In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
I love the word “banquet.” It just sounds fun. As you can probably tell, I like food, I like to eat – and the idea of a banquet is that it is a party, but a party with great food. And it's food that is prepared for you by someone else. There's nothing you need to do, you don't need to bring anything – every is provided. And while He is attending a Sabbath dinner at the house of some Pharisees who had been testing Him and awkwardly ignoring Him, Jesus decides to tell a story about a banquet – a banquet where everything will be provided, where it's all done for the guests as gift, pure and simple. Come, receive, rejoice delight. Because this isn't just any banquet – A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. It's the great banquet, the Mega Banquet. It is literally a feast of biblical proportions, something that anyone who is invited to should be overjoyed with, on cloud nine. It is what everyone should be looking forward to.
And finally, it's ready! 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.” This is the way things are done – when things are ready, you get invited in and you come to the feast. I mean, Jesus had been invited to a Pharisee's house for a Sabbath meal, and when it was ready – Jesus showed up. Now that meal went oddly – it was the one where they invited the guy with dropsy to see if Jesus would heal on the Sabbath... and then when He does, they basically all start ignoring Jesus. It was sort of a lousy meal... and yet, when they told Jesus things were ready, He came to that meal. That's what you do – if you're invited and say that you'll come, you show up.
But not in the story Jesus is telling. No, in this story – 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.” Understand how bad an excuse this is! I must? I have to look over the field that I bought... buddy, didn't you look it over before you bought it? I mean, it's yours now, it will be there tomorrow. Nope – there's my excuse – blown off. Do you get the insult?
Or the next guy. I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused. Yeah, I'd come to your party, but you know, I bought this sweet combine last week, and I'd rather just sit in my barn and look at my combine. Again, you don't lose your combine if you come to the party – and it's fantastic, there's prime rib and one of those chocolate fountain things... open bar, too, sure you don't want to come? Nah, gonna look at my combine. Do you get the insult?
And then with the last, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. Sorry, I'm a newly wed, now I get to blame the wife. You sure the wife doesn't want to come to the social event of the year? Nah, we ain't coming. Do you get the insult?
Of course, Jesus isn't talking about a party here, not as we think of it. He's thinking about the plan of salvation, the heavenly, eternal feast of the Lamb. And all throughout the Old Testament God had said that the Messiah would come and usher in this eternal celebration. Your sabbath rest – that was just weekly reminder of the great eternal rest to come. Even the early passover meal – a foretaste of the feast to come. It's coming, the salvation of the world is coming – in fact, Jesus is here, Jesus is actually with them, teaching them, preparing them to see the mystery of the ages unfold... and yeah, no, we're just not really interested. Jesus is repeatedly blown off by these people. Do you get the insult?
And yes, Pharisees, your excuses are silly. And I know that you don't like that I've been healing the sick and preaching to the poor, dealing with all the “little people” - well, what do you expect? There's a feast to be had. So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then master of the house became angry and said to his servants, “Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.” What, did you think God would curl up in a ball and cry Himself to sleep if you skipped His party? Did you think the Almighty was put everything on hold just cause you weren't coming – nope, the great banquet will go on, pack 'em in – go bring people who will be happy and rejoice to be there, who cares about the louts. God ain't going to put up with being blown off, He isn't going to be heartbroken if someone gets all passive aggressive – I'll just skip and that will show God. Nope – the party's going to go on. In fact, as there's still room, the Master will say to the servant, “Go out to the highways and the hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you none of those who were invited shall taste my banquet.” You want to insult Me, you want to play high and mighty against the Almighty – nope, highwaymen and thieves and robbers, they'll be at the feast. Hey, Pharisee – you see this thief on the cross next to Me – guess what, today he's going to be with Me at the Paradise Banquet, and you'll get nothing. And why? It's your own fault – your own fault for thinking you know better than God, for thinking that you should blow off God and His invitation. You don't want anything from God, you don't want to be at His feast – fine, then that's what you'll get – so long, see you, goodbye.
And that's the story that Jesus tells to Pharisees who are ignoring Him, messing with Him, taunting Him. Jesus lays the cards out on the table – here's how salvation happens – I will be the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world, and I will win salvation for everyone – and you're invited – are you coming or not? Because if not, that's on you. But you ought to rethink your priorities, you ought to rethink what is important.
And here's where we squirm a bit, or at least ought to – because when it comes to priorities, we tend to be pretty lousy. I mean, we confess that when we gather together for Worship that God Himself is present, that He comes to us in His Word and dwells with us – that we gather with angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven... and yet, sometimes it seems like worship is skippable, push off-able. I've got better things to do... and sometimes we do, this is one of the reasons why we have multiple services a week – life happens and things get scheduled – even Jesus acknowledges that if your ox falls into a well on a Sabbath you go pull them out of the well. But a lot of times, those excuses we've all come up with sound more like, “I need to go check my oxen” or “I need to go wash my hair” or whatever blow off excuses you prefer.
But the service goes on. Church continues. The call, the invite keeps going out anew. And you know what – we get brought in. We get over ourselves, over our stupid excuses, our stupid things we think are more important than Jesus and His forgiveness – and we get brought in to the Church. It might be when we see that we are poor and lame and blind – because that's when you know that you need Jesus, that this is important. It might be when we get compelled to come, when our stupid excuses and wickedness comes crashing down around us and we're pulled in all dragging our feet and mopey. And you know what happens then – the Great Feast, forgiveness, life and salvation, taste and see that the Lord is good – and good for you.
Is that not astounding – that week in and week out there is forgiveness, without fail, proclaimed to all who come when called? Jesus is faithful – God is trustworthy – He said He was going to give a feast of life and salvation, and so He does. Constantly, continually. Even for us today, even if there have been plenty of times when we've wandered and been foolish – well, now, today, it's the day of salvation. Now, Christ's death and resurrection is for you. And it's real, and it's true.
So, whenever something pops up, shows up in your life that tries to tell you that Church and God's Word isn't all that important, isn't the most important thing you'll run across in this life, indeed, for all eternity – pause, and beat down that temptation. Because that's what it is – a temptation. Something that is trying to be an idol in your life and supplant God. Resist it – fight against it. Pray for help from to turn from it. Fight against all those temptations that would lead you to blow off God and to insult His grace and mercy. They aren't worth it – and besides, Jesus wants something better for you. He wants you to live in His mercy, in His love, in His joy both now and eternally, and in His Word He pours His mercy and love and joy into you and over you and He works it through you so others receive and delight and taste and see that the Lord is good. Because it's for you – the feast is for you, and all that Jesus does He does so that you would be delighting in His gifts both now and forever. This is the truth – remember it always. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
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