The Banquet of Grace

You may be seated.

If you return to the scripture passage that was read earlier, and if you don't have a Bible with you, the passage can be found in the Pew Bible that's located in front of you on page 874.

And I'd encourage you to turn and look there as we begin our study of this passage of Scripture.

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We want you to have it, to study it, and then to join us each week to study it together.

We've been in the Gospel of Luke and we have seen now Jesus was invited to a banquet.

He was invited to a dinner.

And as I was reflecting on this, one of the things I realized was Jesus wasn't born in North Dakota.

Now, I know that's not a profound insight to the text.

Jesus was an equal opportunity offender at this point.

And we saw that a couple weeks ago when we began to study this passage.

They had stacked the deck against Jesus and they did it so that they might accuse him.

And yet Jesus, knowing their hypocrisy, turns the tables on them and points out to them that in much lesser circumstances, when it was something personal, when it was something financial, they were more than happy to intervene, and yet here was a man created in God's image, and they would stand by and do nothing to help him.

But then we saw as well, in addition to their hypocrisy, that Jesus confronted their superiority.

We saw that in verses 7 through 11.

They were all jostling together to take the seats of honor, and Jesus pointed that out.

He had been watching them even as they were watching him.

And then he gave the parable of this wedding feast.

And he talked about how somebody would choose the place of prominence far beyond what was right for him to do, and then he would be humiliated when the host would come, as somebody more prominent than him would be there, and he would be asked to take the lowest place.

And Jesus concluded there saying, Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Well, Jesus then turns to the host.

We find this in verse 12.

It says, He said to the man who had invited him.

So Jesus now is an equal opportunity offender, in case there were some who hadn't yet been offended by the things that Jesus had said, he now turns to the host and he begins to talk to him.

And he gives an illustration of a banquet and how it reflects the heart of God and how it reminds us of who God is, and for those who know God, how we ought to be as well.

And so he begins with this illustration of an invitation of grace.

He says, When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid.

But when you give a feast, invite the poor and the crippled, the lame and the blind.

We learn two things from this section of Scripture.

This invitation of grace that Jesus talks about.

We see here the challenge to have the heart of the Father in regards to people.

Notice what he says here.

He says, when you have a dinner, invite your, don't invite your friends, your brothers, your relatives, your rich neighbors.

Why does he say this?

Because that's exactly what we do.

This is exactly what everyone does.

When we have a banquet, when we have a party, who do we invite?

And this is what Jesus points out.

He says, our natural inclination is to invite people most like us, who bring us the most pleasure, that we're the most comfortable with, or that in some way can give us something in return.

That's at the heart of our very nature.

And I think about it just uh, you know, if somebody invites you to their birthday party, and the first thing that goes to your mind as you begin to decide what you should buy for them is you think about, well, let me think, what did they give me on my birthday?

Or if you're buying a Christmas present, you start to think about, well, what did they give me?

And so there's this reciprocity, there's this sense of give and take of equality.

And Jesus even points out that for some it even goes beyond that, that it's very calculating and to say, well, how can these people benefit me?

If I'm going to have a party, if I'm going to have a banquet, I will invite those people who are going to be most beneficial for me in some way.

There's something that I can get from them, there's something that they can do for me, or at the very least, I know that if I invite them to my party, they're going to be obligated in return to invite me to their party.

And so that's how we decide who to invite.

It's our natural inclination.

In this life, we are reminded that we don't get something from nothing and we don't give something for nothing.

There's this quid pro quo, there's this law of reciprocity that we have in our minds.

But Jesus says, don't do that.

Notice what he says in verse 13.

Which, of course, in the context of this banquet, all of the all of the friends and the relatives and the brothers, the rich neighbors were all at this party, and he's saying this to the host.

He says, but when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind.

He says, invite these, the least, the outsider, the unwanted.

He tells us to invite those who have nothing that they can give to us in return.

There is no benefit that we receive in inviting these people to the banquet.

There is nothing that they can do.

They have nothing.

They're poor.

And the idea of poor was less than, it was not just financially that they didn't have as much as somebody else, but they were outcasts.

They were undesirable because of their impoverished situation.

The crippled and the lame that would have been in some ways viewed as unclean and unwanted or separate from them, and there were a lot of different categories, and they would have been viewed as somebody to hold at best at arm's length.

And the blind that couldn't even see all of the scrumptious delicacies that were presented before them, all of the ornate objects around them.

They were blind.

So even if you were to invite them to the banquet, what good would it be because they couldn't even see what was in front of them because they were blind.

And Jesus says to this host that this is the heart of the Father that we should have when we give a feast.

