In the Name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
“When one of those who had reclined at table
with Him heard these things, he said to Him, ‘Blessed is everyone who will eat
bread in the Kingdom
of God.’” Alright folks, a simple trivia question for
you to start today. When one of those
heard… what things? What’s going on,
what’s the setting here for our text in Luke?
What comes before this in Luke Chapter 14 is the famous meal at the
Pharisees’ house, where it’s the Sabbath day, and they bring in a guy who is
sick, and they are watching to see if Jesus would dare heal the guy, which He
does. And then you have Jesus teach –
don’t sit in the place of honor lest someone more important than you show up
and you get kicked to the back – for everyone who humbles himself will be
exalted, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. We will actually look closely at that in
detail in September – but for today, remember this is the setting. Jesus is there among the smug, the
self-righteous and cocksure folks, and He’s basically been reading them the
riot act. And then one of the guys pipes
up – “Oh yeah, it’s gonna be great when we get to the Kingdom of God
and we good fellas get to have the righteous, everlasting party.
And to this, Jesus responds with a story. “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.’” Now, let’s make
sure we understand what is going on.
This is a “great banquet.” What
does that mean? It means it is the party
to end all parties. In the ancient
world, your celebrations were all about feasting – about good food, good wine,
celebration on and on. It is a big time
shindig – and it’s not just something thrown together – it’s planned out, well
in advance. It should be long expected,
the social event of the year – and finally, after the waiting, the day arrives. And people should be as excited for this as
kids on Christmas morning.
But what happens? “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 a 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.’” Do you see what theses guys are doing? They are just blowing off the host. Completely blowing him off. And they try to sound polite and proper – but
even if you sound all nice and polite when you are blowing someone off, you’re
still blowing them off. And for stupid
things. Examining a field isn’t an
emergency – they field will be there tomorrow.
Same with the Oxen. And as for
“I’ve got a wife” – well, it’s the big party of the year and everyone’s
invited, your wife too. But on and on
the excuses pour in, and they all sound so nice and proper and prim.
But the master isn’t fooled. “So the servant came and reported these
things to his Master. Then the Master of
the house became angry.” Nope. He knows when he’s being blown off – he knows
a lousy excuse when he hears it, and he knows dishonesty when he hears it. And so in anger he lets them have their way. Fine, if they don’t want to come, they don’t
need it, they don’t get it. Instead, the
Master says to the servant, “Go out quickly to the streets and the lanes
of the city and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.” Get the scum of the city, the people that the
“good” people look down upon. Call them
into the feast! And the wise servant
replies, “Sir, what you commanded has been done, and there still is room.” And the Master said to the servant, “Go out
to the highways and the hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may
be filled.” Go on, not just the
poor Jewish folks – go get the strangers and the foreigners, the uncircumcised
gentiles that are traveling. Go to the
hedges – that is, go to where the robbers and highwaymen are hiding and ready
to kill and murder people and all them in!
Why? “For I tell you, none of those men
who were invited shall taste my banquet.” We are going to have a party, a party the
likes of which this town has never seen before, a party for the ages, and
everyone will be there… everyone except those who rejected and insulted me –
and they will know what they missed.
Now, of course, when Jesus first says this, He is calling
the Pharisees to the carpet. You
Pharisees are the ones who act so nice and prim and proper – but I am here, the
Promised Messiah – I come bringing with Me the Kingdom of God
– but you don’t like Me, you don’t like My Kingdom. One of you stupidly says, “Blessed is
everyone who *WILL* eat bread in the kingdom of heaven.” Will.
Future tense. Do you not know
that the Kingdom
of Heaven is at hand –
for I am here, the Messiah, God Himself has come to you… and you don’t
care. You’re missing the party already
as you make your nice and pious excuses – but the poor, the crippled, the
blind, the lame, even the Centurion and the Samaritan woman, even the tax
collectors and the prostitutes – they hear Me, and they rejoice. And so, they will rejoice forever, sins
forgiven, lives restored – and you arrogant jerks in your pride and
self-righteousness are going to miss it, even though you should have been
looking forward to it more than anyone.
This is the same word of warning that our Lord speaks to
you this day. This is the warning He
speaks to you, the good “Church going” members of Trinity/Zion. Consider who you are. You are those who know who Jesus is, who have
been raised in the Church, who know the difference between right and wrong –
the fine upstanding people of this community.
Just like the Pharisees were the fine, upstanding people of their
community. And what is the danger for
you? To take Christ’s banquet, to take
Christ Jesus coming to you, to be present with You in worship for granted. “Well, what do you mean, Pastor, we’re the
ones who were good and showed up today unlike all those other skippers!” Yeah, that’s wrong, they should be here – but
in the text, Jesus isn’t talking about folks not there, He’s talking to the
Pharisees who were sitting there and having the Sabbath meal with Him right
then and there. And here is the
warning. We are here because we have
been called here by God – He has said to us, “Come.” That’s how Revelation ends – the Spirit and
the Bride (that is the Church) call out, “Come!” In fact, the word in Greek for “Church”
literally means, “the called-out people” – those called out from there homes
unto Christ, those called out of darkness into His marvelous light.
But why have we been called? To what end?
To what purpose? If you are
hosting a banquet and you invite people, what are you invited there for? You are invited to eat, to rejoice, to be
refreshed and rejoice. That’s the
idea. And you who have been called here
to God’s House – what have you been invited here for. Not to show that you are better than folks
out there, not to show how nice and prim and polite and proper you are as you
make excuses for your sins. You have
been invited here to receive forgiveness from Christ Jesus. You have been invited here so that you can
hear, mark, and inwardly digest His Gospel.
You have been invited here to receive Christ’s Holy Body and Blood,
given and shed for you, when we can be bothered to spend the extra 15 minutes
of service to have it.
And the problem is this.
You are going to be tempted by Satan, even as you are here, to forget
why you are here. You are going to be
tempted to do the vain and foolish comparison game? You’re going to be tempted to sit and
complain and grouse (even in your head, even if you are too polite to say
anything) about the other folks in the other pews. You are going to be tempted to exalt
yourself, think of how wonderful you are… and then you miss the point of the
feast. This Church isn’t about how great
you are – it’s about how great God is.
God is so wondrous that when mankind had fallen into sin, when man in
his pride and arrogance had destroyed perfection, indeed, even when we
ourselves run and act the fool every day of our lives – while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us.. You, who
were estranged from God and trapped in death and in sin, Christ has come to you
and make you alive in Himself! He has
called you who are poor, miserable sinners, so often blind to the needs of your
neighbored and crippled in heart and deed, and He has said to you, “You are
mine, for I have died for you, I have risen for you, and I am here with you so
that you will be with Me for all eternity.”
Let nothing distract you from this truth. Let not the lures of this world and all its
busyness distract you. Let not your own
pride, your own stubborn and misplaced sense of achievement distract you. Christ Jesus Himself is here, He has come to
you here in this place to forgive you your sins. To give you life and salvation. To comfort you in the face of all the junk
that happens to you in the world out there that beats you down. You are Christ’s, you are called to His
feast, and His Spirit has opened your eyes so that you see and know what He has
done for you, and you rejoice in it. To
God alone be all the glory. In the Name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
1 comment:
I can't tell you how badly I needed to hear that, at this moment.
Thank you, Rev..
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