God’s kingdom is good. It is good, I say, because God is there with us and we there share our lives with God. Joy like gathering to feast with family and friends fills heavenly glory. God invites all into His kingdom. No entrance requirements. No applications to fill out. No review process to keep out the deplorables. Just come on in. Anyone left out stay out upon their own accord. This is the essence of Jesus Christ’s parable of the Great Banquet in Luke 14:16-24. The Great Banquet is a profound narrative reveling the heart of God for all humanity and the good news that all are invited to stay in God’s kingdom.
“Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” said one of the guest dining with Jesus at the feast hosted by a ruler of the Pharisees on one Sabbath day (Lk. 14:15; cf. v.1).[1] The guest was likely alluding to a future end time banquet hosted by Yahweh. “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples | a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, | of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined,” declared the prophet Isaiah (Isa. 25:6).
Now Jesus grabs the moment to offer a parable about God’s end time banquet but with a surprising twist on those who accepted and declined their invitations:
A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. 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.” 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, and therefore I cannot come.” 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.” And the servant said, “Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.” 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. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet” (Lk. 14:16-24).
God is depicted as the master in the Parable of the Great Banquet, who extends an invitation to all to partake in a joyful celebration. The servant is none other than Jesus Christ. The invitation is the good news about God’s kingdom.
But the responses to the invitation vary. Those first to be invited being preoccupied with their own affairs and interests end up declining. Surveying a field for harvesting, training beasts of burden, and time with the new wife were important matters; however, none could be blamed for resting upon those responsibilities for a moment to attend the great banquet. They gave excuses but they were bad excuses, which insulted the master.
The rejection denotes humanity’s tendency to prioritize worldly concerns over the call of God. “God’s grace continues, but we can miss blessing if we do not respond to Jesus. Even those who seem to be first in line will miss the party if they refuse to come to the celebration,” writes Darrel Bock.[2] Despite the urgency and importance of the invitation to follow Christ into God’s kingdom, many choose to ignore or reject it.
Undeterred by the initial refusal, the master extends invitations to others, which include the poor, crippled, blind, and lame. This gesture underscores the inclusivity of God’s invitation, which reaches beyond social barriers and embraces those who are marginalized or overlooked by society. The bringing in of the downtrodden of the world signifies God coming to dwell with us. Isaiah pronounced, “God…will come and save you | Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, | and the ears of the deaf unstopped; | then shall the lame man leap like a deer, | and the tongue of the mute sing for joy” (Isa. 35:4b-6a).
Despite the positive responses to the second wave of invitations there is more room in the banquet hall, so a third wave of invitations goes out to people in faraway places. Here the Parable of the Great Banquet interconnects with Christ’s mission to preach the good news of God’s kingdom and the mission to spread the good news throughout the world by the Twelve Apostles and Paul in the Book of Acts. Darrell Bock indicates “there is no great temporal break between the invitations, so Jesus is likely foreseeing the apostolic mission beginning in Acts 10.”[3]
Just as the master sends out his servants to gather guests for the banquet, the resurrected Lord commissions His disciples to proclaim the good news to the ends of the earth. The Apostles encounter both acceptance and rejection as they fulfill their mission, mirroring the responses seen in the parable. However, the good news spreads from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, reaching both Jews and Gentiles alike.
God’s heart is for all people, regardless of their appearance, status, or even usefulness. Just as the master desires the presence of his guests at the banquet, God desires a relationship with each one of us.
The Great Banquet serves as an example of how Jesus utilized imaginative storytelling to indirectly confront a person about on a manner to offer spiritual correction. The one in error could easily hear the story, the story would bypassing mental self-defenses setup to deflect criticism, but once received through gate of the ear the story would then deliver the healing message deep into the soul. Perhaps Jesus’ message would connect to the guests reclining around the table so that they would come to a true evaluation, realize they were heading off towards a perilous end, and turn around to embrace the Christ before all bets were off.
Are we the invited guests who make excuses and reject the offer? Or are we like those who eagerly accept the invitation, regardless of our past or present circumstances? “Though many have been brought in to partake of the benefits of the gospel, yet still there is room for more; for the riches of Christ are unsearchable and inexhaustible; there is in him enough for all, and enough for each; and the gospel excludes none that do not exclude themselves,” says Matthew Henry.[4]
— WGN
Notes:
[1] All Scripture cited from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), unless noted.
[2] Darrell Bock, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series: Luke, vol. 3, ed. Grant R. Osborne (Downers Groe, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994),253
[3] Ibid.,253
[4] Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994), 1875.
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