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Luke 14:15-24

¹¹ For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹² And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. ¹³ But when you give a ^[a]reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴ and you will be blessed, since they ^[b]do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

¹⁵ When one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”

Parable of the Dinner

¹⁶ But He said to him, “^(B)A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; ¹⁷ and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ ¹⁸ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a ^[a]piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; ^[b]please consider me excused.’ ¹⁹ Another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; ^[c]please consider me excused.’ ²⁰ Another one said, ‘^(C)I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’ ²¹ And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ ²² And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ ²³ And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. ²⁴ For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’”

FROM JOE’S TEACHING:

Interesting picture! Jesus makes a remark and one sitting there responds. He is in the house of a chief Pharisee. They are watching him. They invited him to set him up.  Watching to see what he will do.  Knowing his motives he asks him if it is lawful to heal on the sabbath?  They just sit in silence. This is an uncomfortable moment.   Jesus says, “you save your cow if he falls in a pit! “   Jesus then says if you invite the less fortunate you will be blessed at the resurrection. This guy says, “blessed is he who eats bread at the resurrection!”  They thought as Jews that at the resurrection of just and unjust that the unjust would go to everlasting condemnation and the just would go to a great feast.  That will be the inauguration of the kingdom.  This guy says, yes, blessed is he who goes to this feast. Yet these very people are rejecting and plotting to kill the Messiah, the doorway into that kingdom, they are plotting to kill in their religiosity. When eternal destination is at risk you don’t want to make a mistake about it.   Jesus is here because he loves them and wants to talk to them.  But will they listen? 

Jesus replies to him with the parable in verses 16-24. The master bids MANY. That’s the good news!  But at the end it says that NO ONE who was bidden will be there, but rather only those who were carried or compelled. In those days the servant would go out to the guests one by one and bid them to come. They would accept or not accept. They knew the day, but they didn’t know the hour.  The day of the feast they (depending on the weather)_ would go out and kill the fatted cow and fix the food and when it was ready they would go out and call the guests to come and eat.  The invitation had gone out over and over. They prophets called and were killed, John the Baptist went out and was killed, the Messiah begged and was killed.   The Holy Spirit goes out and is resisted.

Excuses: The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a ^[a]piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; ^[b]please consider me excused.’ Who buys land without seeing it? Just an excuse.

Another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; ^[c]please consider me excused.’   This one says I invested a lot and I have to take these oxen out for a test drive.  Another lame excuse.

²⁰ Another one said, ‘^(C)I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’ OK…not sure about this guy. Maybe the missus doesn’t have a nice dress or the right shoes…Joe stays out of this.

There is a difference between an excuse and a reason. There are reasons. Billy Sunday said that an excuse is the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie. DL Moody on Nov 23, 1899, in Kansas City preached his last sermon on this text and fifty people came forward.   He was so sick on the stage that he had to hold onto the organ to keep from falling over. None of these things are wrong in themselves. No major sin in these excuses. The thing that is blinding and dulling people are not Biblically prohibited.  Just stuff that eats away at us day to day. Parable of the Sower calls these that cares of life.

Inexpedient things in our lives. One author says “he who is good at excuses is rarely good at anything else.”

So the servant comes back and tells the master and the master is angry. But he insists that the servant go out and get those who cannot come on their own: The poor, the lame, the halt and the blind. Proverbs 1:

“Because I called and you refused,
I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention;
²⁵ And you neglected all my counsel
And did not want my reproof;
²⁶ I will also laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when your dread comes,
²⁷ When your dread comes like a storm
And your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
When distress and anguish come upon you.
²⁸ “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer;
They will seek me diligently but they will not find me,
²⁹ Because they hated knowledge
And did not choose the fear of the Lord.
³⁰ “They would not accept my counsel,
They spurned all my reproof.
³¹ “So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way
And be satiated with their own devices.

Jesus tells them earlier to call the same group to their feasts.  Why? Because that is who His father calls.  This is the Father’s heart. Go, go, go! Go get those who cannot come on their own. Go into the world and compel them. It intimates “twist their arms.”  There is a table set and the feats is ready.  Unlike any feast we can imagine. Please fill the house because this feast has cost the Father so, so much. This is the most costly feast ever served. 

QUESTION: Were there people in your life who compelled or tried to drag you into the kingdom before you got saved? When you got saved? Share a short testimony about those times.