It really reflects the heart of God.

In the Old Testament, we're reminded of God's choosing of Israel.

And he tells Israel in Deuteronomy 7, 7 through 9, and later in chapter 9, verses 4 and 5.

God didn't choose Israel because they were greater or better or more worthy.

It wasn't because they were powerful or in a position.

It was by his mercy, by his grace, that he chose them to use them to bring the Messiah.

In the New Testament, we're reminded the same thing about us being called into the church.

Turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

1 Corinthians chapter 1, beginning in verse 26.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

Paul says there, beginning in 26, for consider your calling, brothers.

Consider your coming to Christ, of God's working in your life, the working of the Holy Spirit, of hearing the gospel, of you placing your faith in Christ.

He says, consider your calling, brothers.

Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards.

Now you're sitting there thinking, well, this must be talking about the people sitting next to me.

Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards.

Not many were powerful.

Not many were of noble birth.

There were some, but but most were not.

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.

God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

So that, as it is written, let no one who boasts, uh let those the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

There is no boasting apart from boasting in the Lord.

This is the heart of the Father.

All of us have a tendency to be respecters of persons.

None of us escapes this reality.

Whether it's in school, if you can think back to grade school or middle school or you in high school or in college, or your friends or your associates, the people you sit with at the lunch, at your work, the neighbors, all of us tend to be respecters of persons, the people we associate with at church.

We tend to choose people like us that have the same interests as us.

This is the natural inclination of the human heart.

And not that those things in and of themselves are wrong, but we need to recognize that God calls us to move outside of ourselves, outside of our comfort zone, because God has a heart for all people, and he doesn't make a distinction based on class or race or economics or background or the sin struggles that people have been in.

And so we see here a glimpse of the heart of the Father in relationship to people when we see what Jesus says here about how we ought to live our lives.

And we see the blessing of the Father in response to this.

Look at verse 14 for a moment.

Notice what Jesus says here.

He says, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you.

The very fact, notice that word because, the very fact that you give, expecting nothing in return, you give knowing that they can't give in return.

You invite them knowing they can't invite you back, you give them gifts, knowing they can't give gifts back, because of the very fact of you giving without expecting anything in return.

He says that, he says, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.

And there's too much to go into here than we can unpack in just a few moments, but at the very least, it tells us several things.

It tells us that God notices our faithfulness and he rewards us in proportion to our faithfulness to others.

He says, You will be repaid.

He tells us when the payment will be, when the repayment, when God will bless us for our being a blessing to others.

He says it's at the resurrection.

That we don't live our lives just for the here and now, but we know that when we stand before God, we will hear well done, good and faithful servant, and that God will reward us out of an act of his grace for the faithfulness that we have done, relying on his grace.

And he says here it's the resurrection of the just.

And let me just point out there's an illusion here that there's more than one resurrection.

The resurrection of the just, there's a later resurrection, those standing before God in judgment.

But here we see the allusion to that in this verse.

But the fact is that God wants us to recognize we don't live for the here and now.

This world lives just for this temporal horizon, just on a horizontal level.

What we we give, what we can get, we live for here and now, we we live to see what it benefits us.

And the challenge here is to see the heart of God in this, and this is not how God is.

This is not how God has worked in our lives, and this is not how God wants us to work in the lives of others.

He wants us to have a heart of compassion that goes out and extends to all, regardless of their circumstances.

And he says, God notices and God rewards.

You can imagine the awkwardness at this point of Jesus saying these things at this feast.

Here's a feast with all of the wealthy, with all of the prominent, with all of the prestigious, with all of those who have notoriety, who have value in the eyes of others, those who were invited that could give something in return.

You could imagine the all of the people looking at that host now and wondering what's he thinking, what's he feeling, how's he how's he reacting to what Jesus has said?

They're already incensed by Jesus pointing out their hypocrisy and their superiority.

And then it says, one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things.

And he he just spurts out something.

He just says, Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.

Now, this guy's from North Dakota, by the way.

He doesn't want anyone to feel uncomfortable.

He doesn't want anybody that he's gonna settle things down.

He he's going to say something, and it most likely in his mind he thought, well, this will change the subject, we'll we'll go off of these really awkward, uncomfortable things, and and we'll say something that's so obviously true, who could possibly disagree with this?

And so that's what he does.

He says, Well, blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.

This will lead into Jesus talking about the invitation rejected.

But what is what's behind this statement here that this man says?

This man said something that in his mind was self-evidently true.

And what he thought was this the idea, we've we've touched on this already, uh, the misunderstandings of the future by those in Jesus' day.

