Luke 14:1-24 "Come to the Banquet!" One great danger we face in the church is thinking that the gospel is about how you get saved, and then the Christian life is about a list of rules. We often act as though once we become Christians, we are then to "do our best." That attitude is deadly to the Christian life. When we start thinking of the Christian life as a list of duties we lose sight of the gospel the good news. And that is precisely what Jesus is dealing with in Luke 14. Introduction: A Sabbath Dinner (14:1-6) One Sabbath, when Jesus went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. Was Jesus going to follow all the rules? And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. Jesus has a habit of healing on the Sabbath, so they are watching him carefully. How would he handle this case? And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, 'Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?' But they remained silent. Notice that the Pharisees never say anything in this passage. Jesus responds to their unspoken challenge. But they do not respond to his spoken challenge. They are mute silent before the powerful Word of God. Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not? What is the point of the Sabbath? We have seen before in Luke's gospel that the point of the Sabbath is not only rest, but giving rest to others. It is not about following a list of rules, but it is about devoting the whole day to the worship of God. Giving rest to others is part of what it means to rejoice and delight in God. Because you have received rest through the gospel of Jesus Christ, therefore you give rest to others in his name. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. And he said to them, 'Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on the Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?' You are on your way to synagogue with your family, and your three year old son falls into a well. Hmmm. Should I pull him out, or should I wait until tomorrow? "Sorry, son, can you tread water for another 12 hours? I can't do anything until the sun goes down..." If you would pull your son out of a well on the Sabbath, then you should certainly show mercy to someone in need on the Sabbath. The fourth commandment is not about a list of do's and don't's. The fourth commandment says to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. This is a day for remembering what God has done in redeeming us from bondage to sin and death. And it is a day for us to imitate Christ in showing that same mercy to others. Jesus then fleshes this point out in three ways: 1) in verses 7-11 he speaks of what it means to be an honorable guest; 2) in verses 12-14 he speaks of what it means to be a blessed host; and 3) in verses 15-24 he brings it all together in the banquet of the kingdom of God. 1. The Honorable Guest (14:7-11) We live in a day when honor and shame have become less important. But we can't escape it entirely. If you have ever sat down accidentally at a reserved table at a wedding, you know what this is like. Someone comes up to you and says, "I'm sorry, sir, but this table is reserved. Could you find a different seat?" Especially if everyone is already seated, this is humiliating! Everybody is watching as you stand up and find an obscure corner to hide in! At the same time, if you are trying to find a seat in a crowded room, and someone says, "Come up here, we have a place for you at the head table," then truly you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. Jesus noticed that the guests at this Pharisee's house were all seeking places of honor. They were looking for the "first seats." They wanted to be honored in the eyes of others. They wanted to be "first." So Jesus says to the guests, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted. How does this work? If you want to be exalted, then you should humble yourself, right? If your goal to be exalted, you should take the lowest position at the table. But then what happens if the host ignores you and lets you stay there! "Hmph! I humbled myself for nothing!" That is not the right attitude. Jesus is not promoting a sense of false humility. The key is to remember that life isn't about you! As long as you are preoccupied with yourself, you will never figure this out! True humility takes the lowest position out of a desire to serve God. If your goal is be exalted, then you have the wrong goal! The reason why you take the lowest place is because you recognize that life isn't about you! The honorable guest is one who is not important in his own eyes. 2. The Blessed Host (14:12-14) But what about the blessed host? In verses 12-14 Jesus turns to "the man who had invited him," and said, When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or 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. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. I might as well start by saying that Jesus is not forbidding you to have your friends over; rather, he is saying that there is nothing especially Christian about having your friends over. There is nothing "blessed" about trading dinner parties. The blessed host is one who invites those who cannot repay. True hospitality is costly, because you know that this person will never be able to repay you. In ancient society the crippled and the blind were reduced to begging. As you walked down the street you would see them and hear them. You would know them by name. Nowadays we have a social welfare system that makes them virtually invisible. The automobile has made it possible for us to zip around town, shielded by steel and glass from those around us. It is much more difficult to "invite the poor" to your home. But there are still ways to do this! We have contact with a number of families in need through our deacons. Ask the deacons for the phone number of one these families, and invite them over for dinner. We can volunteer at the homeless shelter. Jesus is speaking to you, saying, Don't worry about whether you get repaid. Life isn't about you. You are called to show mercy to those in need. Because in the end, in the resurrection of the just, you will be repaid. God will look upon your kindness to strangers and he will see his own kindness reflected in you. Because in the final analysis, true hospitality is a reflection of God's hospitality to us. 3. The Banquet of the Kingdom of God (14:15-24) And that is the point that Jesus drives home in verses 15-24. When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, 'Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!' This man got the point sort of. He understood that Jesus' teaching on hospitality was all about the kingdom of God. Those who are honorable guests and blessed hosts will eat bread in the kingdom of God. But it would be possible to misunderstand Jesus. It would be possible to think that Jesus is talking about a list of rules. If you are a guest, take the lowest place therefore you will be exalted. If you are a host, invite the poor and the lame therefore you will be blessed. That is how the Pharisees would think. I've got my list; now I've just got to check off the list. But Jesus is not interested in a "list" mentality. So when the man says "blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God," Jesus agrees with him, but Jesus wants him to understand that faithfulness is more than a checklist. 