more and more the outsiders and the outcasts and the rejects would come to know you as we lend them a kind hand in your name. Amen.