They those in Jesus' day saw two periods of time, this age and the age to come, and there was no overlap, and that at the end of this age, when it ended, God was going to bring judgment, but the judgment was going to be on the Gentiles.

That all of the Jews, by and large, with maybe a few exceptions, but all of the Jews were going to be ushered into the kingdom, and everyone else was outside of the kingdom, and they were going to experience the judgment of God.

And there may be a few exceptions, you know, Rahab, Ruth, a few others, but but generally speaking, it was for us and no one else.

And that was the attitude that they had.

And this man, when he spoke up, that was what his perspective was, and he thought it would bring peace.

Everyone would agree with it.

And Jesus responds by telling them a parable with several points of intersection to spiritual truth in their lives and in ours.

Jesus responds to this in verse 16.

He says, But he said to him, a man once gave a great banquet and invited many.

This banquet that was that is here, and the words that are used in this passage are not a meager meal.

A banquet isn't just stopping at Wendy's on the way home and grabbing a burger and sitting down.

We are talking a sumptuous feast.

We're looking at a delicious, delectable, delightful dinner.

A banquet that would take time to prepare, there would be detail.

There would be all of the all of the stops would be pulled.

There would be everything and anything that they could think of to make this the best feast possible.

And so it says that there is a feast that is prepared, a banquet that is prepared.

And many are invited.

This was no ordinary banquet.

And let me just explain a little bit of how invitations worked in uh in Jesus' day.

Um unlike us, where we have, we're we're very time-oriented, and we have watches, and we say the banquet starts at five o'clock, don't be late.

Um they they they didn't function in that same type of exact time mentality.

And so what would happen is uh they would send a servant out.

There would be two invitations.

The first invitation would be like the invitation that you would RSVP, and a servant would come, and he would come to you, and he would say, I would like to invite you to the banquet.

It is on such and such a time, such and such a day.

Um are you able to come?

And they and you would say, Yes, I'm able to come, and then you would be committed to be a part of that banquet.

You have given your RSVP, and so then uh you would then be on the guest list.

Uh you there would be a sense of responsibility, a sense of expectation on the part of the host that you were in fact going to attend the banquet that you were invited to.

Well, when the banquet was complete, because there wasn't an exact time preparation, when the banquet was complete, they would then again send out their servant, and their servant would go and knock on the door on the day that they had told you and said, Everything is ready, come now and join me in this feast.

And so there would be two invitations.

There would be the initial invitation, as it notes here.

It says in verse 16, he invited many, and then in verse 17, at the time of the banquet, he sent his servant to say to those who had who had been invited, they already had been invited, had already RSVP'd, and agreed to come.

And he would say to them, Come, for everything is now ready.

The moment for the feast had arrived, the banquet is prepared.

And it says that they we see the response that they all responded to him at once, uh that they they all responded to him and gave these uh excuses.

It says, But they all alike began to make excuses, and there were three excuses that were given.

The first one said this I have bought a field, I must go out and see it.

Please have me excused.

The second one in verse 19 says, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them.

Please have me excused.

And then a third one says, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.

So these were the excuses.

They were all lame excuses.

Look at the let's think about the first one for a minute.

The first guy here says, verse 18, I have already bought a field, and I must go out and see it.

Please have me excused.

Now think about this for a minute.

Who would buy a field and not having already seen it?

Buying property sight unseen.

Either this man was independently wealthy and he was just buying tracts of land, and so there was no urgency to see it, or else he's just foolish.

There's no other way to put it.

He's just absolutely idiotic.

It's just a ridiculous thing to do.

And by the way, if he had already bought the field, why does he what's the urgency to see it now?

If he's already paid for it, the deed has already been signed, there's no urgency to see it, it's already been purchased.

So his excuse doesn't hold water.

He says that I've already purchased the field, I need to go and see it.

Why couldn't it wait a few days?

Well, the second excuse is uh equally, equally lame.

The second guy is maybe even more so.

He says, I bought oxen, and and literally what he says here is I need to go and test drive them.

I mean, that's kind of the sense of what this word carries.

I need to go and examine them.

But it was really I need to go and try them out.

I need to go, I've I've already bought and paid for them.

Now I need to go and see if they actually work.

They actually do the job.

Now, buying oxen would have been a major life investment for most people in Jesus' day.

It's not something that you would do flippantly, it's not something that you would do casually.

And as a farmer, this was your livelihood, this was your life.

So there, it's hard to even imagine that somebody would be that foolish to buy oxen and then say, you know, I should probably go and try them out to see if they actually can pull, uh, that they actually will be able to plow the fields.

But again, if he's already bought them, why can't it wait a few days?