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.' Isaiah 25:6 had said that when God restored Jerusalem, 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. Jesus is talking about that feast. This is the great banquet the wedding supper of the Lamb and all Israel is invited. After all, Israel was God's chosen people. And God called Israel to come to his feast. Come, for everything is now ready. But Israel's response is: I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused. I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused. I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. These are insults. In the ancient world (and in many place around the world today) to reject an invitation is the ultimate insult. Each of these rejections makes it clear that they are simply not interested in the banquet. In Matthew's gospel (Mt 22) it is clear that this is a wedding banquet for the king's son (and in Mt 22:7 the king responds by killing those who rejected his invitation and destroying their city!), but here in Luke it is simply reported as "a banquet." Luke tells the story very simply: the Pharisees and lawyers the insiders, the important people are rejecting the invitation to the great banquet of God. 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.' If the Pharisees and lawyers if the "cream of the crop" of Israel would not come in, then bring in the dregs of society. And they came! 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.' Go outside the city bring in anyone you can find. The master has been speaking to the servant (you singular), but now Jesus addresses the whole gathering with a you (plural). For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. The quotation marks really should end in verse 23. Verse 24 is Jesus' statement about his banquet. Jesus' message is clear for those who have ears Israel has been invited to the feast of the LORD of hosts. The Pharisees and the scribes are the closest friends of God. They are the "good guys" the invited guests. But they have become proud and arrogant. They have lost sight of the true meaning and purpose of the kingdom of God. They are competing for honor and privilege. They are so busy with their own affairs (with trying to keep their checklists checked properly) that they are blowing off the invitation to the great wedding feast of the Lamb. And while they are strutting around, exalting themselves, and looking down their noses at those less "righteous" than themselves, the kingdom of God is passing them by. Brothers and sisters, Jesus has called you Jesus has invited you to his banquet. Do you hear his voice? Having begun by faith, are you now made perfect by the law? Do you fall into that checklist mentality? Everything that Jesus has said about the honorable guest and the blessed host comes together in this parable of the banquet. Conclusion: Jesus, the Exalted Guest and the Blessed Host Jesus is the blessed host. He is the one who calls us and invites us to come and dine with him. But before he was the blessed host, Jesus was the honorable guest. He did not seek the place of honor. He sat in the lowest place the last place. He humbled himself. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. That was true even for Jesus. He did not exalt himself. He humbled himself, to the point of death even the cursed, shameful death of the cross. And because he humbled himself, he has been exalted to the right hand of the Father. And as he sits at the right hand of the Father, now he calls you to come to his banquet. If you hear his voice, do not turn away. Do not say in your heart, "I'm too busy!" If you tell Jesus that you are too busy for him, then at the wedding supper of the Lamb, he will be too busy for you! If you tell Jesus that hospitality showing love to strangers is too difficult: that it's just not your thing then at the final judgment he will tell you that there is as much room in heaven for you, as there was in your home for those in need. You see, this is what the Kingdom of God is all about! It is about a way of life an attitude toward life that is characterized by our Lord Jesus Christ's attitude. For he is the humble guest and the blessed host. And those who are called by his name will reflect his character. It's not about a checklist it's not about becoming something that you are not! It's about being who you are! Jesus' attitude toward the Sabbath should be our attitude a day of giving rest to others. And it starts right here. It starts with our college students and our grad students. They can't repay you for your hospitality! It starts with visitors who are passing through town. It starts with finding needy Christians in our community. And it overflows to everyone around us. We go out into the streets and the lanes of the city and invite them to our Savior's banquet. And then we go further out into the highways and byways into every village and field and we compel people to come in! Come to the banquet! I want you to hear several layers of meaning in that: 1) the banquet is the wedding supper of the lamb. We are calling people to come to that banquet. 2) we also have here in the Lord's Supper a picture and foretaste of that banquet This is the place where you see Jesus by faith. 3) the hospitality of the kingdom of heaven is also revealed in your homes, as you break bread together from house to house. The fellowship that we share with each other and with strangers in our homes is to reflect the fellowship that we share at this table, which itself partakes in the glorious fellowship of the Wedding Supper of the Lamb.