Well, how about this third guy?

This third guy gives a little bit more of a spiritual answer in one sense, and I'll explain.

He says, I've married a wife and therefore I cannot come.

Now, this guy may have been, in Jesus' parable in this guy's mind, there was an Old Testament passage that he may have been able to try to appeal to.

In Deuteronomy chapter 24, verse 5, it says, When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be liable for any other public duty.

Deuteronomy 24:5

He shall be free at home one year to be happy with his wife, whom he has taken.

So it's very possible this guy could have taken a proof text and taken it out of context and said, Well, you see, I am I'm absolved from my responsibility to go to this banquet because of Deuteronomy 24, 5.

But that passage has nothing to do with this circumstance.

This is neither an invitation to go to war and it is not a public duty.

The law allowed to break from major work responsibilities and military service for up to a year, but it didn't say to break from human interaction.

So, what's going on here?

They had made a superficial commitment, but they really didn't want to be a part of the banquet.

They really did not want to have fellowship with the master of the house.

One author said this, and talking about this in the general application, says Jesus offers the kingdom a perpetual feast of peace, a feast of help, guidance, friendship, rest, victory over self, control of passions, supremacy over circumstances, a feast of joy, tranquility, deathlessness, heaven, opened, immeasurable home, salvation.

Yet people turn their backs on this feast, preferring a visit with their possessions and affections.

Now, in a particular sense, Jesus is addressing the Jewish people of his day by way of application.

This same reality holds true to people all around us today.

Most people don't reject Christ because of excessive wild living.

It's oftentimes out of an attitude of indifference or just a desire for good things to the exclusion of God.

Now notice the reaction of the master.

The master of this house, verse 21, it says, Then the master of the house became angry.

We need to recognize this reflects the heart of God as much as the invitation to the poor and the lame and the blind and the crippled.

This reflects the heart of God towards those who are hard towards him.

And it says here that the master of the house became angry and said to his servants, Go out quickly to the streets and the lanes of the city and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.

The invitation is expanded.

The master will have his banquet as planned.

That his plans will not be thwarted.

And he says, now, in haste, go.

There's a sense of urgency and a sense of quickness.

There's no lethargy and laziness.

There's an urgency here.

He says, Go quickly.

And go to the streets and the lanes and bring them in.

Bring, invite everyone in, invite and call the lame and the poor and the crippled, the blind.

He says, start with the city.

And this the words here would have described the area and the city.

And I surely there's an indicator and later of what Jesus says to the apostles following his resurrection to begin in Jerusalem and Judea.

And he says here, go and call them to come in, go quickly now.

And the servant does that, and he comes back and he says, Sir, what you've commanded has been done.

And still there's room.

And the heart of the master will have no empty seat, will have no empty place, will have no empty table.

And so he says, Go out to the highways and the hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.

The servant now is to move outside of the city and outside of the city gates and to go into the highways, which would have been the main thoroughfares, people coming to and from the city, but then beyond that, into the into the hedges, into the byways, where were people who were the outcasts, the unwanted, the undesirables, they would hide themselves, they would camp there outside of the view of others.

And in this parable, the master says, Go out to the highways, go to the hedges, and compel them to come in.

Now, he's not saying here, as some have mistakenly said, force people against their will.

We saw that historically in times past, in the Middle Ages, taking this out of context.

But what he is saying is this those people, those people, uh it would be walking up to a homeless person in downtown New York City and saying, I want to invite you to the banquet at the Ritz-Carlton.

Come now and join me at this feast.

They would listen to that and they would say, No, surely that isn't for me.

It can't be for me.

That's too good to be true.

I'm too bad.

I'm too dirty.

I am too messed up.

I can't go into such a wonderful environment.

It must be for somebody else.

It can't be for me.

And so there needs to be some convincing, some persuading, some compelling to be persuasive and pleading and praying and winsome with your words, persuasive with your prose, to compel them, to tell them to come.

The feast is prepared.

And we must make the gospel attractive and compelling by our lives and by our words, not by watering it down, but by showing the sheer wonder of grace and the goodness of the cross.

And compel them to come in.

We're going to close with a song.

I don't know where you are today.

For those who would harden their hearts in Jesus' day, as well as ours, Jesus says they would not taste the banquet.

But if you're hearing these words and you're saying, I want what you're saying, listen, the invitation is for you.

If you long for forgiveness, if you desire for a relationship with God, if you want a new beginning, come to Christ today.

And for us as a believers, for us to go to the highways, to the byways, and to compel them to come in.

The feast is ready.

The places are set.

We need people at the table to compel them to come in.

Would you come in?